Brand new to this process, but discovered this project while looking for ways to get involved with citizen science and eagerly downloaded and started the process.

I mentioned to one of my professors, being the proud contributor to science that I am, that I downloaded this project and started volunteering my computer to help the cause.

His first response was "You are braver than I am." To which I asked, "And why is that?"

He said he would be afraid of personal information being compromised on his local computer.
I never gave it much of a thought being an eager volunteer until he mentioned it.

Is this a legitimate concern or paranoia?

You could run Boinc in VirtualBox. Then there wouldn't be much to think about as that virtual environment would be isolated from everything else you have in your computer.

It's healthy paranoia, Tyler. There's always a risk of info being compromised on here, but if you use cookies, and you surely do... it's a fait accompli anyhow. Good antiviral software & a firewall should work for you. Unless you're Ed Snowden, in which case you'll need major protection lol...

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The babydoll in my avatar is Hayley Westenra, the finest soprano on the face of this planet or any other...