Yet another question

[IAmScared]

If someone were to put their real name and surname on the account name (like mine is IAmScared) and put their email address public and go to search area and search a certain fetish both by your search (under search full site) AND by google search - (the google search next to your search full site,which you can press after you type the word,) and that person writes about their fetish on the message boards - what are the chances someone will find your profile if you google your real name and surname? (now it doesn't show but google sometimes changes it's results and adds new stuff,trust me,i know this by experience)....what are the chances some day that account would show up under goooge search of person's real name and surname - since it uses MSN bot?

[Sam W]

Hi IAmScared,

If someone were to put their real name as their message board name (as in, the name everyone on the boards can see) then yes, in theory if someone searched that name on google, they might find the message boards post. That's why we give the advice we do in our privacy policy: https://www.scarleteen.com/user_guideli ... acy_policy.

Too, at a certain point it's not really helpful to be focusing on these hypotheticals, since your username isn't your real name. It sounds more like this has become another thing for your anxiety to latch onto, so it may be time to shift your focus onto what you can do to manage that.

[IAmScared]

but what if the person didn't put the real name as message board name but put their email adress public which contains their name and surname,and did a search on your 'search full site' and ALSO pressed google next to it and the site uses GoogleBot and MSNbot,would be able to be found by googling that person?

[Heather]

This actually isn't something that could happen here, period.

All new users have their first three posts placed in moderation. In order for them and their info to post anything, we have to okay it, and we don't okay any posts with personally identifying information. If and when users already here put personally-identifying info in posts or profiles, we edit that information out.

[IAmScared]

so you're sayying that after 3 posts someone puts personal information on profile - you remove it?

[IAmScared]

also,if there is no email public,why does it say on my profile settings users can contact me by email?

[Sam W]

What Heather is saying is that we, as moderators, don't allow posts with identifying information through moderation. And, if someone is past the point where they're no longer in moderation, if they post something with identifying information, we go in and edit it out. For those same reasons, there is no way for another user to see the email you used to register.

Is there a reason this is concerning you so much?

[IAmScared]

yes,but you didn't answer why does it in settings say users can contact me by email?

[Sam W]

That's a function built into the platform we use to build the boards. However, the only people who can actually access that email are those of us who are volunteers or staff, not other users.

[IAmScared]

ok.so users can't see your email even under that settings? (just checking one last time)

also 2) what if someone put their email address on their PROFILE? do you edit that too?

[Sam W]

Correct. And there isn't really a place to put your email address in the public profile, unless you filled in one of the other fields, like location or pronouns, with incorrect information.

Really, though, it'd be most productive for you to focus on whatever the underlying source of this anxiety is, rather than continuing to look for gaps in a system that we have used for years to keep user information safe and private.

[IAmScared]

THANK U SO MUCH