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Embarrassment never killed anyone. If anything, it's a turn-on. Why else do so many of us keep annotating our sex lives on the Internet, only to be shocked! shocked!when someone else finds out we're into spanking or peeping or "cupcaking"? Modern technology makes it possible to get your jollies without sharing them with your favorite gossip blog.

  • Tell your lover first. Not only does it give you both (or you all) a chance to show off your best side, it spares me from being the one to break the news to him, his coworkers, and his friends that you've named his cock "Chadrick."
  • Not all privacy settings are equal. For sharing scandalous stories and photos, make sure both are secured before you publish. LiveJournal and Vox will secure photos in private, filtered, and friends-only entries. For Facebook, if someone's got the URL, they've also got the image of you at the Four Seasons Palo Alto spreadeagling your sweetie.
  • Confine your bragging to one site. If you write about the sex on your secret Blogspot, review the lingerie on Yelp, and post the in-room photos on Flickr, you're just leaving a wider trail. If you must, use different aliases, so connecting the dots is harder.
  • Remember that friends are easier to break than passwords. Creating a group WordPress blog to bitch about an affair gone wrong is safer than using a mailing list, sure. But all it takes is one friend giving up the password to the ex — or us. And if your exploits really are any good, should you really trust anyone to keep them to themselves?

(Photo by Jakob Lodwick)