MEMBERS PLEASE READ

Hi to all:

Please be aware of posting your public journals. It has come to my attention that any public journals that you write may be posted on the internet. In the recent past, 2 of my journals have made it to the Google page. This is creating alot of traffic from unknown and unwanted individuals. I was not aware that MedHelp was doing this. Please be careful of what you write if you don't want it to go world wide.

Thanks,
Mollyrae

[jollyman069]

i am computer stupid Molly, are they allowed to do this? dont we have any rights to what we put in our personal journels? i dont mind member here at MH reading, i kinda think of all of us as a family in a way. Shouldnt they have to get the writers permission first? Like i said i am computer stupid so i would just like to know the answeres to my questions if you know. thanks Molly

[Tuckamore]

Hi Jollyman and All,

Mollyrae and I have been discussing this issues for a few weeks. I suggested she make this post to alert all members. If you make your journals private, as I have they apparently are not accessible to anyone other than you. I cannot find my journals on the internet but I can find Molly's. If you mark you journals for friends only, than apparently they still can be accessed by the "world." But I am not sure of that, I could have misunderstood Molly. Maybe Molly can clarify that for us but I thought she said her journals was designated for friends only.

It was through a member post that I found MedHelp. So obviously I knew that all posts were assessable. I did not know that all journals were accessible too. A word to the wise would be to put nothing in your journal that you don't want everyone to read.

And yes MH can do this. They are doing nothing wrong. This is a public forum. There is no promise of confidentiality when you join MH. Indeed it is just the opposite for posts. When you post you are asking anyone that can access MH for an opinion or suggestions. If I would have been using my head I would have know it was the same for journals. I thought about it when I started keeping a pain journal when I began keeping journals I changed the setting to "private."  

Yes Jolly, I feel the same way. You all are my family, my MH family. Just be cautious of what you say if you do not want the world to read it. Go to goggle and type in "Jollyman" and you should bring up some of the posts you have made. Or you can type in a subject line that you have posted on or written a journal note and you should bring up some of your entries.

(((HUGS))) to All,
Tuck

[Mollyrae]

Hi:

I did not designate the journals for friends but I think it makes no difference. I believe that if you allow the public to access your journals then it has a good chance of being posted on the internet.

In the future I will note that it is intended for MedHelp only and see where it get me.

Thanks,
Molly

[Cherie762]

wow;;;I googled my name my photos are listed,,,Im taking all family pictures down.My journal about being proud of son joining army is listed ....several posts I made on hysterctomys come up wow im shocked.

[Tuckamore]

Hi Guys,

From what I understand, "Private" and for "Friends Only" journals do not go "public." I think we all forget that because we feel like (and we are) all a little family. But any web-site such as MH is public. Just think about it. It brings other members in. As I said earlier I would probably not have found MH if it didn't come up when I googled, "SI Joint Pain." So I am grateful that I found you all.

If you want to protect your journals from being subject to a google just change the privacy setting to "Friends Only." I don' think for a minute that MH is trying to infringe on our privacy.  We just forgot what we agreed to when we became members.

And Cherie that is the reason I do not post my picture or my families pictures. I would like a certain amount of confidentiality to avoid any of the possible crazies out there. There are ppl on MH (2) that I have exchanged e-mails and phone numbers with but I select them carefully. I encourage you all to do the same in this world that we really don't know our next door neighbor. But we shouldn't be upset with MH because they have done nothing wrong. This is a public web site.

Peace,
Tuck

[Mollyrae]

I agree with Tuck. Even though MH can and will post as they please, I really enjoy the site and will enjoy it for a long time to come. This site is really no different from things like "My Space" or "Face Book". Members have their lives out there for others to see as well. MH is just alittle mor eprivate than some.

I  encourage other members not to feel betrayed by MedHelp. It is really a wonderful place to be. If you feel that you must take pics down then please do so. You know what's in your best interest.

My reason for the post was to inform the members that their information is not as private as one might think. Tuck is correct when telling us that if you would like more privacy when writing in your journals, please make it  available for "Friends Only" to veiw.

I hope I didn't scare alot of you from posting.

Take care and Happy Holidays to everyone,
Mollyrae

[jollyman069]

well i googled my screen name and 2 of my journels are on line couldnt find any pics thank god

[Nana434]

OMG, i googled my name and some journals came up and i have mine set to friends only. What should i do?
And to update you guy's im feeling a bit better THANK'S SOOOOO MUCH FOR ALL THE SUPPORT!
I think i get soooo scared of not being able to walk that i work myself up into a panic.
Sorry guy's and i to consider MH My family.

[Brndnsdad]

It's not that MedHelp is "Posting" the journals or posts. The search engines such as Google constantly use tools to search and index web pages. All public sites are subject to this, so anything posted to an unsecure site should be considered accessible to the public. For this reason use fictitious screen names for your postings and never put your real names, phone numbers or addresses on these sites. Never put any personal information into a form field unless the URL is secure and begins with https://, and even then be very careful. Never enter personal information into a web site where you opened an email link to access it. If you do purchasing or banking or anything private online, always type in the URL of the site and make sure it is a secure site. You can bookmark your sites to for easier access, but never through an email link or a link from a site your don't completely trust.

[Nana434]

It's all over the web even a yahoo search, i can't believe even my mood's come up. Has anyone else found their moods? there are alot of journals on the web i even saw some of my friends including pics. What to do?
Thank God none of my pics i never new this would happen.

[tresa47]

I just yahoo'd my user name and everything I've written on medhelp has come up. I did not realize this would happen. Thank you for the education...I'll be more careful in the future..Have a great Holiday....

[Amphitrite]

Posts and Journals may also come up if someone types in the email adress you signed up with.
You never know if someone is just playing around on the computer and starts searching friends emails in a search engines.

[Amphitrite]

Oh I forgot to *** also is that, that's how people check up on others these days to see what they're doing around the internet. So it may not be just frineds but anyone who has your email adress from even an email forward.

That happened to me when a friend or a friend saw my email on a forward and wanted to know who I was. It's a good way for people to learn alot about you without your knowing it.
Maybe where you live, what you do for a living, etc...It depends how paranoid people are about things like that on the internet that put you at risk for stolen identity or other things.

It may seem rediculous to think that could happen but I saw a "test" done by someone who infiltrated somebodies bank account just by using their email to look up things they are associated with and then went from there...School alumni..etc.
Just be careful handing your email out to anyone over the internet no matter how much you think you can trust them. People are very good at pretending to be soemone else on the internet where you can make up a completely different life for yourself. And even though the email adress you give to someone you trust may be trustworthy, someone using their computer like a husband or kid may not be.

[Brenndy]

I'll buy you a hardbacked journal so you can write in it without the entire www reading it when we meet up.......and when is that?

[scaredmom330]

I google my screen name and my journals appeared and alot were marked for friends only. so I deleted all of them. I am very disappointed, guess I need to delete my pictures too.

[Tuckamore]

To All,

According to my information your journals should not come up on www if marked for friends only. Are all your journals marked for friends only before you hit submit?

There may be some glitch in the system. This should not be happening. All journals that are indicated for friends only or private should remain as such. My journals are private and I have not been able to access them on the www. But of course that does mean that none of you are able to access them either.

I'll do some more searching and let you know what I discover.I am sorry this is happening. I am sure it is not MH's intention.

Peace, Tuck

[Med Help]

Hi,

Just to clarify on this post. We have provided privacy settings for all journals just for this reason. If you want a journal to be private, you can put the privacy setting to be viewed by "Only Me" or "Friends Only". If a journal is set to that, no one, including the search engines, can see it except your friends if you did Friends Only. If it is public, yes, the search engines will see it, similar to any post made on the site. Many members use their journals like blogs and want them to be accessible from outside.

Just to try and answer the next question in advance, you can go back and edit your settings by going to the journal entry and clicking "Edit". However, when doing this, it will not be removed from the search engines immediately, but eventually each of them will see they can no longer access the page and will remove it. However, we don't control the timing on this. From the MedHelp standpoint, once you do that, no members in MedHelp will be able to view them.

Hope this clarifies.

MedHelp

[sandee1818]

I have been away and was not aware of this issue but I am now and  I can help with any questions you have about changing the settings on your journals.
I am sorry that there have been problems with privacy and will assist anyone who needs help or has any questions.