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Comment by mtw | Hacker News Reader

To be honest, there's no reason to portray an authentic lifestyle on Facebook. Because the more accurate or authentic you share on Facebook, the more likely they cut/data mine/analyze it to the point where they (and also everyone else on Facebook) might know about your life than you do - with predictive AI, that's worth a lot of thousands dollars of ad dollars.

I don't have any mental illness but I do a deliberate effort to portray something else on Facebook and Twitter. You can't share anything private. Who knows, border agents, customs or criminals might use it against you in the future.

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The big thing I've heard is vacation photos in real time means unoccupied dwelling, which means ripe for breaking and entering.

Sort of like "huge pile of empty high end electronics boxes on curb on trash (recycle) day after holidays" is also a signal.

That's just the tip of the iceberg, though.

> The big thing I've heard is vacation photos in real time means unoccupied dwelling, which means ripe for breaking and entering.

This is mostly FUD though. Dutch police did an experiment where cops using traditional methods were 3 times (iirc) more effective at spotting vacationers than ones using the internet. It's much more important to secure your home than it is to not post to social media.

Anyone who can find my address can also probably find out I have a job and can simply break into my home while I'm there. They don't need to wait for me to go on vacation.

It’s a bit harder when there could be a stay-at-home spouse, work-from-home, elderly family member, adult child or sick-day family member.

Similarly, if you have a cleaner or contractor coming by, you probably will defer it until you’re back.

There was a site called something like: pleaserobmyhouse.com

It just scraped social media for posts about people going on vacation and when they'd be back.

I got a lol out of a rideshare driver that went to rob an Airbnb after he dropped the departing guests off at the airport.

> Sort of like "huge pile of empty high end electronics boxes on curb on trash (recycle) day after holidays" is also a signal.

But what can be done? Spread the disposal over many months? The signal is still there.

Recycle cardboard into pulp for home printing of your manifesto

Manifesto ?

Oh if you don't have a manifesto you should start

Would you please explain what you mean?

> But what can be done?

Cart your (sensitive) recylcing to a recycling center yourself, rather than relying on exposed curbside pickup.

> Spread the disposal over many months? The signal is still there.

That probably works too, if you have a bin and the signal is stuff extending beyond the bin signalling to drive-by opportunists; by spreading it out over time, you can keep the stuff you don't want to expose in (and at the bottom of) the bin, which exposes you to people who dig through the bin for intel, but that's a whole lot more active search.

Thanks everyone. But I live in Western continental Europe and every week I load my small car with sorted heaps of garbage (colored bottles, transparent bottles, paper, folded cardboards boxes, cans, plastic bottles each in a different bag, plastic caps, metal caps, etc.).

My question was more about what can be done by an American citizen (as I assumed it was the case here) since the cliché is that the US doesn't do recycling.

Go drop it off at the recycling center or at least cover it up by cutting the boxes and folding them inside out.

Break down the boxes and take them to the recycle place directly. Opsec.

Buy slightly fewer things than your neighbors? Give gifts throughout the year instead of all in one shot?

Spread it across the neighborhood maybe?

That sort of crime incredibly rare. To the point where it makes no sense to worry about his particular threat.

I also deliberately do not share much on Facebook and other social networks because I feel the same way. It was not long ago that it was relatively common for potential employers to request your Facebook password as part of their hiring decision. It seems obvious that the ways in which you use social media can and will be used against you if necessary, whether by employers or law enforcement agencies, and fail to see why anyone wouldn’t be defensive in how they use these services.

>request your Facebook password

They what? Where was this happening?

I vaguely recall reading about this but it's since been made illegal, in Washington at least. Not sure about the rest of US states though. Pretty sure it's illegal here in the UK.

https://www.geekwire.com/2013/illegal-employers-social-media...

Why wouldn’t you just not use it, if that is your concern?

I see this argument a lot. For myself anyhow, it's because all of my friends and family use it to share photos and memories, and I am able to stay connected to people who I no longer have the same amount of time to stay connected to as I used to. There are certainly fantastic parts about Facebook and other social networks, but that doesn't mean care should not be applied to how they are used.

It's because everyone uses it, so it's highly suspicious if you don't use it.

Also if you don't use it, it leaves open the door for others to define your digital identity. Someone could open a profile with my first name and last name and share pictures that are meant to debase, defame or something else. At least if I share something, I can push something that I want and define myself what is my digital identity.

Plus the other which is being able to be contacted by remote family or other high school contacts etc.

But you can just have a profile and not post anything... surely that’s better than posting fake content?

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