Avoid Being Stalked on Social Media
Whether you're wary of an obsessive stalker, or you simply don't want a creepy someone ogling over you, here are some paranoid ways to deny online predators their fun while still enjoying the social aspect of social media.
Contents
Steps
- Make your profiles private. Almost every popular social media site has a way of hiding your account from the public. Take advantage of this aspect to hide what you can from a stalker.
- On Myspace, you can make your entire profile private, so that no one can see anything but your profile picture, and your mood underneath it. There is also an option to make your main profile page visible to the public, but everything else (albums, status history, comments, calendar, etc.) private.
- On Facebook, check your settings. If your primary network is the city you live in, and people in your network can see your profile, that means everyone in your city has access to your profile.
- Protect your Twitter updates so that no one can read them unless you approve.
- On Tumblr, go to your blog's settings and deactivate "Show this blog on the web" and "Allow this blog to appear in search results". This will prevent someone from accessing your blog anywhere except through Tumblr itself.
- On Instagram, go to your account, tap Settings, and then enable Private Account. This prevents anyone who isn't following you from seeing your posts, and all new followers must be approved by you before they can see anything.
- On Google+, go to Settings. Untick the box that says "Allow viewers to download my photos and videos", and then disable visitor viewing of all the tabs on your profile.
- On YouTube, you can't make your account private, but you can set all of your videos to Unlisted or Private, hide your playlists and subscriptions, and disable automatic posting to your activity feed.
- You can't hide your account on Wattpad or Quotev, but you can hide information such as your name and birthday.
- Make any online photo albums private, too, especially if you embed pictures from those albums onto your social media profiles.
- Block any accounts that you know belong to a stalker. If you know there's a stalker viewing your accounts, and you're aware of the stalker's account(s), block them! The block feature on every site is different, so you may not be able to hide everything, but it can do something to stave them off.
- On Facebook, go to Settings, access the Blocking tab, and block the user account(s) you need to block under "Block Users".
- On Twitter, go to the user's Twitter page(s), click on the gear next to the Follow button, and click "Block".
- On Tumblr, go to Blocked Users, enter the person's URL(s) (their username), and hit the Block button.
- On Instagram, access the person's Instagram page(s), tap on the "...", and select "Block User".
- On Wattpad, go to the person's account(s), click on the "...", and select "Mute". However, this doesn't stop them from seeing your profile; it merely prevents them from contacting you.
- On Google+, access the person's profile(s), click on the arrow next to the chat bubble, and click "Block".
- On YouTube, go to the person's channel(s), switch to the "About" tab, go to the dropdown menu with the flag, and click "Block user".
- Upload small pictures. There are people out there who will download pictures of you onto their computer and pore over them. Even if your profiles are private, people can find the original version of your profile picture or avatar (the high resolution one) and download it. So when you upload pictures, make them a low enough resolution that if a creep does get their hands on them, they can't zoom in. Besides, who really needs to see a picture of you that's any wider or taller than 200 pixels?
- Avoid tagging in photos. Don't tag others, and don't allow others to tag you. Once you link to someone else's profile through tagging, big privacy holes open up. For example, if you are tagged in your aunt's Facebook album, and her Facebook page is private, people can still access that album if they have the right link, unless your aunt went out of her way to make the album itself private. They'll see any other pictures of you or your family or your friends, and they'll also see the comments you left (and the comments people left about you).
- Never tag your location on posts or photos. If you have a dedicated cyberstalker after you, even if you do everything to hide your account and prevent yourself from being tagged, they'll still do your best to find your photos. If you tag your location in these photos and they find these photos, you place yourself at a serious safety risk, since they could find you in person and take the stalking offline.
- Use a different username for every social media site you're on. If you're "applesnoranges22" on Myspace, anyone can plug that into a search engine and find your other profiles that utilize the same username, such as a dating site profile or a YouTube account, or even your comments on blogs and forums.
- Don't keep the same username and just add hyphens or change a few letters. A skilled cyberstalker will know how to find your account if the name has only had minimal changes.
- Log your stalker's IP address. Some blog-based social media sites, such as Tumblr, permit for an IP logger to be installed on your account, and Wordpress already has a "blog stat" option; however, it doesn't show IP addresses. Find a tool that can be installed on your social media page, such as Statcounter, and install it on your account. Be aware, though, that this is limited to sites such as personal blogs; you can't install an IP tracker on your Facebook page.
- This can be used in different ways; you can simply track the IP addresses visiting your blog, block the IP address(es) of your stalker, or search the IP address on a site like Whois.
- This won't be very helpful if you have a very popular blog that has daily readers. However, it can track the paths of your visitors, which may help you to narrow the options down if your stalker is poring over a certain page every day.
- Open a support ticket. If you know you're being stalked by someone and know the name(s) of their account(s), and blocking them and/or hiding your accounts isn't doing the trick, try to find some way of contacting the site's administrators or "help desk". Open a support ticket, and list all the information you need to in the support ticket; you'll have to input an email address, proof of harassment (this is where an IP logger can come in handy), and anything else you may need. Some sample versions of support ticket openings are below.
- "This user has been creating accounts to stalk me and harass me both on and off Wattpad. They've previously left me abusive messages on [the other site(s) - include a screenshot if possible], and when they were permanently IP blocked from that site, they turned to Wattpad and found my profile. I've been muting their accounts, but they keep returning with new ones to harass me and watch my profile. Please do something about these accounts: [link to the profiles]"
- "This user has been using Tumblr to watch my account and send me threatening messages, and telling me I should commit suicide. I've tried hiding the web version of my blog, but I think they're using the app to get around that. I've also blocked their account, but blocking doesn't prevent them from viewing my blog. I've installed an IP logger on my blog, but it doesn't track those who are using the app. Please do something about this account."
- Keep in mind that not all support tickets will get looked at. Particularly if the site's staff is known to not be very friendly or helpful to its users, you may not get much help.
- Remove yourself from search results and the internet. This is a drastic measure that should only be used if you know for absolute certain you're being stalked and seriously fear for your safety and the safety of others around you. Some subtler measures you can take are in the article about removing yourself from search engines, but if you really want to go all-out and remove your online identity, take a look at the article on removing your internet identity entirely and follow the steps there. Again, this is very drastic and should only be used if you have absolutely no other choice. There are much simpler ways to get someone to stop stalking you than deleting yourself.
Tips
- If you'd rather not show up in your friends’ Facebook ads, go to "Settings", "Privacy", "News Feed and Wall" and click on the "Facebook Ads" link. Click "no one" under the "Appearance in Facebook Ads" box.
- It isn't always a good idea to lack the faith in creating a common identity on the internet; if you're trying to position yourself or your brand as the first returns on search engines, mixing up user names across the internet won't achieve this. Moreover, it can be harder to piece back together your broader identity if you decide later on to stop hiding behind these devices!
- These are too much trouble for most people. But if you ever find out that a perverted admirer was snooping on you, these steps might then seem quite useful.
Warnings
- Don't send messages to a person who is sending you messages, and don't click on a page that someone sent to you. It could lead to their profile, and you might get hacked or your computer might break. Remember, going on these sites is dangerous and could lead to problems later on.
- Ignore or click away from the site and don't reply to messages the stalker sends, even as a prank. If you are being harassed or threatened by the messages the stalker sends, simply call the police or tell a friend about it. Remember, no need to panic and just stay safe.
- Don't see or click on messages that may lead to the stalker's main page. Remember, it may be a virus —you never know.
- Protect yourself at all times; if you are watching movies or playing games, you need to make sure no one's stalking you; try to not watch or play any games where you may be stalked.
