Bizi,

1 Doc John would have no interest in that.

2 But any other goof ball (not legitimate) or agency (legitimate ) can do that.
As far as I know, that has been the case since the beginning of the Internet.

3 The U.S. government does not need a warrant.
It is doing "data-ming" with the permission of Congress. (Congress gave governmental agencies authority to do those things.)

Mari

Thank you, Lara.

We appreciate your help and kindnesses.

Mari

No worries. Jo*mar tidied it up.

It's ok Mari. You didn't do anything at all wrong. I was the one who was giving out my sensitive information,and thought about it,and decided to stop it because of the times that we live in.

I thought that the stigma of Mental health challenges where going to be more understood,and that there would be more acceptance in the future.

Some of it is true. Some has changed because of the events in the last couple of years. BF

BF,

I believe that that as people in this country come to have universal access to medical care, the stigma will decrease a little.

People who are not mental ill l will not worry as much about who is paying for the care because they will be getting their own case as well.

Anyway, I have hope for the future and sometimes it pans out in good ways we cannot even imagine.

M

No, Doc John or other web admins cannot pinpoint your home computer.

The authorities, with a warrant, can.

If you are being investigated, for a legal/criminal matter, the police can request a warrant to see your internet activity through your provider. Your provider has logs showing exactly what sites you've accessed and when.

Likewise, site admins have access logs, for security purposes, showing IPs that access their sites. Site admins are held to comply with any legal requests made by the authorities. Site access logs info, together with your provider info, would identify your posts.

Similarly, the contents of your email is technically, legally accessible to the authorities.

It is pretty unlikely that "the government" would be interested in any of us.
If you are not a person of interest in legal matters, the authorities are not going to bother with you either.

My main concern is retaining privacy from
-- real life acquaintances
-- employers
-- prospective employers

These are people who already know some things about you, in real life, and who might be interested in "checking you out". It's amazing what pops up in google. It is for this reason I try to avoid personal specifics.

Noted, and will do. I use the same precaution.

I am sorry you are feeling threatened by all this. I've posted a bit of they what can be done, mostly in answer to someone who seemed to think it couldn't happen.

But to you, I'd like to stress that there is an ocean of improbability between what is technically possible and what is llikely to happen.

It is very, very unlikely that you will be identified by anyone that matters to you.

I agree about the name, even if I jumped on the train of using yours myself. I'm surprised how many people here list their stuff freely. I say things here I don't openly speak about. I guess if one posts things they'd say to anyone, then it doesn't matter.

But to us (you, BF, me, and some others) it does matter. We will all look after you.

Dear BF, You could change your profile picture to something else if this is also a concern for you.
I know that on either here or brain talk, someone was actively being suicidal and they traced her to her home and checked in on her. they said they would never do that again. so it is possible.
that was a long time ago. on the sos forums.
bizi
I had forgotten about that. My memory stinks most of the time....

Let me clarify a little of the misinformation in this thread...

1. Nobody has access to the site's logs except for me. The logs are deleted every day, so we don't know who accessed what, say, last week.

2. In the nearly 20 years I've been running online services like NeuroTalk I've had exactly zero subpoenas or warrants for any information we have. Zero. Not saying it couldn't happen in the future, but past history suggests we don't have information of relevance to anyone.

3. While we do suggest that it is wise to not connect your real life identity with your online health support identity (e.g., by not using your real name in any of your posts, your username, etc.), we do that because we know that, in the past, such information could've been used to deny you access to health insurance coverage of services. Usually this was done because of the pre-existing condition clause -- which has now been made illegal due to the Affordable Care Act (so insurers can no longer deny you coverage for a pre-existing condition).

However, life insurance companies can still use such information to help determine your rates or whether to offer you a policy. So again, it is still something I would work to protect a bit, because I still believe such information can be used in ways never intended.

4. The government is looking for terrorist threats and criminal activity, neither of which are topics of discussion on NeuroTalk.

Best,
DocJohn

I thank you all for your thoughs, ideas,and recommendations. I don't have a criminal record,nor a bad driving record,and I'm not engaged in any criminal activity,nor do I go to illegal websites what ever they are. I stay home most of the time these days. I'm not suicidal,and I'm not violent. I don't have a violent bone in my body.

I'm still concerned about the information that I hear daily. I try to discern what I hear on the news,and sometimes it's difficult to tell what's true,and what the half truths are, the partial lies,or facts that have been twisted with recognized truths,mixed with lies,and wonder about motives. Who's using scare tactics,and why? I find myself going to Snopes.com,and try to find out the facts,and they don't know it all either.

I love my precious country,and I don't want it to get off track. I hope that my nieces,and young relatives have a free America to live in the future.

I think that I've been alarmed at the things on Facebook. If facebook continues to bother,and frighten me,I might get off of it all together. I might unfriend the people who put troubling things on facebook,and say I don't want to see these things that are posted on there.

Yes. Facebook is troubling me,and there are people making money by scaring us. They keep giving us a gloomy slant of the future. BF

I posted this message before I saw DocJohn's post. I thank him,and all of you.