Is your web presence a threat to you and your family?

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BGutzman

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I have a cousin who lives in West Virginia, about a week ago one of his neighbors had 3 men kick or somehow force the front door in and proceeded to execute a home invasion.

The 21 year old man who was the primary resident of the house was stabbed three times and shot once. (I do not have all the facts just what I was told) At some point the young man was apparently able to get ahold of a firearm and send the invaders running and wild shooting commenced by one or more of the people involved.

At the end of this affair it was apparently determined this fellow had posted pictures of his house and possessions for all to see on a very common social network site. It seems in some way his address must have been available or was not too hard to find and they found him.

So my question in general is do you feel whatever you do on the web could be a threat to your familys safety and if so how have you or how will you deal with it? (Buy more guns? burgler alarm? Sanitize the information on the site?)

Does this stuff being on the web raise the potential that you may need to use your gun in self defense?
 
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WV_gunner

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I try to avoid posting pictures of anything of high value on the Internet. And I do not post my exact location and do not post any pictures of the property either. But if someone does break in, they'll run into a 6'5" man with a shotgun and a rather large knife.
 
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Spats McGee

Administrator
IMO, posting pics can be a real security problem. I like the gun pics as much as anyone, but I won't post pics of anything I own. That goes for more than just guns, too.

Sometimes it amazes me the things that people will post online. It's really not hard to find pictures of guys with guns and drugs, or guys out on dates with women who are not their wives. You can rest assured that prosecutors and divorce attorneys understand these things, and are using them every day.
 
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SIGSHR

New member
As Poor Richard (AKA Ben Franklin) said in 1735:
"Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead."
No different than flashing a bankroll in a bar or being seen with a woman not your wife (or your steady girlfiend) or just plain running off at the mouth. IMHO privacy, like fitness or firearms safety is something that must be practiced constantly. While I like the concept of Facebook (and wish I'd thought of it) I personally avoid them, having acquired a taste for the Low Profile. (Also, in my case, posting pictures, etc. exceeds my computer skills at present.) Anyone who does penetrate my screen name will get at the most some of my real name, my P.O. Box Address, and that's about it.
 
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oneounceload

Moderator
You cannot get rid of anything posted on the web once you hit the ENTER button. However the odds are really remote unless your pics have something so unusual that everyone in your area can recognize it, like some monster truck or similar.
Worrying about every possibility is borderline shcizo paranoia. You might as well prepare for asteroids, space junk and lightning hitting you.
 
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TXAZ

New member
My sincere empathy and best wishes to your cousin.

It is unfortunate that happened, but also that many people don't see the downside of posting 'anything and everything'. 2 high school schoolmates consistently publish when they're headed out to see their kids in other states or details of their next round-the world / state 2 week trip...

One of the more popular social sites is trivial to triangulate significant details about a person when combined with one of the for-pay public records sites. For ~$10, a malicious soul could easily put 2+2+$10 together and learn enough about careless FB posters to empty their home or bank account.

Lots of chances to act as a fishing lure on-line these days.:eek: Be smart and be safe.
 
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BGutzman

New member
Some people apparently post everything.... Apparently some post information about every waking moment.

Go to spokeo.com and put your own name in and see what comes up...

My point is not to promote this site in any way but what is out there is scary...http://www.spokeo.com/
 
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nate45

New member
I suppose I'm paranoid, but a little paranoia is not a bad thing.

I take great pains to keep my real identity and physical address secure while online.

For example e-mail addresses. Many people include an e-mail address with their profile information. A quick Google search will associate that e-mail address with any other place that e-mail has been used. It often only takes less than a minute to find a name, work address, home address and phone number, from searching an e-mail address.

I also have never said the town and state I live in, on this, or any other forum. My IP address is also Dynamic and changes my location all the time as well, the State and Town shown as location are always different. The closest it has ever shown to my actual location, when I checked my own IP address was 150 miles away.

I also don't talk about what brand safe I have, or what kind of alarm and other security precautions.

So am I paranoid, or smart, or both? I'll let the reader be the judge. However, when I post a pic of one of my favorite guns, I don't worry too much about it.
 
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checkmyswag

New member
The prevalence of being REALLY open online is even more present amongst the younger set. I'm a tech person, but I didn't grow up w it. Younger people in general feel free in "sharing" much more info online.

Internets like all things ppl touch is good and bad. Weird that as society has broken down, we congregate here to have community.
 
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SHNOMIDO

New member
I just plain dont have a facebook.

And i think the NRA sticker on my car is a bigger deal than posting on firearm BBS

haha, i love how spokeo is all wrong about me.

...except where i live. i guess whitepages are whitepages.
 
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jgcoastie

New member
Haven't had a home phone for about 5 years now.

Cell phone GPS chipsets have either been removed or encrypted.

Privacy on "the social network" is set to the max.

All "friends" are people that I actually know, most are family and their privacy settings are maxed out. Those that refused to match my security settings were deleted.

Geotags on all posts, photos, updates, apps, etc have been disabled.

I don't own a Windows compter. I use a hybrid OS that I created and is truly one of a kind (well, two of a kind because I built another for my wife), and use an emulator program in the least-privilidged profile group on my home computer that simulates a Windows OS for most of my programs and online activities. That way, even if I do get a virus, all it has done is infect the emulator program. Simple solution: uninstall the program, delete the user profile within that group, re-install the emulator program on a new profile, continue.

Plus, I move every couple of years. And I haven't ticked anyone off lately that I'm aware of... But if I happen to be that un-lucky guy...

There's a premium alarm system I just installed in my home that I designed and built, also one of a kind and encrypted. In addiditon to the "standard" featres of a home security system, I programmed in a safe word and voice recognition software for emergencies that automatically activates 4 exterior high-intensity strobe lights and automatically calls the Sherrif's Department with a voice recording of me reciting my address and that there is a police emergeny in my home, also gives descriptions of me and my wife.

There's a very devoted, trained Doberman within 2 seconds of any room in the house.

There's a 6'2", 230lb guy with a wide variety of guns readily accessible for immediate use.

There's a much smaller, very tempermental Mrs. JGCoastie with better aim than me and just as many guns.

I'm not paranoid, I'm cautious and prepared. :D
 
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