Privacy: What can they see? how do you use theKnot or wedding pages yet protect yourself?

txbandwife

A poster in another forum brought up that I should remove publicly identifying information. I had a website in my sigfile with my name as part of the URL and removed that.

Now I'm trying to go through and see what else needs to be removed, but I'm having trouble determining what all the public can see.  For exmaple: at the top of the page it has my first name, but I changed my "Knottie" name to something else.  Can people still see my first name? 

Also, in settings, it asks do I want the Wedding Planner (bride, groom, venue, etc) to be public or private.  If I set it private, sure, it will be safe, but then I cut myself out of potential ideas and vendors.  Do people use this feature without making their names public? 

Similarly, there's the "create a free wedding website" link, but then if I create that site, people will (obviously) have our personal information.

How have you balanced privacy vs utility of theKnot and other wedding sites for your life?

misshart00

What's really giving you away is your avatar picture and screen name. It's super easy to google "ms veteran America" and find out who you are with your picture. We can't see your planner and we can't see your website (even if they're public). Edit: I found out your real name and where you grew up in about 10 seconds.

Liatris2010

All we can see if your joined date, last active date, and we can click links to see your posts. (Click my user name to see what I am talking about). It doesn't show me your real name, or where you live. The problem is that your signature makes to easy to find, not that you have posted a bunch of personal information to the internet. If you want to post and have that be linked to your public persona and real name, so be it, but I wouldn't.

holyguacamole79

If you're concerned about privacy, I suggest getting rid of your signature.  Also (and I don't mean to sound rude), the signature looks like you're trying to sell something or promote an agenda. 

ETA:  Ditto MissHart.  I just found your FB campaign page very easily, including your bio.

txbandwife

Yeah after thinking about it more, I realized that I kinda took on this risk when I stepped into the public arena.  I really can't go back to being "private" online.  And to Sarabear31's point, I'm always promoting the homeless female veteran care agenda but there's no selling. I try to do something like that in all my avatars and sigs.  I figured (since I'm not selling anything) my sig shouldn't be any more offensive than all the f-bombs I see in other people's sigs.

Thanks y'all

NYCMercedes

It's not a question of offensiveness. The recommendations are for your own security. You should be able to espouse your cause without exposing yourself.

I haven't checked your FB page, but I recommend that it be purely public with your cause, or purely personal without your cause. One or the other.  While you were active duty, I believe you probably followed the social media guidelines about keeping your military maneuvers private.  

Also, you should pw protect your wedding website. Too many crazies out there (and maybe even in here). 

txbandwife

Oh, I see.

Yes I have both: a personal and a public fb page.

When you say pw protect your wedding website, what do you mean?  Do you mean the planning pages that comes with our TK account? I didn't realize those were visible to others.  Or do you mean the "wed-site?"