When does giving your location become dangerous?

[aoEAF2FBvC0MIo2Q 3,671]

Some of us do give an idea of where on this planet we are. Between people in the USA, it's satisfactory enough to know which state your internet brony friend is from. Massachusetts, one of the smallest states in the USA, is at least 10,000 mi². That's a fairly large area with 6.6 million people living there.

 

Some would go further and give their districts which not only puts you within a smaller area but also in a smaller crowd.

 

If you go to my profile, you'll see my location listed as "Caribbean", which is the region I live in. It totals a land area of roughly 240,000 km² (~92,500 mi²) and a combined population of about 40 million or so.

As for the particular island I'm on, well, we have a name that groups the nearby islands which totals less than 1000 km² (<390 mi²) with the population totaling less than 300,000. That's just all of them clumped together.

 

So then when do you think it starts to get dangerous to detail your location even if it's the whole country? I used surface area and population as the metrics here.

[DiscordAnarchy 770]

I think the only time it is dangerous is when you give the actual, specific area you are in. Like if I were to say that I live in Los Angeles, that is not too dangerous as it is a very wide-spread city. If I were to say, however, that I live between Streets X and Y, that is dangerous.

[Friendship_Cannon 1,676]

I don´t think it´s without danger to give any information out on the Internet...

Might it be name, address, mobile phone number or whatever.

 

Still, this world is so dangerous, and we are all made of glass anyways (are we?)...

I don´t really care. I might give "too much" information about myself, many do, on facebook, twitter, tumblr, by making youtube videos, we share our whole life with the world, or with the internet.

 

In real life I wouldn´t tell everyone where I live, what my full name is, what I had for lunch or even more private things.

So we should do the same online, if we don´t have the feeling we could "trust" this person, or "know" this person xD.

[Scootalove 10,684]

Usually when you give your location, (No Batman Arkham City pun included.) It depends on where you live, if you live in a dangerous city or neighborhood then it would be pretty bad.

[Lume WMj 228]

I don't remember giving out more than my country of residence in the internet... I've always been a rather reserved person in here (the internet), not that I'm personally afraid I could attract psychos that would track me down and assassinate me, but I guess I was taught this way. :3

 

Now, the danger is, in fact, real. The amount of personal information I see people posting in places like Facebook is really scary to look at, just to think of what kinds of risks people are putting themselves into. I mean, how the hell could we know for sure who's on the other side of the computer screen? A friend? An outlaw? An alien? The possibilities are infinite.

 

Internet gives people freedom, and therefore, it should be treated with caution in order to avoid unnecessary conflicts in real life. You can't trust anybody, so the best thing you do is to always try to be as much non-specific as possible. Your country should be okay to tell, but after that, you gotta start being careful.

[SoarinBlue 202]

It becomes dangerous when paired with other personal information.  For example: the last internet community I was a part of had a guy in it that meticulously tracked people's personal information and built dossiers on them.  He even found the home address of one of my friends, as well as her fiance's name.  In the wrong hands, this kind of information can be really potentially dangerous, especially for younger people.

 

I can tell you right now that I can deduce the general area in the Caribbean that you live, approximately to the city level, based on what I can see on your profile (note: I'm not going to say where you live or how I did this in order to keep it from being abused by those that don't know how I know, but I promise I did no hacking of any kind.  PM me if you want to know so you can make changes).  That's easy for most people to find with a little bit of social engineering at most if they really want to  But that information is too general to be useful for someone looking to do something malicious.  However, if they know that, and you start dropping other little bits of personal information, say, where you work, or landmarks that you live by, they can start to narrow it down.  It's really unlikely that someone would do things like this here, but make sure you're smart with your personal information online, especially younger people.  Don't blindly click links or download anything from sources you don't trust, don't give out personal information to people you don't know or in public forums.  Stay safe y'all

 

[Wonderbolt_Spitfire 235]

It all depends on the person giving out their location information. It is at the discretion of each person to judge what they consider safe and dangerous for themselves. Me personally I wouldn't really hesitate to give out my complete address, but I know that's just not smart. I would say it starts to get dangerous when you start giving out the town you live in. If you live in a city it's obviously a different story, but knowing someone's town makes it easy for malicious people to pinpoint you out after an amount of time.

[Inactive01 5,298]

If it's for trustworthy people, I wouldn't mind giving away my city of residence. I trust you guys, especially since I haven't seen anyone crazy on here. Plus, if anything happened to me, our town would probably be in an uproar. We're a really tight-knit community here. Google Tim Bosma story and you'll see what I mean. 

[Dreadmallon 353]

   When a world renown terrorist group working on superhuman experiments is terrorizing your country, with no chance of being stopped, and you're a superhero engineer currently having anxiety issues.

 

   Overall, I wouldn't recommend it. However, if you are set on it, only tell a few people, and tell them each privately. Prior to doing that, however, be sure to look over their past, and check if they're truly trustworthy.

 

   Knowing that, I think it only gets considerably dangerous when saying which town, or city, you live closest to (or in) within a state. I would stray away from saying your state, but typically that's fine.

Edited June 24, 2013 by Alkryn

[Celtore 2,769]

I think the real danger comes into play when you not only reveal your city and key pieces of information about yourself, but when you add a social media account into the mix. A clever individual may be able to deduce a general regional area where someone might be, but figuring out the person's identity could be made fairly trivial if you have the right information to search for on facebook or google plus. This could be hidden to people who aren't in a special list of friends, but I know many of my friends used to just toss up all sorts of important information about themselves (the school they went to, phone number, home address, pictures, etc) that was completely open for the entire internet to see.

 

Simply use common sense, don't give away a home address for goodness sake, and if you have a social media account, make sure that you secure the hell out of it. I have developed a web pen name as well as of late to add a bit more anonymity for my registered services (lookin' at you, google!)

Edited June 24, 2013 by Celtore

[Discordian 6,013]

Unless you're super paranoid I fully believe that the only time it's dangerous (except rare occasions) is when you actually give an address. You can tell people what city you're in but it'd take serious hacking or investigative skills and a massive amount of determination to find someone based on the city they are in. (Though I suppose that might be a little different for super small towns where it's possible to know everyone)

[Lost 1,409]

It depends on the population and size of the area you're giving, I lived in a village called fillingham for a few years, it had no more than 50 houses and a population of less than 200, if I told someone that I lived there, given an image of me or a general knowledge of what I look like or my activities, it wouldn't have been hard to track me down.

 

I live in the city of Lincoln now, we have a population of over 100k, with just that info it would be a pain to track me down.

[Flutter's lover <3 8,204]

Depends, online I just give the province I"m in,and sometimes the town or area  depending on the type of website.

 

Though I also have a business card, which has all my home address and stuff on it.It's just a small business I run out of my garage.

[Ghost 173]

  I think its fine to give out the city you live in, but after that it can start to be dangerous.  I wouldn't wanna give out landmarks near me as people have said, or even specific neighborhoods.  My city has around 800,000 people and 1,000,000+ if you count the greater area, so giving the city alone shouldn't be too bad.  

[HunterScars 505]

with the new ways of gathering informational as quickly and as freely as we can now it could be quite dangerous people only need your name birth date and state town Provence or country and wham they know just about everything about you not just professorially but  private information as well 

 

so im very cautious about putting my personal information anywhere  online and rightly so 

[Zygen 6,065]

I think telling anything outside of your state is dangerous, and I typically avoid even that and normally just tell what country I live in (USA) and what part of the USA maybe. (South).

 

Then again its getting quite easy to find out information about people via online, so I don't really know if it matters or not, probably best not to tell much of anyone, and those you do be careful what you tell.

 

I typically restrain telling most of my more private info to anyone but people I truly trust, but I don't believe everyone on the internet is evil or something, there are nice people on the internet to. Just be careful thats all.

[DaReaper 1,943]

It can be very dangerous mostly for females i will say i live around western new york which is a huge area with buffalo at it's hub about all i give out and the geotagging on my phone is off so my pics have no location abd if someone wants to find me whatever

Edited June 28, 2013 by DaReaper

[Paianis 488]

Its kinda pointless trying to conceal your town or city because your fixed IP address can reveal all of that. Just don't reveal your postcode, street address, phone numbers, and on some occasions even your full name. A lot of it comes down to your age though, because younger people are more susceptible to sexual abuse, pedophiles etc. Only do it when you can accept responsibility for it.

[Meirno 550]

I feel safe enough giving out the name of my town usually. I'm not too concerned for people coming to hunt me down for whatever reason. There is a lot of hype over all of that, and usually people looking for stuff like that is pedophiles looking for young children. And if not, they easily find people on Craigslist to hunt down. 

 

A few times now, though, bronies on this forum have revealed where they live. If I remember right, one user has his number and full address posted in his profile. Just depends on your comfort level really.

[MelancholicMemory 2,022]

I think the danger is a bit exaggerated, though young people really shouldn't give away their specific locations. State or, if you live in a large city, city should suffice. It's less dangerous for adults, especially ones like me who could easily deal with an attacker from the interwebs. Still, I think people in general should avoid specifics unless you plan to meet up.

[PnutFuzzy 20]

I live in a large city. yes I tell everyone which city I live in because it is one of THE brony capitals of the world. I want to be able to meet new bronies but I am careful every time I decide to meet somewhere. Such as Chapel Hill mall, that is a wonderful place to meet up with new friends, plenty of people around to see you and see what is going on, cameras, etc. I am a bit more trusting than most but I don't let that trust get to my head. I'll make sure I like a person enough before I even give them my skype. Sure you might know what city I'm in but you will have no idea where in this city I live. Or even if I live in a suburb outside the city. 

[Lucky Bolt 34,914]

I think giving a vague idea of your location is okay, for example, the country you live in, even state/providence or hell even the regional area (north Florida ) but giving away the town you live in, specifically if it's a small town is where I draw the line. 

[Will Guide 21,325]

7 minutes ago, Lucky Bolt said:

I think giving a vague idea of your location is okay, for example, the country you live in, even state/providence or hell even the regional area (north Florida ) but giving away the town you live in, specifically if it's a small town is where I draw the line. 

Wow, A 6 year gap between the quoted post and the one before it. Gotta be a new record for posting gap.

Anyway, if you live in such a big city, it shouldn't be a big deal.

[The Kaeya Simp 13,953]

I give out my city (mostly because you cant fucking knock on every door or press the buzzer of every house and apartment of a city of 500k people) but if you live in somewhere very small it's not wise, also giving a like "I live at 01 washington bvd in 90210" (obviously not in Scotland, and most probably not an adress)

[Xe__or 4,376]

The internet is a big scary place; give your country, or city, that’s okay; but giving a full adress can be full of risks 

(unless it’s me; I’m not dangerous