AIBU to warn data sharing means your posts here are not anonymous

[TwentyYearsAndCounting]

NC to post, reason why will be clear

Last night I commented on a thread giving some personal and sensitive information.
This morning I was scrolling through Facebook (account is not linked) and information linked to this specific issue came up e.g. one of those AI narrated stories about almost exactly the situation I’d described. It could not have been chance as it was specific.

I’m scrupulous in locking down my FB account (have to due to profession) and declining cookies, even spending ages going through ‘legitimate interest’ lists declining them individually. But data from mumsnet was still transferred to FB and who knows where else!

I’m more IT literate than many but not an IT professional, how many people are and truly know how to protect themselves?

So AIBU in wanting you to know what you post here might be shared with lots of other apps and places, taking away your anonymity.

Unless you pay for MN your data is collected and shared, they do the pay or consent model like a lot of media outlets now. But they do it very badly because it looks like you’re able to decline everything.

That is shocking. Thanks for sharing.

is it not more likely AI firms are trawling public online spaces and using the information to generate content? Rather than MN explicitly sharing?

Well it depends what you mean by anonymous.

Of course my device sees everything I post to MN, and cookies etc might mean this is then used to feed ads to me on other websites.

It doesn’t mean anyone knows it was me, Julie Smith from Lancaster posting though, or that could in any way be actually tracked to me.

It could just be, this device spent a disproportionate amount of time on a thread that mentioned cancer multiple times, so cancer related ads are likely to be of interest.

Have you googled anything to do with the personal situation?

Surely that’s obvious, though. Anything you put on MN is openly available across the whole world and anyone and anything can use it, and that’ll include those AI stories.

Deeply worrying.

It doesn’t mean anyone knows it was me, Julie Smith from Lancaster posting though, or that could in any way be actually tracked to me.

Exactly. Posts being scraped or reposted or whatever has been going on for years. Advanced search lets you look at other posts by that user. But what you can't do is see the real life identities behind those posters. If you CHOOSE to write very very identifiable stories - I am the third of six sisters living in a small Welsh town, my mother is the local magistrate and my father is the vicar, I recently won an Olympic silver medal for judo - then obviously that makes you identifiable. More fool you if you do that.

Blocking cookies isn’t going to stop targeted ads. Advertisers track you via email address so if you make a post on mumsnet the advertisers will know that email address is used on a particular device and will still show targeted ads on that device based on what you posted on that account. They’re also going to use your IP address.

if you don’t want to see targeted ads on facebook you can turn them off directly and ask for general ones. If you don’t want your mumsnet posts to result in targeted ads anywhere then you need to use a burner email and a VPN when you post.

I do pay for MN

@MayaPyjama no Google searches, only a brief time on the thread, one comment yesterday and may a couple of comments a decade ago. It was something deeply personal, and specific not mentioned anywhere else.
This topic is now linked to my FB profile with my phone # and photo. I would naive and assume this isn’t part of a bigger web of info, just didn’t think specifics from posts here would be harvested.

@Runsaway but to link this specific topic to me and feed it back to me on a different platform?!

I think MN has their own FB account and so sharing between platforms is done by them. Then you'll get FB accounts that trawl through FB stealing bits they think might generate clicks for themselves.

As to why it came up on your feed... that's a FB speciality where FB knows what you are interested in, including things you've only talked about.

@AuntieBiotics if the info from here did not get linked to my online presence specifically , how did it appear on my FB?
When we talk about loss of anonymity it does not need to be disclosure on my middle name, or degree qualifications. It can be linking different elements of your identity. My FB profile (which links to most friends and family) now has a link to this information which I did not choose to make.
A real life analogy is you and your colleague go to the same hairdresser. Your GP tells your hairdresser some personal info about you and you just have to trust it never gets shared. (note, I know GPs and hairdressers would never do this, just an example)

I think you're confused. What you see on your Facebook feed is not what other people see on your Facebook feed.

I have all sorts of stuff on my FB page which is related to my interests or what I've been posting about on MN or Reddit or googling, but other people will only see that too if I choose to share/repost.

But it's not difficult to imagine that hackers, AI or human, could find out that your posts are indeed Julie Smith from Lancaster. We all need to be aware of that possibility.

@AuntieBiotics not confusion, focusing on digital identity rather than irl. My analogy was confusing as I used real life to better represent the issue but didn’t explain it was meant to represent the digital environment.
Yes the algorithm(s) now have my profile linked with this personal info from MN (paid for version). I doubt I’ll ever be able to get rid of this link now and it may pop up on other platforms too, which have bought the data from MN

@RanniTheWitch thanks. Great advice.
I use my own email and don’t have a VPN, but will definitely consider both.

⬆️ this

God really, I didn’t realise anyone did 🤣

Hackers would only be able to find that information, assuming you mean hacking MN, if you provided it to MN. Otherwise they will get your IP address.

@TwentyYearsAndCounting Your own phone will target advertising to you, especially if you have a Google account. Free accounts are free marketing.

Yeah, paid to avoid cookies and data being shared @WerewolfOfLoudon
That worked well didn’t it 🤨

They could also compare your vocabulary and sentence patterns across social media platforms and email and your spoken words and pinpoint you that way. AI makes a lot of things possible. Famous people should be especially careful.

So AIBU in wanting you to know what you post here might be shared with lots of other apps and places, taking away your anonymity.

No, but I'm surprised that anyone is surprised by this. The Internet is not an anonymous safe space.

I started to become aware of the level of tracking in the past 2 years. There are operating systems and browsers that give you higher control over your privacy. Even at that, some tracking may still happen so if you value your privacy often a good step to take is to separate your "anonymous" social media use from your identity, including Facebook if you keep a public profile. By the way I would do some reading up on Facebook

What?

Less than 3 quid to keep all the rubbish, headache inducing adverts away?

It's worth every penny! 😁

Do you use the app or the website? Using the website you can use the browser option to not using tracking cookies, on the app you can't.

As with any online forum or social media, use a burner email for each and your targeted advertising won't cross platforms. Google ads will cross platforms though as they are linked to the Google searches on your device and nothing to do with anyone sharing data.