giotto posted on Sunday, June 26, 2011 10:51:37 PM: “For as long as I’ve been on the web, I have always operated on the assumption that any and everything I put on the internet can and will be seen by anyone in the universe.”
And that is a very important piece of advice to remember.
I periodically Google myself just to see what's out there. I probably shouldn't have been surprised to find the earliest reference was from the 1970s, prior to the creation of the modern internet. I've been able to find things by family members dating back to the 1960s that I have absolutely no doubt they never had a reason to believe would go public, but which have been made public by mandates that government records be released.
Even old stuff from BBS systems sometimes gets archived and shows up on the internet, not to mention college publications, old newspapers, and other books and magazines getting digitized.
If you don't want everyone to be able to read what you say, don't say it, and **DEFINITELY** don't write it.
"Never write if you can speak; never speak if you can nod; never nod if you can wink,"