How to Protect Yourself Online.

It’s a scary world out there.

Like most of you, I opened my eyes to the internet; I spent hours in front of screens doing nothing significant (except maybe playing dress-up), the older I got the more dependent I became on the internet.

I lay my entire life online. You can find everything about me by just googling my full name, which tells a lot about how safe I’m being.

After a lot of thinking and planning, I found ways I can protect myself and keep my online presence to a minimum, and I wanted to share them with you.

1. Don’t put your full name on social media, not only do you keep your identity hidden, but your creepy uncle won’t be able to find you online.
2. Keep most of your accounts private, for example, Instagram, keep your online followers list short, only accept people you know.
3. Try not to share a lot of pictures, we know how dashing you look.
4. Don’t share your location, one of Snapchat’s features is the live map. Not only would people find out you are ignoring them or lying about being out of town, but your ex can track you easily and you don't want that.
5. Don’t share where you are every time you are out, Don’t upload that story with the name of the restaurant you are in until you are home safe. No one would know when exactly you were there or where you were when you shared it.
6. Don’t use the same password for everything, and don’t use weak passwords either like your full name, I set my passwords to- (you really thought I would tell you?)
7. Don’t click on the ad for hot women in your area. Come on, I don’t need to mention this one.
8. Don’t put the name of your real city/town on dating apps, LIE, it’s better to be a liar and alive than honest and dead by the side of the road.
9. Don’t meet people you knew online quickly, give your newly formed friendship some time to stew. There is no need to rush, if they don’t like it then run baby run.
10. Close the ad pages when you are watching people doing the nasty, the nakedness will distract you and you will forget the ad pages that are running in the background.
11. Keep your plans to yourself, there is no need to tell people you’re going on a road trip, a wannabe Ted Bundy would pack too.
12. Don’t tell people where you work or when, you don’t want someone to know your daily schedule.
13. Don’t share something you are not comfortable sharing, once it’s on the internet it will never go away, nudes included.
14. Don’t look up dark web websites, I don’t want to find your fingers on eBay for sale.
15. Tape a sticker over your laptop camera, it can be easily hacked, and I’m pretty sure no one wants to see the faces you make while you watch the nasty.

I would like to thank serial killers and true crime documentaries for reminding me that the world was a scary place before the internet existed, so imagine how scarier it is now with everything that we put out online. We are painting targets on our backs.

Be safe, -A former sitting duck who now only shares memes and facts about serial killers and tries her best to keep her head on her shoulders.