Either one allows me to determine the birthday and high school of the poster, and those are both frequently used as security questions for password retrieval, or other security purposes.
Given that these aren’t threads that strictly need to exist (there are better thread games in the world - and some even on this board), I might suggest closing these threads or at least putting a warning on them somewhere, for people to realize the implication of what they are doing.
I gave my correct birthday in a thread similar to the linked ones, but routinely lie when a site requests it for ID purposes.
Similarly, I have a standard answer for sites that want my mother’s maiden name that’s not actually my mother’s maiden name because I think that’s too easy to find.
That would be the hope, and even if someone did post to both threads, had the same username on every site on the web, and used those items as their security questions, the odds would still be pretty low that an identity thief would happen upon those threads and go to the effort to track down that one person as a victim.
But if they do, the cost to that one person is massive. The loss of the threads, to the members of the board, is pretty minimal. There’s plenty of other content on the forums that is relatively similar in style.
I don’t see how we could prohibit users from posting any bit of information that could conceivably identify them personally. Some people post under their real names, some have email addresses that contain them. Some people include their full date of birth under their profiles (which is optional).
I give a fake maiden name and a fake high school as well (always the same one), and a few other standard fake answers that I can easily remember. The high school is the one I would have gone to had I stayed in New York, for example (good luck looking that up).
My brother answers all security questions with the same word, eg:
What’s your favorite movie? Fish
What’s your mother’s maiden name?** Fish**
What was the name of you high school? Fish
In what city were you born (city only)?** Fish**
What is your paternal grandfather’s nickname?** Fish**
He has a different word for every website, and a document on disk with a masterlist of all the word-site matches. Then he has a pass phrase that’s a Yiddish proverb entered as though he’s using a Hebrew keyboard. He’s a little OCD. The Fish thing is pretty funny, though.
BTW: “Fish” is my made up example. I don’t know that he uses fish for anything.
Standard security questions also include asking the name of your first pet, or your father’s middle name, or the city you grew up in, or your favorite sports team. We certainly aren’t going to police such things.
We instantly close and delete any threads that appear to be a phishing expedition. I wouldn’t consider a thread asking about your birth date, high school, or pet’s name to fall under that category.
I can’t recall anyone complaining that information obtained from this board was used to compromise their financial security. Can you provide an example?
Apparently bullying is OK- but only in the PIT. However, I am not a Mod, this may have changed. Indeed in one case where it was obvious the staff here made sure it was limited to the Pit. Not sure if that’s the best solution, but it’s a solution.
Posters have been stalked. The easy way is just to follow you around the SDMB, posting snark, etc every time you post. The Mods here will stop that, if its really obvious, and you report it.
The other way to to comb every post for any hint of personal info, by which it’s not really hard to get your name, location etc.
What evidence do you have that posters on other message boards are gathering information to compromise anyone’s financial security since that’s what’s being discussed in this thread?
