Birth charts can be reversed, and any creep can steal your data

Every day on Reddit or astrology Facebook groups, someone posts a screenshot of their birth chart with the caption: "Can someone interpret this?".

It looks innocent enough - a bunch of circles, lines, and mysterious glyphs. But here’s the catch: that colorful wheel is basically your astrological fingerprint.

Even if you blur out your birth date and place (because you’re "privacy-conscious", of course), an experienced astrologer - or anyone with access to a reverse calculator, which yes, exists - can work backwards and find out exactly when and where you were born.

Congratulations, you’ve just published your birthday, birthplace (the exact location, your town or city! No jokes here!), and, indirectly, your nationality and age on the internet.

Why does that matter? This is all like a feast for identity thieves, stalkers and creeps.

Along with the chart, people casually drop names, dramatic stories about their relationships, or entire family histories and traumas.

Bad things may happen just because you wanted to know what the stars say about you.

Also, people judge. They always do. Maybe someone doesn’t like your country, or thinks your age makes you to young, or too old.

I’ve also seen people share their full birth details online just so someone can "calculate their chart" (the same goes for numerology, by the way). Honestly I didn’t know what to say.

Here come some more bitter words for astrology enthusiasts. It doesn't matter if you read charts professionally or just enjoy comparing Venus placements. One thing stays the same: don’t pop out of the blue asking people for their birth data.

Asking for exact time and place of birth isn’t "doing synastry" - it’s asking for sensitive personal information under the polite cover of "just being cosmic".

People will come to you if they want a reading. Until then, good manners apply, even under a full moon.

A word to professional astrologers: astrologers who handle client data should treat it with respect. Two-factor authentication, encrypted emails, secure storage - they’re the bare minimum.

"Mercury retrograde" is not an acceptable excuse for a data breach.

Ok, if you're not getting enough controversy here: personally, I’ve lost faith in Windows. The rumors about Windows 11 taking screenshots of desktops and feeding them to AI were enough for me to migrate of all my astrology work to Apple. I know many people don't like this company - but personally I prefer their privacy policy.

Because if someone, my friend or potential client gave to me their data, I feel I should keep it safe, and I have to ensure the safety by every means avaiable and known to me.

PS. I was thinking about sharing the link to the mentioned calculator here, but I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. It’s on a very well-known astrological website anyway.

And to be honest, advanced astrologers don’t even need it. The day, month, and year of birth are visible at first glance - I can tell that myself if I want to. For more advanced work, astrologers can do the reverse calculations by hand, noting the positions of the planets, the ascendant (responsible for the place of birth), the midheaven (time), the moon (clarification of time and place) and using ephemerides.