Progress on Data Leak...

[Eliphalet R. Moderator]

To bring everybody up to date.  One of our members, John Kloehr, brought a software problem to our attention.   For some of you, PMs have been showing up in your Status Update and/or Status Replies areas, where you can follow your content.   

It is not everybody, and it mostly has to do with older PMs from previous Wire versions.

But if those PMs contain private contact information or something you didn't want shared, it is exposed.

 

SASS has reached out to the software company and to the platform manager.

 

What to do:  In the meantime, look at your Status Update area and see if any PMs are exposed.  You can go into your PM mailbox and delete them.   It would be a good idea to delete any old PM's anyway.  Many of you have them stacked up, going back over a decade or more.

 

We'll keep you updated with any progress on this issue.

[John Kloehr]

Everyone should go to google and search for their email address, phone number, real name, and home address. To search just this site in google, set up the search directive like this:

 

the_thing_to_find site:sassnet.com

 

The "site:sassnet.com" part after the thing you are looking for directs google to only provide results from this site.

 

Edited January 26 by John Kloehr
Otto

[Eliphalet R. Moderator]

Further update: Some of you may see PMs in your Status Replies area.  

1.  Click on your name beside a post (easiest), or at the top right of a page.

2. (If using your name at the top of the page, there's a drop-down menu; choose "profile.")  

3. There is a bar that tells you your number of posts, when you joined, and when you last visited.  On the right, there is a white box that says, "See My Activity".  

4. Choose "Status Replies."

[Misty Moonshine]

The mystery has been solved. This was NOT a data leak. 

 

We've removed the Status Update and Status reply functions from the forum software. 

 

This was not something which the software would leak on its own. This is caused by the user having posted a public status update on a fellow member's profile thinking that it is a message when it is not a message and is 100% public. 

 

So, we've just removed the Status Update feature entirely so this cannot accidentally happen again in the future. 

 

Misty Moonshine 

[Caprock Kid]

Thank you for the hard work of finding a solution. 

[John Kloehr]

On 3/17/2026 at 9:53 AM, Misty Moonshine said:

The mystery has been solved. This was NOT a data leak. 

 

We've removed the Status Update and Status reply functions from the forum software. 

 

This was not something which the software would leak on its own. This is caused by the user having posted a public status update on a fellow member's profile thinking that it is a message when it is not a message and is 100% public. 

 

So, we've just removed the Status Update feature entirely so this cannot accidentally happen again in the future. 

 

Misty Moonshine 

This might be. I replied to a post earlier saying I would be watching to see if it was fixed. If that is what it was, it did nothing for the many previous posts out there (I just found 9). Was going to post up, but now can not find that thread...

 

On edit: Just PMed some data to Eliphalet. I'll watch for new ones going forward as I have time and opportunity. Key point is even if it was status updates and not PMs, the old leaks were not scrubbed with the fix.

Edited March 19 by John Kloehr

[John Kloehr]

Consider this a flux situation. Something I saw is no longer there, but then I found some other stuff. Main question aside from history (old stuff must be presumed still out there, some old stuff is absolutely out there), is if the problem is still happening. Of this I have no evidence.

 

I am taking 3/17/2026 at 9:53AM Eastern time as my marker. So far, I do still find only old stuff. So the problem may be resolved but the fix did not scrub prior leakage.