That was what I said over and over...The Horror, The Horror...as I tried to figure out a way to replace the images and information I had just viewed - all by accident - on these here Internets. By a fluke of random chance, I stumbled upon a Internet search that resulted in me finding out TMI about someone I have known for a gazillion years that I simply did NOT want or NEED to know.
As a result, I have decided to tell you this cautionary tale with as much (yet as little) detail as possible so that you - my friends, family, lurkers, bloggers & hopefully the very person I am talking about - will, for the love of all that is sacred & holy, learn how to UTILIZE & IMPLEMENT ALL social media PRIVACY & SECURITY protocols known to man.
SERIOUSLY!!!!
I thought most of us that use the Internet as our playground have some common sense by now about the seriousness and necessity of protecting your identity, your information, your BUSINESS on the information highway. With all the talk about FB privacy, locking or not your Twitter account, implementing a Goo.gl.e alert and other social media notices on your name, website, pseudonym, website so that you KNOW what, who, & where things are said about you---you would think that what I stumbled upon would NOT happen. In an age where employers are goo.gling a potential employees and even my daughters "check out" their dates..."if he ain't goo.ga.ble then he ain't" - you have to be REAL SMART about what and how you put stuff out there on the digital divide. IT IS ALL SEARCHABLE. IT CAN BE FOUND.
I thought that this person was very intelligent and web savvy... Well, I guess stupidity strikes every one of us at least once.
So, there I was, on my kids computer (YES! I deleted the history, cookies...all traces of what happened) because I was too lazy to walk up the stairs to get mine. I had several windows open at the same time (and I was cooking). I had FB, Twi.tter, Goo.gle Re.ad.er, iGo.ogle and my web mail client open to answer some email. Somehow (I SWEAR), I thought I was entering the first part of an email & then I hit enter to auto fill the rest. Well, I was NOT in my email client, I was on iGoo.gle and I had entered it into the search.
SWEET BABY JESUS! Lo and behold, the search of my friends email (which is also this person IM handle & blog alter ego) came up and revealed a side...revealed some highly personal...revealed some proclivities...revealed that the FREAK comes out at night. The search that came on just the 1st page was more information than I EVER wanted to know.
Please, don't get me wrong. I don't give a damn about how you get your freak on. I don't care what you do or how you do it or who you do it with. That's your business. But if you don't want people to KNOW about your fetish, your hidden desires or that you invite this stuff into your domain (you know that's how people get killed or producers get ideas for a new episode of Crim.inal Mi.nds or L&O:SVU) BY GIVING THEM YOUR DAMN ENTIRE EMAIL ADDY - then I would expect you to use some damn discretion.
If you want to be a closet freak, flip the script, do it hanging from a bungee cord - whatever floats your boat - AND you don't want your friends, family, co-workers or just any ole random person to find out about it...then I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you DON'T use your fugging IM and/or personal email address as your user name or pseudonym on every scandalous membership site on the gosh damn planet. HOW FUGGING DUMB CAN YOU BE!
Now, I am left with the these images burned on my retina. Now, I know more about this person than I ever wanted to know. Now, I'm not sure that I can look at them the same way. I just don't know what to think. It's their business...I just wish they had protected their privacy and identity with as much diligence as they put toward soliciting another to HOLLA if they were interested in bbc.
Sigh.
What is the lesson here? Once again, if you don't care if people know that you have a preference for RT (whatever da hell that means) with some bbc then keep doing what you're doing. If you DO care and want to keep that part of your life private and all to your damn self...then IMPLEMENT SOME KIND OF PRIVACY PROTOCOLS!!
Use another user name or id that NOBODY but YOU knows. Get a separate email address to use to have your "friends" contact you at.
This has been a public service announcement. I'm just sayin.
