Perhaps it is the former Intelligence Analyst in me or the fact that I'm currently a Private Investigator that makes me pay attention to things others do not. It could be that in a past life I might have been a body guard too. Protecting others comes naturally to me.
Today such professionals are called "Close Protection Officers," and they work in "Executive Protection." I am a student of the craft not to pursue the profession but for the skills gained from it. Almost everyone has someone to protect if not just themselves.
I have not done that work because of the travel and dangers involved. My children being in my life and protected by me on a daily basis is too important. However, I know some people who do the work, and there's much to be learned from them and their noble art.
You see a harmless photo of you standing on your back deck. I see a near exact way to locate your home.
All a person needs is a few social media posted videos and photos, and they have found your location. Is the person discovering this information and turning it into vital intelligence a friend or foe? Are they a tax collector, other thief, or assassin? There's no way to be sure. You have given them valuable information to act upon however.
Friends, please. Please be more careful with your own personal security. You may think you have nothing to hide or lose, but all of us do. Even if you have nothing of financial value to lose, you have loved ones to protect. They are your most valuable treasure. If you do not care about your own personal security, at least be wise for the sake of your loved one's.
You post a video of walking around your neighborhood. I see a map to pinpoint your location.
Within my past profession, it is called "All Source Intelligence." Unclassified information, when combined, can become classified. The reason for that is because the combination provides far more valuable facts. That is the definition of intelligence! You share a small fact here. Then you share another there. Someone else shares yet another one elsewhere. Soon, all of those facts combined, become actionable intelligence.
Yes, I can imagine you thinking, "This guy is really paranoid." You're free to think as you wish, but at least keep what I'm sharing in mind. What are you sharing? You may think what you are sharing is harmless, but you have no idea how what you share is being used. All of us have something valuable to lose. There's no reason to be foolish about our personal security either. All I ask is that my friends be careful about the information they are putting online.
The individual posts, pictures, or comments alone may be meaningless. Combine them though, and they are a key to treasure.
In the Military Intelligence symbol above, a "sub rosa" is included. It is an ancient symbol of secrecy or confidentiality. I advise my friends to keep as much about themselves secret as possible. Be careful what you share on the Internet, and do not make it easy for an enemy to find your home.
I hope this information helps you protect yourself, your loved ones, and your other treasures. Feel free to comment below to further the discussion, and resteem the post if you find it valuable enough to share.
Really we need to be secure first.
Yes, definitely. Depending on who the person is, they may need to take way more precautions too.
you know what infuriates me? when people who are my friends who ARE intelligent people say "I have nothing to hide." I think to myself - ok why don't you put your toilet out in the middle of the street then.
Yeah, they are making it easy for predators.
Agreed. Excellent points. people are very careless online with personal info. Not giving out passwords, phone numbers, addresses etc. but rather pics of every action they do. Had to mention to my wife not to post the pics of us on vacation until "after" we got home. She thought it was silly but hey why advertise that your not home? Little things like this that people don't think of.
Unfortunately, most people are good, and they assume everyone else is too. Karma is real in my opinion, but we still should be careful. Being a good person isn't enough in a world where predators are often allowed to roam free. Sometimes they are in charge too.
Your advice is very good too. If you are going on a vacation or your house will be vacant for more than a normal work day, don't advertise that fact. I'll do a post about this topic in the future for us all to delve into it more deeply!
So true.
Sounds good. I look forward to it. It really is amazing how many people do this.
Very good advice, cannot be too careful when it comes to security.
Thanks! I try to be careful, but there's only so much a person can do. There are easy ways for people to find out a decent amount of information about you, but we still shouldn't make it any easier for them by having good habits.
I have a amateur radio license for example. The government, being stupid, requires you to have your home address in their publicly searchable database. Instead of doing that, I gave them my UPS Store address. Even my driver's license has that address on it. No, I'm not supposed to have things setup that way, but I do anyway to further protect me and my loved ones.
This information is all too commonly ignored. Thank you for the post!
Additionally, even if a motivated adversary has trouble finding actionable intelligence on you, they can easily gather plenty from your friends, family and coworkers who practice much less discretion.
So, it doesn't hurt to have conversations with your family or very close friends regarding keeping private lives private, even if they feel like they "have nothing to hide."
True! You talk to them about it, and then they ignore what you said. I've had that happen in my family. A past associate, who I have no desire to talk to, calls my sibling. The sibling gives them my address, phone number, etc. /sigh
There's a tip here to share too. Any time ANYONE is asking for contact information from you for someone else, tell them "Give me your contact information, and I'll give it to them." Then, if the person really wants to be contacted, they will make the connection. No harm is done if they do not.
PI's get a lot of requests to "find my ex." Yeah, uhm, nope. Sometimes, depending on the circumstances, a PI will find the person. However, they do not provide the information to the client. They will give the subject the seekers information. Then the subject can decide if they want to make contact or not.
Good point, hope that private investigators will not be mad, and if yes will not get your location :)
Utility companies sell people's home addresses. Even knowing that though, there are still steps people can take to protect themselves. I'm not worried about myself though. There are rock stars, who I greatly respect and love, that are the inspiration of this post. Besides, I'm armed almost all the time. I do not welcome conflict, but I will not cower away from it either.
Brilliant post @finnian! I often shake my head at what people will post publicly.
Thank you! This topic is very involved, and books have been written about it. We all could learn from each other to improve our personal security.
I have been very foolish with my own internet presence in the past, and have only recently taken steps to prevent any further information from being disseminated. You are definitely not paranoid, these things are important.
Thanks! The anonymous handle helps a ton. Because I want to get my name out there, I purposefully use my real name and ignore the dangers of doing that. I'm also armed almost all the time, so anyone trying to harm me is risking a lot.
This stuff doesn't work for government agencies either of course. We cannot hide well from them. However, you can hide yourself from nutty ex's, stalkers, etc.
You are a hard one to get ahold of. Check your messages please.
Been in the dark the last 10 hours, sorry!
I just set up an Unseen account to take some conversations out of the spotlight. Taking baby steps here.
You're another "rock star" I worry about, Randy. I want you and yours to be safe of course. Consider getting Virgil's app Cell 411 too. You can send out an alert to a trusted network in the event of something bad happening at least. I know you're smart about things though, but all of us, myself included, can always improve our security.
A few of my friends use Wire for fully encrypted communications. It is a phone app too. Then there's protonmail for fully encrypted email. Those things do not work well though when your devices and computers are already compromised. Make sure you also have ESET or an other quality proactive, not reactive, security software installed too.
Randy, have you seen this?
http://cryto.net/~joepie91/blog/2014/04/19/why-you-should-stay-away-from-unseen.is/
Maybe check out Wire instead:
https://app.wire.com/
Agreed, people often conduct themselves in condition white. Good article!
Thank you!
Cooper's conditions is a good topic for a future post. I'm always in "condition yellow" unless I'm sleeping. :) He has a book where he describes his perfect home. When I flipped to that page, I freaked out. His home layout is exactly what I have planned for mine. haha I wanted to reach through time and space and high five him!
Cooper was a genius! I tend to stay in yellow as well.
Yep, I stay dressed with my EDC even while in my home until it is bed time. That's better than when I was in the army I guess. Back then we'd sleep in our uniforms to get out into formation more quickly! haha
Yeah my EDC stays on until bedtime, then it goes into a bag. I sleep in running shorts, and my shotgun is held just under the bed with 2 industrial magnets.
Very good post! It is a shame people call those like you paranoid. My husband always thinks 10 steps ahead and so many people label him paranoid.
Fortune favors the prepared is another one of my "finnianisms." Preparedness includes being observant of your surroundings and being careful about your personal security too of course. Thank you!
Fantastic advice @finnian. Internet users have no idea how vulnerable they are! Thank you for sharing this useful post. Upvoting, following and resteeming.. Have a great day!
Thank you, @crystalize ! There's a ton of material for this topic. We haven't even scratched the surface. I have children for another example, of protecting them from Internet and other threats is a huge topic just by itself.
I hear you, @finnian. I took some courses in Intelligence Studies at American Military University--mostly on gathering intel via OSINT, SIGINT and HUMINT and it is unnerving to see what can be gathered on people simply via OSINT.
Yes! It is pretty easy. I hope to make people's personal and residential security better though.
I totally agree with this. As a former Detective I am paranoid. In 2014 three guys broke into my house while my family was home, I was at work and it was the middle of the night. One of these men I had sent to prison. They got my information online from the appraisal district. My family is fine btw and my kids never found out. Do a Google search on yourself and see what comes up. I have spent a good amount of time having my information removed from all these stupid data mining websites.
We should connect further if you're willing.
Way back many years ago I wanted to be a detective, but I couldn't get my foot in the door as a beat cop to work my way up. After six years of trying to get hired back when quotas were controlling who got hired, I gave up and started doing IT work.
A couple years ago though I finally became a registered PI in Virginia. I'm doing what I've always wanted to do finally, and this and residential security are my real passions in life.
Yes, I've ruined people's lives, and my wife has put people in prison. We have to pay way more attention to our security than the average person because of those reasons. You have similar reasons to do the same. Your life drastically changes when you have people who want you dead. ;-)
Well I think being a police officer is totally different from what it was just a few years ago. I don't think I would encourage anyone into going into it. Dealing with scum, evil, mental illness, dead bodies, fights and all the other crap can take a toll after a while.
It does change your perspective. I sit where I can see in restaurants, I have driven past my house more than once when driving home because someone may have been following me, putting my gun on just to walk out and get the mail.
Last year we decided to make a big change and we left Houston. Now we live on a farm and the stress levels have gone way down.
I am always up for connecting with people.
Your gun should be on your body all the time anyway even while in your home. :)
I hate double standards and special protections. All police functions should be privatized. PI's already do investigative work, there are security companies already, etc.
You were wise to move out of an urban area. Things here are only going to continue getting worse and worse. I've been telling friends to leave urban areas for years. Most have ignored me unfortunately.
Oh, you're not paranoid. The threats are real. If you were making them up in your head, then you'd be paranoid. haha
And it's not only the things you post, but the things other family members post.
Yeah, the same used to happen to me. My wife used to be really bad about it too, but she's gotten better over the years.
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Thanks! A friend suggested I do this for this post since he believed it worthy of further exposure. /thank
I've come to realize that information is relatively cheap to come by these days. If someone I've rubbed the wrong way (or who wants my stuff) is dedicated to finding my location, they will fairly easily do so, even if I don't post anything about it online. I ask myself why someone would come here to harm me, and it's pretty easy to narrow down the motives and possibilities and address those concerns individually. I try not to be too much of a jerk to people both in person and online and I think that goes a long way. I've got several backup plans for the rest.
Depending on who's looking, it can be pretty easy. We shouldn't make it easier though by bad habits. It's like leaving your house or car unlocked. You're inviting trouble you don't need. :) Thanks for the reply!
Congratulations @finnian!
Your post was mentioned in my hit parade in the following category:
Awesome, thank you! There's plenty more to come. :)
That moment when you realize you've been oversharing online..
Great article @finnian, it really is something that skips our minds, but it's better to be reminded than to learn too late.
Yeah, it's the "oops lol" moment, and you think to yourself, "Ahh, man. I'm an idiot." haha