I realize the risks, given my many years in Law Enforcement, but I would add that about anyone with any kind of keyboard competency can obtain address info pretty easily, along with a ton of other stuff that you would never think of. There are all kinds of public databases out there....you just need to look in the right place. Ever hand someone a written check? I know they are less and less common these days.....but you realize you just handed them your bank account and routing number, along with your name and often times your address and phone number. Doesn't make it right...and I am not saying you should not protect the info....what I am saying is not to have a false sense of security because you only frequent so-called "secure" sites. And the guy that "died" because someone swatted his address.....that address wasn't even correct. It was a fake address one person gave to the other as his own when they were arguing....the problem was, he pulled it out of thin air. That could happen to anyone at any time. In the KS case, the guy that got shot was completely innocent, and having his address published somewhere had absolutely nothing to do with the case...he just had the mis-fortune of living at the address the guy made up.

Good lord...has it really come to this?

Personally, this is my favorite

Trust me, after all these years in law enforcement, I work hard to keep the personal info scrubbed as much as possible, but I have quite a few cases that I was involved in which were public view, so I am out there quite a bit. I once had an inmate give every prisoner getting paroled my phone number and address he got in the early days of internet. I got all kinds of phone calls and letters threatening myself and my family. It went on for months, so I know the dangers. But today, all you need to do is search your local county or state property tax databases, and you can get a ton of info. Most of those sites are mandated public by law. Court records, and other public sites are also open by design. I can probably even find pics of the inside of your house if it was listed to one of the realtor databases.

My point is, it's a digital world, and we should never give up protecting our personal info and privacy. But just because you follow all of the best practices, doesn't mean you aren't out there for the world to see. I wasn't arguing...merely pointing out how insecure we all are. I think we agree on that point...lol

For over two years I signed pretty much everything that wasn't a court document with the name John Wayne....it started as a gag and then became a challenge....no one ever noticed. Time sheets, evaluations, checks....everything. I even made the name purposely legible....but still no one noticed. After a couple of years, I finally gave up, but it basically proved how worthless a signature is.