I’m becoming more and more concerned about my privacy, especially after moving to Germany and starting using web3 social networks

In Germany, it still feels strange to see my full name displayed on my apartment door. It might not be a problem if I had a German name, but I don't. Because of this, I'm trying to not post photos around my area - anyone could easily find my building just by checking the doorbells.

Also, nearly every service here in Germany - like massage, or hairdressers - asks for personal info such as address and phone. And given how these services are made and how often data leaks happen, I give incorrect data everywhere.

And with Farcaster, I’m now sharing some financial activity tied to my identity. It’s made me much more careful about which wallets I expose to avoid revealing sensitive transactions like travel payments - something I hadn’t really think a lot before Farcaster.

This feels like an underdiscussed “existential” risk of onchain social/perhaps public blockchains in general. The more data and history tied to your onchain identity, the more valuable it is for composability - but also the more public it is, which people just are not used to wrt their finances and also has its own downsides ofc.

Obviously the solve is like, don’t do materially stuff on public wallets. But nobody uses that qualifier when talking about how great “onchain” is

Btw, your data might be public not only on the blockchain but also through third-party APIs like Airstack and others on Farcaster. They may track all connected addresses, even if you accidentally connected an address you didn’t intend to expose initially

What’s even tricker is, an onchain transaction is forever.

If you accidentally link a wallet you wanted to keep separate from your public onchain identity, there’s no reversal. It’s doxxed.

The permanence of it all doesn’t get discussed enough, imo.