What a wonderful Community we share. I have enjoyed learning about my friends all over the world and how you live, your differences, but most importantly, your similarities. That said, let me make some simple recommendations that will help you prevent cyber-trouble.

Protect identifying information like your name, phone number and address while online. Always use a unique cyber-alias. An author uses a pen name, and your life on the internet should be cloaked in a pseudonym used only on the internet. Use this name as you would your own, and make sure friends who know you in real life use it online as well (This group should be limited to your very closest relatives and friends only). Please remember, this applies to watermarks on photos and art as well. Like an actor, you become this person on the stage that is the internet. Do not slip out of character. When someone approaches you in the real world and uses your cyber-name you are immediately alerted to the invasion of your privacy. Stay calm and smile, but make any excuse to move away and into a public place. As soon as it is safe to do so, make a full report to the authorities, with as much descriptive information as possible about the person involved. Exceptions: risk is a balance, and if you make a living from your art, you must decide if the internet should use your ‘real’ identity to maximize your income. I would always counsel business people to use company names that do not contain the owner’s surname, but some people feel having their name on the door is important to the business image. This is the balance of risk management, each person must make his or her own decisions regarding business risk.

Avoid naming or use a cyber-alias for family members and friends referred to in your journal entries and comments. Always protect those dear to you by shielding their identity as well. It does little good to use a pseudonym for yourself, yet refer to your boyfriend by name. Remember, these are only names, they do not change the character of the journal entries or the validity of the comments. By freely giving out identifying information about your girlfriend or sister on the internet, you place them in danger as well as yourself. Exceptions: Models often need to be identified in comments. Models generally work under a pseudonym anyway, but always get permission to use a model’s real name in your comments, if that is the way she prefers to run her business.

Guard Your Location by not being too specific about your residence or places you frequent. Don’t list your city in your DA profile, stick to general areas of population. Use Central Indiana, not Cotton Grove, Indiana. Avoid taking pictures of the front of your house or apartment, and if you must, don’t identify it as such in your comments. Don’t take a picture of a well known storefront and then comment that the store is visible out of a window in your flat. Don’t name your High School or University (unless it is a very large institution, and then with caution). Being proud of your school is cool, but naming it means nothing to the majority of DA users and it is a valuable piece of information for someone trying to find you. Don’t use the name of the place you work, refer only to it in the general sense, like ‘the store’ or ‘the hospital’. And toughest of all, try not to post photos of easily recognizable landmarks unless you comment that the photo was taken while traveling or on a trip (even if the trip was really a five-minute walk from your house). This is hard not to do, but be aware that this is a very big piece of information that someone can use against you.

Use your visual image with caution. Self Portraits are a DA tradition and I think everyone needs a visual ID of some kind to be a resident here. But as a father and security advisor, I would counsel younger women and men to avoid easily recognizable photographs. Remember DA is not a dating service, those organizations carefully track user identities and monitor behavior. Use your own face with caution, and adhere to the rules above to minimize your exposure to risk.

I want to emphasize that these three items are connected. If you are less careful in one area you must be more vigilant in the other two to protect yourself. You lessen the risk by adhering to all three items consistently. Let down your guard in one area (show a self-portrait for instance or a picture of your high school) you will probably be fine. Slip in two areas (show a self portrait and name your high school) and you expose yourself to great risk. Remember this is not about fear, it’s about prevention. Control your exposure in an uncontrolled cyber-world and you control the risk.