Hi, requiring people's Date of Birth is a security risk for the users, as well as the site... it makes the site a bigger target for identity thieves. Thanks, Barry
Barry, I have changed the default setting to only show a member's birth year. Unfortunately this is not a retroactive change. If you would like to disable your birthdate to be shown, you can do it here. Just uncheck the "Show day and month of birth" and the "Show year of birth" checkboxes. Make sure you press save at the bottom of the page after you uncheck those two checkboxes!
Hi, thanks I did find that setting, but I'm more thinking of if someone were to hack in and download the user database, then they'd potentially have everyone's email, password, and DoB... they really love DoB as it can be used to get (steal) credit, even without having an SSN.
After talking it over with Adam, we have decided to make the Date of birth field an optional field during registration. Thanks for the input everyone!
One thought on this - I assume that the requirement is to make sure that members are adults; I would have thought that the year of birth would be sufficient information for most purposes. I wouldn't mind if the year (but not the day and month) were optionally visible, since it give a better idea who you're talking to.
You can do the required settings in your personal data. Then a nice "bussines card" with your name, gender, age and other informations will appear when someone clicks on your name or avatar.
Just tried it again - if I switch it on anyone can find my date of birth by looking at my profile, in the same way that I can find yours by looking at your profile. It can't be set to show year only; the only settings that work are off, day and month, and day, month, and year. But I have the word "retired" as my profession, that's probably enough of a clue that I'm not a teenager, so I'm not going to pursue it.
It was changed just after I joined, two days before you joined. And to be honest, I didn't enter my real birthday anyway; the year is right, the rest isn't. If the Queen can have two birthdays I don't see why I can't...
Yeah, mean time, the date of birth can be faked by a teenager. I think it really does not matter. If the person has a good behavior, you talk with him.
