Reality check
"The names have been changed to protect the innocent..."
I remember these words from this television program. I remember thinking it would be pretty cool to be able to change your name (I didn't particularly like mine!), but consider myself blessed that I've never had to.
Until now. I'm changing my family's blog names, to protect the innocent!
As a relatively new blogger (since 5/2007) I've been pretty free with information regarding my family. Using real names, cute photos and such comes naturally to those of us who still have a good deal of confidence in humanity, in general.
Unfortunately, my confidence is a bit shaken, at present. I can't elaborate the seriousness of my concern at present, but I can share this:
Last night I noticed in my stats that someone had "googled" my oldest daughter at home. Due to a very delicate situation (the one I can't elaborate on) we were both very concerned. It was imperative that we discover the location of the person who was looking for her (this is local).
Folks...I'm a 40+ homeschooling mother of nine children, and it took me less than 30 seconds to not only get this persons IP address, but search it and graph the coordinates right down to the street address.
The good news: it was someone she knew.
The bad news: if I can do this, anyone can.
I'm certainly not so naive as to believe that changing a few names equates solid anonymity. But I've been a bit too free. Ultimately, everything is traceable. By anyone with the knowledge and desire to locate information or individuals.
So...time to get creative! And do a lot of backtracking. I'll introduce you to our "cast of characters" shortly.
6 comments:
Kimberly, sorry to here something creepy happened, even if it wasn't really creepy in the end. That's scary. I've always felt that since I don't reveal "location" that we're safe, but I suppose that's crazy.
I guess I should do some rethinking.
Thanks for the prompt.
I have had all kinds of things like that happen. One can never be too careful and it is good to have good analytics.
I've seen a few odd things from time to time, but this time it bothered me significantly. I tend to trust my instincts...
Troubling...I worry about that too. How can I get more info from sitemeter? Is that what you use? I have their free service but I am not sure how to take and ISP and do more with it. Would love to hear more if you want to email me.
+jmj+
I'll email you this afternoon with some info...
Dearest Kimberly,
I hope all is well with you and your beautiful family.
I had to comment on this because it is funny, not ha-ha funny, but strange funny that when I first stumbled upon the world of "blogs", and you were my first, that is the FIRST thing that popped into my head- the safety of you all. Isn't it terrible that we live in such a world?
I remember the first night that I went through your whole blog, looked at who was who, so I would know who you were talking about and I was actually worried for you because all of your family pictures are so beautiful. So as hard as it will be to figure out your new "cast of characters", you did the right thing!
You and "Clementine" have such a gift for picture taking it is an atrocity that your beautiful daughters (and even your boys) might be "enticing" to someone with a corrupt mind.
May God bless you in "cyberspace" and the real world too!
So glad that you are still blogging,giving encouragement and spreading LIGHT in such a dark world!
Love in Christ,
Regan
Ps> I love Cookie Monster...Our male cat is MIA as we speak(and my poor daughter is sooooo distressed). We still have his sister- Bodicea-or Little Bo-but she is lost without him!
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