ATTENTION ! Someone posted on r/Rivendell_Bicycles the map of Rivendell bike owners

[Kim H.]

I noticed this just a while ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Rivendell_Bicycles/comments/16ivfb0/rivendell_bike_owner_map/

I have no association with the OP whatsoever.

Is this going to be of a great concern or not ?

Kim Hetzel

Yelm, WA.

[Kim H.]

Hello John Rinker ......

Kim Hetzel.

[Eric Marth]

I love how many people listed their home addresses so you can go and snag their Rivs out of their sheds! 

[Ted W]

An innocent idea but on the public Internet, quite dangerous. Sure, the odds are low that someone will use the information maliciously, but why risk it?

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[Brian Turner]

Hopefully this is the closest this list ever gets to the Nextdoor app.

On Sep 15, 2023, at 8:23 AM, Ted W <ted.l...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Luke Hendrickson]

I listed an address of my fave fish taco spot as my home address :) Be careful out there y’all

[John Rinker]

Good morning Kim and all,

Thank you for the heads-up on the Reddit thing. I'm not sure what it means that someone copied the map. Does this mean they've copied all the data as well? For benign or nefarious purposes? Maybe they just think it's cool?

Has anybody who posted on the map recently had their bike stolen from their garage?

I'm not quite sure what to say other than what seemed like a fun, innocent idea obviously is perceived to have a darker side. I get the reality of our world, but I choose to move through it assuming the best in people, and such efforts are born from this.  

I will go through the spreadsheet and where there are house numbers listed I'll delete the numbers, if that might make some feel more secure.

Please shoot me an email if you wish to be deleted from the map or to change your address to a cross street or a taco stand.

Cheers,

John

[Josh C]

Yeah, I put Eric's address as my own...

[Eric Marth]

John — Of course the map itself doesn't have a dark-sided or hidden intent. I know you're trying to help people connect and I appreciate the gesture. However there is no telling what people can and will do with a database like this. Because this forum is visible to the public I would never add my street address. I am reminded of a story about someone who had two valuable Rene Herse bicycles stolen and they later figured out their home address was visible on Strava. 

It seems the Reddit post was deleted but the original map is easy to find here. I know it's uncomfortable to think that people could use this information for nefarious purposes. But the fun and innocent oroginal intent doesn't reduce the risk. I think because the visible members of the forum are kind and generous it's easy to think that anyone reading our posts has a similar mindset. But as we've seen with some recent scam sales there are registered members looking to take advantage of others. And, again, the entire forum is publicly visible to anyone with an internet connect. 

Just my perspective with an interest in looking out for other board members. 

Eric 

Fredericksburg, USA 

[Caroline Golum]

Seems like the subreddit is pretty sparsely attended so at least there's that!

[Brian Turner]

Seems like the solution to this would be to just pick a random point in your city, or a favorite establishment’s address, or a park or what have you. Let that be your location on the map.

On Sep 15, 2023, at 2:28 PM, Caroline Golum <carolin...@gmail.com> wrote:

Seems like the subreddit is pretty sparsely attended so at least there's that!

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[Kim H.]

@John -

Thank-you for your thoughts and offering to help.

Kim Hetzel

Yelm, WA.

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[Benjamin L. Kelley]

and for those that failed to read the actual website before raising their hackles and wildly speculating and adding unrelated stories, If you don't want to put your home address, it recommends hoosing a random address in your town or vague lat/long to add some anonymity but also to keep the markers from overlapping when just entering the city.

Not sure what all the fuss is about eitherway. 1: this has nothing to do with reddit other than that's where the link to the existing site was posted.  2: The site was originally posted on iBOB long ago, and I think here too.

3: Everyone self signed up, it's not like this was data scraped from other sources or from any sales records.  

Nobody's info is out there that didn't want it out there.

--ben in KC

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[John Rinker]

Dear All,

Apologies for the late response. I've been out canoeing and camping in this gorgeous Fall weather!

So far, anybody who has asked to be removed has been so (with the exception of Stoker because I can't find you on the map).

I have also removed a few street addresses upon request and changed them to crossroads in your town.

Again, if you like the map and want to be on it, but are uncomfortable with your location being known, please choose a taco stand, the police station, or the local food bank as your address. 

If you want out, please let me know and give me your name and town as you appear on the map.

Cheers, John

[Chester]

I don't want to come across as being an alarmist or encouraging people to be paranoid but if someone has your full name and city of residence, it can take just a few seconds of Internet searching to get your address. It's easier to find the right listing if the name is more unique and/or the city is smaller.

It's pretty much impossible to obscure yourself if you shop online. When you enter in your purchasing/shipping information, that information will get resold to companies that sell access to databases. But, without paying a dime, it's easy to look up a name and find current and prior addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, names of people one lived with, etc. There's also harvesting of property tax records and other data sources. 

All that said, I doubt that there is much appeal in a bike thief trying to specifically target Rivendell owners for home burglaries. There are much more common and more valuable bicycles to target that are also much more easy to sell on the down-low. And there are a lot of more seemingly prevalent ways for thieves to find targets. Follow riders they see riding expensive rigs. Drive through neighborhoods and notice what's inside of open garages. Look for $1000+ bike racks on vehicles. Or just take an angle grinder out on the streets.

Chester

SF Bay Area

[Kim H.]

Hi Chester,

I thank-you for your truthful and reality check, regarding the impossibility of feeling secure over and through the internet these days. It is like you can run, but you cannot hide from the vast available information on the internet about you and other people.

Kim Hetzel, who once lived in the South Bay Area and moved north over 40 years ago.

Yelm, WA.

[Joe Bernard]

I'm not particularly alarmist and I know info can be found on the internet if someone puts effort into it, but I stopped signing city and state after my name here a few years ago. To quote the great Olivia Rodrigo, it's a bad idea, right?  

Joe Bernard

somewhere out there 

On Tuesday, September 19, 2023 at 2:25:51 PM UTC-7 Chester wrote: