When I started my blog in 2007, I didn’t think about privacy. I used our real names, posted photos, talked about Tasmania and what we had been up to.
What I didn’t do, was let the Internet know where I would be on any given day, or when I would be out and about.
Four years later and I still use our real names, and talk about Tasmania and rarely tell the Internet when I’m planning on leaving the house. Only a handful of friends know the suburb I live in and I’ve been really careful to keep which school Amy attends offline.
These are the things that I do as a matter of fact now.
Tasmania is only very small. The suburb I live in is even smaller, totalling around six houses. Not big at all.
When I first started blogging, I didn’t expect that I would get readers. I hoped I might, but didn’t expect it. And because at that stage, the Australian blogosphere was so small, all of my readers were in the US anyway and having a giant great ocean between here and there helped.
With the huge influx of bloggers and specifically mummybloggers, I think that privacy is something that we should all be thinking about, when our blog is brand new, or not even begun yet.
Privacy Tips
Work out how much you are comfortable sharing, before you share it.
Do you really want to have to remove a post because your husband got angry? Or your MIL found it? Or you got weird searches relating to an unfortunate combination of keywords? I’ve had to take down a few posts after I’ve pressed publish, mostly because people I thought weren’t reading started reading.
It’s the Internet, I can guarantee that the one person you DON’T want to find your blog, will. Eventually.
Do you want to use your real name? What about your kids real names?
Think about this before you start. I considered changing to pseudonyms for the kids in 2009. I only decided against it because I didn’t want to change two years worth of posts.
Also, for the record, it has been shown that readers are more likely to read and get involved with your life if they have “real” names to put to your children. It doesn’t have to be your child’s real name, but maybe calling a child “Emily” as a pseudonym is going to work better than “Princess Smooshypants”.
Do you live somewhere small?
Keep this in mind when adding your suburb to things that might show where you live. Most of my profiles have Hobart (ish) as the suburb and if asked, the most specific I get in the public space is “Southern Midlands” or “About an hour north of Hobart”. Friends have my actual home address, but in the beginning I used a PO box for everything. I still do sometimes, if I get a weird feeling about a PR company and aren’t sure if they’re legit.
At the end of the day, it is your blog and you are the one who writes on it.
What works for me isn’t always going to work for you and vice versa.
I tend to think that as long as I am constantly thinking about and reassessing my online privacy and what I share, then I’m in the best possible position, for me.
What about you? How do you manage online privacy?
Incoming search terms:
- do you use your kids real names blogs
- when blogging should i use my childrens names
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
This was something I thought about when I started my blog. I use my kid’s real names (but no surnames), but my husband prefered not to be identified so has a pseudonym. Also I am moving to a very small community so I have to be careful about identifying where we are. Thanks for a great post… being new to the blogosphere, it gave me some good ideas.
Jo @countrylifeexperiment recently posted..Chatterbox
I use my surname – but didn’t use it until I’d been blogging for a few years and “came out”. I’m the only Veronica Foale I can find online, anywhere in the world, so I can’t really hide from that. I content myself with the fact that my children have a different surname and that when I get married later this year, my official name and my writing name will cease to be the same.
Good luck with your country move!
Veronica Foale recently posted..Showcase Tasmania: The Fudge A’fare
When I started out, I used my children’s real names, but then after I started getting a handful of followers who were not my family and friends, I realised I had better give them a pseudonym. PrincessSmooshypants made me laugh by the way. I started out with things like StarBoy and CheekyBoy and realised that new readers would have no idea how old my children are, so have opted for the GenderAge monikers. This proves awkward as my youngest inherits his older brother’s moniker as he gets older, and funnily on MasterSeven’s birthday I had to switch to MisterEight because I didn’t like what MasterEight rhymed with
I wish we lived in a world where I could use my name and my children’s names freely, and where I didn’t have to omit photos that include my children wearing their school uniforms. I would love to include video of them while they are young, but have decided not to do that.
Shelly recently posted..A Few Stolen Hours at the Cinema: ‘The Help’
I don’t use names but I’m not completely strict about it – regular readers would pick it up in videos or from other places. But I’m not personal blogging so there are very few intimate details attached. And there happens to be someone with my first name researching the disease that is my surname, so I’m a long way down the google list!
We’ve just started a private blog for family and big girl is writing a bit on it too so she has an audience. The first thing we did was choose pseudonyms for the girls. My reasoning is that when they are in their 20s and going for a job they shouldn’t be tied to something they did when they were 5. When they are old enough to understand that the internet is forever they can choose to use their real names, until then they have names we all know but they’ll be able to cut off if they want to.
When I started my blog 2 years ago, I pretty much did the same thing. Used my real name but no names of my kids (or their school) or husband, and for ages I didn’t even have ‘Sydney’ as my location! I don’t mention when I’m out or going away etc either. I think it’s never a bad thing to be too cautious. It’s why I would never ‘check-in’ at places on FB or use FourSquare or something. You never know!
Jodie Ansted recently posted..Beauty All Around
I’m fairly public, but then it’s just me at the moment.
We’ll see how I go in the future
Fiona recently posted..Go Tassie!
My husband and I both have blogs and made the decision from the start to use our own names but not to identify the kids. At first I did the name/gender thing but definitely felt the lack of connection and engagement from having no real details of them available so I now use their Teddy bears as their pseudonyms on the blog (they represent them visually too). We don’t want people to be able to look up their names in the future and find all this stuff we have written about them – the Internet is definitely forever and I don’t think we can be too careful about their privacy now and in the years to come.
Kirsty @ My Home Truths recently posted..Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
I just started recently and my hubby was very clear that he wanted privacy for our family. My kids chose their own pseudonyms, I refer to dh as “my husband” or “Mr HLS” and have not posted any current photos of the kids (just baby / early childhood shots a few times).
My real name and city are the main personal details I give. For my kids a lot of why I use aliases is because they should have a clean slate in the future and are being raised in a different age to myself – now anything written using your name is forever kept online etc. I’ll let them make their own mistakes someday!
I do have to think twice about details though – like I am going camping for a week from Saturday and have a couple of guest posts coming up – how do I not say “hey I will be away”
Deb @ Home life simplified recently posted..How to get organised with non-traditional items
Privacy is something I thought about long and hard before I started Crash Test Mummy. I don’t use the kids’ or hubby’s name. Hubby and I agree on every pic of the kids before it goes online. I tend not to use photos which are too identifiable. No bath pics, no nudie shots etc etc. I don’t share which suburb I live in. I’m careful not to take recognisable photos of our regular haunts and I’m careful not to announce where I might be at any one time. Laney is my nickname (not just one I made up for the blog). Nobody can say/spell my real name properly anyway! Maybe readers will find it harder to relate to me, but I hope my personality shows through in my writing regardless.
Laney @ Crash Test Mummy recently posted..Tips for housework in a hurry!
Hi Veronica,
I have never thought about online privacy issues before. I have shared our kids names, our life and what we are doing.
Now that we are on the road travelling Australia in our Motorhome I am starting to learn a bit more about privacy issues.
I will not put on Facebook or twitter what we are doing, until after the event. I wont write where we are staying, and wont review where we have stayed until we move on.
A few weeks back I did have a privacy issue. I had written (on my personal wall) what we were doing. Another follower turned up to the same spot where we were. It really freaked me out, luckily we were leaving that particular torist spot and the person did not get to speak to us.
Its not that I would have mind if that person wanted to meet us somewhere sometime, what got me concerned was that she did not ask to meet up, but instead turned up!
Sure makes you realise how important our privacy is offline when we are online!
Cheers
Lisa
PS – I have also thought about changing our kids names, but its kinda too late!
Lisa Wood recently posted..Off To Brisbane
Funnily enough I wrote about this in my latest blog post, “Censored!” Apart from the whole privacy issue thing, I have two teenagers. The things they open up about, or that are going on in their lives – they don’t want available for the whole world to read!
Janet recently posted..Censored!
Thank you for this very interesting post!
I find this very useful as I only started my blog back in August this year and have often wondered about privacy, particularly with my kids. What I write about is all about them!
interesting and useful post!
Fabrizia Spinelli recently posted..New cape and silver pants
Well, thanks for this thought-provoking post! We surely can not be cautious enough. It is a very good idea not mentioning anything on your blog about your travel dates, you never know, you might draw some nasty burglars with social media awareness ion you???
Emilia recently posted..dental implants abroad