Collaborative PR post.
I share a lot of details about our lives pretty willingly on this blog. Whereas I have no problem sharing anecdotes, I do have a few rules tosafeguard our online security.
For instance, I never mention my house number or road name. I never publicly mention the name of Arlo’s preschool, nor will I allow school symbols on the boy’s uniforms to be discernible once they start school.
It’s not just blogging, this extends to other forms of social media too.
I never advertise when I’m going to be out of the house, whether this is announcing that I’m off on holiday, or setting a time & place to meet friends via public twitter conversation.
There have actually been times when I’ve asked someone to delete a tweet to me where they’ve mentioned specific dates and places (Sam is actually way more on it with this stuff than I am and is guaranteed to text me when he sees something he thinks poses even the slightest security risk – we are unashamedly paranoid, hah).
I think Instagram is one of the worst/easiest in terms of online stalking. As it’s a visual medium, I find it really easy to recognise where people are, even if they’ve chosen not to disclose that information via the geotag. If you are posting in ‘real time’ it’s also really easy to tell when a person is not at home and how long they might be gone for. A lot of the time, I post only after I’ve left a place, usually when I’m back home (this is actually usually just out of convenience as well as for security reasons).
Another thing I see a lot of on Instagram and blogs are commenters unwittingly exposing the poster’s privacy. “Are you at such and such place?” “Is that XXXX school? My son goes there!” If the person hasn’t disclosed location when they posted, maybe they didn’t want to. Always best to be vague and if you really need to, just ask “Where is that?”, then it’s up to the person whether to disclose that information publicly or message you privately instead.
It might all sound rather paranoid and unlikely, but it only takes one weirdo to decide they want to track you down or “bump into you”, and this wouldn’t be an unrealistic goal considering how much we share as bloggers and public social media users.
When you think about it, blogging is essentially the online equivalent of casing a house for a burglary (scary thought!) And we can make it so easy – house tours, product reviews, photos of kids using iPads, etc are all basically screaming “This is all the stuff I have in my house”.
Social media and online security is a bit of minefield, and this is the sort of stuff that keeps me awake at night wondering whether blogging is the “right” thing to do, especially when other (young) lives are concerned. Gah.
2 comments
I think you’re very sensible – I suspect someone who really knows the area I live in could work out the vague area I live in from the photos but not the specifics, and I don’t mention the girls’s nursery or our employers by name (although mine is a matter of public record so it’s not that great a secret). And as for Instagram – I only get time to upload things when I’m sat nursing Elma, so it’s usually a while after the event unless we’re at home anyway!
I think either we can delete everything and try to live entirely off the Internet, or accept that there is bad with the good and trust that the good outweighs the bad. Faith in human nature being predominantly good – ever the eternal optimist!
Good point, well made. We do live in a strange world but it is probably as “safe” as it has ever been.