Virtual furry conventions and internet safety

[CutieProtector]

So Texas Furry Fiesta is being held virtually this year (details here and on their Twitter, @FurryFiesta, more info TBD). I figure this would be a good opportunity to meet other babyfurs/diaperfurs. But I wonder if I should still keep information about myself private, such as my job or the city I live in. On the one hand, if I share some of this info (nothing super-specific), it might help me connect with others. On the other hand, I have a professional career and don't want people at work to find out I'm a babyfur. I don't think I'd get fired over it, but it'd still be pretty embarrassing. I might also go to the next Babyfur Con, and have similar thoughts about sharing info to others at that con.

What do you all think? What info would be okay to share? What info should I still keep private? I know not to share my address or credit card info, and I won't give my full name away. Though I might give them usernames to accounts I didn't make separate babyfur accounts for like Steam.

 

[irnub]

Any information you put out there is information you can't take back, and even seemingly innocuous stuff can be used to piece together a trail of other stuff leading back to you. Short of having no real social presence online, you're not going to defeat a dedicated troll out to get you specificly.

That said, you need to ask yourself what level of threats you're trying to protect against. A state level attack? An extremely dedicated troll out to get you specificly for blackmail potential? A random troll just out to cause chaos? A drive-by from 4chan just interested in dumping a screenshot of the user list?

You also need to ask yourself how much of a threat that kind of info could actually cause. If a random internet stranger came to me claiming they had embarrassing info on an acquaintance, then proceeded to explain a convoluted chain of circumstantial evidence linking accounts... meh.

Personally, I just try and make it hard for any static, publicly available info to link things together. e.g. I don't list my steam account on my furaffinity page or share avatars between different accounts. That's enough to deter the drive-by types.

 

[Mattew]

So Texas Furry Fiesta is being held virtually this year (details here and on their Twitter, @FurryFiesta, more info TBD). I figure this would be a good opportunity to meet other babyfurs/diaperfurs. But I wonder if I should still keep information about myself private, such as my job or the city I live in. On the one hand, if I share some of this info (nothing super-specific), it might help me connect with others. On the other hand, I have a professional career and don't want people at work to find out I'm a babyfur. I don't think I'd get fired over it, but it'd still be pretty embarrassing. I might also go to the next Babyfur Con, and have similar thoughts about sharing info to others at that con.

What do you all think? What info would be okay to share? What info should I still keep private? I know not to share my address or credit card info, and I won't give my full name away. Though I might give them usernames to accounts I didn't make separate babyfur accounts for like Steam.

I would be careful about what information is shared.

I personally take time to get to know others before I start sharing personal information. There's only a handful of others that know my real name. Most only know a general area that I live. Nothing specific. Most know the State I live in. I'm in a rural area, so I typically don't even share any of the surrounding town names. I live several miles from the nearest town which is very small.

I would start things off slow.

Finding others that live in your state or general area. If it's a large enough area, I'd think you could safely say you lived in a place like Dallas. Or if it was something like "west Texas".

I have so many friends that I've made at TFF, it's one of my favorite conventions.

But I'll be honest. I don't know where many of them live, what they do for work, or their real names. I don't need to know that information. We have other common interests, that helped to build up friendships.

Find others that share similar interests. Like aviation? Astronomy? Certain video games? Youtube? Dance competitions? Music? Etc. I'm not sure what you do for work, but I have seen others that are medical doctors (or in medical school) quickly bond and talk about medical stuff.

 

[PaddedChip]

I have been concerned about similar issues when starting up this account and integrating myself into the community, but ultimately decided so long as the information is kept vague and not too specific, it should make it hard to narrow down an individual. (Unless your job is super specific, then it's probably wiser imho to just not share it) I have created separate accounts for everything Babyfur/ABDL-related specifically for this reason, as another barrier of protection. (Bit like putting on plastic pants over your diapers no? If you do leak, so long as others don't see your plastic pants, your all good.)

This world is vast and the number of people in it, even more so, and like irnub said, if someone is really that determined I imagine there is little you or I can do about it. I'm lucky enough that I don't really like social media or have a career, and so my presence online is extremely minimal. So other than trying to gain a presence on here or similar places, I should be ok!

Like Mattew had mentioned, I plan to take things slow, keep things vague and as time goes on build friendships on that. I also don't need to know specifics. For example names (in my opinion) are just sounds, words w/e you want to call it. It does not make that person who they are, and so I don't need that to get to know them. Likewise, their job/location etc, unless they want to share it because they find it genuinely interesting, fair enough.

 

[KitsuneFox]

But I wonder if I should still keep information about myself private, such as my job or the city I live in.

.
Being non-specific is fine ... a couple real world examples:
For myself I would say:
"I live in the Doylestown Pennsylvania area and I am a live-in caregiver"
For the '2 year old' I would say:
"He is a high level manager for a global corporation and also lives in the Doylestown area"

Both descriptors are generic enough, no one will be able to guess who we are, or exactly where we live.

>> Be careful about giving out too much specific information such as: face or tattoo shots, photos including your house or neighborhood, photos including family or friends, specific information about your friends / family / exact neighborhood, specific employment or job details including co-workers ( it's easy to Google match locations to jobs ), personal social media links, re-using names in multiple forums and/or social media platforms ( very easy to Google match accounts with the same unique names ), being overly specific about hobbies & special interests you are involved in IRL, and being overly specific about locations around where where you live ( ie: "I live 2 miles away from that landmark" ) .