Miley Cyrus leaves Twitter - good idea for Privacy?

We love Miley Cyrus on Twitter, however even a young person like Miley is savvy enough to see that maybe Twitter and social networking sites aren't all that secure.  Sure you can be hacked, and none of your info is ever safe.  What if you want to use Twitter but want to retain your privacy?

First of all, unless you're a celeb and want to use your real name, opt for a fake one.  You can also just put your first name and maybe change the location.  Don't put your real age or birthdate! Never. Spies can easily use this to cross reference you on all the social networks.  Avatars...do you really need your photo on there? I love seeing the real person behind the Twitter but you can take a far away photo, make it blurry and be sure you're not in the pic with another person.  Now regarding TwitPic and photos you post for friends...my advice? Don't post personal stuff.  Get your own private website, password protect it and share photos there if at all.  Yes it's fun to have photos up for people to access, however what control do you have when photos end up in the wrong hands? A harmless "sexy picture" of you can be misconstrued, posted on adult sex sites etc. For celebs, sometimes any press is good press, but for the younger girls, watch what you post as it will come back to haunt you.  Celebrities have to deal with people re-posting their photos on dirt blogs, and yes, the studios DO see photos of you, and if you're constantly seen partying, it can reflect negatively and hurt your career.  Also, what about your friends in the photo? Do they know you're posting pics of them? Do you have their permission? This is especially important when you have friends that are not of legal age.  Parents of even celebs might get a bit miffed if another celeb carelessly posts unflattering photos of their children.  As for sharing pictures, can't you just send photos to your buddies in private?  If you must post something and want to maintain privacy, again, blur out location details, license plates, landmarks etc.

What do you Twitter about? Fun stuff, business, news? Watch what you say & don't give too much info.  Keep us all guessing, it makes you mysterious! Don't name names of friends, or give them a fake name instead, "my friend Beth" is really my friend "Brenda" and so forth.

As for celebrities, we love to hear your tweets about upcoming shows, appearances, records, and your likes and dislikes.  No need to shun all the social networking opportunities, as you can get great exposure and many new fans in the process.  I'm not Miley Cyrus' age, but she's a great kid, I do enjoy her music and I think she's a major talent.  I got a kick out of reading a few of her tweets, and it was nice to see a young person with her level of fame, still being able to enjoy fun the other girls are having.

Her decision to delete her Twitter account is sad for fans, but the abuse level of Paparazzi and gossip sites is making it impossible for celebs to enjoy themselves and hang with the rest of us.  Paparazzi and gossip sites are alienating our favorite stars more and more.  Publishing someone's tweet through a screen capture of their page or a RT from someone else is cheesy and classless.  Sure some are funny to read, but now it seems that our own so-called "news" programs are getting carried away and copying what celeb dirt blogs are posting.  This is horrible journalism and it's disappointing that our world news has become inundated with celebrity foibles and flat-out lies.

So maybe we should all think a bit like Miley in this case. Whether you know it or not, even if you're not famous, I can tell you that you have followers, stalkers, neighbors, co-workers just looking for the next juicy tidbit you throw out there.  Unlike Miley, most of us don't have deep pockets to file defamation lawsuits if something gets out of hand.  Play it safe grown ups and kids, go ahead and Twitter away, but keep it lite and don't reveal too much.  Keep photos vague, and do NOT use the direct message feature for anything that you don't want slipping out.  One person had all their direct messages posted public by a Twitter glitch.  Real nice eh?  Have a separate email address where you can talk in private to your online buddies, put this on your Twitter account and when you sign up for the email address on Yahoo, AOL or wherever, do NOT use your real name, age or geographical location.  This way if Twitter is hacked, it's no big deal.  Also, don't use the same password for your Twitter account as the email you signed up with. Best to be as elusive as possible.

Celebs out there, we love you and want to get to know you! Ignore the haters, block the meanies, lock your Tweets if need be and think about how much info you want to divulge.  A few celebs I know have opted to put a fake photo and name up just to hang with us as normal people.  Do you know who they are? You'd be very surprised at just who might be a famous person in your circle of followers!  Lastly, celebs are people too. If you don't like the person, their music, movies etc., don't harass and insult the star directly. It's RUDE and shows you were raised by evil trolls.   Keep your opinions to yourself and like Mama told you: "If you can't say anything nice then don't say anything at all".  Miley, if you do decide to come back to Twitter, just know that the friendly people greatly out number the jerks.

Want to know what I can find out about you?

Are you on Twitter, Facebook, My Space, Reunion, Classmates? If so then take a look at what I can get on you! I can sign up, become a friend of yours, stalk you, your friends, it's endless. Your bosses can snoop on you and you've just basically put a target on your back.

This post CLICK HERE by PC World is very good advice, however the best advice for privacy is to stay OFF the grid, off the social networking sites. Your real friends are people you see in real life and have emails to so that you can send messages and pics in private. What's the purpose of using your real name and posting your life and job online anyhow? Brownie points? To show off to past classmates "how well you're doing". To me, it seems arrogant to say the least. If you're not a celebrity getting paid big bucks to have your privacy violated then why on earth are you violating yourself? Think about that for a minute.

Common sense says don't post drunken photos, naked photos, photos of yourself doing drugs etc. But for heaven's sake you're posting your spouse's pics, your kids, your friends. Do they have a say in what you're posting? Do you realize it would take me a few minutes to locate you down to your front door with the info you post? So please people, realize that it isn't smart or necessary to post your life online. Think your info is gone when you delete it? Think again my friend. Info is cached. Go look up something on Google. Clicking main link may come up empty, but look below at the button that says CACHED underneath the site's description. Bingo, there's the old site, pictures and all. Are you using photobucket for images? For that matter any free service? They can be copied by anyone, they can be photoshopped and re-posted to ruin your reputation.

A woman browsing Craigslist saw a photo of her son being used in an adoption scam. Imagine her horror! She apparently posted a pic of her son on a social networking site and exploited the poor child unknowingly.

Kidnappers. Need I mention that if a criminal learns who your local friends are, your best friend, he/she can approach your child and name-drop to gain their trust?

Do your social networking under a pseudonym and do not post your real name anywhere.

"But how will people find me" you ask. My answer: Who the hell online really needs to find you that bad? Are you seeking fame? What is it that you want really? Again, your friends are people you know and email. Send them your pictures in private. Refrain from even posting names of pets, because trust me, I've located more people through veterinary records and animal control. Don't post your real name anywhere, don't use your real address, if you can, don't even post your city. It's all about how much you're willing to give up in the name of privacy.

Scary thing is that it isn't only me who can locate you, anyone with a few bucks to spare can pay for a search service and locate you if you're easy to find. I've set up decoy accounts and caught stalkers, and you'd be surprised that often stalkers are often people you actually know. That acquaintance or family member who is all too sweet when they see you in person. Why? Because they're feeling guilty for stalking. You can put trackers on many social networking sites now, that will enable you to see who visits your site and for how long. One of my clients had an aquaintance hit his site over 60 times in an hour. This is more than one page reload per minute. Why? Who cares why, the fact is that they did it in the first place.

So go now and change the details in your social sites. Pick a handle, don't use your name. Put fictitious info in the first name, last name and address fields. Don't put your location or change it to something far away. Never put your real birthdate. More later... in the mean time, clean up your cyber trail.

Twitter DDoS Cyberattack Aug 6th

So Twitter shows its vulnerability again. What do you have linked to Twitter? A main email account? Your real-life name? What about Facebook?  I'm not concerned about privacy there because none of my real info is shared.  Sure they can track my entry and exit pages, look at my link to a blog, but I've already done my homework and there's nothing that can be used against me. How about you? 

Earlier this year Twitter corporate was hacked (in my blog archive a few days ago I mentioned this). The convenience of Twitter, all the applications, access by phone, ability to attach it to other accounts is part of what makes it vulnerable. Often attacks are harmless pranks, however sometimes hackers are testing just how unprotected a site is.  While Twitter isn't a pay service and your credit card info isn't on their corporate servers or the website itself, your name is, your email is, and that's not good.

Twitter goes down by DDoS cyberattack

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Twitter users were unable to access the Twitter homepage on Thursday, which the company said was due to an ongoing distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) cyberattack.

TechCrunch reported that Twitter was inaccessible as of approximately 9 a.m. eastern time. By 11 a.m. eastern on Thursday, the company posted on the Twitter status blog: "We are defending against a denial-of-service attack and will update status again shortly."

Media outlets on Thursday also reported that popular social networks LiveJournal and Facebook were suffering outages.

A DDoS or DoS is a type of cyberattack used by hackers to overwhelm a website or server with traffic to slow down or force a website offline. DDoS attacks often use botnets of compromised PCs to submit repeated requests to a targeted website.

Recently, DDoS attacks have been reported against the online media site Gawker, the file-sharing site The Pirate Bay and the messageboard 4chan.org.

A series of DDoS attacks beginning the weekend of July 4 hit government websites in the U.S. and South Korea.

More than 160,000 infected PCs were used in those attacks to disrupt service from sensitive sites including those of the White House, the Secret Service and the New York Stock Exchange.

ADNFCR-1765-ID-19300667-ADNFCR

The above cited from: MXlogic.com 

______________

Notice they mentioned compromised PC's. What does that mean? Same as my friend's dilemma. A backdoor program used an open port from her computer for malicious activity. How did this happen to her? Not using proper WIFI locking, allowing her kids to download software and games, not having a Zone Alarm and proper spyware detector.  Sometimes even those programs aren't enough, but you have to be vigilant. 

Privacy isn't free, you have to work hard to keep it. Next blog I'll list what minimum anti-spyware and locks you should have on all your computers.  If you're downloading things or using a Bit Torrent service, you should really consider having a separate computer dedicated to only that activity. Once your downloads are done, that dedicated computer is offline. If you're doing file sharing and need to be a "seed" download location for sharing bit torrents, then do not network the dedicated computer with your work or home computers. As for Twitter? It's harmless for social fun, just be aware that any info you share, real name, real location etc. is not private and not really removable from a cache online either, even if deleted. Facebook? I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. There's no reason for me to be available for contact or to be found through my list of friends. To be honest, all of my real friends are people I can reach or email on my own. 

Bands and those needing exposure, it's a double edged sword. Remember the 4 P's Pay Price in Privacy for Publicity.  If you don't need your name private, that's fine, but watch your credit and debit cards, ATF bank drafts okay? And don't list your home address anywhere. 

Number one reason why sites or companies are either hacked or compromised? You got it, financial gain. Do you have too much info out there? Make a note to start changing things.