Forum Safety and Personally Identifiable Information - Ham Radio Operators

TU

TucsonJim

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2014
Posts
6,521
This topic is not just for this forum, but any place you leave your digital footprint, including facebook.

How many of you are Amateur Radio operators and have shared your call sign on a forum or social media? If you have, anyone with access to these sites can obtain a significant amount of information about you.

For example, I typed in my call sign into Google this morning. I was able to see my full name and my physical address. On one site a satellite view and street view of my home popped up. There are over 13,000 people who've registered for this forum in the past, including many from foreign countries that we've banned. There are over 20K people on the big FB GDRV page. So if even one of those 30K+ members was mining for data, your ham call can be very helpful to them.

If you're concerned about this information being available on the forum and would like it removed, send me a PM with your call sign and I'll search and remove any posts that show it.

Jim
 
Thanks Jim, good to know but kinda of ironic as I’ve seen many members here talk about how they won’t use Facebook or any social media because of privacy concerns.

Not to spook anyone, but I’d like to take this opportunity to point out a few facts.

Having spent 20 years in IT, some of it in Information Security (stopping hackers) I’ve learned how relatively easy it is to gain personal information on practically anyone. It would frighten you how much information I can find out about any member of this forum.
Some folks here have a false sense of security because they believe not having a Facebook account means they are somehow immune. Technically, “this forum” IS social media. We all access it as a social group, and we share photos and links and sometimes personal details. Sometimes we post photos or descriptions of our homes, photos of our vehicles and trailers (with license plate numbers) information on workplaces, hobbies, pets names (which are often used as passwords), some (like me) even post exact locations while we’re camping. Many members often post details about their history, including place of birth, where they grew up, went to school, etc. (also commonly used for passwords). This is all the same info hackers gain from Facebook. They usually have to work at acquiring it, yet many members post it all here openly. Anyone (including non-members) can click on anyone’s member name then view only that persons entire history of posts. Within an hour a stranger can have your entire biography.
I’m not saying we should be paranoid, wear foil hats and never post at all, just be more cognizant of WHAT you’re sharing and don’t be naive enough to believe you are any safer here than on Facebook.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
All good info. Thanks.

My theory is: If you don't want someone to see your information, don't post it on internet social media, regardless of how secure you feel the site is.

Another source of location information is the meta-tag information attached to most JPG pictures (unless you remove or disable it).
 
Ham Radio aside, doesn't apply to me;

The state you reside in makes a big difference in how much data can be mined and how much personal information others have access to.

Florida is horrendous for privacy. Between property appraisers and clerk of courts websites you can pull up an person's financial history from initial mortgage and car loan amounts to any marriage, divorce, bankruptcy, tickets, arrests, arbitration, law suit, etc.. You can see amounts paid for their homes, if they pay their taxes on time, etc.

Freaking crazy. You can build a very accurate financial picture of someone with this information.

Social media is another big one.

We aren't on social media and all our property is owned in a foreign (to FL) LLC or in Canada which makes obtaining the info much more difficult so it makes it harder to dox us. Even if you know my full name and where I live you'd see some old business websites that for whatever reason are still active and news articles but otherwise all the "find people now" sites have me at an address that is 10 years old or more or at my old corporate address. Same with phone numbers. All of which are long gone.

The ironic thing about all this is people fear Google and their reach, which I agree is significant, but i've yet to see any of my google information on the internet anywhere. Even my Good voice number that I have used for a decade now isn't even listed anywhere.
 
Unfortunately bad actors are going to find you if they want, and at this stage of life most of us have already left enough of a digital footprint that is too large to cover. Ironically while QRZ and other ham call search sites block street address info unless logged in, anyone can go to the FCC.gov ULS and find it immediately.

I did previously have my call on a vanity Am Radio license plate but dropped that years ago when all the road rage incidents started. I realized anyone with my call sign could look me up and come to my house.


Alan
 
From the day it was started, I shied away from the “Just for fun (?), how did you pick your user name?” thread. Some answers are innocuous, but our answer would not be! Food for thought. :rolleyes:
N
 
Houndbb said:
From the day it was started, I shied away from the “Just for fun (?), how did you pick your user name?” thread. Some answers are innocuous, but our answer would not be! Food for thought. :rolleyes:
N
Click to expand...

Point taken.

Rob
 
Here's my perception. Unless you are running for public office or are hiding from some nefarious entity, you really are just one among millions. Do I really think others could exploit the fact that I prefer more "comfortable attire" than most do? No. People tend to think their lives are so important that others are just waiting for the opportunity to exploit them. Case in point, people will block out their license plate on the internet anytime they post a picture. You are aware your license plate is totally exposed everytime you drive down the road, aren't you? What's the major difference? I'm not saying one should publish any and all information in public forums or social media, some information needs to remain confidential. Otherwise you do stand out and become vulnerable for being a target. Posting about your 2A point of view for example. But by the same token, in the vast majority of instances, you are no more important target wise, than millions of others.

John
 
My call sign is on my truck and RV license plates. It is also used on my repeater as it's ID. Anyone can look me up in the FCC database or on QRZ.

There is no data out there related to my ham license that I am afraid of it being out there

Now my SSN and credit card numbers are another thing!
 
Last time I checked - the address you use has to be one that the FCC can reach you at. A PO Box, UPS Store, FedEx store, etc. will work and keeps your physical location masked from casual attempts.
 
Of course, a good data mining person can gather all kinds of information from your activity on the internet. I think what I was trying to focus on was placing your ham radio call on these sites. What prompted me to examine this was a recent interaction with a trial member of the forum who was very unhappy with me. I removed one of their posts for profanity and they sent me a PM calling me everything under the sun. If that person wanted to take their little grudge farther, it would have been very easy for them to find my address via my ham radio call.

As some of you have indicated, you also post this info in public like your license plates. I can see why you do so, but to me it's a little dangerous. Accidentally cut someone off in traffic or even look at them wrong and they can find where you live. It's not likely, but I won't give them a chance.

Jim
 
Incidentally, If anyone would like to see some funny photos of Jim during his college days...

[emoji85]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Jim and Others,

Take a look at the FCC website. I'm not a ham operator, but I do have a radiotelephone operators license (heh) because of my career. If it's anything like the FAA database, you can make your personal information non-searchable.
 
Why worry? If you want the name and address of every ham operator in the US, go to the FCC site. Every nefarious person in the world would go there and not bother with social media.
 
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