2010.06.30 - KATU Confirming TH posting in its Comments Section

[sofia76]

I really doubt anyone is going to sue KATU for this.

 

[pinkpuddytat]

I just did a little Googling on the username she was using at KATU, and was just floored. She appears to be using the same username *everywhere*, and has been for a long time, while also driving around in a car with a vanity plate bearing the same name, which she had a clear photo of on her used-to-be-public Facebook account. As far as I'm concerned, it's perfectly clear that she's never had the slightest interest in privacy on the internet, much less any expectation of it. That's really a sign of out-of-control attention-seeking in my book. The sort of thing that's normal for an adolescent/teenager, but not for adult woman whose has children, and has worked as a teacher (think about it: her students could pull up all her posts to various forums and news sites, see what she's buying on eBay, etc). I mean, her husband is an engineer at Intel -- it's not like she's clueless about how the Internet works. This is on purpose.

I'm sure the FBI profilers noticed this about Terri very early on. No wonder the investigation zeroed in on her so quickly. This woman is just not right in the head.

I have never used the same username on more than one site, whether it's a discussion forum, major media site comment forum, Yahoo ID, eBay -- every single one is totally different, and only my Yahoo ID can be connected to my name (because I choose to use my full real name on the Yahoo Groups I post to, by posting directly from my main personal e-mail account that displays my real name, and the mechanics of the Yahoo Groups system makes it possible to connect the two).

 

[Tricia]

Tricia, have you really examined what happened here? She DID identify herself on their public forum. They did not give out any information about her identity beyond what she had claimed on their public forum. They explained exactly what evidence they had to support HER claim, and how they got it -- via an e-mail address which they had, but did NOT disclose, and the trace of that e-mail address to an internet profile site which they did NOT identify or link to. All they did was explain what reason they have to believe that the poster in question is in fact who SHE said was in the posts.

By the way, they did not say anything about any IP address, unless they've since deleted that from their article. It's possible they did some additional confirmation work that they aren't mentioning (e.g. maybe communicating with the host domain of the e-mail address to inquire if there was any evidence that the account security might have been compromised), but they didn't mention anything in their article besides the undisclosed e-mail address and the fact that they traced that e-mail address to an undisclosed professional internet profile site.

I know she did identify herself and I understand what happened. I'm stunned to see this story on two fronts.

Never seen this happen on any news site before and I thought they did not make it clear that this may not actually be Terri herself but someone on her computer.

Believe me if somone came on WS and used a name only used by a major case player I would try and make sure it was that person by actually calling them on the phone among other things. Even then it is impossible to be certain who is on the other end of the computer.

Like this site Websleuths would only "out" someone if they did it themselves. I guess I should clarify I was only stating what WS would do and not suggesting KATU outed Terri. Terri did it herself if it really is her.

 

[sofia76]

I just did a little Googling on the username she was using at KATU, and was just floored. She appears to be using the same username *everywhere*, and has been for a long time, while also driving around in a car with a vanity plate bearing the same name, which she had a clear photo of on her used-to-be-public Facebook account. As far as I'm concerned, it's perfectly clear that she's never had the slightest interest in privacy on the internet, much less any expectation of it. That's really a sign of out-of-control attention-seeking in my book. The sort of thing that's normal for an adolescent/teenager, but not for adult woman whose has children, and has worked as a teacher (think about it: her students could pull up all her posts to various forums and news sites, see what she's buying on eBay, etc). I mean, her husband is an engineer at Intel -- it's not like she's clueless about how the Internet works. This is on purpose.

I'm sure the FBI profilers noticed this about Terri very early on. No wonder the investigation zeroed in on her so quickly. This woman is just not right in the head.

BBM
My grandmother has the same usernames. She is not attention seeking on the internet. She is just clueless.

Intel is about hardware, not the internet. I know several hackers who use the same passwords for pretty much everything they do online. Being married to a business architect probably has about as much to do with utilizing best practices for Internet chatting as being married to a dentist has to do with not eating popcorn while wearing braces. jmo

 

[evelyn24]

Sorry, if I am getting this wrong...but you "hope TH was smarter than that" :waitasec:

I know, right? IF IF IF she was involved, I certainly hope she's as dumb as Casey, in order to find Kyron and bring justice.

 

[evelyn24]

w

I just did a little Googling on the username she was using at KATU, and was just floored. She appears to be using the same username *everywhere*, and has been for a long time, while also driving around in a car with a vanity plate bearing the same name, which she had a clear photo of on her used-to-be-public Facebook account. As far as I'm concerned, it's perfectly clear that she's never had the slightest interest in privacy on the internet, much less any expectation of it. That's really a sign of out-of-control attention-seeking in my book. The sort of thing that's normal for an adolescent/teenager, but not for adult woman whose has children, and has worked as a teacher (think about it: her students could pull up all her posts to various forums and news sites, see what she's buying on eBay, etc). I mean, her husband is an engineer at Intel -- it's not like she's clueless about how the Internet works. This is on purpose.

I'm sure the FBI profilers noticed this about Terri very early on. No wonder the investigation zeroed in on her so quickly. This woman is just not right in the head.

I have never used the same username on more than one site, whether it's a discussion forum, major media site comment forum, Yahoo ID, eBay -- every single one is totally different, and only my Yahoo ID can be connected to my name (because I choose to use my full real name on the Yahoo Groups I post to, by posting directly from my main personal e-mail account that displays my real name, and the mechanics of the Yahoo Groups system makes it possible to connect the two).

I'm with you on this and I had no idea she identified herself in the posts, and the site was confirming it was indeed her, which is not that outlandish..imo.

 

[Mrs G Norris]

I just did a little Googling on the username she was using at KATU, and was just floored. She appears to be using the same username *everywhere*, and has been for a long time, while also driving around in a car with a vanity plate bearing the same name, which she had a clear photo of on her used-to-be-public Facebook account. As far as I'm concerned, it's perfectly clear that she's never had the slightest interest in privacy on the internet, much less any expectation of it. That's really a sign of out-of-control attention-seeking in my book. The sort of thing that's normal for an adolescent/teenager, but not for adult woman whose has children, and has worked as a teacher (think about it: her students could pull up all her posts to various forums and news sites, see what she's buying on eBay, etc). I mean, her husband is an engineer at Intel -- it's not like she's clueless about how the Internet works. This is on purpose.

I'm sure the FBI profilers noticed this about Terri very early on. No wonder the investigation zeroed in on her so quickly. This woman is just not right in the head.

I have never used the same username on more than one site, whether it's a discussion forum, major media site comment forum, Yahoo ID, eBay -- every single one is totally different, and only my Yahoo ID can be connected to my name (because I choose to use my full real name on the Yahoo Groups I post to, by posting directly from my main personal e-mail account that displays my real name, and the mechanics of the Yahoo Groups system makes it possible to connect the two).

You're absolutely right! Apart from what's going on with her right now, she has left herself WIDE OPEN for internet fraud. Especially by linking her ebay pages along with the car licence plate...I mean, really....I can't imagine she is not as aware as the rest of the online community about this. It's inviting negative attention - which is interesting, psychologically. Hmmm

 

[crystalgenie]

Well at least we know TMH has plenty of time to surf the internet while Kyron is missing. She is not only surfing the internet but she is/was also posting on it.

 

[TrY]

KATU is a Portland, Oregon television station owned by Fisher Broadcasting. They own various tv stations including KOMO in Seattle. If you look at the various media properties by clicking on the Fisher Interactive Network's website linked at the bottom of KATU http://www.fisherinteractive.com/ and go to other media properties they also use the 3rd party software Intense Debate for their commenting section.

The Terms of service link for Intense Debate is http://intensedebate.com/tos. There's hardly an expectation of privacy reading those TOS:

"By Submitting User Submissions on or through the Service, you:

•acknowledge that you are publishing that User Submission, and that you may be identified publicly by any information you Submit (and by your IP address and email address by the applicable blog administrator) in association with any such User Submission;"

KATU had news fall in its lap, would you expect a news organization to do otherwise then to substantiate that TH was posting on their website if they knew or suspected it?

 

[Charlie09]

How is that?

I posted them further up the thread...

 

[21merc7]

Have to tell ya', I have a friend that is a computer programmer, he even worked for Homeland Security for a couple of years. He uses the same username, the same password for everything. And, everything is where he is. All over the internet. The only problem he had was a jealous ex hacking into his "myspace" and spamming everyone from it.

You would think, a programmer, with deviant friends into all sorts of trouble, he knows about all of the internet security, safety, encryption, etc… he would know better. Nope. Or he just doesn't care. Your pick.

I think Terri needs someone to talk with, not just the computer screen. Sounds like a stay at home mom with few outlets to me.

 

[Charlie09]

Wasn't her username the same name as her license plate? I mean "expectation of privacy"......hmmm....then don't have a screen name the same as your license plate.....

I really don't think she was trying to hide her identity even a little bit.

As for confirming her identity with the public, that should have taken a little more thought before doing...for sure.

Not everyone sleuths. About four years ago I made someone on a forum very angry (Politics and Religion) I had always used the same user name on all forums - it just never occurred to me that someone would try to track me down that way, there was nothing to hide and I'm very uninteresting for the most part. But this guy that felt insulted (and he didn't misread me either) spent a lot of time going through posts by that user name, he found one from several years earlier associated with a website....he then posted my name address and telephone number on that forum. (I had already moved to another state, but it was the intent that absolutely floored me.) I now use different names on each forum i go to, but it took something ugly for that happen. I don't think she was necessarily trying to hide who she was, but I don't think she was totally outing herself either. I think (moo) that she probably would have copped to it if asked.

**IF** Terri is not guilty of anything but being unlucky enough to be the last person seen with Kyron, she's learned a very hard lesson in online footprints.

And I don't think there's anything weird about her being online, while Kyron is missing - I can very easily see being at home waiting on news and looking to see if anything was reported that I hadn't heard through LE. She doesn't sound defensive to me, just "wait a minute, here's what you may not know) She's very polite in her request to "refrain" from posting some things that people are just guessing about.

 

[Donjeta]

I'm not going to worry about it. She is not stupid and she has to have known that if she posts about the case using the hat commonly associated with her, referring to Terri Horman as "I" and alleging intimate knowledge of the case, she is going to be recognized and she wouldn't have done so if it was a concern for her. I think it was the point of the posts to get her voice heard.

 

[21merc7]

Also, nothing, I mean NOTHING, you do on the internet is completely private. I saw the posts that are scared because of this. I agree, the media report was unnecessary and not showing good taste, and should not have been reported at all. Should have stayed silent until someone is named a suspect.

Just don't murder anyone and you don't have to worry too terribly much. If that happens, everything you ever typed will be made available to LE. Yep, everything. Not just through your hard drive, records requests from you ISP will show every email and im. If known to visit boards such as this, records requests will be made. Just letting you know.

Don't be paranoid, no one is hacking into just anyone's account unless you have a computer geek stalker, lol! (Hopefully no one here does, it happens though.)

 

[GrainneDhu]

Have to tell ya', I have a friend that is a computer programmer, he even worked for Homeland Security for a couple of years. He uses the same username, the same password for everything. And, everything is where he is. All over the internet.

I'm ROFLMAO here.

Not only does your friend use the same username and password, he has told at least one person (you) that he does so!

 

[21merc7]

I'm ROFLMAO here.

Not only does your friend use the same username and password, he has told at least one person (you) that he does so!

I didn't say he was altogether upstairs. :innocent: Lol! He told me after the "myspace" incident. I think he was trying to flirt some too. He tells me all kinds of stuff that I have to wonder, "why are you telling me this?"

 

[Chili Fries]

Well at least we know TMH has plenty of time to surf the internet while Kyron is missing. She is not only surfing the internet but she is/was also posting on it.

If my child were missing I'd probably spend time on the internet trying to glean any extra info I could find on the search or investigation. I sure wouldn't be sleeping much so I'd have a lot of time at night to search the web. I doubt I'd actually try to defend my reputatiion but I understand many people would have that impulse.

 

[Garden Variety]

SM is a serial poster (I mean one-who-posts).
I wonder what the psychologists have to say about that behavior?

 

[amethyst221]

Interesting turn of events. I tried a couple of times to read comments on the sites of various Portland media outlets, but too much of it was focused on trying to out alleged TM postings and id's. Plus it was sort of nasty. You'd think she has better things to do, but lots of people live through the internet.

 

[jadejazzkayla]

SM is a serial poster (I mean one-who-posts).
I wonder what the psychologists have to say about that behavior?

like a lot of people, i am a serial poster too.