I recently wrote a blog post on my Dutch blog about elections and asked my wife if I could use a picture of our daughter. She said yes, but also asked if I'm willing to put my very personal take regarding politics online..

Some background information

I have a very long history with Habbo (an online community for teenagers), have hosted a fansite for years and I'm still hosting something.

It's the reason I've been doing web-development since 2004, but also why I know a thing or two about security. And unfortunately, also privacy. At the peak of everything there were a lot of scriptkiddies that were plaguing Habbo fansites as well as Habbo itself.

I would have to explain to my mom to not pick up the phone if it sounds dodgy, because they'd prank call up my house. The phone number taken from the website's WHOIS records.

And so, early on, I learned this mindset of "anything you post online, is there forever" and I guess the rest of that quote would be "even if you delete it". I've seen it happen too many times, with screenshots, archives or leaks.

Strangers on the internet

My parents aren't very tech-savvy, but when I was growing up and we got our first computer with internet access, they kept mentioning this cliche warning about "strangers on the internet".

Meanwhile I'm making friends under pseudonyms, chatting with them on Habbo and MSN Messenger. I even visited some of them in real life. Across international borders even.

My parents however, would post on Facebook, name and photo included, of what I was doing. Open for anyone to see. Of course this reached only as far as my local little village, friends and family. But it's eternal, and still searchable.

Now that I'm a parent myself, I'm having a hard time with it as well. I want to protect my child's privacy, but at the same time, I want to share our experiences as a family. I've decided to not really show their faces, I'm staunchly against biometrics, maybe a topic for another day.

Liam Neeson-like paranoia

Given my history, I'm quite paranoid about any type of hints. We've seen how well OSINT works. In fact, my wife is very good internet sleuth and it's scary how much you can find with very little information.

And so I asked my wife, can I use this picture, where the back of our daughter is visible, people can see her hair style, her clothing. Part of me thinks "it can be any girl in the world" and the other part is "I hope she grows quickly, so we can buy a new never-seen-on-the-internet outfit soon".

I think when they reach their teenage years, I might not even blog about them anymore or just ask for consent.

I admit it's a bit of an oxymoron, thinking I'd need to behave like Liam Neeson on one hand, but on the other hand continuously wonder if anyone ever reads this.

To answer my wife's initial question: yes, I'm willing to put my very personal (leftist) take regarding politics online. But in a Netherlands that's turning fascist, I'm happy with the line I walk regarding sharing my (and my family's) life, versus staying vigilant and slightly paranoid.