How are blogs and whatnots like this not a violation of OSPECS?

this has always nibbled at my brain. as service members and famil of servicemembers, how are we not violating our safety by secrecy when we blatantly discuss where we are and what we are doing as a military? like stating, " I have a friend in **********" isn't a violation of ospecs? or stating where your going to be deployed? can anyone alleviate or validate this fear I have of violating ospecs? what should we leave out and what can we freely say?
[note] no idea what I am talking about? don't bother answering then. thanks though.

yes I meant OPSEC. sorry bout that, still getting used to the whole married to the military deal. and thank you for all your answers. I was told as a family member, I was not supposed to talk about times, dates, places, or anything, for fear of being "exposed." then I get online and poof, all this talk! I was confused. thanks again!

When I was in, there were times when I couldn't even discuss the time of day or the weather for fear of giving away my location.

Today we have bonehead reporters drawing plans for an upcoming operation in the sand.

I know a guy who had a blog while he was in Iraq. His command knew of it. Apparently they tacitly sanctioned it (knew it was there and didn't order him to stop it). But he was careful what he posted.

As has been stated, the enemy knows we're there. While operations are probably not broadcast, it's kind of hard to hide stuff in the open desert. But the military really does try to keep a lid on operations. Hence, OPSEC requirements. It's for the protection of personnel.

Another reason is that something posted in a military blog can be lifted and quoted as from a "military spokesperson." It's been done in the past.

All that notwithstanding, it's kind of known that if you want to find out about almost anything, you can ask a local merchant. Somehow they have information that soldiers don't have.

Security is kind of an odd concept. However, in 25 years in the military, and with some pretty secure positions, I managed to avoid breaching security by keeping my mouth shut about anything that wasn't already in the news. And, if the news was wrong -- as it usually is, I just smiled.

OSPECS...good question. My husband unit just had a briefing about their upcoming deployment so ill try and help. basically when you say "i have a friend in *****" its not a violation as long as where you say is in a general area (country mainly avoid city names), and you dont give a specific location, especially over media (phone, internet, video messages etc), because of the chance of interception. For instance I can say my friend is deployed to Germany, but i cant give you detailed information. If you somehow know about their mission you definitely cant say anything about that. If you have a fear of violating ospecs best bet would be to only talk about your location/ the location of the deployed individual or any other details in a private conversation preferabley face to face only & avoid talking about it over the media i previously mentioned.

We are so set up in Iraq and Afganistan that the enemy knows were there. If I say I'm leaving for Afganistan this DEC and going to Bagram, it would affect anything. If i say im in Balad, Iraq, same thing. they already know were there. But If i Blog that I'm going on a convoy this day and time, or something specific that would establish a time and place, then it could result in an ambush or other attack that could result in injury or loss of life.

because for the most part people on this are former, spouse's, or poolees and you can tell the differance by the post (some are all opinion some are experiance driven facts that the poolees dont like to hear) as non active we dont know anything that would violate OPSEC

I guess it can be a bad thing but mostly in country talking about ongoing missions that's OPSEC ,really the enemy gets more info from the local population then they get from monitoring blogs.

Are You talking about OPSEC (Operational Security) ?