Google yourself

[Chalgy]

Dear MacOSXhints,

I recently Googled myself and my MacOSXhints profile came up as the fifth Google entry on me. It contained my full name and the data about me that I entered on this site. I entered that info for this site, not for every friggin person in the world. I emailed you last week to see if this could be fixed but I have not heard a response yet. I also asked how in the world do I change the info on my profile? For the life of me, I can't figure it out. Somebody please help.

Signed,

Pissed Off in Wisconsin

[yellow]

This one?

http://forums.macosxhints.com/member.php?u=26180

To change your profile, you click the "User CP" link and edit profile.

Otherwise, refer to the Mac Publishing LLC Privacy Policy:

http://www.macworld.com/info/privacy/

In addition, you should be aware that when you disclose personal information such as your name or e-mail address in a forum, blog comment, or other area that is publicly accessible by others, that information can be collected and used by others. Mac Publishing and its parent and affiliate companies are not responsible for any information that you provide in the above areas.

[Chalgy]

yellow,

Thank you! What does CP stand for??? Also, I could not find the particular item that I wanted to delete. The "interests" and "Occupation" field seem to be empty, except of course when I Google myself then I get the unwanted information.

[yellow]

CP = Control Panel

Please PM me the link that you are seeing personal information and I will see if there's anything I can do..

[yellow]

Please clear your cache and check the link again. Your link corresponds to the link I have above and there's no personal information in it.

However, if you mean the personal information that is listed as a blurb under the Google link, well that's cached by Google and clearly beyond our control to influence, which I must then refer you to the above linked Privacy Policy statement.

[bramley]

Does Chalgy mean his/her forums profile or the main site profile?

The former is only visible if you're logged in, and not indexed by Google. The latter is indexed by Google.

[yellow]

The link I was provided was to the forum profile.

However, I see why the OP is upset. There's a rather.. unfortunate.. entry in his "hobbies" field.

[bramley]

The link I was provided was to the forum profile.
I understand. I should add that Google does index the page, but to read the current page requires a login - not so with cached versions!

[yellow]

Ah yes.. index is a better word than cached. Incorrect termininology on my part.

[CAlvarez]

Interesting, using my name and city brings up a recent thread here as the first hit. Otherwise my name is too common and shared with a few famous people, so I don't come up in the top hits.

[Chalgy]

Please clear your cache and check the link again. Your link corresponds to the link I have above and there's no personal information in it.

However, if you mean the personal information that is listed as a blurb under the Google link, well that's cached by Google and clearly beyond our control to influence, which I must then refer you to the above linked Privacy Policy statement.

Interesting. I emptied my Safari cache but the link is still the same for me, so that means this is a Google thing right?

Thanks for looking into this!

[Chalgy]

However, I see why the OP is upset. There's a rather.. unfortunate.. entry in his "hobbies" field.

You said it so eloquently. LOL

[yellow]

When you open the link from Google it still has your personal info?
Or are you talking about the indexed (thanks bramley ;)) data under the link on the Google website.
If it's the latter, then yes, it's Google's deal.

[Chalgy]

Otherwise, refer to the Mac Publishing LLC Privacy Policy:

http://www.macworld.com/info/privacy/

This just speaks of info that I put in "public" places. I guess that a member's profile is public? Just seems weird to me.

However, I am the moron for typing that on the Internet so I will live with the consequences.

Again, thanks for looking into this.

[yellow]

All profiles are public, as are the forum posts.

[Chalgy]

When you open the link from Google it still has your personal info?
Or are you talking about the indexed (thanks bramley ;)) data under the link on the Google website.
If it's the latter, then yes, it's Google's deal.

Yeah, it is a total Google deal. I am assuming that it is just a matter of time before they reset their "cache" and that should disappear. I have no idea, as I said before, I'm the moron.

[Chalgy]

All profiles are public, as are the forum posts.

Good to know.

[ThreeBKK]

This is odd. I just Googled myself and I got a result from something called http://www.workfriendly.net. So, I checked it out and it's like an online Word app. or something except it's got the macosxhints.com website inside of it's main window.

Here's the link:
http://www.workfriendly.net/browse/Office2003Blue/http/forums.macosxhints.com//

[hayne]

it's like an online Word app. or something
This is nothing more than a web page that makes it look like you are using MS Word when in fact you are browsing the web (to fool your boss when you are wasting time at work).

[ThreeBKK]

This is nothing more than a web page that makes it look like you are using MS Word when in fact you are browsing the web…
I see. It also fools web filters which could be good for accessing certain off-limits sites. That's good for people who live in web-censoring countries. (Thailand, Singapore, China, add your country here)

[Screengem0531]

I like to type in my name and the name of people i know in google and click the I'm feeling lucky button and see what pops up.

[maclova]

nothing on the internet is private anymore, if you have information you don't want everyone to know, don't post it online ;)

[fazstp]

I'd say putting your full name in your profile is more of an issue than any illicit hobbies.

full name + location + hobby = doh!

[ThreeBKK]

I'd say putting your full name in your profile is more of an issue than any illicit hobbies.


Maybe he just has a background in Pharmacy. I read it and it wasn't a big deal at all. Certainly open to interpretation.

[maclova]

Dear MacOSXhints,

I recently Googled myself and my MacOSXhints profile came up as the fifth Google entry on me. It contained my full name and the data about me that I entered on this site. I entered that info for this site, not for every friggin person in the world. I emailed you last week to see if this could be fixed but I have not heard a response yet. I also asked how in the world do I change the info on my profile? For the life of me, I can't figure it out. Somebody please help.

Signed,

Pissed Off in Wisconsin
Hey calm down, just take some puffs of those drugs you have according to your profile ;)

Your profie still lives: http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:OgSxFx0f9RgJ:forums.macosxhints.com/member.php%3Fu%3D26180+Chalgy&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2 !

[Jay Carr]

Is there any way to ask Google to clear the cache on that particular item? That might be the best route, it's been a few days now... I'm told they can keep cache up to a month actually...

[maclova]

Yes there is: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35306 , and IMO it would be neat if the owner of this great site could add a option to our UserCP to allow us to choose whether or not Google indexed our profile, if the option is chosen they could just add the <**** NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOARCHIVE"> to the HTML of the user profile, else not include that...but in the meantime go here: http://services.google.com/urlconsole/controller to remove the page from googles cache