Stupid Sexy Privacy

We're almost at the end of this mini-series! In our final segment, BJ and Rosie explore how to protect yourself from fascists and weirdos. In Part one of our five-part investigation, Rosie offers tips on how you can protect yourself from stalkers. It's a serious topic, so we're going to skip the jokes and get right to the advice:

This Week's Privacy Tip

There are A LOT of tips this week, so we're just going to go with a list if you don't mind:

1. Do not respond to stalkers. No matter how much they threaten or try to manipulate you, cut them off.

2. Page Vault is expensive; however, you can use it to create a digital log of all of your stalker's behavior that's admissible in court. So if the situation is serious and you have the funds? Give it a try.

3. Get a Do Not Contact Order. If someone is stalking you, this is one of the first legal lines of defense you can use.

4. Set up a PO BOX at least two towns over from where you actually live. Use an Amazon Locker to receive all your deliveries.

5. Get a stranger-danger phone.

6. Use the @ Duck email and these apps.

7. Make sure your friends and family block your stalker and do not tag you in their posts.

8. If you live in California, take advantage of the Safe at Home program to keep your mailing address unlisted.

9. Remove all EXIF data from your photos if you're going to upload any. (If not, set your social media accounts to private.)

10. If you own any domain names, make sure you are using Private Registry to keep your information offline.

11. Learn your IP address. Go to Google and search, "What is my ip address?". Then look at all of the places you log into and see if that's the only IP address that appears. If not, immediately change your passwords.

12. Experien

13. Report all instances of online stalking to the FBI. Do not take any stalking lightly. If you are worried, file a report.

14. Call Experian, Equifax, and Transunion to request a Fraud Alert on your credit Reports:
Experian (888) 397-3742
Equifax (888) 766-0008
TransUnion (877) 322-8228

15. See below!
Our Guest Is ...

Dr. Nicole Prause is a neuroscientist and statistician at UCLA. She has previously researched the myths and lies of the anti-porn movement and is the founder of Liberos, an organization that looks to identify the general health benefits of sexual stimulation.

Dr. Nicole has a terrific suggestion to share as well. If you don't know who is stalking and harassing you, you can take them to small claims court. Doing so will reveal the identity of the stalker.

We recommend listening to our friends at Smashing Security for more news and tips concerning how to maintain your privacy and security after this miniseries concludes. 

*You don’t need to use the affiliate links above. They don’t cost you anything extra. But. If you do use these links, it’ll kick a couple of dollars our way to help support this project.

**BJ's first book on privacy, "The End of Privacy" is badly dated in a few sections; however, it's still very funny and the rest of the book is still (sadly) current. We've included most of the book, for free, in this podcast miniseries. If you'd like to buy the unabridged version, you can do so here.

BJ Mendelson and Amanda King are the authors of the upcoming book, "How to Protect Yourself From Fascists and Weirdos." They are designing an online video-based course around the topics discussed in the book and on this show. So, if you want more information on how to protect yourself from fascists and weirdos, complete with step-by-step details and tutorials, we recommend reserving a seat for the course.

All you need to do is email us at BJMendelson@Duck.com with "Privacy Course" in the subject line.

We'll make sure to let you know when this on-demand course becomes available for purchase.

P.S. These are the kind of weirdos we're talking about.

(Photo by Antonio Florentini)