Privacy Settings

Privacy Settings

To find your 'Privacy Settings' page:

• Click on your username
• Choose 'Privacy' from the drop down menu

The following are the default settings:



Please check your privacy settings and make sure they are the way you want them.

Settings:

Show Your Online Status:

• Tick this box if you want members to see when you are online

Receive Site Mailings:

• Tick this box if you would like to receive emails from Phoenix Rising (newsletters etc)

Date of Birth Privacy

Show Day and Month of Birth:

• Tick this box if you would like members to know the day and month of your birthday

Show Year of Birth:

• Tick this box if you would like members to know how old you are

People Who May

View your details on your profile page:

The Profile Page contains:

• Your Profile Posts
• Your Recent Activity
• Your Postings
• Your Information or Bio
• Your Blog Entries
• Your Albums

If you deselect this option, your profile page will not be viewable

Options:

• All Visitors: choosing this option will do nothing as the default setting for the forum is that Visitors may never view your profile page
• Members Only: tick this box to allow all members to see your profile page
• People you follow only: tick this box and only members that you have chosen to follow will be able to access your profile page

Post messages on your profile page:

If you deselect this option, nobody will able to post messages on your profile page

Options:

• Members Only: tick this box to allow all members to post messages on your profile page
• People you follow only: tick this box to allow only the members you follow to post messages on your profile page

Receive Your news feed:

Deselect this option if you do not want members to access your news feed

Options:

• All Visitors: choosing this option will do nothing as the default setting for the forum is not to allow visitors access to your news feed
• Members Only: tick this box to allow all members to see your news feed
• People you follow only: tick this box to allow only the members that you have chosen to follow access to your news feed.

NOTE: IF YOU BELONG TO A PRIVATE GROUP AND YOU DO NOT WANT MEMBERS TO SEE THE FIRST LINE OF A POST IN A PRIVATE GROUP, DESELECT THE NEWS FEED OPTION.

Members who may:

Start conversations with you:

Deselect this option if you do not want anybody to start Conversations with you (except moderators)

Options:

• Members Only: tick this box to receive Conversations (Private Messages) from all members
• People you follow only: tick this box if you would only like to receive Conversations from people you follow

View your identities: (identities you use for other social groups: AIM, Windows Live, ICQ, Skype, Google Talk, Facebook, Twitter)

Deselect this option if you do not want anybody to view your identities

Options:

• Visitors only: visitors can not view your identities by default
• Members Only: tick this box if you would like all members to see your identities
• People who follow you: tick this box if you would like only members you follow to see your identities

Other Privacy Issues:

• A Visitor can click on your avatar and see your 'Member Card' but they can not access your "Profile Page' from there
• If a Visitor clicks on 'Messages' on your 'Member Card' they will only see posts that are public and not any posts that are in the 'Registered Members' only forums (Sex, Love and ME/CFS: the Relationships Forum, Introduce Yourself, Community Lounge, Moderation and Technical Support Forums)

General Advice regarding Privacy

When you join a forum or social group:

• Check your Privacy Settings
• Make sure you know what information is being shared publiclyCreate Strong Passwords. Use at least 10 characters and mix letters, symbols, and numbers. If you use an easy to guess password, you open up your accounts to hackers (see this article)

Don't Share Senstive Information:

• Once you share something online, it is no longer private unless the site you are using designates an area as private. Public forums on Phoenix Rising are indexed by search engines like Google, Yahoo etc. Private forums, Conversations are not.
• Keep in mind that anything you post in a private forum, private group, and private message can be copied and pasted anywhere on the internet; therefore be careful of what you say and who you say it to. Members or staff who abuse confidentiality by posting private information will be addressed and this is considered a serious breach of forum protocol

Refrain from posting the following information publicly:

• Your full name
• Your full date of birth
• The names of your children or family members
• Your phone number
• Your full home address
• Dates and details of trips, vacations and time spent away from home
• Medical information that is sensitive

Have basic security software in place and keep it up-to-date:

• Protecting your PC with anti-virus, anti-spyware and a firewall (and making sure the software is always up-to-date) is critical in keeping safe from malware and online scams
• Also make sure that your computer is up-to-date with the latest security patches