READ ME: PRIVACY

Virgil · **Posted:** Sun May 17, 2009 9:28 am

N101CS wrote:

...there's nothing I can do to keep Google out that wouldn't also result in not showing up in Google at all (a terrible option).

N101CS,

I totally agree that to keep Google out is indeed a terrible option. Unthinkable even. I just thought it was ironic that the GoogleBot appeared as a registered user. Can you imagine the GoogleBot spider with an alcohol problem? I have visions of it crawling the web with a glass of wine in one hand spilling the wine as it goes about its daily business! LOL. :lol:

Anyway, thanks for the explanation.

All the best,

V.

Elfern · **Posted:** Sun May 17, 2009 11:49 am

Virgil wrote:

elfern wrote:

But how did it get there ??!

elfern,

The GoogleBot (as it's called) visits this site very frequently. You can see when it's crawling the site (and thus gathering information) by going to the Board Index and looking at the bottom of the page where it says 'Who is online'. The GoogleBot ironically appears as a registered user, which I don't understand.

V.

Thankyou Virgil ,
It all sounds most sinister, I thought it was possibly a computer wizard like RR who
might have put it there to help direct people here .

potato · **Joined:** Thu Feb 05, 2009 7:02 pm **Posts:** 345

For once I am glad my name is potato. I think.....

N101CS · **Posted:** Fri Jun 05, 2009 10:38 am

Virgil wrote:

I just thought it was ironic that the GoogleBot appeared as a registered user.

Yeah, GoogleBot is a registered user. We have accounts set up for all of the various bots and when the site recognizes them, it lets them in (with read-only permissions).

BWD · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2011 3:47 pm

The bottom line is that this is a public web site, and as such it's visible to... the public! That can be by browsing the site itself, or by search results from the various crawlers. Bluntly, as has been so pithily stated by others, "You have no privacy [on the internet]. Get over it" (see http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article1850998.ece, referenced by http://whatupmedia.blogspot.com/2010/10/internet-you-have-no-privacy-get-over.html.

Obviously, I don't want my posts on this board to be associated with me in Real Life [tm] or my other social / professional profiles - so, how can I prevent that? My personal approach, which may or may not turn out to be adequate, is as follows:

- Use a unique user name, email address and password for this board
- Disclose minimum personal information that could be used to correlate this ID with others (eg birthdate, physical location, occupation)

It would be trivial for the sysadmins to use my logged IP addresses to correlate to other results, but I choose to trust them. Equally, I could choose not to disclose anything here that I wouldn't want my employer, colleagues, clients etc. to know, but to me that defeats the purpose of the board. At the end of the day, there's a balancing act between disclosure, discovery and dishonesty that I'm trying to carry out to further my best interests.