Re: Futility of munged addresses


"FarmI" <ask@itshall be given> wrote in message
news:4893ef24$0$8960$5a62ac22@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Don Moody" <dpmoody@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
People on this newsgroups use childish pseudonyms and munged or
otherwise invalid addresses. They wouldn't be published in any
respectable refereed scientific or technical journal. Why do it
here?

They've swallowed the codswallop about keeping their identities
secret and avoiding harvesting of addresses by spammers.

What rot. You have no evidence for such a silly claim.

I post with a munged addy because someone tried to kill my husband
and I don't want our habits being tracked because of my posting
history.

Liz who used to post here regulalry using only that name did so for
security reasons too, but national security reasons in her case.

You bang on here ad nauseum about not giving out info about living
persons on usenet because of violence in your extended family.

Now this fatuous post whihc suggests that you haven't thought the
topic through at all.

If anyone wanted to contact me because of something I posted
somewhere, all they would have to do is to post using a subject
heading I'd recognise to the same ng.

Babies and bathwater come to mind again. It is perfectly possible,
logical and sensible both to protect the privacy in person of those
who should not be found and also to be open to being found on the Net
by unknown relatives.

If anybody had sufficient reason, especially if that body was an
enforcement agency of some kind, you are locatable in person from
making just one post let alone many and supposing you haven't used
anonymisers. You are living an illusion - a very common illusion - if
you believe otherwise. It's only a question of time, money and
motivation. The illusion works for many because so many private
individuals - even the very ill-disposed - are too clueless or
under-resourced to do the find.

If you want to disappear and stay disappeared, then don't post. If you
want lessons drawn from what has happened to one person for the
benefit of all people in that general category, then you have to treat
it as a case study where all the parties mentioned are not locatable
from the information given. That is common practice in medicine,
anthropology and much else.

To make assurance doubly sure, you destroy all personal information as
soon as the case is over. You leave nothing to be found on a computer,
paper or anywhere else. The only datastore is between your ears. This
is, of course, the very opposite of what is done in genealogy. So you
have to compartmentalise what you do in genealogy from the rightful
protection of those under threat. What you see when I go on about
privacy is that some people are unable to compartmentalise. They think
everything and everyone should be readily accessible regardless of the
wishes of those others. Not so.

You apparently do not see that some of your unknown relatives may wish
to exchange information privately but not put it in the public domain.
We see here complaints about people who have 'lifted' information and
published it as their own when the provider sought private exchange
without publication. You want people to pussyfoot around or go public
at first contact. It won't happen to suit you or anyone else. People
naturally want to feel their way and ascertain whether there is a
mutuality of interest and ethics before they start full exchange of
private information. But it is for you to make it easy for them. A
valid unmunged email address does just that. A munged address doesn't
stop you being found. if needed badly enough. And a totally
nonsensical address not only results in shutting out useless and
criminal spam but also useful and meaningful communication.

For proof positive that my approach gives both access an privacy. you
are welcome to make any enquiry you like in any records to find out
about me, and also to find out who my biological father was. You'll
find the former exceedingly easy and the latter impossible.

Incidentally, you needn't bother about me finding out where you or
your husband are. I don't need to know, and have little enough
resources and time to find what I do need to know.

Don


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