Heya Blaztaz..
For a variety of reasons which I will be delighted to go into deep technical minuta, I would say
go ahead. Don't let any of that crap affect you.
What I DO suggest is -
Keep self identifying characteristics
out of profiles , registrations, pictures ;
Locations: This should never be even close to where you are - Even "Ip Address Searches" to find someone are not accurate - they only run to the closest "internet switch" (think of your local telco switch/routing/exchange building - same concept). To get an actual location, the telco must search millions of usage records to to see "who" was using an IP address at a specified date/time (You see, they reuse them, like a phone routing switch at the telco switch building). That takes a subpeona and days to weeks to dredge up - Chances are LOW that they'd go to that extreme unless you decide to ask for a guest spot on that damn "moonshiners" show. Yes, there are "exceptions" to this, if you requested a "static" IP Address (Read: Stick out like a sore thumb), or are in a network so sparse that the addresses don't rotate much (But this too can be controlled by simply powering off the modem a while, causing a the network to free the IP for other uses).
My user name implies I am in some sort of city - Nope - MILES away from there, and my IP address resolves to a switch 40 miles from me and 60 miles from that town! Am I a terrorist ? No - but I am also not a sheeple and I know that we don't guard our information like we should. These are pretty basic common sense elements to prevent identity theft, folks. It just so happens the strategy
also works well for guarding personal information-
of any kind. For the record, "RoyseCityRed" is a ficticious name I created for a comedy skit I do on stage when the banjo player is tuning in between songs and the doofus takes too long..
"Red" is always gettin' into adventures like "Vern and Virgil" stories...
Another thing to consider - There is no direct corellation to a BH Forum member and a BH customer (other than self admission)- I don't recall having to give any information about any cust number, invoice numbers to certify a membership. They didn't/don't ask on purpose-to keep the privacy where it SHOULD be. As a consultant, I configured a forum where a new registrant had to have the referrer name of the
month to be sucessfully registered - but that is at the request of the neighborhood assoc. that owns it - And they allowed NO sharing of member data with any one except administrative personel- that was their solution for access control - My point is they understood the issue and created a solution that was palatable to them.
For a long time, the forum code folks ran came with "Viewing of profile info" open to the public by default. In the past few years that has tightened up as folks like me missus audit the security and crack down on possible identify/personal/security information theft. You see, it's really all the same, just used for a differing purpose- A criminal, or a government intrusion. People as a rule, like their privacy and expect we are all more or less the same on this point, but not all are subscribers to privacy rights. Also, It is important to remember that the internet is pretty much a
living information machine. - It has things called search spiders that
constantly collect and collate infomation. So, public posts, public profile information all get collected 24X7, 365 days a year. Some Sites PAY for getting themselves included in these searches so they are "seen" - You see this in website offers on TV - branded as "inclusion into search engines to get you visibility".
But do understand, the spiders collect everything they can see
publically. Fortunately, thats controllable, but most often, forum website code is written with the intent of sharing it all, so steps must be taken to control what these beasties can consume. It's known as "Data Mining" and there are oodles of companies doing it, and so there are almost as many search spiders as real users any more. If you want an example of this, do the following;
1 - Go to amazon.com - search out any product and look at a few models of it
2 - then, go to Fox News, or any site that runs ads - and looki here - On the advertisement pane, are the same products I looked at on Amazon along with other suggestions. Powerul, but companies PAY to get this edge on their competitors. Can this be blocked? - You bet, but you have to dump yer internet cache between every page, or tell your browser to do it for you - Not somehitng the everyday user thinks about.
So, it's incumbent on
you to police what "could" be seen and interpreted - I'll leave it to the reader to define what this means for them and how far they want to take it. I have learned the hard way after running websites for 12+ years what a good privacy policy is and realizing where it starts - Right here at my keyboard, reagrdless of what site I traverse.
So, keep yer powder dry, still clean. It is NOT illegal to posess a distiller - after all, we are distilling water as preppers, right? And, if that dreadful time should come, we can also help the nation by making fuel, and essential medical supplies for sterilization.
my .02 x 75
