Protecting Privacy in Fandom

[godricgal]

Some of you know that before I became a poor, lowly student, I had a rather nice job with a software company that was attempting to deal with some of the problems surrounding personal privacy and data ownership on the 'net

Comments

[vivnow]

We can lock down a lot of what we do online, but we do leave a trail, and frankly, I'd prefer my trail not to lead back to Harry Potter fan fiction liberally sprinkled with light smut. That is not something I want to discuss in interview, and not something that I'm sure a great many of you would want to discuss when and if your big chance at getting published comes along.

I'm not a writer but I know where you're coming from. You know what I do for a living.

[godricgal]

I think there should be an element of concern for how your online activities might reflect on you in your profession, whatever it may be. Better put, it's your private life, and by putting it on the internet we are opening ourselves up to very easy scrutiny - if we're not careful,that is.

[wizardelfgirl]

I really know what you mean with this. I walk a very thin line between keeping my persona separate from my identity because I write many posts about my job and it's actually fairly easy to find my real name. I compensate this by not revealing much else about me (like posting photos or saying where I live and the names of my family and friends).

Furthermore, I understand what you mean about Facebook. I have a hi5 account, and as a rule I never post pictures of myself or others. My friends, however, do, and they have the annoying habit of tagging me in the pictures, so all my efforts to stay anonymous go down the drain.

[godricgal]

I think the trick is to make sure that if you talk about things in RL, you leave enough out to make it arbitrary information. It's when you start to add a few details which can be cross-referenced, giving data - information - meaning and additional context.

My friends, however, do, and they have the annoying habit of tagging me in the pictures, so all my efforts to stay anonymous go down the drain.

This is one of the biggest dangers, I think, both in fandom and in RL, that you can be as conscientious as you like about protecting yourself, but other people can unintentionally undo some of that. What concerns me about photos is people posting pictures of others in situations that they would not want advertised - on a night out, relaxing at home, etc. Things that people want to keep private because they compartmentalise their RL into private and professional lives.

[mrstater]

Using this icon because it has Mad-Eye in it

[godricgal]

LOL I am all for Constant Privacy Vigilance

[mrstater]

(no, wait, they probably do know that, thanks to copious numbers of memes ;))

LOL It's probably really scary what people know thanks to memes!

[shimotsuki]

I want to thank you for this very timely post, especially from your perspective as someone who's worked in online security. I'm also very concerned about keeping my fandom identity completely separate from my RL identity, to the point that I'm trying to keep my RL name (even my first name only) from being posted on LJ, anywhere, even in f-locked posts... My worst nightmare is for my fandom identity to turn up as the result of a Google search on my RL name or other information, and the best way to stop that is to keep most of my RL information off fandom-related sites.

That said, I have been known to participate in an LJ community that displays IP addresses (logging them is one thing, displaying them is another thing entirely). I've been vaguely meaning to contact a mod and ask if they would mind shutting that display function off. Now your post has inspired me to do that sooner rather than later!

By the way, I love your new(?) layout, and I hope you're having a wonderful week off.

[mrstater]

That said, I have been known to participate in an LJ community that displays IP addresses (logging them is one thing, displaying them is another thing entirely).

For what it's worth, you can only see them in your own posts; but I don't like to think that when I review someone's story the author can see my IP address!

[shimotsuki]

Oh, thanks, that does make me feel a little better!

I still wonder if they'd be willing to shut that off if I asked very nicely...

[mrstater]

It would definitely be worth a shot, I don't like it either!

[katyscarlett76]

Thanks for writing about this, you've given me so much to think about! I don't particularly want my fandom identity clashing with my real one in any real way. So my RL friends use my work email and fandom friends, if they wish, can use my fandom one. I don't refer to my fandom identity on my Facebook page, although I do have a few fandom friends on there (those I trust and who already know my full name/address etc from Christmas cards or because they already know me from somewhere else anyway). I do have some HP related groups/ applications but then anyone who knows me knows that I'm a fan (if they don't realise the extent).

I resisted joining a network on Facebook when I realised that all members of the network could see your profile. I have joined my work one but have jacked up my privacy settings so I control who sees what. Non-friends can't see anything that isn't freely available by the work web site anyway. Plus I have the added plus that the name I use is not my real full name (We have a Nymphadora situation going on

[godricgal]

I'm glad it gave you something to think about - that's all I really wanted to do.

You can fiddle with the settings on Facebook so that you can prevent other people in your network from seeing your profile if they're not on your friends list. Though I have, temporarily, left both my networks because your networks are still visible beside your name in other parts of the site and they give away my location.

It's nothing that can't be easily managed, but people have to be aware. :)