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Suddenly there seems to be very strong pressure on the Internet to use my real name. It seems that almost no one on BCTS does that. Suddenly, about 2 hours ago Facebook is wanting me to make a new password. Not sure what is going on. Is there some sort of danger in my starting to use my real name on BCTS? I don't mind.
Gwen
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Hacked?
Facebook is notorious for people's accounts being hacked or getting emails that look legit but are phishing for info. I wouldn't succumb to any outside pressure to change your name. Changing passwords regularly on Facebook is a good idea, even though it is a bit inconvenient to change multiple devices. Good luck. :DD
DeeDee
I Wouldn't
Gwen, if you have no reason to change, my advice is DON'T.
Advertisers Game
Gwen, they need a real you for their advertisers to focus on. It becomes a game of how to get you to leave your home address so they can focus on what people are most like in that area. They want your phone number to make sure you own one, AND to send you a code to reinstate your youtube, google mail, yahoo, facebook, and other links if your name and site has been stolen. Many news sites have started refusing to allow news down feed without cookies being allowed. Cookies track you from dozens of sites already embedded in your browser every time you connect to the net. If you turned off your computer and or net connection and then log back on you will notice your HD is busy and the net is slow for many many minutes until things get normal again. It's all those cookies logging back into the sites you previously visited telling them you're back online again.
What you share on the net stays there for your lifetime and beyond. Keep that in mind when sharing any info about yourself be it personal or public. Saying that, my private email and my phone, along with my name is listed with all those sites I just wrote about. In the past year I've had dozens of attempts at hijacking my name and my passwords. A simple complaint to the bot controlling whatever site. I get a coded text, a message on my phone, and a notice I'm still the person in their data system. Thus sharing goes both ways. What they aren't getting is my home address but I'll give odds of 99percent they know it anyway. They just want me to post it. Ain't happening.
Hugs Gwen, stay safe, stay warm
Barb
Life has become more of a cat and mouse game since the AI age.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Confidence in social media companies?
Personally I have abandoned my presence on “traditional” social media in the last almost decade. And in the last three years Facebook and Whatsapp have been sued repeatedly in Germany [and Europe in general] for data breaches, data leaks as well as customer privacy violations. Resulting in considerable fines imposed by regulators and damages to users/customers.
As a matter of fact, it is illegal for Whatsapp to operate in Germany due to persistent non-compliance with European data protection and customer privacy legislation. So anyone using that particular platform is doing so at their own peril.
I have pretty much abandoned my Facebook profile since they wanted me to jump through a lot of hoops and send them a lot of personal information in graphical form. And since I had already deleted almost all content and contacts (a.k.a. friends) from my profile in the years prior, I consider it no great loss.
So, Gwen, given the very lax to non-existent data protection standards in your country, the high incidence of identity theft, as well as the current rather hostile political climate towards any and all minorities, I would be very cautious about disclosing any [more] personally identifying information, especially just based off of a redirect from the customary login screen. Because that is where most of the successful phishing and man-in-the-middle attacks and identity thefts happen.
Many of us simply refuse
to use social media.
I have done so ever since I had a brief fling with LinkedIn not long after it had started up. I started getting bombarded with so called head hunters even though I had been very circumspect about what my job was and what my CV (resume) held.
Some of what these [redacted] were saying had to have been obtained from other people because I had always been aware of the risks of using my real data on the internet. Some of these leaks had to have come from other recruitment agencies.
After that, I edited my LinkedIn profile and made it a pack of lies. Still the job ads came so I deleted it. Gradually over the years, these emails and phone calls dropped off but even after I retired and a long, long time after I deleted my profile, I received a phone call from a 'head hunter' who quoted my 'pack of lies' profile.
He was not amused when I told him that I had never held a Commercial Pilots License.
Today many people think it strange that I refuse to join in with groups that use things like WhatsApp all the time. I just say, "I don't do social media because I value my privacy". Some of what I do and where I go does leak but it is always through others.
Just my $0.02 worth.
Samantha
Social medea gets hacked all the time
I had two Facebook accounts. One under the name "Patricia Marie Allen" and another under my birth name. The PMA account was for interacting with folks from this site. (Kind of redundant.) The birth name account was mainly so my family could tag me in pictures. That and it gave me access to Messenger, that is used by the school bus company I drive for to communicate mass messages to all the drivers. I turned down all requests for friends from all but blood relatives and their SOs.
My PMA account got hacked and you think I could get it back? Not a chance. So I left it be. It was redundant anyway. My birth name account came under attack. I kept getting emails and text messages wanting to know if I was logging in with an iPhone in Seattle. I kept answering "NO" thinking if I say no, they won't let the yo-yo into the account. Said yo-yo was persistent and some managed to gain access. The first thing he did was change the phone number and the next was change the language to Chinese. Then he managed to tick of the Facebook AI and it banned me for life. It took several attempts to open a replacement account. Finally I did it with a bare bones profile. Most notable was no phone number. After the account was up, I went back and added a phone number and set up a two step verification. If an unknown device attempts to log in I get a text with a code to enter so the device can login. I've only used that once to get my own phone "known" so I can use Messenger.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Whut youse see is whut you got
I've never been bashful using my own personal moniker. I really don't care what pronoun you use. I must admit that I am Intrigued by the inventiveness shown on this site. I understand why gender indicators might be suspect but I wonder how someone's transition is going with a name like "MooseandSquirrel". Love that name!!!
The picture is new for the season. I'm just your normal 200 pound " Elf on a Shelf". With the use of a blue highlighter, viola, "Papa Smurf".
Ron
Irish experience
One of the downsides of having so many social media companies having their EU headquarters in Ireland is that it falls to the Irish Data Commissioner on behalf of the EU to deal with the predatory behaviour of those companies. Huge fines have been handed out and there are many court cases in process including one aganist Apple for non-payment of $14 Billion in tax. Our government is very thankful for the large amount of tax the tech and pharma companies do pay and it would be tempting for them to lean on the Data Commissioner. To their credit they have not done that and the funding and staffing of the Commission has grown rapidly to deal with the work load.
The EU is the only real regulator of these companies. The FTC is pretty toothless. The US benefits as forcing these companies to adopt GDPR for example has lead many of them to do so globally rather than have separate systems for the EU and the US. Twitter (the only thing I deadname) is the worst culprit recently, blatantly flaunting its non-compliance with the rules. I anticipate that there will be a response from the EU that will probably ban it in Europe in the near future.
In the meantime, play it safe, don't click on links received in text messages or e-mails and spend the time to reject cookies. If a site doesn't give you that option then just leave.
It is my own personal practice…….
To ignore any e-mails that I receive asking for me to change an account or provide personal information. If I am concerned that it may be a legitimate request, then I contact the company in question directly - as an example, if I get an e-mail purporting to be from one of my credit card providers, I ignore the e-mail and contact the company directly and inquire as to whether or not the request is legitimate and if I need to do anything. To date, I have never had one be legitimate.
Something that is very prevalent this time of year are e-mails stating that “we attempted delivery of your package but were unable to do so - you need to contact us in order to provide more information” or the other classic one is that it requires you to pay the shipping fees.
These are totally bogus - even those that provide “tracking numbers” are bullshit. As a person who works in logistics, no one ships without paying the fees up front, and the so-called tracking numbers are always formatted wrong. Usually there is no actual company name on the e-mails, or they are spelled incorrectly.
Beware of anyone asking you to change information, provide information, or anything along those lines.
As for using your real name, I already do that - I use my first initial and middle name here, but that was done as one of my sisters-in-law decided to creep around on the internet looking for things about me when I transitioned. So I asked the admins to alter my name, here and everywhere else I was concerned about. I simply switched the formatting and stopped her cold as I had legally changed my middle name and she had no clue what I had changed it to. The point being that you can use your real name, yet still maintain some privacy.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
Dangers ... ?
At least two I can think of.
When we get an un-solicited message or pop-up, or e-mail, or text that basically says:
"Problem! Click here to fix!"
Don't. Do Not Click.
High probability you will be sucked into a looks-good-but-is-faked site ... and you hand them your password(s).
Go in the "front door" of the site, Bank, shopping service, and log in. If there are problems, then you will know/be told.
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How far 'out of the closet' do you want to be? And once you put something on the 'net, it's there forever. "Delete" doesn't delete.
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Employers with "a lick of sense" will check your Facebook page. I bet if some/most will see you are into BCTS, will suddenly think "our insurance will have to pay for SRS, and we have to build a third bathroom" ... "It's a Miracle! The position was filled before you could be called for an interview" ...
Employers
While it is generally good advice not to post anything on social media which you wouldn't want a potential employer to see, I seriously doubt that it is an issue for Gwen.
Depends on the Employer
I once considered applying for a job at GCHQ - which for people not in the know is a UK communications (spy) centre. They didn't care if you were LGBT. What they cared about is if you were out or "in the closet". If your sexuality/gender identity was a secret, then it was a serious black mark against you - it would be potential blackmail material
Many Years Ago
I applied for a job with the BBC (British Broadcasting Commission). I thought I had the right credentials but I got a fairly swift rejection. This was well before any computer assessments so I was somewhat hurt. Years later I found out through a friend who DID have a job with the BBC that I was very likely rejected because my dad had been a member of the Communist Party and I had been vetted by the spooks as a potential threat.
Old Computer User here
Original advice on bbs and prestel days. Never, ever use your real name or give out details.
Still holds true. any public/social media/forum/website I use a username (this one, been around online a long time now).
Just don't do it unless you have to. And no, facebook doesn't actually check as long as it is vaguely plausible.....
__
Estarriol
I used to be normal, but I found the cure....