A few very random thoughts
I wrote this post after Jeff's, above, but I've changed the time so that it appears below it, because his entry contains such valuable and factual information that I think it should be visible for as long as possible. This, on the other hand, is less than factual opinion.
A few things to bear in mind, then:
• Although these latest attacks have been from random unknowns, I think there's a much greater likelihood of such things generally coming from people who know you or bear a grudge against you. So it's really important not to give any clues to those around you that you're blogging or even have the faintest idea what the hell blogging is (and although there are thousands of blogs out there, it's still only a tiny percentage of the population who are aware of them). To avoid getting caught, play dumb about blogging. I've spoken to far too many people who claim not to have a blog but seem to know a suspiciously huge amount about them; needless to say, it soon turns out that they've been on the web for years, blogging their string of sexual conquests across the northern hemisphere (possibly). Oh, and a list of blogs in your internet favourites is a dead giveaway too, as well as links to blogger.com or the homepage of your chosen blogging software. Get rid of them and stick the links online, if you must.
• Google. Get yourself removed from it - after all, the chances are that 99% of the searches are going to be from sickos and perverts. If there's someone out there searching for blogs to target, why make it any easier for them? And if you think there's even any slight way that your identity could be compromised by your blog, making you searchable, it's another good reason to get your site gone from there. Here's Google's own info on getting removed.
* Oops, sorry folks, I should have been a bit clearer. Unfortunately, you can only do the Google removal trick if your site is hosted on your own webspace (i.e. not Blogger), as you need to place a file there to tell Google not to crawl your site. Sorry - but another potential reason for switching away from Blogger, maybe.
• When checking your site stats, don't click on URLs showing where people have arrived from, or else the details of your sitecounter account could appear in that site's own tracking. No, they might not be able to do anything with this info, but who says they can't?
• This might not be the case for everyone, and might sound harsh, but if you've got blogs about different sides of your life, avoid sharing anything similar about them, even the slightest detail such as design elements. That particularly includes links or readers. Even the most devoted and trustworthy reader of both sites could make a slip-up one day and reveal something about them.
• And although this might sound a bit like biting the hand that feeds, for all its ease of use Blogger sometimes doesn't seem like the most secure blogging package around, does it? Other software is available, as they say, although it's not necessarily free. TypePad offers IP banning and password protection, for instance.
A few things to bear in mind, then:
• Although these latest attacks have been from random unknowns, I think there's a much greater likelihood of such things generally coming from people who know you or bear a grudge against you. So it's really important not to give any clues to those around you that you're blogging or even have the faintest idea what the hell blogging is (and although there are thousands of blogs out there, it's still only a tiny percentage of the population who are aware of them). To avoid getting caught, play dumb about blogging. I've spoken to far too many people who claim not to have a blog but seem to know a suspiciously huge amount about them; needless to say, it soon turns out that they've been on the web for years, blogging their string of sexual conquests across the northern hemisphere (possibly). Oh, and a list of blogs in your internet favourites is a dead giveaway too, as well as links to blogger.com or the homepage of your chosen blogging software. Get rid of them and stick the links online, if you must.
• Google. Get yourself removed from it - after all, the chances are that 99% of the searches are going to be from sickos and perverts. If there's someone out there searching for blogs to target, why make it any easier for them? And if you think there's even any slight way that your identity could be compromised by your blog, making you searchable, it's another good reason to get your site gone from there. Here's Google's own info on getting removed.
* Oops, sorry folks, I should have been a bit clearer. Unfortunately, you can only do the Google removal trick if your site is hosted on your own webspace (i.e. not Blogger), as you need to place a file there to tell Google not to crawl your site. Sorry - but another potential reason for switching away from Blogger, maybe.
• When checking your site stats, don't click on URLs showing where people have arrived from, or else the details of your sitecounter account could appear in that site's own tracking. No, they might not be able to do anything with this info, but who says they can't?
• This might not be the case for everyone, and might sound harsh, but if you've got blogs about different sides of your life, avoid sharing anything similar about them, even the slightest detail such as design elements. That particularly includes links or readers. Even the most devoted and trustworthy reader of both sites could make a slip-up one day and reveal something about them.
• And although this might sound a bit like biting the hand that feeds, for all its ease of use Blogger sometimes doesn't seem like the most secure blogging package around, does it? Other software is available, as they say, although it's not necessarily free. TypePad offers IP banning and password protection, for instance.
posted by Orpheus at 2:00 PM
3 Comments:
Came here via a Minx, and I'm glad I did.
I've been worried for a while about Google searches - partly my own fault for choosing a blog name that has the same title as a well known song and poem, but then I thought that the song and poem would always supercede me in the Google hierarchy. Wrong. If anyone googles the name of the song/poem, my blog appears on the first page and sometimes as high as the third hit. That worries me - for obvious reasons.
So I clicked the link on how to remove my site from Google and I'm afraid it could be written in Swahili. Can anyone explain it in simpler terms to me? I'd be very very grateful.
My blog is not necessarily sex-based but it does have the potential to be controversial and I don't want to put myself into a vulnerable position. I'll be reading eagerly to see what tips you give - thanks for doing this.
Oops, sorry deadly. I realise I made a bit of an error with the Google thing and have changed it. You can really only get yourself 'removed' from Google if you've got the ability to place a file in your own webspace, which, of course, with Blogger we haven't.
Time to maybe look into an alternative space then...
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