Sunday, July 08, 2012

Keeping your online identity safe now that every tweet in history is going to be saved in the National Archives

Theresa Payton, writing at Infosec Island, has some solid advice for Twitter users.

We have mentioned before that Twitter will send every tweet to the National Archives and the Library of Congress, so watch what you tweet.

...New tools are popping up and they can unleash a treasure trove of data in moments.  For the 140 million and growing user base that tweets over 400 million tweets per day this might be a little more than alarming.

...In the early days, people were tweeting, uploading pictures with geocodes, doing location check ins.  Many felt like they were just sharing all this information with a small group of people.

But these tweets leave behind clues that tell bad guys, potential employers, people you might date, people you might want to forget a lot about you.

What you may not realize is, that all Twitter accounts are searchable.  To test it on yourself and loved ones, try a tool like Topsy  http://topsy.com/

Tips to Stay Safe:

1.  Tweet about a location AFTER you leave

2.  Think about the tweets you do, do they show a pattern of behavior that puts you in the best light for those that don’t know you?  do they provide patterns that you would not want a bad guy to see?

3.  If you post photos make sure geocodes are turned off unless you like someone tracking your digital tracks.

RESOURCES:

Here are a few of the Twitter search tools out there:
  • If you want to look for local tweeps that leave their location information turned on, check out Nearby Tweets: http://nearbytweets.com
  • If you want to see what tweets are the most popular, try searching on Tweetmeme: http://tweetmeme.com
  • Anyone that wants to track tweets by a specific location, including one on a Google Map, try Areaface: http://www.areaface.com

In general, disclose as little about yourself online as you possibly can. And a little misinformation always helps too.

2 comments:

Doom said...

Good luck with keeping your identity safe. I doubt if the president can be kept safe, they simply have the power to rewrite any wrong (and much correct) history. And, his handlers keep what shouldn't be said, to a degree, from getting out.

No, your identity is already owned, possibly being borrowed as needed from time to time, either under or outside of your skin. It's... just the way of it.

Anonymous said...

Or, you could just not participate in Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn or the rest of the "social media".

There IS life without Twitter.

creeper