Online Blogs and Forums

Did you know that when you post a message to an online forum, bulletin board, or blog, your message might be picked up and displayed in search engine results (Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.). Chances are this is no big deal. But it is important to always have this in mind when you post information in a public online forum.

Unless you know for sure the forum is secure and not likely to be accessible to search engines, we recommend you don't post anything you wouldn't want to whole world to know.

Also be careful about how your e-mail address is posted on a Web site. Many "spambots" crawl Web pages looking for the "@" sign as a signal to pick up an e-mail address. Request that your Web designer encode your e-mail address using Unicode or some other cryptic method. This can protect phone numbers as well.