Sightwork

Singing up for things on the Web is easy; very often too easy. Whenever you sing up for something you’re sharing a certain amount of information. Some of this is relatively innocuous, but some of it isn’t and you need to decide which is which on a case by case basis. It’s fine to give your name, address, email, and credit card number to the folks at Amazon.com because they want you to be happy and they understand that they are building a trust relationship. IncrediblyCheapBarginsForever.com may not be quite as reliable. Common sense is one guide and recommendations from other users is another, but the best rule is this: “Don’t share any information you don’t have to.” Let’s take an example, if you want to leave a comment on any of the SightWork nodes you’re going to be ask for a name and an email address. Now if you want us to know who you are and maybe to establish a relationship use your name and a valid email. If on the other hand you’d rather remain anonymous “Ms. Zeniio” and nobody@nowhere.com will also work. Some sites, most notably those that are going to ‘give’ you something, actually want an email address that works. This doesn’t mean that you need to give them ‘your’ email, not exactly. In these instances what you need to do is create an account at Gmail, HotMail, or Yahoo under some other name/identity and use that address when you sign up to download this, that, or the other. It’s free and if your ‘anonymous’ inbox fills up with spam it’s not a real big deal.