Pinterest. An Invasion of my Privacy.

I really like Pinterest. And FYI, I liked it way before all of you. I liked it back when I had to explain what it was to everyone.  To me, Pinterest is a really handy place to keep track of all the cool/yummy/pretty things on the internet that I had previously been tucking into messy folders all over my desktop.  But now I can keep it organized in a nice, easy way. That, as far as I’m concerned, is the end of the story.  But shortly after I started pinning things I got a notification that a girl I barely knew was now following my boards. She could look at everything I had pinned.  Although it seems like I will share anything and that I have no idea when something is TMI, I only like to share things on my terms.  The fact that anyone can subscribe to my Pinterest boards is, to me, the same thing as people looking through my drawers and rifling through my closet.

I pretty much hate it.

There’s no way to turn it off. At least not that I’ve found.

I mean, it’s one thing to admire some of the cute houses I’ve pinned. But then you might run across the board that is full of tacky, garish nail polish designs that my daughters beg me to do.  And you would think, “who is this person? What kind of weird stuff is she into? She has really bad taste.”

Maybe some people just use Pinterest as a way to brag about how they find cute pictures on the internet. And I guess they like the world to know.

But I do not. And Pinterest does not get it.

So, no, I will not be linking to my Pinterest account from this blog. But I will leave you with this really pretty picture that I have on one of my boards. See, I do have good taste after all.

 

 

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23 thoughts on “Pinterest. An Invasion of my Privacy.

  1. Jennie I wholeheartedly agree and I’ve asked Pinterest on numerous occasions why you can’t make some of your boards private if you choose, because you’re right some things are relevant only to you and you don’t want to share them with the world!

  2. I’ve been on pinterest for 19 months, and no one I knew was on it back then. For a few months I was obsessed, and spent WAY too much time on it. But I finally mellowed out and only use it periodically now. I giving up caring what anyone thinks of me…figure there are no secretes any more, so why bother.

    I have the same rose cake pinned on one of my boards. I thought it was amazing.

  3. That gorgeous model in the white – to pink dress? It looks like it’s falling off her! Please don’t tell me that it’s a wedding dress with a deep hood. From an abstract standpoint, it is beautiful. As a nightgown it is puzzling. As a wedding dress, it is SLEAZY! (But then, the sleazier wedding dresses are these days, apparently the better. “Look like a Vegas showgirl for your wedding! Tempt male guests to hope a costume dysfunction will Reveal ALL! ” You must admit, one broken strap and the whole gown goes (literally) South!

  4. As someone who also joined Pinterest when it was still in beta testing, I totally get what you’re saying. As someone either paranoid or intuitive (you know, depending on whether it’s really me you’re talking about) who you barely know, I’ll unfollow you so you don’t feel stalked. I agree; it really should be on your own terms.

    1. That baker must have wanted to stab her eyes out with her rose tip by the time she was done! Gorgeous! I might just have to follow you on Pinterest!

  5. Personally, I love to follow you because I love your taste. Isn’t it funny how we get attached to things. It never occurred to me that anyone else would be “watching” my pins. Like you, I use it as a filing system so I can get rid of the magazines I save.

    Btw, I’ve been wondering if you have TV at the moment? I can’t remember.

    1. We have a TV that gets a couple of channels. So we can watch Downton and The Voice and that’s pretty much it. But we do have Netflix. So we’re not completely primitive. Just mostly.

  6. My girlfriend in MN just made that cake and said it was actually really easy. (Which I don’t believe) But, since she’s a baker like you,you’d probably agree with her. She sent me how she did it if you want to know…

    And the whole “I found it first!” argument reminds me of my kids fighting over “their” piece of pizza at dinner.

  7. but isn’t that what “normal” bookmarks are – private? I have been a member of Pinterest for some time now. When I go bAck to review some of my pins, click on them and follow the link sometimes, not always sometimes they are gone. So what good is just a photo without a tutorial. Just saying. Sometimes I find it flattering that folks comment nice things about my photo then again other times I do find it an invasion, so I took the P button off my blog.

      1. Of course it’s fine! For some reason it doesn’t bother me to have strangers read my blog. But Pinterest is different somehow. Like showing people your music collection; it’s just a little personal, I guess.

  8. I love pinterest! but yeah, I do wish we could have some privacy options. Like for example, sometimes you want to pin some ideas for gifts… well it’s out there in public so the people who you’re making them for will see your ideas. I do think you should have an option to keep some boards private if you wish, and also to be able to approve the people who follow you.

  9. I coulda sworn there was a way to make a board private but there isn’t. You can disable yourself from showing up in searches though.

    Maybe you should write to support cause that would be a great feature for some. Personally I don’t mind, but it would be nice to have the option to make it private so then I could make a Kamasutra board.

  10. If it makes you feel any better, that girl was probably not choosing to follow you. Everytime one of your facebook friends signs up on pinterest, you will get a message that that person is “following” you. In reality, she doesn’t even know she is “following” you and would have no idea how to even find your board.

  11. If people don’t like something you post, they don’t have to re-pin it. I don’t think Pinterest is much different than blogging in the privacy factor, and I reallllly dislike when people go private.

  12. Doesn’t Pinterest state that their whole theme .. their main focus is sharing?
    I too would love the “private” option, maybe I can find that on another website that doesn’t state their main concept is about sharing pictures, thoughts, ideas, etc. found online. But as for Pinterest, they don’t hide the fact that they’re pretty much all about sharing so it has never offended me that they don’t have private boards. I just really, really wish I could sometimes not share on their share website! 😉

  13. I am in complete agreement about the privacy, I love throwing birthday parties and have my inspiration pinned to my boards. I did not want the people coming to the parties to see all the decorations and such before they arrived. I don’t know if this was the right thing to do, but I just put a different name for my account (more like a nick name). I also do not “link” anything to Facebook, that was an option somewhere. I don’t know if it is worth it to you, but maybe you could start over fresh, have a new request sent and make it all in a different name. My friends do think it is funny that they can not find me on Pinterest (I has received several invitations to join (= ). So far no one has found me, also my picture is just a landscape, no face. I do have people who follow me, but because i do not know them and they do not know me it is not a big deal.

  14. I joined Pinterest a few months ago and really enjoyed it. But recently I’ve noticed that some of the topics I have pinned are showing up on various pages I visit or use. For example a few days ago, I pinned on one of my In Private boards some info regarding a certain cosmetic I want to try. And, sure enough, the next thing I know, banners for this cosmetic company start showing up on several sites I visit. However, the cosmetic company is not the issue. The issue is that I know we say there is no privacy on the web, but this is going too far. It’s clear that sites like Pinterest sell our information (pin topics) to advertisers. I’m just giving my own likes and dislikes away to anyone who will buy it if I stay on social media like Pinterest. I deactivated my Pinterest account today. (I see that I’m commenting on a site with year-old comments, but I did it anyway. For some of us Pinterest just isn’t that great, and I just had to say it because I’m so irked.)

    1. I definitely think Pinterest got too big too quickly. And the developers knew they had to make $$ somehow. I get tired of everybody selling my name. Does that sort of thing even work?

  15. I have had Pinterest for awhile. I had 100s of recipes. Last night, I deleted the app from my Kindle. I hated losing everything I had saved but, I was looking at the “manage all applications” section in my settings on my Kindle. Low and behold! Under 3rd party app permissions, there was Pinterest! I was shocked at how many permissions they were given, especially my contact list. Now, I don’t miss you so much Pinterest. It was nice knowing you but not now!!l

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