Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with blog and privacy

Why Should You Use Social Networking at Work?

Jaybo — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:06:47 -0800

Many workplaces ban social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and so on. What are some of the reasons workplaces should allow (and even encourage) staff to use social networking sites? I'm particularly interested in the case you would make to someone in the healthcare field but examples that are applicable to other areas, especially those that may ban social networking site for privacy or productivity reasons, are welcome as well.

Should I include a photo of myself on my blog?

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:27:51 -0800

Should I include a photo of myself on my blog? I'm trying to decide if I want a photo of myself on my blog, which gets around 2,000 page views a day. I write it under my own name, and my full name can be found on the blog. Looking it up under whois and then doing a little more research could lead you to my home address. There's nothing controversial about what I write.

The photo would be in the "profile" section. I'm female. The photo I was thinking of using is flattering, but not hot-cha-cha.

Will I get stalkers peering through my windows? Am I being paranoid? What are the pluses and minuses of having a photo of the writer?

Why can't I hide from Google?

hamster — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:24:03 -0800

Help me hide my blog from the Googlebots. I blogged professionally from 2002-2007, when the project ended. I decided to start a personal Wordpress blog, and linked to the new blog from the old site before it was taken down.

Unfortunately, because of the link to the old site, the personal blog is now the first Google result when you search under my name. The new blog doesn't use my name or identifying details, but the Googlebots must know it's connected to my name anyway.

I'm starting a new job soon and expect that clients will search for me by name, so the old blog has to go. I'd like to continue blogging for the sake of old fans who still read me, but it would need to be "secret" and not associated with my name in any way.

I don't have email addresses for most of my readers, so I'd like to post the new blog on the old site... but will that just lead the bots to the new home? Can I do something like writing out the new site's address in a way that doesn't link and wouldn't search?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Will I cross the line in the blogging world?

bash — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 08:46:50 -0800

Where do you draw the line with information on a blog? I started a blog about my father's death, and I'm not sure what to post and what not to. When my dad died, I spent about two weeks writing pretty regularly and have a wealth of material, but my dad wasn't exactly a saint, hell, he wasn't even that nice of a guy, so my feelings about his death are complicated. I have pretty uncomfortable memories resulting from his secrets and lies that extend beyond his actual death. My mom won't know about it, my grandma won't see it, but some people I know will certainly read it. What are the repercussions of not sticking to the traditional, "OH this person was such a great person and what a loss" eulogizing? I'm new to blogging. Never done it before.

Keep my Wordpress blog out of search engines!

Drohan — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:38:05 -0800

Why is my Wordpress blog showing up in Google when I have specifically chosen the option to keep it private from search engines? I have a new Wordpress blog, hosted by Wordpress, that I'd like to keep from being indexed by search engines if possible. Under Settings: Privacy, I have selected "I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors". I have also password-protected all posts.

Yet the blog is showing up in Google. I put my own name in a post to see if it would show up, and a Google search for my name brings up the post, plus the usual Google blurb of one or two lines before or after where my name appears in the post. When you click through, you cannot read the post because of the password protection, but I'm troubled that the blog posts are being indexed b y Google when I've specified that they not be, and also that excerpts from my password-protected posts are showing up in the Google results. Please help! (Hosting the blog on my own server is not an option.)

Shhh!

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 21:03:53 -0800

How anonymous is my anonymous blog? What steps would someone have to take to figure out that I am the person publishing my anonymous blog? Right now I use blogger. Would I be less anonymous if I had my own domain name? I'm thinking of using adsense - in which case Blogger would know that I am associated with my blog. How concerned should I be that someone else can track that connection? (I'm not blogging about anything illegal, I just really want to stay anon). Also, if its not obvious, I am tech-stupid, so please speak slowly in a loud, clear voice when answering my question.

Blogger without a blog service

jejune — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:31:20 -0800

Is there a blog service that has all the features I need? I've tried Blogger, Livejournal, and Wordpress.com, but none of them seems like quite the ticket. See inside for the 3 features I'm looking for. I'm trying to start a blog. It seems like every service I try is about 90% of what I need, but missing some key feature.

Here are the features I'm looking for:

1. The ability to have a private blog with well over 100 readers. I could see myself picking up a bunch of readers from my list of Facebook friends, and on top of that I'd like to feel comfortable mentioning the blog to people I meet in the future and casually inviting them to read it without worrying about exceeding the limit. (I'm not willing to have a public blog because I'm paranoid about a prospective employer googling my name one day and being offended by something I say about a controversial issue.)

2. A blogroll that allows well over 50 links. I have over 50 links to put in various categories of my blogroll (not just blogs but also individual articles, favorite Metafilter posts, etc.), and I want to be able to add more as I come across them.

3. Easily customizable templates, or at least a very tasteful default template. I care a lot about the appearance of the blog, and I'd like to have a distinctive combination of greys, blues, and a bit of purple. I don't have programming skills beyond some basic HTML, so I can't create a template from scratch. (I want something sleek and minimal but also with a bit of color and character. Most templates I've seen are either minimal to the point of looking like something from the '90s, or overloaded with color and graphics in a way that seems geared toward 16-year-olds.)

Here's what I've gathered based on trying 3 different services:

- Blogger has nicely customizable templates and plenty of blogroll capacity ... but is limited to 100 private readers.

- Livejournal lets you have 1000 private readers (or more with a paid account) and has so many templates that I can find a palatable one if I really try ... but limits you to 30 with a free account or 50 with a paid account. (I've tried this del.icio.us tool and it doesn't seem to work on LJ)

- Wordpress.com lets you have unlimited private readers for $30 (which I'd gladly pay for), and seems to have good blogroll capabilities ... but there are just a few boringly tasteful templates, they can't be customized at all (nor can you import one from a third party), and the main column is too wide anyway.

I'm willing to pay a reasonable amount of money, but free would be ideal, needless to say.

I've looked through AskMe tags, tried Googling for feature comparisons, and looked at help/FAQ pages from Blogger, Livejournal, and Wordpress. Of course, this turns up tons of information about different features offered by different services, but I'm not seeing a big-picture solution to my problem. (And I'm suspicious of the blog services' official help pages because they seem to try to conceal their limitations.)

Am I missing some way to have everything I want, or is this just not available? If not, then what do you think would be the least-bad option? I realize that the answer might simply be that I'm right -- none of the services work for the above reasons. But I wanted to run this by the hive mind to see if there's either some workaround for the above problems or some other service that offers what I want. I'm honestly on the verge of giving up blogging because there doesn't seem to be a viable service out there.

How do I manage my online privacy, when I have friends who blog?

vytae — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:55:08 -0800

As more of my friends take up blogging, it becomes nearly inevitable that I'm going to show up in a blog post somewhere. This makes me somewhat uncomfortable. Is my discomfort justified? And if it is, what guidelines can/should I ask these blogging friends to follow to protect my privacy? Several years ago, a guy I was dating blogged about a date we had been on, using my real first name, and it freaked me out. While first names may not be traceable by strangers on the internet, I expect to eventually come into contact with friends/family/coworkers of my friends who write blogs. I'm not happy about the prospect of a conversation coming to, "Oh, you're the girl he wrote about that one time..." even if the story was completely harmless.

That guy and I had a conversation after I saw the post. He respected my wishes to be left out of the blog from then on, but he definitely thought I was overreacting. Since then several more close friends and family members have taken up blogging, and I feel like it's overkill to ask them never to mention me. I'm just not sure what guidelines (if any) are appropriate. I want to say, "Sure, mention how much fun we all had volunteering last week, but please don't bring my name up in connection with the huge drunken party afterward," but that kind of micromanaging isn't really appropriate or feasible.

So - should I let these people write whatever they want, and ask them to remove something after the fact if it pushes my personal boundaries too far? Should I give them advance warning that I don't want to be in their blog at all? Should I tell them they can only refer to me by a pseudonym? How do I mention my concerns to a blogger friend without coming off as a control freak? Or am I really overreacting?

A Question about Libel & Privacy Laws

interrobang — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 09:52:57 -0800

Does it become legal to use a person's image without their consent or knowledge, as long as you put a black bar over their eyes and don't use their real name? I cannot afford to talk to a lawyer about this. Alternately, does stop being an invasion of privacy if it's a drawing or a caricature? How about a drawing or caricature with a black bar over the eyes?

Anyone anonyblogging?

skylar — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 04:49:37 -0800

Is there a simple to use, high-quality weblog creation service that will allow me to blog with a reasonable level of anonymity? Blogger has always been okay but as far as I know doesn't seem to cater for categories, which is something I seek. I'm attracted to TypePad though a look at their privacy policy suggests they're collecting all sorts of information and are likely to pass it on to quite a few parties. Are there more anonymous blog apps out there?