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Internet Privacy Thoughts
Mar. 10th, 2023 11:00 amHere's some thoughts on internet privacy from a very private person:
* You don't owe anyone information about yourself.
* You've probably already revealed more about yourself than you think you have.
* No need to put personal information in your bio--you can still fill a bio by talking about interests or hobbies or what's important to you or how you like to socialize with others online.
* People knowing your axes of oppression is overrated: from my observations of other people, a lot of people will still ignore you just as hard if they don't like what you have to say. Their friend who's oppressed the same way disagreed, so they're still...listening to the voices. And so on.
* Also there's then the people who will participate in online oppression against you.
* No, you don't need to put your first name, your age, or the street you grew up on on your blog. That last one's also a common security question.
* No, the general public doesn't need to know your age for any reason. If you are being overly forward with someone, that is inappropriate regardless of your age or your age relative to the other person's. People should stop assuming the ages of other people they meet online, and they should also not assume that everyone who puts an age in their bio is telling the truth.
* No, random people don't need to know what skeletons you have in your closet.
* No, random people don't need to know you're a minor. In fact, it might better for your safety if they don't. People should stop being so forward with random strangers.
* Also, if it would be inappropriate or illegal to behave in such a way towards a minor, that doesn't necessarily make it okay just because the target is an adult! Be considerate of others.
* You don't need to have a DNI. If you think your situation makes it worthwhile to divulge information about your triggers, you can do that with or without a DNI. From a practical perspective, you can't really stop particularly bad people from interacting with you by just telling them not to, and it's more effective to just block them. If you want, you can warn people for common reasons that you block others, but you are under no obligation to do so.
* You should also avoid giving personal information to companies if you can avoid it. Sometimes they're even worse about misusing that than any individual would be.
* You don't owe anyone information about yourself.
* You've probably already revealed more about yourself than you think you have.
* No need to put personal information in your bio--you can still fill a bio by talking about interests or hobbies or what's important to you or how you like to socialize with others online.
* People knowing your axes of oppression is overrated: from my observations of other people, a lot of people will still ignore you just as hard if they don't like what you have to say. Their friend who's oppressed the same way disagreed, so they're still...listening to the voices. And so on.
* Also there's then the people who will participate in online oppression against you.
* No, you don't need to put your first name, your age, or the street you grew up on on your blog. That last one's also a common security question.
* No, the general public doesn't need to know your age for any reason. If you are being overly forward with someone, that is inappropriate regardless of your age or your age relative to the other person's. People should stop assuming the ages of other people they meet online, and they should also not assume that everyone who puts an age in their bio is telling the truth.
* No, random people don't need to know what skeletons you have in your closet.
* No, random people don't need to know you're a minor. In fact, it might better for your safety if they don't. People should stop being so forward with random strangers.
* Also, if it would be inappropriate or illegal to behave in such a way towards a minor, that doesn't necessarily make it okay just because the target is an adult! Be considerate of others.
* You don't need to have a DNI. If you think your situation makes it worthwhile to divulge information about your triggers, you can do that with or without a DNI. From a practical perspective, you can't really stop particularly bad people from interacting with you by just telling them not to, and it's more effective to just block them. If you want, you can warn people for common reasons that you block others, but you are under no obligation to do so.
* You should also avoid giving personal information to companies if you can avoid it. Sometimes they're even worse about misusing that than any individual would be.