Monday, October 13, 2014

Blog Breaks, Online Evaluations, and Scary Stuff


Interrupting this blog break to bring you the following news!

The awesome Carrie Butler, author of the Mark of Nexus series and marketer/designer extraordinaire, is beginning a blog series called Breaking It Down, where she evaluates blogs or online presence and offers suggestions.

I think I'm her first guinea pig.

She did a video evaluation and made some terrific suggestions that I'm already working to incorporate. Her blog post is here. You can check out the videos and see if there's anything you might not have considered:


HOWEVER 
(and this is the potentially scary stuff)

There was something she pointed out that I hadn't been aware of. Did you know that people can find out where you live by the information you have listed on your blog/webpage?

It's called Whois.

Go ahead. Open a new tab and type in "whois".

Godaddy comes up first, so I clicked it.

Type in your webpage address. You'll have to type in a captcha to prove you're human.

What does it say?

Mine gave my real life address (a few days ago). Not that I'm expecting any psycho stalkers or anything, but people can put the information from Whois into a Google search and find you.

See the outside of your house.

Know what kind of car you drive.

Watch your children playing outside if they were out there when the Google peeps were doing a driveby with their streetview van.

Creepy, no?

I went to my webpage provider and contacted them about adding a security feature. It's not expensive, and they did it almost immediately.

I strongly suggest you consider adding this if you haven't already.

24 comments:

  1. That is scary...
    I signed up for an evaluation as well. Yours will give me an idea of what to expect.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Something many people also do not know is very specific location data can often be found from cell phone photos posted on Facebook or Instagram and the like. You have to check your camera settings; I don't know all the details, but again, it's amazing how much personal information is out there for the taking.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, they can find it. I knew it was out there, but not that easy. Oh well, it's an old address, so if they peep, all they'll see is my mother lol

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very interesting. Suddenly, I'm glad that we've moved and all that information is out of date.

    ReplyDelete
  5. There's no place to hide really. Not in our time with resources we have available.

    Lee
    Wrote By Rote

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yep, scary stuff. And I'm always amazed at how many people advertise their birthdays on their blog. Now the lurkers know your name, address, and date of birth. Gotta be stingy about sharing personal data like that online.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I entered mine and it came up with the information for Wordpress. I guess because I haven't switched to a paid site yet. Something to keep in mind though if I move forward online. Thanks Donna.

    Melanie

    ReplyDelete
  8. I began with that extra security. My provider's address is there instead.

    I'll check out the videos.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is why I have a PO Box for my business. It's a meager amount to pay per year for added security.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I typed in whois and whois.domaintools came up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Try this link: https://who.godaddy.com/?prog_id=GoDaddy&isc=gofdd010

      Delete
  11. Very interesting, thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Just checked mine. Happy to know I still have that privacy protection option in place. Worth it, I think if people can see all you talked about in your post.

    ReplyDelete
  13. My host has a built-in option that lets me identify myself as a "Happy DreamHost Customer" on most of my sites. But apparently I didn't check that option on all of my sites. Thanks for the reminder to check it.

    ReplyDelete
  14. That's why my son goes by Bossman and there are no pics of him online (that I know of). I made the choice and I'm okay with being out there. What bothers me most when I see a twitter pic or Facebook page and there are children in it. That person is showing them their beautiful child and anyone can look up where they live. Children's safety should be paramount. 'nough said. :-)

    Anna from Shout with Emaginette

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh my gosh---I'm totally going to go look at these!!! For fun, Donna!!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Great Hawaiian pic! I might use that myself:) Also, it is odd how easy it is for people to find info nowadays, but truthfully, if someone really wants to find your address, there's no real way to stop them. That's why my friends are cops:)

    ReplyDelete
  17. It couldn't find me. Maybe I don't exist? Or maybe I didn't follow the directions correctly.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I watched the videos, and your blog gave me many ideas I could use to fix up my website. I see you've already made some changes. BTW, I'd forgotten that you were a Harry Potter geek.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Interesting. Whois didn't find me through my blog but it sure did through my website.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Thanks for the shout-out, Donna! My readers seemed pretty darn impressed with your web presence. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  21. Well, how about that. Thankfully my provider's address comes up instead. :)

    ReplyDelete

Comments brighten my day.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...