How can I get some privacy in Second Life?

[Lexie Linden]

I don't want everyone to see where I am or contact me by IM all the time.  Is there some way to be "private"?

[Ayana Auer]

Yes, there are a few ways you might like to try out!

 

Hide your online status from everyone except your friends and groups

In general, other Residents who don't know you shouldn't be able to see you online if they perform a search in the People tab of the Search window. To ensure that they can't see you online unless they're friends with you or in a group you belong to, select the Make my online status visible only to my Friends and Groups checkbox in the Communication tab of the Preferences window.

Hide your online and map status from Friends

By default, friends -- generally other Residents who know you -- are able to see you online, even if the Make my online status visible in Search checkbox in the Preferences window isn't selected. You can control your online visibility on a per-friend basis in the Friends subtab of the Communicate window's Contacts tab. Select a Resident's name from the list and deselect the Can see my online status checkbox to hide your online status from that Resident.

 

You can hold Shift or Ctrl on your keyboard while clicking to select multiple Friends.

If you'd like a friend to be able to see you online but not map-track you -- because it can be bothersome to be working on something then suddenly interrupted if they teleport onto your head! -- deselect the checkbox below that, Can find me on the world map.

Go into Busy mode

This is simply done by selecting World > Set Busy. You won't see the chat console or Instant Messages, and an auto-reply will be sent to those who IM you. This reply is customized in the Preferences window's Communication tab next to Busy Mode Response.

 

 

Going into Busy mode in addition to showing yourself as offline can help you concentrate inworld by hiding chat, which you can get to later.

 

Warning: While you're in Busy mode, inventory offers will also be rejected automatically. If you're buying something, or expecting to receive gifts from friends, you may want to make sure you're not in Busy mode.

Hide on an Estate

An Estate, also known as a private island or private region, can be configured for geographical privacy. This means that if you have access to an island that others don't, they won't be able to teleport in or see what's happening. They can still IM you, but it's up to you whether you reply.

An Estate Owner or Manager sets privacy options from the Region/Estate window's Estate tab. If you own or manage an Estate, then you can adjust these settings yourself!

Each of the options has a ? button to tell you more about what it does, but in short: Deselecting the Public Access checkbox restricts acccess to the Estate Owner, Manager(s), and people on the Allowed residents and Allowed groups lists.

 

Live in a skybox

A "skybox" is basically a home that's many hundreds of meters in the sky. They have this name because they traditionally look like boxes, although they can take many forms, like a floating castle.

If you own a parcel of land, you can have a skybox. A manual way to get up is to:

1. Rez a prim (right-click the ground and select Create).
2. Right-click it and select Sit Here.
3. Once seated, click the Object tab of the Tools window (you may need to click the More >> button to expand the tools).
4. Set Position (meters) Z to 500, which is a typical skybox height.

 

 

Residents aren't able to fly that high without a flight assist script, so it's a deterrent to the casual passerby. However, it's worth noting that more persistent Residents with such scripts will be able to get to you at that height.

Make use of the Access and Ban tabs for parcels you own

You can use the About Land window's Access and Ban tabs to control who can come in (select World > About Land to open the About Land window). The Access tab can be used to limit access to only specific groups or Residents, while the Ban tab enables you to specifically exclude individuals; using both tabs together, you should be able to get the right list of permitted Residents onto your parcel. Each tab sets access barriers at different heights around your parcel.

 

 

[Cerise Sorbet]

You cannot really really hide, not totally! Online status can't be hidden 100%. Other residents can still see when you are online if they are in the same group and they can use scripts to tell if anybody on the grid is online.

 

Map hiding does not work as much as it used to. If another resident is in the same sim or near your sim, she can see your name on the mini map in SL 1.23.

 

Busy mode is dangerous. If you try to buy stuff from Xstreet or a scripted vendor you will pay your money and not receive the item. It does not even go to your trash, it vanishes!

 

Access lines only work for 50 meters over the ground. Ban lines only work for 768 meters over the ground. Other avatars can still see you with camera controls.

 

You only get real real privacy if you use a secret avatar and hide on a closed island.

[Tid Kidd]

"Busy" is sometimes a useful option, but at other times it is a nuisance. It stops all Group IMs from arriving, and it also stops Local Chat. However, other IMs may get your "Busy mode" message but they still get through! Which is great if you want to answer, not so good if you don't.

 

What Busy should do is give you some options. For example, if you are at an event, or a business meeting, or a discussion group, or with a group of friends, then you WANT to see the Local Chat - it's IMs you'd like to switch off so you are not distracted from the immediate surroundings.

 

If you're at a type of meeting where you want to see local chat but not IM, there is at present nothing you can do.

[MadamG Zagato]

Create an alternate acount and purchase a region.

1. No one will know it's Y.O.U. so they won't know to put your UUID in their online status tracker devices.
2. Your own region gives you the most privacy possible. You can hide the entire island from the map...kind of like on the hit TV series "Lost".

 

This is the only TRUE way to obtain complete privacy in SL to my knowledge.

 

[lovee Foehammer]

I think that if your last name is "Linden" then the real and honest answer has to be, "You can't."

They... whoever they are... will hunt you down and IM you just because they can.

Have you considered an alt? 

[Samson McLeod]

. . .

Uhh... you're $#!%@ing with us, right? ...right?

Is Allen Funt around the corner with a camera?

We're all going to go down to the bar right after this and laugh and laugh and laugh... right?

Ha-have the Lindens finally taken to trolling their own userbase?

This is either incredibly awesome or incredibly frightning. I don't know which.

Someone hold me...

[Eternus Soulstar]

you December respondents, look at the date of the OP.  i'm not sure she even WAS a Linden back then.  or if she was she was perhaps posting a question in order to answer it herself as a way of helping others with the same question, she has another thread where she does that.

[Yichard Muni]

There is no such thing as a legally recognized privacy in Second Life. This is the reason why more and more national laws consider SL as a whole to be a sex club, even if most users are in for very different purposes. So beware:

Being in  a locked home does not protect your privacy.

others can still cam into your home, enter, hear sounds, use poseballs, etc.

You cannot avoid your IM and groups chats to be recorded on your correspondent's computer.

On Windows, look at: c://documents and settings/Your user name/Application data/Second Life/Your  character name

If you really don't want this to happen, use local chat only, in a secure place, where nobody else can access at less that the chat distance (20m).

Unknown objects may report chat or behavior

Again the only solution against this is to be on our own sims. To be noted that the open sims still exist, and they are still useable to have one's home with a bit of empty land around. 

 

 

What you can do: read Ayana Auer's post (the first)

I have a list of things you can positively do to protect your privacy, but instead of repeating it, I send to Ayana Auer, who replied first and gave very good explanations.

 

What LL should do:

The lack of real privacy forced many sims to flag themselves as adult, for protecting private homes, despite these sims were in fact PG. In a general way it is a hindrance to many activities. At a rough estimate, privacy should increase users and sims in a significant way.

To provide with a private statute for lands or volumes, where no camera can enter, nobody can enter, objects cannot send messages, chat must not be recorded, and so this zone would really have the legal statute of a private place, with all the protections required.