e-stalking

I got an email from a friend today. It was a well fabricated story about a cop who masqueraded online as a teenager and stocked a 14 year old girl. He was able to get enough information about her to find out where she lived, when she was alone, etc. Eventually, he followed her home, and then discussed with her and her parents the dangers of chatting online, even if you think you aren't giving away any personal information. I'll forward it to you if you want, but that's not really the issue of this entry.

On the top of the email was a list of all of the people to whom the email was sent. I looked at the list, and realized there was enough information in that list to do the same thing the police officer did. For example, one of the email address, which is changed here to protect the unknowing, was pat.anderson@highschool.ca.gov. In that one email address is a first name, a last name, and a place of employment. A simple internet search would give me enough information to find that person and stalk them if I was so twisted. I could also have easily saved the emails of a bunch of other people who would probably prefer I didn't invite them to my next midnight hike to Cucamonga Peak. So I started thinking about a simple way to keep this from happening - one more small security step we can all use. When sending bulk emails to everybody you know, don't use the CC (Carbon Copy) for the recipient list. If you use BCC instead (Blind Carbon Copy), you will still send the email to everybody, but they won't be able to see who else you sent it to. Pretty cool, isn't it. To show you how this works, I sent an email to 50 people asking them to check out my blog. I BCC'd all of the recipients, so if you're here as a result of that email, you have already seen how it works.

Anyway, I just wanted to pass that along. BTW - Blogs are a great place to post pics of your family. They are also a good place for wierdos to find pictures of you and yours. Post with care.

Love you all.