On Sat, 28 Jan 2006 04:58:33 UTC, Crzprncess@aol.com opined:

Dear Genners, There are all kinds of reasons some of us may choose not
to put down our location and that includes personal experience and safety.
Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but I haven't read all the posts yet.

As a victim of identity theft, I am extremely cautious giving out details
about myself that are posted in a public forum.

< snip >

I don't think anyone who has contributed to this thread had in mind
that "saying where you are" means giving your complete address. What
we have been saying is that it is helpful to say that you are e.g. in
New York, California, Southern England, or Ultima Thule. It is very
difficult to see how such limited placement can contribute
meaningfully to identity theft or any other nefarious plan, or how it
can jeopardize the personal safety of even the most fastidiously
private individual, male or female.

Indeed, unless one has a very, very unusual name, the identification
of the nearest large city to one's residence is of no help to a
potential identity thief or stalker. Something like "Faye Levy of
Chicago" (a name and city I just pulled out of the virtual hat of my
imagination) would narrow your ID down to thousands. The fact is that
most identity theft is done >from information available publicly, not

from the kind of information that the JewishGen moderator would

conceivably pass for publication.

As for the risk that we might miss learning about a family link with
someone who declines to say on which continent he/she resides, I have
that feeling about evrybody I pass on the street. The warning made
above isn't very impressive.

And I question the logic of refusal to divulge this kind of
information, even while knowing that it is already available on free
directory sites. If it is already out there, why, it is already out
there, and refusing to say that you live in e.g Massachusetts cannot
make it go away.

--
Stan Goodman, Qiryat Tiv'on, Israel

Searching:
NEACHOWICZ/NOACHOWICZ, NEJMAN/NAJMAN, SURALSKI: Lomza Gubernia
ISMACH: Lomza Gubernia, Galicia, and Ukraina
HERTANU, ABRAMOVICI, LAUER: Dorohoi District, Romania
GRISARU, VATARU: Iasi, Dorohoi, and Mileanca, Romania

See my interactive family tree (requires Java 1.1.6 or better). the
URL is: http://www.hashkedim.com

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