From The Desk Of:  The Chief (CAGM)  "Message Board Posting Do's & Dont's"      "With this new editorial,  we'll be launching our new monthly series on Internet Privacy & Security.  Each month's article will contain a new editorial on topics like Message Board Posting, E-mail Privacy and all facets of online security, liabilities and how to protect yourself.  We suggest you take the time to read each monthly article, so you can find out what the latest trends and preventive methods are.  I'll try to keep each article short, while at the same time include enough information for you to get thinking or perhaps get some help for a particular problem you may be having personally." Internet Privacy & Security:   Posting Liabilities       Posting questionable messages and replies, or certain information on a community's, a company's or any other website's message board can get you in alot of hot water quick, without you ever realizing it.  The chances are getting greater everyday, that an off-the-cuff remark can get you in big trouble, or come back to haunt you real soon or sometime in the future.  Posters routinely make public, private information about themselves, companies they work for and even information about others on website message boards, that can land them in the middle of a quick and costly lawsuit.  Think because you posted something questionable on a website's message board (under a assumed name) that you're free and safe from a privacy, sexual harassment or slander liability claim?  Think again.      In the past two years there have been at least 70 big-time lawsuits filed against message board posters.  Take in case, for example, an employee who was recently fired from Citizens Utilities Company - a major utility provider in Arizona (a right-to-work state).   This employee (name withheld) was fired for postings he made (on his own time at home) at a Yahoo message board which were critical about the company and his boss in particular.  After the company served Yahoo with a subpoena, Yahoo quickly handed over the employees (the poster's) true identity (IP - computer identity #).  The employee was then fired, and not one lawyer in Arizona would take the case, citing in Arizona, a company can fire you legally for having disloyal thoughts.  Plus, because the employees post wasn't a political-based statement (which is legally protected) he was prevented from using the defense that his "right-to-free-speech" rights had been violated.  And that wasn't the first time a message board poster's true identity was revealed by a website.  All websites and companies like Yahoo, AOL and MSN would rather release your information to attorney's who file lawsuits, then become entangled in a legal case.  So don't expect any help or privacy defense from them.      Court orders aren't the only ways to obtain posters' true identities.  Remember, every corporate or personal home computer has an IP address, that can be tracked thru ordinary phone company lines.  Several companies exist that will (for a fee) track down for you the true identity of a poster.  And by true identity we mean IP address, real name, home phone number, address, etc.  There isn't one pc in the world that doesn't have some sort of personal info about it's user.  Companies like ICG: Internet Crimes Group, EWatch and Deja.com specialize in this service.  Although anonymizers (programs that act as a server buffer between your pc and the outside world) give you some very good masking capabilities, the good amateur sleuth and the experts from these companies, can employ countless ways of getting around anonymizers and finding out who you really are.  Usually, it is you who unknowingly have given them all the information they need to find you, everytime you post on a message board.      Want to find out who that person is that slandered your good name?  Then go back and check all the posts they've made in the last month or two.  Chances are they've included enough info about themselves to allow you to start checking elsewhere, like what state or city they live in, what their relatives do for a living, what clubs or organizations they belong to, unions, etc.  You'll be surprised at what you can find out about a person over the internet.  Together with a lawyer, a professional tracking firm, or just by yourself with some slick thinking, you can bust a poster's true identity (who is harassing or slandering you) before they have a chance to go back and cover their tracks.      So before you post something on a message board, that you wouldn't want to have posted about yourself, think twice, that quick fleeting moment of what you thought was your right to free speech, might just quickly come back to bite you. thechief Links for getting help identifing posters who harass or threaten you in message board posts: http://www.internetcrimesgroup.com http://www.deja.com http://www.ewatch.com http://www.yourinvestigation.com/   Links for preventing others from identifying you thru your IP address: http://www.anonymizer.com http://www.idzap.com http://www.zeroknowledge.com NOTE: Please do not use these links for curiousity purposes.  These are serious companies that will help you for only serious matters.   Copyrightã2000 Community Managers Association All Rights Reserved. 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