[blparent] message about list privacy

[Veronica Smith]

They are public to others, but they can only be found at the NFB website and 
thus, these people would have to look here.  I would suppose that only those 
interested in blindness issues would be looking here.  Anyway, this is the 
way I look at the world. V
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jo Elizabeth Pinto" <jopinto at pcdesk.net>
To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Cc: "GILBERT D PADILLA" <gilandelaine at msn.com>
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2008 1:35 PM
Subject: [blparent] message about list privacy


> Hi, all.  An incident occurred this week that brought my attention to the 
> issue of list privacy, and I thought I'd better let you know about it.
>
> This list is a great forum to discuss topics that are relevant to blind 
> parenting, and many of us have shared intimate details about our lives and 
> families with each other.  To post to the list, you have to subscribe and 
> be a member.  However, what I didn't fully understand before now is that 
> the list archives of past messages are public.  Anyone who happens upon 
> them while surfing the Internet can browse through and read stored posts, 
> sorted by thread, author, subject, or date.  This is beneficial because 
> people at large may be interested in finding out information about blind 
> parenting.  That's the point of the list, and it's a good tool for 
> educating the public.
>
> Keep in mind, though, that the Internet is accessible to anybody with a 
> computer.  What happened to me during the past week is that I got an 
> e-mail from my mother.  Someone who lives in my home town, while searching 
> Google, came upon a post I made to the blind parenting list.  That post 
> from back in May, in which I complained about being tired all the time and 
> asked for suggestions on ways to get more energy, got forwarded to my 
> mother.  She clicked on the link found on the bottom of all the messages, 
> which led her to the access page for the list archives.  From there, she 
> could potentially read everything I had posted during my year and a half 
> on the list.  I don't know what she has read and what she hasn't, but I 
> have to assume that anything and everything I've ever said, some of it 
> rather sensitive, is now public knowledge, to her if not to others in my 
> family.
>
> I haven't posted anything in the last eighteen months that I wouldn't 
> defend as the truth, but I didn't necessarily consider that my mother, or 
> any other random person on the Internet, would be reading my messages. 
> The moral of the story is, while it's nice to have a place to vent and to 
> ask and answer questions, always remember that since the list archives are 
> public, they can be read by anyone who comes across them.  It might not 
> happen often, but be aware before you send an e-mail to the list that your 
> mother or your best friend or your nosy neighbor down the street might 
> eventually read it.
>
> Thanks for listening,
> Jo Elizabeth
>
> It is easy--terribly easy--to shake a man's faith in himself. To take 
> advantage of that to break a man's spirit is devil's work. Take care of 
> what you are doing. Take care.--George Bernard Shaw in "Candide"
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>


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