Privacy Concern

[Guest062813-1]

Okay, well according to the settings in my user control panel, my Provider Showcase is only visible to members of this site. However, when I googled my phone number I was able to view my full showcase without being logged in. Is this safe?

[FireSerpent]

I don't know of any setting on this site which makes your showcase visible only to registered members of this site... however, if you go under profile privacy there is a place here for your Contact info and About me sections to be placed under "registered members only".

If you are concerned about people being able to search for your number and find it in your showcase then you should remove the number from your showcase. You can also choose to have people contact you via email/PM prior to giving out your number (some choose this option as a method of being able to give out their number only to those they've screened first).

[Guest062813-1]

Thank you very much.

[ss4699]

Remember that sites like Google do keep a record of things that have been searched or are searchable. Your number may still be searchable even after turning it off.

[jframe2]

Originally Posted by newtotown

Remember that sites like Google do keep a record of things that have been searched or are searchable. Your number may still be searchable even after turning it off.

It's called "Cache" and yep most search engines will retain the information even if it is not current. You can even add the word "cache' to your searches and it is like a different world of information; old photos, old phone numbers, addresses, facebook accounts etc.

If it concerns you, might consider removing your phone # and go the send me a PM/email route. And if you want to cut all ties to the current # get a new phone# with a burn phone.

I do not think it will deter contact from hobbiests if you request by PM or email first then give out your phone #.
Safety is paramount in this world of ours!

[JRLawrence]

Originally Posted by Miss Cherry

......when I googled my phone number I was able to view my full showcase without being logged in. Is this safe?

Dear Cherry,

Anything you enter is searchable because google "spiders" crawl all over every web page and remember the contents. Therefore, if you entered an phone number as "(913) 123-4567" is is found as "(913) 123-4567" after a few weeks when the spider crawl has had a chance to find that number. (other search engines work differently but in a related way) If you entered the number as (nine one xx3) 123-4567 is is not found in the same way. The 123-4567 could be search independently. You see the point. The question, is how to confuse the math (algorithm) spider.

I hope this helps.

JR

[pmdelites]

Originally Posted by Miss Cherry

Okay, well according to the settings in my user control panel, my Provider Showcase is only visible to members of this site. However, when I googled my phone number I was able to view my full showcase without being logged in. Is this safe?

from what i've read in the dallas forums, the rate info portion of your showcase is only viewable when you [ms cherry] are logged in or when any user w/ premium access is logged in.

all the rest of your profile is visible to anyone or any web crawling robot/spider if they know how to get here.

so, as with the rest of the internet, only expose what you wish the public to see.

you can expose the rest to those guys and gals who schedule consulting sessions with you.

[zeejoe]

Originally Posted by pmdelites

from what i've read in the dallas forums, the rate info portion of your showcase is only viewable when you [ms cherry] are logged in or when any user w/ premium access is logged in.

all the rest of your profile is visible to anyone or any web crawling robot/spider if they know how to get here.

so, as with the rest of the internet, only expose what you wish the public to see.

you can expose the rest to those guys and gals who schedule consulting sessions with you.

FWIW, I haven't written a review in a while so I've lost my premium access, and the rate info did indeed go "poof" for me.