Stay Safe on Mumsnet

[MumOf4Monster]

Delete your account.
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So what with the new site and now this data breach I can only assume that MN HQ haven’t used actual IT experts to deal with their technical needs. Because no reputable company can be this incompetent. oh I agree that data breaches do happen all the time, and often with far more serious information than a username and an email.

But if you look at that in conjunction with the new site which apparently took 3 years to develop, and which is still so full of glitches that many users have left and others find it unusable, mn very clearly don’t employ what you might call IT experts.

I reported one the other day, and I've just looked at the email, but it has only my email address, not anyone else's.

But what harm can it do, if you know all this information? What are you doing to do with it?
I get the point about identify theft, but that's the only difficulty I can see.

@Palebluelily can you really not think of a reason why people don't want their Mumsnet posts linking to them in real life? Or are you being obtuse on purpose.

LimesandClementines · Today 18:36

@Palebluelily can you really not think of a reason why people don't want their Mumsnet posts linking to them in real life? Or are you being obtuse on purpose

I'm not being obtuse. You seem to know the answer so do please let me know, I'd be interested. (I've already said that I can see a problem with identify theft) but apart from that, please tell me about the harm that comes from people knowing your email address.

Someone posts about their abusive husband. A malicious poster ends up with their email address, which leads to their name, which allows them to find them on social media and contact the husband with a link to the thread.

Someone posts a view about a controversial political issue m and by the same method as above, that is sent to their employer.

Just because you don't care who links your real identity to your posts doesn't mean everyone does. People post a lot of sensitive stuff on MN about their health, their relationships, their political views, and do so with the expectation of staying anonymous.

Well, ok, if you need it spelling out.

What if, yesterday, you posted a fairly innocuous opinion, on this anonymous forum? Let’s say, a legally protected belief, but one that is currently, inexplicably to the vast majority of people, a controversial one.

Then, let’s say, another poster decided that they wanted your legally protected belief comment shut down. Maybe they are quite extreme in their views, or maybe they have connections to others who might hold extreme views and take very real exemption to your, innocuous, post. So they reported you to Mumsnet HQ.

They then get an email from MNHQ telling exactly what your email address is. Unfortunately for you your email address is:
JessicaDay.PsycologyDpt@TheUniversityofGilead

They now know who you are, we’re you work and can quite probably also find out where you live.

After reporting two posts yesterday, I now have two separate email addresses of MN users.
I’m not an extremist nutter though, so they’re safe.
By luck, not judgement. O, more relevantly, not robust GDPR compliant data safety measures.

I have just read the threads about this in Site Stuff. It’s obvious that someone at MNHQ has messed up in a big way. This is exactly why I use a burner email address which is created & used specifically and only for this purpose and is not linked to my real identity for all forums, newspaper comment accounts etc etc. MNHQ / The Guardian etc etc have no idea who I am so they can’t accidentally leak anything potentially risky about me.

Change in format of response to report emails www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/4564026-change-in-format-of-response-to-report-emails

This is the thread with the original comment from MN in it, for more background

People post about lots of sensitive situations on here, abusive partners being the stand out issue to me. If someone had it confirmed to them their wife/partner was posting on here for advice you can only imagine what that might lead too.

There's lots of other scenarios though, I think in this case OP was posting on a thread in feminism and if someone has maliciously reported their post it's concerning that person now has OP's email address.

Mumsnet IT is the absolute pits, have no idea what they spend their money on.

indeed. And then letting interns harvest user names and email addresses of feminist who wrongthink.

So, they know who I am and where I work. They still don't know where I live ( although they can probably find out).
And then what? Are you suggesting they come to my house and attack me because of the views I hold on a contraversial subject?

Even supposing that highly unlikely scenario, I am unlikely to have posted any really offensive content as it would have been deleted.

You still haven't given me a real reason to explain the paranoia over someone knowing my email address.

There is the issue of someone posting about an abusive relationship and being given advice. But the abuser very probably already knows their victim's email and physical address as it's usually a partner. Again, where is the harm in being informed of something they already know?

I just don't get today's level of hysteria over keeping every detail private. (Such as the outpouring of anguish over a recent thread about children's names on a hoodie).

One reason I can think of the the aggressive targeting certain posters in the feminist section who don't believe men sex can be changed who could try and find out who a person is with the intention of contacting employers and also post personal email addresses to their followers encourage them to send emails to harass and intimidate.

Sorry @LimesandClementines I replied to wrong post.

@Palebluelily you might understand better if your privacy had been compromised, then information harvested had been used to harm you.

There is an entire cohort of parents in Australia whose information was harvested from email addresses mistakenly included on a school mail out. Several of them have had their bank accounts cleaned out and all their personal information lifted.

Palebluelily · Today 18:32

GCRich

But what harm can it do, if you know all this information? What are you doing to do with it?
I get the point about identify theft, but that's the only difficulty I can see.

Personally what I might do is add as a friend on facebook and send a message of support, and supply an email address and say "email me if you want to reply to my message, otherwise sorry for the intrusion, I really appreciate your words about xxxxxx on yyyyy website. take care.".

Were I a nefarious character I might wish to abuse them online or (potentially) dox them or stalk them.

I know more since I last posted (having scrolled through other posts of theirs) - I know roughly when they bought their current home, I know that they have done a loft conversion and I might know what street they live on based on the GPS tracking on the photo sharing website.

Cross-checking the 10 or so houses that sold in roughly the right time period on that street with which ones have loft conversions, and then checking they were done since the purchase date could narrow down where they live to one or two possible houses. If I was an abusive ex I might even be willing to repeat the process with adjacent streets if it turns out that the GPS locator on the photo sharing site is poor. Or just hang out from 7am to 9am outside the nearest station.

TLDR - be incredibly careful about what information you give out online... and remember that persistent people can link lots of different things that you said over many many years. "I live in a 6 bed detached houses in a small village." "I paid over a million for my house". "We had a big extension done last year". "We've been here for exactly ten years". "My kids headteacher is well known locally for the way he dresses up for the Summer Fayre and raises a fortune by making a total fool of himself". "Our nearest town is XXXX Town about 8 miles away". "I just love the shops in YYYY town 13 miles away and go there once every month or two". Each thing is pretty innocuous, but if someone starts putting things together and turns up at your front door...

You still haven't given me a real reason to explain the paranoia over someone knowing my email address

It isn’t paranoia. I have given you a very real reason. You’ve taken up enough of my time. Other PPs, probably not worth engaging with this poster.

I've been doxxed for my gender critical beliefs. Trans rights extremists contacted the university where I'm doing a PhD, and tried to get my funding cut.

If your car insurance company breached your data, allowing other customers to see data that could identify you, would you say "oh well never mind?"

If someone's email address was [email protected], and she had posted on the property board that she wanted advice on a house she had bought in Stoke on Trent, it wouldn't take a genius to look on Facebook and work out how many Patricia Greens there were in stoke on trent of the right age and identify her. Especially if she was the only one.

She might have also posted about being abused by her husband, or that she's a rape survivor, or asking for advice on bullying at work, or any number of things that could cause problems if they become known. Mumsnet is supposed to be anonymous which is fine until they have another data breach.

That's why there are such strict laws about data protection. It doesn't matter why someone might misuse data, or that some individuals don't care if theirb data is shared. What is important is that companies like Mumsnet should protect data of individuals so that it can't be misused. It's all very well scoffing at someone who is concerned about their data being breached. But Mumsnet has a legal obligation to make sure that it does not happen and whether someone can work anything out from her email address is entirely irrelevant to the issue.

That's shit @ChagSameachDoreen I hope your university laughed them off.

I don't post anything on the internet i wouldn't tell someone in person, anon sites or not.

And if everyone did that then it would be a very dull site and no one would use it.

Blimey 🤣

Sounds like the only way to 'Stay safe on mumsnet' is to not be on Mumsnet. Just to be certain.