User blog comment:Brad the Intern/Internet Saftey/@comment-3999180-20110929225837

thank you for writing this! :) i haven't seen the movies, but i have a bit of personal experience with the matter. i've always been very careful about not giving out too much information. my best friend and are are computer geeks, and it's ridiculously easy to find someone online. so easy, in fact, it's really scary. and the leap from just knowing your name to having your address is a lot smaller than some people might think. proceed under the assumption that no one is who they say they are, and i'd suggest not giving out a name, or even giving out a false one. one other thing: be very careful when you tell people about the weather. i was on a site once, and i had a cover story (a fake name, location, and age. for protection; not to be a creeper), and i was talking to this guy, and i'd tell him when there was a storm or when it was gorgeous outside or whatever. one day he figured out where i lived, completely based on the weather i'd been telling him about. it scared me so bad, i never logged into that site again.