Careful about what you reveal on "Social" and elsewhere on the web

Many people don’t realize that, although the people who take part in Viki Discussions are just a handful, this place is open to everybody who has an account on viki. I don’t have the numbers right now, but there can be thousands of them.
We always tell our kids not to disclose personal information on the web, but here we tend to feel we are in our living room with a bunch of friends. It is not so.
While commenting on shows, in the Timed Comments and here on Discussions, I’ve seen many people reveal their very personal family or relationship situations, they talk about what happened with their own husbands/boyfriends/parents/kids, they say where they come from and in what city they live, they disclose their age and many other stuff. I’m not saying I haven’t done it too!
Especially here on Social, most of the threads sound like an interrogatory, asking for personal information.
Some questions just want to know your preferences in dramaword:

    • What do you like in main leads?
    • Which manwha, manga, manhua, book, non Asian movie would you want to be turned into a drama?
    • What’s your Top 3?
    • Who would you like to see act together in a drama?
      and so on.
      Up to here, let’s say it’s innocent enough, no harm done.
      But most of the questions on the “Social” Category ask for precise personal information. Starting with the basics and then going on from there.
      See the titles of some recent threads started, I’m sure, with very good intentions, but which sound like the sort of thing the FBI would want to know about you. Or an advertising agency. Things that if asked by them, would make you indignant and go like “None of your business, and if you insist I’ll sue you”.
      Yet, here, most people unthinkingly and blindly comply and chatter away, saying stuff about themselves that potentially millions can access.
  • Introduce yourself

  • Poll: Male, Female or maybe an alien?

  • Poll: What is your age?

  • Which country are you from?

  • How many language(s) can you speak?

  • Volunteers, Tell us your Vikian story! 10 facts about you

  • Why did you pick the username you’re using & other nicknames

  • What do you do to get rid of stress?

  • What do you do when you hang out with your friends?

  • Pet lovers

  • Your favorite dessert & pastry!

  • Do you Cook?

  • Share your recipe!

  • Your anti procrastination tips!

  • Best video games

  • Best board games

  • Local Food and Drinks

The internet is NOT our living room. It can be scary. I’m sure most of the people who take part in Discussions are very nice. But they are not the only ones who can read the posts. It’s not a chat room.

Just be warned, and make an informed decision next time. That’s all. If you’re OK about it, then cool.

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Thank you, good advise. I was also wondering why so many questions out of the blue and some of them sounded so irrelevant to the discussion thread at times.

For some reason you don’t see the things until they hit you right in the face. I’m glad you made us aware of the most common logical thing, who can be lurking out there and with what real intentions.

Thanks again…:slight_smile:

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I see you listed a few topics I made and yes I agree you should always be careful what to post about yourself online but at the same time it’s also best to not be to paranoid. Not saying you are, absolutely not, but for some people I’m like why are you even online? Because unlike what people say the internet is not totally anonymous. It can always be traced. It’s just because there are certain laws around the world it is made more difficult at times.

You have facebook? Twitter? Snapchat? A smartphone? If so you already given your information to Google/Apple/whatever company. Will they just give away your info to random people? No, they won’t as there are privacy laws. Will they use your information to improve their apps, the ads they show? Yes, they do… not all of them of course but alot do… nothing is really for free online.

And even if you think your information is safely behind a password, how safe is your password? How safely does the website store your passwords? Do you use 1 password for various services?

I don’t have a smartphone nor twitter and snapchat. I do have facebook where I have only put professional information, to advertise and gain students for my dance lessons, post videos and pictures of our performances and so on. Other than that, I sometimes post interesting videos and news, but you won’t find any pictures of my family or such there.
Facebook and youtube are the only places where you will find my real picture (and Facebook also has my real name), because people have to be able to find me if they want to take lessons.

On my various e-mail address accounts, you will never find my real name nor home address, in some cases not even age, and despite some serious bullying by hotmail, yahoo and gmail, not to mention facebook, threatening to close me out of my own account because my behaviour was “suspicious” (this means I logged in from a different place! As if people don’t move around the city nor travel!) I haven’t ever given my cellphone number to any of them.
Same goes for Skype, where I can only be searched and visible to people who already know my email or my username, i.e. my friends and acquaintances.

On the other hand, I’m the opposite of invisible on the web. I am pretty active on various websites, various fora, and even as an Amazon reviewer. I like to make my voice heard (I suppose you all must already have noticed that :slight_smile:). But opinions on books, films, dramas and services, giving or receiving tips on software and computer use etc - not personal info.

P.S. Most of the threads I listed were not yours, though. Lately my friend Piranna has been on a roll - I thought she made it her mission to enliven the “Social” category! Quite innocently, of course…

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Every once in a while I Google myself to see what pops up but my name is unisex and both my first/last name are very common so last time I checked a result that was me only popped up at page 2. On page 1 it’s all about 2 people who do some kind of sport and seem pretty good at it. I never use real pictures of me anywhere… I used to do that in the past when we just got internet so little did I know… but you will only find those if you know where to look.

What worries me more is not the social stuff like FB, Snapchat etc but the fact it’s becoming more and more the norm to do things online such as online banking, booking holidays, health insurance, filling in forms to ask back the tax you paid to much. Last time I wanted to renew my passport at the city hall I had to make an appointment online too.

There have been incidents where computer systems of City Halls, hospitals where hacked or it showed they where behind on security updates and where banks where attacked. I heard even some police offices still use windows XP. So even if you are extra careful yourself you can only hope that company’s you can’t go without are taking security very seriously.

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Very true.
On the other hand, online banking is such a blessing, no more standing in queues. In my case a thief wouldn’t find much to take: the minute the money is in, I have to distribute it for utility bills, rent and such, and rush to the ATM to take the little that remains…
My best friend has two sons, one has made it big and earns a lot of money, the youngest is doing various jobs but is still dirt poor. They both found some very nasty, manipulative women, who don’t think twice about lying to sow discord among the family, somehow take money for their own brothers and cousins and so on and so forth, all the while being double faced and externally sweet - just like k-drama 2nd lead females. I’ve seen one of them in action, she’s quite scary (I’m pretty sure she and her mother are using black magic too, but mostly that young man was too immersed in his job to pay attention to her doings).
So, the first son married his and they are still together. The second one was dumped by his. I was telling my friend just yesterday how lucky her younger son was to be poor!

I was wondering if she tried to diffuse the ambiance in this forum after the “heated” threads of channels being shifted/transferred or harvested and the bullying/negative commenting by fans on the channel pages etc. as to create a happier balance… But I think last year someone started the “What do you do to get rid of stress”… the person posted also several more social threads and it felt somehow awkward to me, I felt this forum should somewhat be based on Viki stuff or Asia, although there could be a fine line, one has to wage where he can get caught in a web of those moments “where one would forget the fine line” which probably happened to me as well.

For the rest of the “social pages” I’m stepping back as the info harvesting and spying is sickening and “time consuming as well” I liked FB for groups of interests since you can gain quick knowledge but otherwise it’s a mess, the US gov can apparently when you enter border ask you for the pages you have and access/check if you have any “dangerous” posts or whatever… if it feels suspicious they can detain you…

btw I believe our comments (in fan channels) on Viki can be found in google search not only on
Viki website…

We had a lesson about it in last week. The teacher told us that every info you share is valuable for companies. They will match your interests. I already notice that if for example I follow a k-pop group for a while that I didn’t follow before just out of curiosity. Then the next few days that k-pop group will be everywhere in my recommended list.

He also talked about apps. If you install an app, you sometimes see they ask for informatiion that they don’t really need. He told us about a research in Sweden where the researches built a flashlight. Its only function was to shine light when used, but it asked from people who wanted to install it to give access to camera, whatsapp messages, voice recording, photos etc. An app like Instagram would need to have access to your photos of course, but why would this app need access to it? With one simple app it’s already possible to gather a lot of information about others.

Lately I already was thinking about changing my username when reading and hearing about this all. The only problem is that I wouldn’t know what to choose.

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I’ll tell you a weird example of what a good job they do.
Facebook doesn’t know how much I weigh. It wasn’t asked anywhere in the info page when creating the account (and even if it were asked, I wouldn’t fill it in).
Yet I always get ads for extra large clothes. Now, it happens that I am indeed overweight, but how did they know?
I never post anything about weight, diets and so on, nor do I click on pages about weight loss. Only sometimes health stuff, or how to make your own face creams, things like the many uses of commonly found ingredients, vegetarian recipes… things like that, but also sweets recipes. I don’t think that any of this may have been a clue.
Someone looked at my pictures, then? Can a robot understand automatically which one is me in the picture, since in almost all of them I am surrounded by my students, and assess my size/weight? Maybe by comparing the profile picture with them? Or by looking at the tag, when I am tagged, and then assess body shape. But it would take a real person to do that, a robot cannot possibly do it, right?
Brrr… scary!

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Have you bought clothes online lately? This may be the source of the ads you get. I have bought lately some clothes and the next days I could find ads for all those types, I have bought. Same colour, same size, beeing on facebook, bam, an add with exact the same articles popped up. It’s kind of scary, because I have never disclosed anywhere, if and where I buy clothes, what kinds and which sizes and colours I need and prefer. And it’s not even the same company, where I have bought my stuff, which get me the adds!

This works as long as no one uploads photos of you! If I google my name, I can find photos from an school alumni meeting 15 years ago. The organisator of our meeting has uploaded them, deleted them, closed his internet site, but you can still find those pictures in an archive.

LOG OUT Clear cache. EACH AND EVERY SINGLE TIME. We learned in my marketing class that companies sell your metadata to each other.

Hey did you see Somejuwels? She uses our site and your site. Wanna buy her data? <= company logic.

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I have my browsers’ settings so that they will clear the cache and history every time I close the browser. That, at least.

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I’m the Queen of Paranoid, but even I have slipped up once or twice. It’s so easy to do when you’re not paying attention. Yes, our cutie pie did post all those questions quite innocently, probably to get us to get closer together rather than farther apart. Discussions doesn’t bother me as much as Disqus does. I don’t ever bank online. Thanks so much for reminding us. I have two cleaners, one for each browser I use and one for my desktop areas. Then I clean my disc and recyle bin frequently. I did say I get paranoid. So if Microsoft ever gets outlandish I even have an app I’ll use on them to wipe everything remotely intrusive. I’m dying to use it especially with Windows 10. I even put a solid clip over my laptop camera, just in case. :smiley:

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I have a friend who is a professional computer guy, and when he installed Windows 10, took quite a long time during installation to disable, in various ways accessible to very technical people like himself, all the built-in spying - which, as he said, was quite a lot. Now he’s happy with Windows 10 but he didn’t advise me on installing it “as it is”.

@somejuwels That’s why I check. What you can do is request Google to remove that photo and any other search results about you.

@choesook I have my webcam covered with a sticker too. Now I never had serious mallware on my mac but it feels better to cover it up.

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I recently this did for my boss, who didn’t want her age to show up in the info graph - the little box which appears on the top right corner when you search for somebody. You cannot even imagine how difficult it is. You navigate into loops, with pages with links directing you to other pages which then lead you to the same one where you were before.
Before doing this, I went and changed the Wikipedia article where the date of birth was present (hoping that nobody will add it again). But many other websites had copied it from Wikipedia, so I wrote a mail to each one requesting them politely. They were kind enough to comply. I made another search, and made sure it was nowhere to be found. Now only the google info graph remained. And that was the toughtest thing.
First I had to validate her as the owner of her webpage. You download a file from google and you upload it on your website, bringing this proof. When you are validated, then you can ask for a change.
BUT: If you see the list of things they are willing to remove, birth date and address are not in it. Actually they specifically say they will NOT remove them.
I had to send several emails and compile forms. It was finally removed (that was nice of them), but took me weeks.

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  1. I too have a sticker over cam on my laptop, actually this happened once to my friend that the cam was activated, it happened while she was an activist of GMO and tried to promote awareness and working on a state law bill.
  2. true about Windows 10 and their spying kit, one more reason I don’t want that unless you know how to circumvent the initial installation, or you use Ubuntu after
  3. I think I read once that while you are on a website for example FB and you browse other websites for example you purchase a thing on amazon that then FB can actually follow your browsing habits just like google etc. and therefore this ads appearing. Try to use as much InPrivate Tab (IE11) or Opera Private Tab to limit all this access to others plus Opera blocks most ads and tracking. In IE 11 you can download to windows a tracking blocking feature but I think in Opera it’s more effective yet I don’t understand why Opera uses 5 processes for 1 Tab open??
    4)clear cache/cookies, in windows there is also a “diskcleanup” that can delete any hanging thumb and temporary internet files.
  4. I sometimes clean the ip in “command prompt” …>ipconfig /flushdns [click enter]
  5. Perhaps also the correct settings in browser can eliminate “a bit” of that “shadowing” process.
  6. In US you can add your phone number to a “Do Not Call List” as soon I did that I started getting spam calls… so much you can trust in stuff…

Today humans who interact on the net and smart phones leave a footprint for opportunist and thanks to our govs they are allowed to do that since the gov is on that game as well!
Privacy and protection is a sounding good word that has been shrunk to the minimum if any at all existence.
Only you can choose what footprint you leave at the convenience of internet advantage whether it’s skyping, shopping and more :blush: We are victims of our modern advancement, we are puppets for the economy and the gov.:ear:
It’s very difficult to keep up with the changes and the understanding of the computer software so you can correct/prevent some things.:computer: :mag:

PS If you want a track free with privacy net surfing use “duckduckgo” it’s also not selective

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I reached my quota in hearts giving for today (didn’t know it existed on the forum xd) but I would have liked to give some here ; )

@irmar, I think we have different visions about informations that can be shared and it’s totally normal since we’re all different and don’t think the same way : ) It happens a lot when interacting with others irl or not so please, don’t feel offended by what I’m trying to explain. For my defense, I’m not an English fluent speaker so I’m not used to write or read in English using more appropriate expressions or a softer tone. If I offend you or some others by what I did 2 weeks ago, then I apologize in advance for that. Since I really didn’t intend to offend, force people to share, to burry bugs topics about channels or to appear as an attention seeker (if I was, I would have posted more these past few weeks or participated more on other posts or becoming CM or moderator, many ways to seek eyes of others which I’m not at all interested in)

I can try to explain why these topics (mine, I can’t explain for others since I’m not the author so I’m in no position to explain for them) are not confidential for me (and just for me, if others, it’s private info that they don’t want to share, I don’t want to force anyone to answer, like, doesn’t like, etc. as I don’t feel forced to read, answer, etc. We have the same rights. We’re free and liberty of expression is something that I value on a forum.

I can totally understand that they don’t want to share some things because they think it’s private and I have never been seeking to know more than what they want to tell about themselves. I post and anyone who is interested can answer. I’m on this forum to share my opinion and not to coerce people or impose my way of thinking even though people share divergent opinions on some points. No big deal for me, I can still live : )

I’m explaining this because I don’t know what is believed or not and I prefer to tell bluntly what I have on my mind than beating around the bushes.

So why it’s not confidential for me ?
For me, personal infos that I shouldn’t share are administrative infos (name, surname, birth date, address, phone number, money related, work related, family related, political, religious topics, passwords, private photos, videos etc).
This is basics for everyone I suppose except some topics.

Other than that, talking about pets, food, games, books, movies is like talking about dramas for me (for me). It’s linked to hobbies or what I like and if others know that my favorite desserts are fruity desserts or that my favorite dramas are suspense ones, for me sharing this info is sharing about myself on the same level of privacy.

On other forums, we always find many categories, even in game forums and my topics can be find there in the same theme.
I can go in a pet forum, I will find people giving their mail or number to buy a pet or photos of them.
I can go on a cooking forum, I will find people sharing recipes or tips.
On blogs, people introduce themselves briefly.
On websites, we can find diaries or biographies where people are using an username for privacy.
On Tinder, people talk without meeting them first and what can happen afterwards ?
In a bar, cafe, train, waiting room, we can meet someone and have an interesting conversation. But what do we know about these people that we meet for the first time ?

Not that everyone is good on the internet but not everyone is bad neither and should I stop sharing in the name of my liberty of expression on a forum because I’m afraid that some people with ill intentions will know that I like food pets dramas. I’m a lamba person with a lamba anonym username sharing these lamba infos among millions of web surfers, vloggers, YouTubers who expose their life and face on the web. (plus some gain money with their YT videos and keep uploading so I think there are better or famous people to target when spying on them than a lamba contributor for a drama website)

On a forum, am I not allowed to talk about food, pets, etc ? Why can I find the same topic on other forums ? I read Viki forum terms of use (or faq I forgot how it is called) and saw some categories in my first days here and I never heard that it was forbidden to talk about these topics (we can check it).
We even have a beauty category here. It’s not linked to dramas.
Social category : what does this category mean ?
I mean for once can we talk about something different from dramas bugs issues and learn or share other things that we are willing to share ?
It’s like when I watch the news and they only tell about bad things in the world for their first part. Why can’t we talk about something different among an international community in a forum ?

So that’s why I thought it as okay to post it but if people feel it’s too personal, then they are not forced to answer : )


About why I suddenly posted a lot 2 weeks ago since I can read posts talking about it here and risked to appear like a dominatrix or an attention seeker or crazy when posting that way and still did it : I already answered to a PM about this matter so my reasons are the same than in what I answered in PM since I’m not making up things and I have evidences (if the PM’s author comes by) :

I only posted to burry 2 posts (guessing game and editing pains) in which I didn’t even participate since I was away from the forum and got to read later.
So for other bugs on channels or any bug, I didn’t want to burry them if this is important for other CMs and volunteers, I can understand and I told in PM to the person asking me without some irrespect that anyone including this person could update or answer the channel topic to make it to the first line on forum (I can take screens to prove that I said that and people who know me better because we worked together more than once or talked more than on a few forum posts where obviously we will meet divergent opinions, they know that I like to play fair and if I was not then I would become CM or mods and “play dirty”, not sharing or I wouldn’t give away my former moderations and still glue to them or I would not be so picky about who the CM or the mod is, choosing not to work on many dramas that might have interested me but without my friends and sharing value, there’s no interest for me).

So I choose and choose to answer politely to a PM suspecting me that I was a moderator of Viki forum, that I wanted to burry important issues on channels, that I was lying when I told that I was learning Chinese even though I was a novice and clearly d that better to talk in Chinese with a wall than I, that simply if I didn’t have better things to do or say , I should contribute more in Chinese > English if I was pretending to learn whereas I was not making up things since I have my studies notes, my YT playlist updated a long time ago, my book, an application to learn Chinese where I posted a comment a long time ago, I just came back from a trip and didn’t sleep much and still segmented to catch up and help other seggers (I can take screens) and then decided to take 48h of break because I was tired and wanted to see viki forum and surprise fell on 2 cold topics between serious people who normally get along or don’t fight. And thought that it was not worth arguing over this and thought why not trying to lighten the mood or make these specific contributors talk about something else to make them think about something else or talk on something that they might be interested in or talk together on a safe topic. But actually people got angry at me? I want to say but why accusing me of things without hearing me first or knowing me and my reasons? I don’t know many people on this forum because never talked on regular basis outside of this forum so we can’t know each other well. People can be real quick to judge others without knowing others, why, where. Can we know a person after talking in a few posts on a forum ? Not me. I don’t even know fully my family after all these years.

So yes, it was not my business but as a watcher, reading these 2 posts made me feel uneasy and I actually just feel that in 1 year, all of this would be forgotten so why waiting 1 year.

But I might have been too naive to believe that a Pm begining with irrespect could end with respect.
So if my PMs are “read maybe in a few years if that person has time” when they expect us to read their PMs (screenshots I can) :

  1. irrespect. Do we suspect people and “attacking” them without ever talking together on PM ? Barely knowing each other ? Do we tell people that we will read their PMs in a few years if we have time as an answer from a polite PM ?
  2. from a CM (wonder how others contributors are talked to if they are not CM or mod or sensei : being nice only to cm or mod or sensei to gain channels or favors ?
  3. surprise : imposed comoderation not once but many times on channels. What does that mean ? That this mod is 2nd rank and can’t do it alone ? Using them for the channel without trying to take into account their opinion about comod ?
    And if Viki imposed a coCm with who you almost never worked with ? Can we try be in other shoes ?

So if people have the right to tell that some CMs are cheating and that they replace with another dictature : I also have the right to complain

I don’t gain anything from this since I will never work with this CM. Sharing huh ? Imposing comoderation is sharing ?
But yes I care for fairness.

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Sorry Irmar it’s not against you.

But this person will have to prove me that he or she respects me whether I’m Cm or not, mod or not because I have the right to be talked with respect since I was not all agressive in my PMs.
And being nice to other CMs to gain other channels but bad with lambda contributor, this is what I called being hyprocryte and not integrety or good manners ?

And if this person talks about sharing and cheating, I will tell that what about this person ?
And for other moderators who just have to stay quiet because they don’t dare, I am going to say I can choose to be blind for 1 or 2 or 3 times but if this person doesn’t show me that he or she is someone who respects people and other’s work and that even if the job is not done the same way but the result is still good then why trusting only 1 mod and imposing to other mods ?
I don’t see why he or she doesn’t try imposed coCm.

At least I told what I have been noticing lately and no one talked about it except one.

So no, anyone can participate even this CM, this is is sharing that we learn since children, but be correct with others and respect others. Is it hard ?