How do you do for scrapping and keeping your privacy?
 

Hello sweet members,

I'm not really new here but I never came on the forum before and I stop doing scrap during about 4 years (I can't really explain it) but I always follow what was new and read the threads.

Actually I would love post more layout in my gallery but I feel really annoying by the problem of privacy pictures especially for my children.

I'm not a social media user and I always told that I would never post a pic of one of my baby on internet.

But a layout is a little bit different from a photo alone...

I try to find some ideas : add blur to the face? But it's less powerful for the page I find. Add kind of a mask? Same answer!
Add a kind of copyright text on the picture? Look strange...

The only thing I find is not add journaling text with names and specific details but I feel frustrated because it something I do for me.

So what to do?

I have some layouts I keep for me and family. I don't know if some "bad" people can stole your layout or picture and re-use it with bad intentions?

I'm curious how do you do? How do you feel on this point?

Please help me to find what solution fit me better and share your opinions about this subject it will be very interesting I'm sure!:)

I struggle with that, too. I'm not so much worried about someone stealing my photo for a negative purpose, more about some creep tracking my kids down or a future employer using info I post about them in a job decision. I deal with it by not sharing our last name or any details that someone could use to identify them or our exact location (like school names, local restaurants, etc.) anywhere that I post scrapbook pages. I still put those details on my personal pages, but I either change the page before I post it or blur those details out. I feel comfortable posting here with the precautions I mentioned above, but I won't participate on SSD's facebook page because that isn't possible on FB.

For me, deciding how much I wanted to share online came down to what my ultimate purpose was in sharing pages online (with respect to scrapbooking, at least; other social media has different criteria for me). I got into digital scrapbooking through another forum, and the first page I ever made and posted was for one of their challenges. At that point, I'd been on social media for several years, and my only family was (and still is) my family of origin. My sister is a grown adult; I don't mind sharing photos of her and my family, even though they're not big on social media. Because I started sharing pages to take part in challenges and get feedback on my pages, I didn't mind so much how much was on them. They were also pretty impersonal vacation pages, as far as personally identifying features went (I've since met one lady who was on the same site and I didn't even realize it was her until I saw her on instagram later). I didn't mind blurring out anything too personal because the goal of sharing was participating in challenges; if anything qualifying had to be blurred out, then it wouldn't be a good fit so I did something else.

Once I went beyond vacation scrapping, suddenly there were more personally identifying things. I don't mind posting any photos that wouldn't be visible on my facebook profile. The journaling I don't worry about so much; I don't do the intensive emotional outpouring in my own scrapbooking so I don't withhold posting on that. That said, with my current job, many of the integral story parts I scrapbook about are bound up in confidentiality (the downside of having coworkers as friends). I can't share certain things on social media, so it's not a big deal to me to do a quick read through of my journaling and blur out the stuff I can't share online (or anything that would reflect poorly on me if an employer found out, like about going out or bad language. I think most scrapping sites from on that anyway, so it's easy to gloss over). Since most of the pages I post here are for the bingo challenges, as long as the rest of the page fits the requirements, I don't worry about blurry spots. Anything too borderline I just don't post. Honestly, I'm also just lazy and plenty of pages I do that are just run of the mill, no challenge attached, I don't even bother to post online.

Another weird privacy quick, that isn't technically private as it's not too too hard to connect the dots; I just keep my personal social media away from my scrapbooking. I'm more concerned about my real life friends/coworkers finding my scrapping identity! I occasionally post to instagram and technically my friends can find my stuff if they're willing to put in the time, but I generally keep that part of my life separate. Because I am on social media, better photos of me are available to any creepers who want to use them for sketchy purposes, so I've stopped worrying about my scrapping ones.

I don't have kids yet, so I'm not yet in the position of having to make that call. I'd like to think I'd err on the side of caution and just try not to post anything to identifying or embarrassing; whether that means having a ton of blurred out words/photos or just deleting journaling, I don't know yet. If my goal in sharing these layouts was to give family/friends a way to look at my stuff, I'd probably just stick uncensored layouts in a private photobucket or facebook album (or whatever the current site is for private photo sharing), and put the ones I want to share with other scrappy people in a gallery with everything blurred out, as I like to hope that the composition/journaling of my pages generally gets across the story I want to tell. Now, if it comes out in the news that scrapbook sites are being mined for personal info/photos, then I'll probably change my mind; however (and I may be totally off-base), scrapping sites have always seemed pretty far off the radar because of the work it'd take to pull the (relatively) low res photos away from all the flowers and papers. And there's my unexpected novel on internet privacy - I didn't mean for it to get this long!

I journal a lot, but I also don't include the important stuff. Like I did a layout about my son and the journal card was information about his birth, full name, etc. For the web, I removed it all and left it blank because if you know my son's first and middle name, plus his birth date, it won't be that hard to find too much information about him and possibly his social security number.

In the beginning when I started scrapping I blurred my children's photos out, but that prevented me from getting on some fabulous creative teams. When the movie Coraline came out, I started putting buttons on my children's eyes. Then one day I got a nasty private message about how I was abusing my children by sewing buttons on their face.

So I got to thinking. I want to protect my identity, my children's identity and keep our family safe, especially with my husband being in the military. How do I do this? (1) I never post my photo as my avatar (2). I try very hard not to let people know my real name or current address. Just like here at SSD, in the store, my last name is Smith and my address---sorry Robyn, it's made up. But lately with paying in some stores, they are requiring my address match my paypal's address. I've been struggling with buying from said stores because I don't want too much information to get out there.

One thing that makes me nervous is social media. Right now I'm on several designers creative teams, but their teams are in Facebook Groups. While I understand it's easier to maintain FB Groups, sometimes I feel it sharing too much of my identity. Right now, I'll "friend" said designer, have them add me to their group, and then quickly "unfriend" them as I keep my friends list just to family and friends (mostly people I've met, grown up with, etc.) Social Media is kind of infringing on my privacy as I've tried for so many years to keep my identity safe.

If you were to google search my real name with my username, thank goodness (so far), you won't any photos of my children or layouts that I've created--all thanks to keeping the same username for the past 11+ years!

Keeping your family safe is totally something you should think about and always be aware if you are oversharing. I saw in one gallery, a birthday invite they had made with their mailing address and phone number! I was shocked, messaged her and she didn't realize what she had done was too much information.

Right now, your username isn't a legal name. If it were me and I were starting all over again, I'd keep it all under an alias without oversharing. Just make sure your kids are decent. No matter what you do to protect your family 100% of the time, there will always be that one person who can use a name to get their jollys. You can't keep everyone from doing something with your photos/layouts, but you can control what you post online.

I think it's also getting a lot thornier now that so many people are connecting all of their social media accounts to Facebook (by using their Facebook login to register for other sites). I'm like you and keep those things separate--Facebook is for real life family and friends. Instagram is for scrapping and scrap friends, so I limit my identifying information there at least as much as I do here. But in the last week or so, Instagram has been showing me people I know in real life and asking if I want to follow them. I'm guessing that those people shared their FB friends list with IG, but it makes me very uncomfortable. I'm hoping they aren't being shown my information since I didn't give permission; that seems to be the case since none of my real life contacts has followed me on IG. But I'm considering setting up a dummy email address to use for IG so that they can't link me to FB contacts. (Neither of the sites has the email address I give friends and family, but they do have the same one because I don't want FB emails in my main email inbox.)

I haven't read the other responses yet, but when I upload my layouts I do so in good faith that other scrappers viewing my children's pictures will leave it at that (and perhaps leave a comment if they feel moved to do so). Journalling that contains key information (such as my son's preschool or the name of the suburb we live in) get blurred/scrubbed out of uploaded layouts.

Anything containing photos of people outside our family (family friends' children, etc) I either blur or don't upload to galleries at all - while we have rules in our house for family privacy, I would never intrude upon other families' wishes without their knowledge.

I don't feel comfortable sharing that much online either. It's difficult because I want to participate more, especially here, but I don't feel comfortable posting anything that is too personal. The layouts I post here are very basic and never include identifiable photos of people. I wish there were generic photos we could use in our layouts online. I've tried using "place savers" or blurring and I don't like the look of that so I usually end up not posting at all.

Since you asked if people could use your photos on not good sites I will say a blogger friend found photos of her children were being pulled from her blog and posted on other sites so you are right in thinking it could happen. The blogger has since worked on deleting photos of her children from her blog.

Good luck. I admire that you are working to protect your children's safety and privacy online. I hope you can find a way to participate here that is comfortable for you.

I don't mind sharing photos, my way of thinking is there's weirdo people in the streets/ shops I go to anyway so if they really wanted a photo them could take one themselves without my knowledge.

I don't really post my journalling online though, I have it on my print size pages but not on my gallery size pages, not sure why I don't share it but it's not something I've ever done. There's lots of personal details that I'd like to keep private.

I struggled with that a lot when I first started digitally scrapping on-line. I would blur faces for awhile and then I started adding pieces from whatever kit was on the page (like a flower over the face that matched the flowers on the page itself - when I printed, I removed them). Then, one day, I printed a bunch of pages and they came back with no faces!
I felt like trying to "hide" became a huge thing and it did not make me happy. I found myself spending way too much extra time covering up my page instead of spending that time creating. Once, I pulled back on the hiding part, I was much happier.
Now, I am careful what I scrap, still, but I don't hide faces or most of my journaling. I do not do pages of other's kids (like a school field trip) unless you can't really see them or I have permission. I don't share personal info in my journaling - school names, address, etc.
I am sure if a predator or whatever tried, they could figure it out, but otherwise, I just try to use common sense.
I create my pages to create joy - sharing them with family that are far away, sharing with other in the digi world to get feedback, and joy is what I like to get out of them for myself. I want to keep the joy!

This is how I feel also. I've been posting layouts for 16 years now (even when I paper scrapped I scanned my layouts and posted them). I don't post them to my personal FB wall because no one IRL scraps, so I only post them to a couple closed scrapbook groups and to store galleries. Of course I don't put full names, addresses, etc.

The only exception was I never posted a layout that showed DH's face when he was alive (and I still don't now actually) due to his position/job in the Marines... let's just say his was a high security clearance position and we definitely safeguarded his identity.

When I want to keep something private I tend to leave off my personal journaling and just add the date on layouts I post (sometimes location if it was a travel page in case someone is interested in planning a vaca to see for themselves). I do add journaling to the page before printing when I'm ready to add it to our scrapbook.

I really have not thought about it. My facebook is set to private so only my "friends" can see my pages. I don't want everything out there but I also know with kids being in sports or just out at playgrounds/pools etc anyone can take a photo.

If my journaling is personal or has identifiable details, I replace it with the lorem ipsum text for the web gallery version. Like this:

https://www.sweetshoppecommunity.com...4-Hello-wm.jpg

This way you can still see that's there is journaling and how I incorporated it into my page design.

As for faces, I don't worry about my own family, but I always blur other people.

What is lorem ipsum text? How do you get it? It is a translator in Photoshop?

I try not to stress over this too much. I think most significant privacy breaches are going to be from "hacking" of records on a large scale, not someone perusing scrapbook websites trying to read the tiny journaling print. :D That said, I don't gratuitously post a bunch of personal data about us and avoid discussing my children's medical details in public forums. I do have a (long-neglected) blog where I blog about our daily lives but as far as I can tell, no one reads it. :D

Lorem ipsum is super handy! I wrote about it on TDD blog.

I keep things on my facebook private except for my scrap pages. I also block my pictures from everyone but, my friends. The only people I allow are normally people I know around the scrap world I've known on the computer for years. I even have some of my family blocked from them. At 700 x 700 they could only share the layout. The photos would be hard to use. If they want to do something tacky anyway. They will find a way.

I'm like many, I don't mind posting photos to the gallery, but I will blur out or leave out journaling of any identifiers. I also do not link to FB or other social media. As others have mentioned, no one in my RL scraps, so they would have very little use for the layouts, and I don't want the layouts to be connected to me through that means.

I really do like the idea of using the Lorem Ipsum text in certain contexts... I don't mind sharing a poem or a loving thought I wrote to my children, but in certain contexts where the journaling is more "here and now", it could certainly be useful. Thanks for the tip Heddy!

I am somewhat of a private person and can be guarded with info. I don't generally journal on my pages, so I don't personally have any privacy concerns with that aspect, but if I was someone that did a lot of journaling, I'd probably leave it off the version I posted online if it were too personal. I think it depends on the situation.

Regarding photos. I am not concerned about posting photos. Anyone can take pictures of you when you are in public and do something with it, right? ... and I think there are A LOT more accessible photos people could be using than ones that are low resolution images embedded in scrapbook pages ... and really what can someone do with the photo anyway? I've been scrapping now for 8+ years and I've never heard of an issue with someone stealing photos and using them in bad way. I totally understand that it's personal preference ... and not everyone is comfortable sharing photos. I find overly blurred or blacked out photos to be super distracting to the page, but I do think it can be done subtly and look fine.

I have to admit, I'm sometimes surprised at how much people are willing to share with the public.

A big THANK YOU for all your answers to this thread! I didn't expect to receive so much answers and all your points of view and sharing are very interesting and I learn really much for all your experiences.:thumbup::wub:

To be honest, I'm still sure I don't want to have a social media account right now but concerning the layouts, you all have pertinents comments.:thumbup:

About the size of pictures, you're right it's not the better for using it. At least I talk about stole it because some years ago, one of my friend had her pictures from her blog stolen like Scrap2day, a young girl use it to tell it was her baby... :thumbdown:

But for sure anybody can take a picture of you out and you can't control all. And I'm pretty sure paparazzi doesn't waiting for my family and me!:D And y pics are far to be nice professional pics.:blink:

I don't know what kind of other bad use can be done with a layout?
I'm just concerning about not giving personal information because I don't want to say a lot on internet but now I feel more comfortable with all your messages and I see what I can do to be quiet with this. :wub:

Concerning the journaling: A big thank you at Luckyme for the Lorem ipsum text which is a total good idea and an interesting solution for journaling.
Most of you blur some too personal info which is also seem good or at least not put it too.

About the pictures, I agree with you that isn't a big deal if I don't add too much information. I think I'm going to post more and feel less stress about that. I will keep some info private but I know I can share with you and hope I really can improve my scrapbooking method!
I think too that blurred or blacked out photos are distracting to the page and sometimes look starnges. So I feel it's not the solution for the pics of my family not the others members of course.

And I didn't think of those who have military husbands, for sure privacy is just super important for you! Especially with all the terrible things that happens actually... Pray and think of all of yours!

As Aurian said I want to do it in a good faith too that people who are here will only come to see my layout in a good spirit as I do when I visit the gallery (that I totally love!).

I'm kind of discrete person so that's maybe why I have this difficulty of sharing but anyway I don't judge those who enjoy posting pics easily. I think it's interesting to read your opinions too!

I just can say that sometimes I feel bad to read some people (not here) when they share just too much you feel you don't have to know all their life and you have this feeling to intruse their life without asking it. Like SeattleSheri said I'm sometimes surprised at how much people are willing to share with the public too.

I'm probably a little bit kind of paranoiac person but as Rach3975 I also think of "some creep tracking my kids down or a future employer using info I post about them in a job decision".
But I realize that there are not so much links to do with just layout.:closedeyes:

So I really want to thank you, I read you all, I can't answer personally to all even if I would love to do it but Thank you so much again!!!!!!

I wish you all a nice end of week and a super week end!!!!!!!
Thank you for taking time to answer me and I'm really happy with all yours answers.
Can't wait to see you here or in the gallery!;)

Just a little note, I'm sorry for my English I try to improve it too but it isn't perfect anymore, Hope you'll understand all I want to say.:)

Looks like you got some amazing advice from everyone. It is hard to decide what is best and it's a very personal decision for everyone. I don't usually add the journaling for my online pages. I will usually add it to the page after I have posted it online.

Hello Melissa,
Yes I'm so glad!:) SSD members rocks for sure!:)
Totally agree with you, it's very hard do decide and you are true it's very personal! Your choice for journaling is interesting too, I'm not quite sure of what to do but it's a possibility that I like. Thanks you for your help!:)

This is a great idea!

Personally, I dont mind sharing pics of my family (adults with permission from them). My nephew is fostered, so I cannot share pics of him. I don't share personal details though.

I struggle with this as well. It has definitely limited my posting to the gallery here and my postings to my personal FB page as well. I essentially stopped doing both a few years ago and this issue recently played a big part in my decision to step down from a creative team that I was on.

I love SSD and I love when the forums are active. I love looking at everybody's previews and the gallery so this is a struggle for me. I would love to hear what Robin and the rest of the team has to say about this. It is hard to keep an active forum without posting layouts right?

i am the opposite i think , i post my layouts for more then 10 years now and also am on sociale media for that time , i grow up with it and never thought about it as something scary etc . the only thing i dont share on layouts are last names and adress information on accounts i trust i dont mind giving them . I think if you are really honest if you send someone a snailmail it also can end up in the wrong hands . I can be scared about everything but what kind of life do i have then?? if i share a layout with friends or familly on it i always ask if i can share it if i don't know if they are ok with it or not because i think everyone much decided that for them self . My son is 13 and using sociale media but whe have one rule that he needs to give us his paswords so whe can look on it when whe want .