There is a lot of things in this hobby that amuse me.  Last time, I wrote at length about providers who clearly steal pictures.  So here's a new one.

Did you know that if you put your phone number into your Facebook profile, you can be found through Facebook's search engine by the phone number?  Oh yes, yes you can.  Helpful for friends to find you.  However, if you are a "provider" (and I am seriously using the term loosely here because these girls I found have got to be fly by night) who doesn't have a disposable phone, or different phone number for hobbying, and use your normal phone . . . you are findable.  This week alone, while browsing through Backpage (I'm telling you, it's a sport for me at this point - the funniest sport ever), I found the real names and identities of FOUR "providers".  I am 99 percent sure it was them as the body parts, skin tone, etc visible in the pictures on Facebook and Backpage were a good match.  

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, that no reputable provider would do such a thing - I just have to share when I find something REALLY funny that happens involving the hobby.  The moral of the story?  Privacy is hard in the digital age - protect yourself!  

And as always, everyone be safe out there.

I am going to fb now to get my number off  tyvm for the heads up  xo  

This should probably be in the general discussion section.  Spread the word.

I sent you an email with an example that shows what he is talking about.

I figured people already knew about this feature on Facebook - they are continually doing everything they can to make it "easier" to "find friends".  In reality they keep mucking around with privacy settings so that keeping your profile truly private is very, very hard.  As suggested above, I will re-post this to the general board.

Generally speaking I never understood why people I know put their phone number on Facebook?  This is just crazy !

You know what's even funnier is that facebook stores what you searched for, across all devices.  So if you don't delete your searches your wife can see you searching for dozens of phone numbers... which if she googles them are going to lead straight to escorts.

I do that too. So easy to find out about these women. I guess the ones just looking to make some quick money are not thinking clearly.

I'm not a genius but not a dummy. I had no idea it was so easy to tap into my world until Navy pointed it out ever so clearly for me. I guess I foolishly assumed that since I don't dig intoyyour life that you would extend the same courtesy.  

Just to be clear. I do not dig into one's personal life as a matter of course. My only intent was to illustrate the ease with which it could be done. I provided the illustration to you privately only for the purpose of illumination and education. I respect every woman's privacy as I would hope they would respect mine.

Here are some basics:

1. Never use your real name or even part of your real name on anything associated with your working life. This includes on review boards, ads, and especially when registering your provider email address.

2. Do not use your personal phone number on anything associated with your working life. Better to pay a bit more and have a second phone.

3. Do not register your working website using your real name. Use a proxy web provider when registering your website.

4. Never have a working profile and a personal profile posted on the same social media website (e.g., Facebook).

5. Never, ever post the same photo on a working profile and a personal profile.

6. Try not to reveal to many personal details as you get to know someone. We are all naturally social creatures and want to share parts of our lives. Children's names, even first names, should never be revealed. There are only so many kids in a school with a given first name. Narrow down the town, to the school, to the name and you have already narrowed the possible pool of people to very few. The same goes for your own High School, College, year graduated. With each bit of personal information, you reveal yourself a bit more to someone that you do not really know that well. The seemingly innocuous personal bits of info that you give away combined with readily available public information rips away whatever anonymity you think that you may have built around your working life.

6. Consider not having personal profiles on social media. If you do then ensure you use the maximum privacy settings.

7. Just because you delete something on the web does not mean it is gone. Check out web archiving sites such as the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web/

These are just a few quick tips