For me, it is quite odd to compare looking up someone's public social media with driving by someone's house intentionally just to be there. Maybe it would be a valid comparison if someone looked at the social media sites repeatedly, not with the reason to have information but other motives that are more obsessional. I would be slightly disturbed knowing that my therapist looks me up on the web repeatedly, all the time - not because I think it's unethical but because I would find a T becoming obsessed with me simply disturbing and repulsive. But the thing is, why would anyone share that? It's not my concern how people look at my public info as long as they do not misuse the information or even use it in any form without my consent. I don't care how much anyone looks at my online info as long as they don't do those things or even want to discuss their private behaviors with me. Driving at someone's house, on the other hand, cannot have the same motive as looking up online media for the sake of information. Maybe one can say they are curious where the T lives and that's it, but reading posts where people report doing it, it does not sound like it's simple curiosity and it is not as discreet as looking on the internet.

What I really struggle to understand is when someone intentionally puts info on social media and makes it public, why is it concerning when people look at it? If it is intended to friends and family, why not make it private and share only with those select people? It is a very easy way to protect one's privacy unless we are talking high level security operations / spying which, I think, is not the case here.

Of course there can be info on the internet that was not intended/put there by the person concerned, like criminal histories, rumors such as on celebrities and other well-known people, but these are also consequences of one's own life choices. For example, most of the info on me on the internet is academic stuff. I usually do not put them there myself but I decide to publish in various journals, give talks at conferences etc etc. These specific publications have nothing to do with what I would want to address in therapy but a T could read a lot of them if they wanted to. One of mine actually looked at some of it and brought it up in session. I did not mind but had no intention to discuss it with the T in detail in spite of their curiosity. They already knew well enough that there were strong links between my personal interests/ issues and the professional fields I chose for work, that was discussed many times appropriately. To me, what is inappropriate in regard to therapy is if a T brings up info they gathered by themselves indirectly and tries to use it as arguments or anything. But privately looking and keeping it to themselves, to me, is just their own private matter. I also think there should be a discrimination between something being personally disturbing and generally wrong.