FreeRepublic.com uses google-analytics and Facebook; and both of those organizations’ politics beg the question of how they pass along your information.
FreeRepublic.com - “mail” - is NOT secure, nor are the FreeRepublic.com webpages; they are ALL “clear text” across the Internet.
The owners and managers of FreeRepublic.com are nearly sphynx-like, in their reporting of the FreeRepublic.com servers’ status in regard to when, if ever, penetration testing occurs. Which testing, should be run weekly in the case of FreeRepublic.com.
I hasten to add, that John Robinson probably has various penetration testing routines running around the clock; but it might help to have somebody else regularly take a whack at the place.
The brass may already be doing that; my reply 15 above, wonders, because we don’t hear about it.