Hi everyone,
It can be difficult to know how to share experiences based around personal or health based topics. Many of you might be worried about your privacy. This post will hopefully shed some light and give you some tips for your peace of mind.
How can I stay anonymous?
The most important thing to remember is that HealthUnlocked is designed for anonymity. You don’t need to share any personal identifiable information to gain support or access resources on HealthUnlocked.
Some simple ways to stay anonymous are:
-Choosing a username that doesn’t correspond to your real name. You can change an existing username via your Settings page: healthunlocked.com/settings
-When posting images on the site, take care not to share photos that have your name or personal details in e.g. test results, letters etc.
-If you want to exchange personal contact details with another HealthUnlocked member, do so via private messages
Who can read my posts/ replies/ private messages?
When writing a post, you can choose to make it visible to:
a) Anyone
b) Only community members
Selecting “Anyone” means that your post and replies to it are visible to anyone who has clicked onto them for advice and support. It also means that they could show up in search engines such as Google, if someone is looking for something similar and relevant to what you have posted. By selecting “Anyone”, you’re making it more likely that others like you can find the Changing Faces community and benefit from the support here.
If you select “Only community members”, anyone who is not following your community will only see the title and first line of your post. None of the replies to your post will be visible, nor will the author’s username, and they will not show up in search engines.
However, please note that anyone can join a HealthUnlocked community. Selecting “Only community members” is not a replacement for practicing basic online anonymity.
Your private messages are only visible to you and the person/people you are private messaging. If a PM is reported, HealthUnlocked Support staff can see a “snippet” of it to deem whether or not it needs to be investigated.
If you ever have any questions or concerns about how to stay safe and private on HealthUnlocked, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Support Team at support@healthunlocked.com.
Best wishes,
SamChangingFaces (admin)