Thursday, December 18, 2008

Trusting is Not a Bad Thing

In TMI?? from Tech Thoughts By Jen by JenW, Jen worries if she has given too much information online. “Just recently I had read (http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/11/presisent-elect.html) that Obama had to surrender his phone because of security issues (mostly with communication) but I wondered at the time if your cell phone also could become a beacon to your location as well??
I hope that I don’t sound paranoid, because I hope not to be……..but I am wondering if perhaps I have shared a bit too much of me and need to be a bit wiser in what I disclose.
I am proud of being asked to speak at conferences and enjoy sharing those opportunities with you……but I am wondering…….is it too much information??”


I struggle with this also and it worries my husband tremendously because I am on twitter and plurk so much. All of my plurk and twitter friends know that I am taking 3 cruises in a row on the Caribbean. Could someone figure out where I live and rob my house? My husband is always saying that I’m too trusting with people and maybe I am. But I also feel I am a professional and I want people to have my mailing address (which at least is a post office box and not a street address) and my email address. I’m sure if someone wants to track down my personal information they could but I think if they wanted this bad enough, they could do it without my help too. Part of me feels that if they need anything from my house bad enough to rob me, they need it more than I do. I don’t want to have to worry about people robbing me every minute. I know that there are bad people on the internet as well as in real life. I’m not going to ignore the fact that there are mean people out there.

We have taken precautions like notifying the police (which is only a block away from my house), alerted our neighbors, and set our burglar alarm. I also feel that I’m careful about choosing my plurk and twitter friends so I can’t imagine any of them robbing me. Again, I do not want to spend my whole life mistrusting every single person that I contact. Life is too short so I’m going to go on trusting (with common sense precautions). How about you? What do you do?

Original image: 'Trust' http://www.flickr.com/photos/88133845@N00/428825569by: Jean-François Chénier

4 comments:

Clix said...

First of all, I'm pretty sure that cell phones can be synched with GPS location technology so that professionals (which is to say, law enforcement personnel and hackers) can find you. However, you might be able to deactivate this by removing the battery. I'm not sure about that, though.

I use the school as my professional address. (Why not? It's my home away from home, after all! *g*)

Penny Ryder said...

I was burgled yesterday while I was at work so this issue is pretty fresh for me. I too am a trusting person- often thought to be too trusting. Hubby is the opposite so that helps. I worry that I may have given away too much information online recently and made it easier for someone to track my movements but I don't think that is what caused it. I think they looked through the window and wanted my tv. There were three in my suburb which helps me feel less targeted. They took my laptop which makes me worry some more about security. I hope they are not interested in it's contents but I don't think it has any resale value either - it's too old. I'll be interested to see how I feel about this in the longterm. I don't want to live life susicious of everyone and everything!

loonyhiker said...

Clix: As a retiree and ed consultant working from home, I don't have any other address but we have always had a PO box that we use.

loonyhiker said...

Penny Ryder: I'm so sorry to hear about your burglary. We had that happen to us years ago and we felt so violated. I hope they catch the person soon!