Privacy starts with understanding the difference between public content and profile content. When you are on DailyStrength you can post to a discussion, comment on a member's journal entry -- these are all public content, like saying something in a crowd. We provide no privacy controls for public content.
Then there is also profile content: your journals, photos, and profile information -- all of the content that shows up on your profile page. This profile content, that you create and maintain, can all be protected via our privacy features. The only exception here is your username and avatar (main profile picture) since those are used to identify you on the site in areas like our discussion boards -- hence, your username, profile cover photo and avatar are public.
For members who want to restrict access to some or all of their profile content, we offer the following features:
Journal Privacy - for each journal entry you can choose which group of users can view: everyone, just friends, or just me.
Photo Privacy - for each photo upload you can choose which user group can view: everyone, just friends, or just me.
Profile Privacy - you can choose which user group can view your profile page and all profile content: everyone, DailyStrength members, just friends.
The definition of each user group is as follows:
Everyone - all members and visitors to DailyStrength
DailyStrength Members - all signed-in DailyStrength members
Just Friends - only DailyStrength members on your friends list
Just Me - only you
A Special Note About Google and Other Search Engines
One of the hottest privacy topics here concerns having the content you share with DailyStrength showing up in Google and other search engines. Please understand that the content you post publicly (discussion posts, comments) is always available to Google and other search engines.
Specifically About Anonymity
Anonymity is a little different that privacy, and the two can easily be confused. If you want to be open and sharing, but don't want to 'link' your DailyStrength membership with your real-world self, you are looking to be anonymous. There are three very easy and simple steps to take if you want to maintain anonymity on DailyStrength:
1. Use a random username that doesn't include your name, location, age, or other distinguishable characteristic. If you are an existing member and want to change your username to something less identifying, submit a request with our Member Care Team. Changing your username can take time (and sometimes may not be done), since we have to review all requests manually to deter abuse. And you can only change your username once.
2. Use a random photo as your avatar/profile photo.
3. Don't post any personally identifiable information like your name, age, location, phone number, where you work, etc., or photos of yourself, family, or friends without privacy protection.
To Wrap Up
By using the right combination of privacy settings for yourself and being selective of the personal information you share, you should be able to find a level of privacy that makes you the most comfortable. That is what we strive for here at DailyStrength. If not, please let us know by contacting our Member Care team.