Here’s the latest entry in the “You are an idiot if…” contest, this one for Facebook. A teenage girl wasn’t thinking, and after helping Grandma count her large stack of money (that evidently isn’t in a bank because evidently Grandma doesn’t trust banks), she took a picture of the money and posted it to Facebook. In public. It turns out the girl’s home address was also in her Facebook profile. In public.
That’s two really stupid things to do that combined into real trouble, because shortly thereafter, the robbers showed up at the girl’s house with knives and clubs. Fortunately, Grandma’s address wasn’t public, but the girl’s mom was robbed, and I can guess that fun.
So it’s time for the every-so-often reminder that the internet is a big, scary place and you have to be careful out there. Always check out your profiles when you’re not logged on to a site to see what they’re saying, and ask yourself if that information is what you don’t mind having someone with knives and clubs and a big black ski mask see.
Beyond that here are a few suggestions from someone who’s been doing this for a long time (and has on a couple of occasions needed to be careful about who knew where I lived…)
First, don’t put your real addresses and phone numbers on your profiles or web sites casually. Sometimes you need to have contact address or phone numbers out there for professional reasons. Here, a rental box is your friend. I’ve used UPS store forever. Back when we ran our consulting business that was the address of record. Now, it’s the address of record for anything that happens online (like domain registrations), plus, they take in all of our packages so you don’t get into the “left on the porch and disappeared” problem. That alone is worth paying a few bucks a month for me, given the quality of package delivery here in the U.S. today (FedEx @Home, I’m glaring at you right now).
So if you decide to hunt me down, you’ll find I live in a 3″x4″ little metal box. Good luck with that. (this does not imply you can’t find my real home address. I know if someone is motivated, you can. But it stops the trivial crackdown and the stupid hot heads).
As far as phone? I publish my cell phone number when I need a phone out there. But I long ago realized just how high a percentage of incoming phone calls were useless to me, and stopped worrying about being interrupted. My bottom line: if you don’t show up in my caller ID as someone I know, I won’t answer. If you don’t leave a message, then it wasn’t really something I needed to interrupt my life to answer, was it?
There’s a larger issue with this kind of “here I am” identification — Foursquare. I experimented with it at one point, decided it wasn’t for me. One reason: I’d really rather not telegraph where I am, especially when “where I am” is not home. As someone who’s self-admitted online to be a computer person and a photographer, do I really want to make it easy for someone to decide the house is empty but perhaps full of high value toys? Even worse, telegraph that when in fact Laurie might be at home?
So, no. I don’t want to make it that easy for someone to decide I might make a fun target for a visit. So I don’t Foursquare.
if you do, fine. but have you stopped to think about the kind of trail you’re laying down, and what it might tell someone? And what other information you’re giving them to make it easy to take advantage of you?
I realize that’s how the mentality of the internet is headed, especially with younger users. But… is that really a good idea?
This article was posted on Chuq Von Rospach, Photographer and Author at You are an idiot if… (the Facebook edition). This article is copyright 2013 by Chuq Von Rospach under a Creative Commons license for non-commericial use only with attribution. See the web site for details on the usage policy.