[Altered Moment]

I have some limited experience websites and integrating forums. What I want to know is if our ip addresses can be snooped from this forum? We put a lot of very personal stuff on here. There are data miners that can get an IP address from say this site and match it to an IP address they got from face book or somewhere else. Does this forum software have a feature that hides the IP address of the poster so it can't be snooped?

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I have never heard of that being a common practice, particularly in this given situation. I'm interested to read what the answer is.

[sabby]

As far as I'm aware, since DocJohn is aware that anonimity is extremely important he has this covered so that our IP addresses cannot be snooped.

Hmm. Well, it really all depends on what kind of information Psych Central is saving about us but generally only federal and some state governments have access to those files.

Also, I don't think there really is anything to gain from exposing someone's mental illnesses to the public... unless you're famous or really pissed off a infamous hacker. Unfortunately, about 90% of websites sell their visitor information to Google and etc. But I doubt (hope) PC is one of them.

Although, the problem sometimes is more that there are tracking cookies so even if you're not on the site that you originally got it on, it is watching and then when you go back to the site it recognizes and transmits whatever data it was looking for. For example, I know that ThinkGeek has tracked my movements on their site to Google ads because sometimes when I log into a page with ads it shows what's in my shopping cart (tempting me to buy it grrrrr).

And so if a hacker really wanted to get your information, depending on if their skill level is high enough, they probably could but it would be pretty darn difficult to get. Aka you're pretty safe haha. Places like Google and etc guard their data quite well and I've never heard of a breach...

[DocJohn]

Nobody has access to your IP address when you post here. End of story.

DocJohn

[Altered Moment]

Good to hear that. It happens. There was a special on 60 minutes last night and they interviewed people who do it for a living. Selling compiled information to employers etc.
Including private mental health records and all kinds of stuff. I am sure they are hacking to get alot of it. I have had PHPBB forums I set up hacked in the past. This is because most forum software is open source and therefore easy to find vulnerabilities.

[Gus1234U]

not to just throw wood on the fires of paranoia, but,,, anyone on the internet can read what is posted in the forums of PC, and if someone happens to know your user name, somehow, then they can read all about you.

generally, i would suppose that such a person would have to have access to your actual computer, or other personal information. soooo,, in the interests of privacy, don't tell your T what your user name is, or anyone else you don't want to have peeking at you.

ditto, be careful of telling friends you make online what your real name is, and where you live, etc.
Gus

[Altered Moment]

I was more concerned if there is a log kept of user IP addresses. On other forums and I have set up and was admin of IP addresses were listed on each post. This was only visible to the admin but was still in the database somewhere. I don't want to be paranoid or discourage anyone from posting but security is a big concern.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by zinco14532323

I was more concerned if there is a log kept of user IP addresses. On other forums and I have set up and was admin of IP addresses were listed on each post. This was only visible to the admin but was still in the database somewhere. I don't want to be paranoid or discourage anyone from posting but security is a big concern.

most likely every website you join the administrators are able to see IP addresses other wise how are they supposed to block someone when they ban them or take administrative action like temporary suspensions of posting or or keeping someone off the website completely.

where I work we have a website forum for our clients and one for our employees. both of which the administrators have access to seeing IP addresses which has come in handy a few times for temporary suspension of posting rights of some teen agers who got out of control on the forum.

one thing I keep in mind when I am on line anywhere is that even if administrators dont give out IP addresses, there is always a way to find them...

example my wife last night googled her real name and another google search on her user names (we had a debate about how easy it is to locate someone online because one of her clients is being stalked by her ex) she was amazed that using both google chome and internet explorer her IP addresses came up for her laptop, her work computer, and her home computer along with posts and other online activities. she was also amazed that for as little as .99 cents on up to about 10 bucks, anyone can do a complete background check on her that includes everything from the moment she was born to the present, right down to every computer IP address she owned and used.

regardless of what the website rules are there is always somewhere out there a detailed log of your computer activities, posts and ip address.

I know having this amount of information about someone like their IP address at someones finger tips just by searching...what ever can make someone paranoid, uneasy.....I try not to worry too much about it but one general rule I have is that I dont put anything online that I would not want my family friends, and strangers to know. that way my personal life is as protected as I can be short of never using a computer or lap top ever again lol

zinco- What would be the point of such a breach, though? It's not in any way practical for pretty much anything.

This isn't a commerce site, nor are the vast majority of people posting their addresses or phone numbers... even if they were, that would be a huge amount of data to go through to get ONE piece of information [from one post] out of possibly hundreds... for just ONE IP address.

It's not worth the time and effort because there is really nothing to be gained from it, even if it were a real threat- which is very doubtful.

I was admin of a community for several years; people snooping to get IPs was probably one of the least of the concerns we had- it's just not useful information from this kind of site on a large scale.

[Altered Moment]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/shocked-...-watching-you/

It is not just about commerce anymore. Watch this segment.

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No. In my experience is hasn't been a concern and that experience is really relevant to PC.

I don't have any concerns, but obviously each person should decide for themselves whether fear-mongering [see headlines with words like "SHOCK"] holds a lot of water, versus just common sense.

So, that's all.

ETA: Actually, that's not all. If your concern is about personal information shared here- specific text- that is not applicable. I am not sure it is helpful to pursue this discussion as you are, zinco, because I'm not entirely sure you understand what "data brokers" actually share or trade.

The way you are addressing the concern is giving a very wrong and potentially harmful impression. Not really beneficial to a place where people are looking for support.

[Altered Moment]

I think 60 minutes is a reputable organization and we should be aware of what is going on out there. I do not mean to cause any harm or to discourage people from posting. I myself love this site and will continue to participate.
I think it would behoove the admins to watch the series of stories at that link.

[DocJohn]

Question asked and answered, so this thread is being closed.

While we believe it's appropriate and healthy to worry about your online privacy, you do not have to worry about the security of Psych Central. We monitor everything on the site, 24/7, for any kind of security concerns, and have a wealth of automated software that takes care of the most common attempts.

While I will never say never, in the 19 years I've been running Psych Central, we have not experienced any breaches. We proactively take steps to minimize the chances of this happening, but we acknowledge we cannot be 100% certain. If credit card companies and banks can experience security breaches -- as they nearly all have -- you can rest assured anyone else can as well.

Having said that, as was pointed out earlier in this thread, criminals who engage in these kinds of activities are usually looking for (a) financial information or (b) a way to infect people's computers with malware downloads. We don't have (a) here, and while we could be vulnerable to (b), we're still small enough a community/website that much bigger targets are usually more attractive to the people who engage in this sort of behavior.

We'll continue doing what we do to keep your information secure and safe here.

DocJohn