The Horror Writers Association, after sending members an email scam alert today amid concerns that contact information might have been scraped from an official list, later announced “Our website team has looked into it and found that there was no security breach.”
But they also reminded HWA members that their profiles on the WildApricot software the organization uses allows them to set both “Public” and “Private” information:
Members see more than the public, but the public can get your email if you put it in the “Public” section. This can be beneficial to you if an agent or other professional is looking to contact you. The drawback is you may receive the occasional spam email. We rarely have this happen, but it does.
Only the administrators can see the “Private” information. They advised members, “You can remove all your information from the ‘Public’ section in Wild Apricot if you don’t want anyone emailing you. You have full control over what the public can and cannot see.”
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My email is public — it’s on the Green Man website as it needs to be be and it’ll be the technical contact on the Peter S. Beagle website when that goes up. As a consequence, I get a fair amount of unwanted email. Some of it is pretty weird such as heavy machinery repeatedly, some of it is annoying as political campaigns.
If you don’t want your email to be shared, be very careful what you do with it as it will be shared if put it in the wrong place. And even sometimes in the right place.