How private is mumsnet.

[AmongstTheClouds]

Hi all..
I'm just wondering how private people regard mumsnet to be?

I don't consider Facebook private groups to be safe and private. Is mumsnet any better ?

Well the Daily Mail publish Mumsnet threads so not at all!

there are no restrictions at all for people to look at everything - so, no, no privacy

You should never post on any form of SM where being identified could cause you major problems. MN is better than some but there is still a risk of being identified so its best to be cautious

Mumsnet post individual threads on Facebook for people to blast them and newspapers post threads as articles too. So no it’s not private at all, it’s very public

Well there is about 10 million folks on here so not sure what you mean?

It's only private if no one recognises your story.

Are you researching opinion on behalf of Aston University?

How could it be more private than a private Facebook group?? It's a public forum. It is anonymous but not private at all. I would hope that no one would consider it private in the slightest, yet there are regularly threads that are removed by mods because the OP has realised or been told that they have given too much identifying info out.

I don't think anyone regards MN as private .
Is there a reason you ask ?

The name changing function allows for some privacy/anonymity in that people can't piece together your posting history if you name change frequently. And if you give "thanks" in a thread that you haven't posted in, the notification for the person receiving it will show your default user name. So if you change your name just for one thread without changing any settings you'll "out" yourself.

But other than that, no privacy. Anyone can read any thread in any section of the forum, logged in or not.

Not at all private.

We found out that Aston University have been scraping (ie collecting and storing) the whole of Mumsnet for decades and have given free reign to this to their students, indeed they advertise this as a benefit to new students, and go around the world telling people about the potential hate crimes and opinions on all sorts of topics as described by mumsnetters.

They look across the words and there is a potential that the linguistic oddities are being used across other forums to find out who people are, and potentially doxx them. This is all currently being investigated.

Two of the people who did the scraping think women with fertility issues on here are highly amusing, as can be seen on their you tube videos.

Justine had a call with them this morning. And then this pops up.

I'd suggest this thread is 'not in the spirit' as they say.

Did they do the same with any other forums @AlisonDonut?

Yup looks like it.

No it isn't private. The name changing function gives that illusion I guess.

Don't share anything you want kept contained and private.

It's not just privacy though it's reuse. It's one thing posting something, albeit anonymously, for support, and another to see published elsewhere being mocked, even if you can't be identified.

I've never liked how MN posts threads on FB for comments, the poster likely doesn't even know it's there.

Interestingly, data protection law puts safeguards around that kind of reuse where personal data is involved, you can be published online for a specific reason, eg LinkedIn, but to scrape that data and reuse it for another purpose makes you a data controller and puts legal obligations on you to justify the use. I'm not saying that's directly applicable here as people are (usually) posting anonymously, but like copyright, demonstrates that just because something is publicly available, doesn't mean it should be fair game.

I don't regard it as private at all. Posts are widely shared across their social media platforms and picked up by the media. But I knew all this when I joined a public forum.

There's no privacy at all for you on threads that you contribute to, or ones that you start. All there for the whole world to see, should they be so inclined.

Anonymity – Keeping your identity private, but not your actions. For example, using a pseudonym to post messages to a social media platform.

Privacy – Keeping some things to yourself, which can include your actions. For example, messaging friends privately so they know who sent the message, but only they can read it

It is reasonable to expect anonymity or pseudonymity when accessing internet forums.

I thought people went to university to get an education not to stalk people online

It's not at all. It's a public forum. Hell, they even publish threads elsewhere. Thinking anything is private on the Internet is a mistake.

From the Talk Guidelines @AmongstTheClouds

Posting on Mumsnet or Gransnet Talk
Of your registration data, only your Mumsnet or Gransnet username is displayed on screen for other users to see – but posts on Mumsnet or Gransnet Talk are visible to anyone on the internet. So when posting, you should bear in mind that any personally identifying details you include in the text or pictures you post could be seen by anyone.

It's not. It a public forum.

I couldn’t find any history of the OP’s username. Cloud here meaning where data is stored? And it’s someone from Aston irritated that MN users are upset about data scraping when don’t we understand that MN isn’t private!

I feel my head is duly patted.

You should consider MN to be as private as a billboard on the school run with your face on it. Same as the rest of the internet.