Dane DeValcourt

There is no doubt that I am not your avg. person nor am I a ‘social’ person.  I don’t get all the hoopla around this whole social web thing like MySpace, Facebook and so on.

**Some History and Personal Rant**

I have been using BBS’s and the internet longer then the avg. person has.  I made telecommunications my job because I become fascinated with it from the first time I heard that sweet sound of my 1200 baud modem whistle its way onto my first BBS and get introduced to a whole new world.

This world for me was one of anonymity.  All these years I have operated under this idea that this world which eventually morphed into the internet of today was one where no one in their right mind would purposely divulge their personal identity.  We always were and always would be just ghosts passing in the night as we made our way around searching for whatever it was we felt we needed.

Sure I am an old soul if you will.  I miss and yern for the days of old in my digital world.  The internet is not what it once was (good or bad) and it never will be.  It has become polluted with all this social media and personal websites and so on.  Everyone and their dog and even plants it seems are online these days.  

**End Rant**

OK so I might have digressed a little bit.  This was not the path I meant to take in writting this.

My concern these days is with the shear amount of personal information that people are divulging on things like Twitter and Facebook.  

Back in the day I wasn’t always the most upstanding person.  I have a mind that is CONSTANTLY in need of information and being fed.  I did my share of snooping, dumpster diving, social engineering in an attempt to harvest personal information to gain access to more and more things to feed my brains insatiable appetite.

My escapades were minor and lame compared to most.

My concern today is not as much about how people can use the personal information they mine from these social sites to gain access to systems or identity theft, although it is a concern.  Nope, but what does bother me is that as a father I find it really alarming with all the stuff they have about their KIDS!

People are posting pictures of their kids with names, ages, birthdays, schools.  They share info about when spouses are around or out of town, when they go to the park or where and when the playgroup meets and so on.

They do all of this in an innocent attempt at socializing and connecting with those around them.  

As a father though it shocks me to see this sort of info.  Growing up weren’t we all taught the whole stranger danger thing and how bad people will try to say and use things like “Hey I work with your Daddy and he asked me to pick you up since he couldn’t make it…” blah blah something like that anyway.  We were taught that even if they used personal information (which was unlikely in those days) that if we didn’t know them ourselves we should stay away and be cautious right?

Ok, well now a days it is VERY easy for people to harvest the personal information from these social sites that might be just the edge they need to do harm to our children.

I have avoided all this ‘social media’ stuff for some time now but decided to join a couple recently out of my own curiousity and experimentation regarding these concerns of mine.  I enjoy sitting back and watching just how much people talk and share.  It’s quite staggering and alarming!

If anyone reads this and takes anything away from it I hope it would simply be to take a closer look at what all you have posted, especially from the perspective of someone who might wish to cause harm to you or your family and how the information you have shared or thought about sharing might be used to facilitate them in their actions.

If you dont care enough about yourself to censor your information sharing, then at the least consider what your actions could mean regarding your loved ones.