If you are already security-conscious and don’t need to read this, please feel free to respond with your own tips and experiences to help others. And thank-you to @dragonfly6516 for suggesting this be written.
GirlsAskGuys can be fun, informative, and social. But I’ve noticed that it is also a perfect place to target the vulnerable. I noticed a few years ago that some strange questions were popping up that so many people were willing to answer. These were questions that were verging on the classic security questions people answer in order to break in to accounts they didn’t know passwords to.
Think about what you are offering someone you don't know, and how it can compromise your security.
Don’t Give Out Your Email
Think about how often your email is used to create various accounts online. Your email is the glue that holds most of what you do online together. Once someone knows your email, it gives them an opportunity to assume you use it on various sites. My advice is to make three separate emails.
1. Make one email for friends and family.
2. Make another email for your eyes only – the private email used for account-creating.
3. Make a third “disposable” email meant to give out to people you don’t know well enough but want to talk to privately. If things go wrong, you won’t miss it if you have to delete it.
Don’t answer the classic security questions to anyone:
What is your mother’s maiden name?
What is the name of your first pet?
Where was your mother/father born?
City you were born in?
Street you grew up on?
Make of your first car?
What is your favourite _____ ?
If you have seen these questions posted publicly on GaG, report them. GaG is supposed to be a place to get perspectives from men and women. These types of questions serve no purpose as finding perspective on anything. However, these answers can be used to retrieve lost passwords to your email and sites you use.
Don't record your voice for someone
This is just one example of someone stealing your voice to take advantage of you. Another way is to just learn to mimic your voice to give short answers in "desperate" situations.
Over the phone: "Hey, Mom...I'm at a job interview...I need my SSN...do you have it?"
Use a profile picture that cannot be Google-image-reversed.
If your profile picture is also used on other sites you frequent, it will show up. Anyone can save your photo and upload it to find out where the picture is also seen. If you choose to show the real you, change up your photo on different sites so they’re not linked.
Don’t Succumb to Someone’s Guilt Trip
If someone has asked you for private information and it just doesn’t seem right to you, it should be respected that you need time to get to know someone before answering, or simply have a personal rule that you don’t answer certain things, and let that be your stock answer.
Scammers like to work slow and steady on some people and will even appear to give up their own "private information" just to make you feel as though they are trusting you with. Take note of their reaction when you decline answering something, or giving out something extremely private. Are they pushy? Angry? Do they begin to guilt-trip you with reasons why you should give in? Good people do not push the issue. People with bad intentions do.
Speaking from experience, I’ve been stalked twice online. Once was because my information had been leaked to someone via email thanks to a computer virus. I never saw it coming even though I tried to be careful. The second time it was an ex with an ulterior motive, who played mind games with me while we were together to try to guilt me into giving him my private information.
You never know who you’re dealing with. It’s nice to be social and get to know some great people out there, but remember, the great ones will not be offended if you are choosy about how you connect with them or what information you ultimately reveal about yourself. Think of it like putting insurance on your privacy. You don’t need to give out information just because you’re asked.
Think of how your answer might be used later on!
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