On Nov 12, 6:17*pm, Jack Campin wrote:

The information is accurate. *I've had a sig like that on every message
I've posted to Usenet since 1983 - tens of thousands of messages. *No
"trouble" like you're imagining has ever occurred.

It's not my imagination. I have spoken to others who have regretted
revealing personal information.

Facebook asks for vastly more data and makes it as difficult as
possible for you to make effective use of their system if you
don't hand it over.

I've never had that problem, Jack. I have no apps on Facebook, and the
only factual info Facebook or newsgroups have about me is that I live
in Toronto - but so do a couple of million other people. Even my birth
date is inaccurate. I'm not being paranoid when I protect my identity.
It just makes good sense, whether it's a newsgroup or Twitter or
Facebook or any other social media.