Mom blogs — Does posting photos online jeopardize your family?

Jordan Ferney, a San Francisco-based event planner, blogs most every day about things such as her baby, decorating tips, clothing and her artist-husband, Paul.

It began about three years ago as a way to post links to her favorite Web sites and share "cool things" with tech-savvy friends. Now Ferney estimates her blog, titled "Oh Happy Day," generates as many as 5,000 hits per day. Technorati, an online blog tracking service, lists her site as one of its top 10,000 most-viewed blogs.

"It's been so great because everyone in my family has a blog," Ferney said. "I can see what's going on in their lives every day."

Across the globe, as many as 112 million people have a traceable public blog, according to Technorati. Here in Utah, bloggers cite a growing number of "mom blogs," where families post pictures of their children and tell stories about things such as their latest road trip.

But is it safe?

Researchers say it is incredibly difficult for information on the Web to be erased, including supposedly private documents and images. For some, there's the threat of cyber-stalking, and for many more, identity theft.

"Once something is on the Internet, it stays on the Internet," said Miriam Simun, research coordinator with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. "All the privacy controls give you a feeling of privacy, and to a degree, they do, but that information can be taken and stored on someone's server. Once it's put out there, you really have no control over it."

In general, Simun says the public should view their sites with what she calls the "80-20 rule."

If a site is correctly protected, 80 percent of the world won't be able to access that information. But 20 percent of the public, if they really wanted to, could access private information such as photographs, phone numbers, addresses or various identification numbers, she said.

"These are walled gardens, but technical people know how to get around these walls," Simun said.

A recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project shows 47 percent of adult Internet users think it would be "pretty easy" for someone to find them based on information posted online. Another 29 percent of Internet users think "someone would have to work at it" to find their location with online information.

A majority of these Internet users, however, are not worried about the amount of information available about them online, according to the Pew study, which was published in December 2007.