In a world where technology continually creeps into your daily life more and more, it’s important to keep in mind the various ways you can protect your identity. The Red Pill and Red Pill Women subs here on reddit are fairly controversial for various reasons, and in the past there have been incidents of users getting doxxed.

Dox: Personal information about people on the Internet, often including real name, known aliases, address, phone number, SSN, credit card number, etc.

I am by no means a technological guru, so if you have other suggestions you would like to see included, please don’t hesitate to share.

Multiple eMail Addresses This may sound like a lot of work and inconvenient, but using different accounts for various things has a few advantages. If you have one email solely dedicated to, say, purchases you make on amazon, and you suddenly start getting spam mail - you'll know why. You can easily track which sites are selling user information which can be useful. Similarly, if one of your alt accounts gets hacked by a virus, then your friends and family won’t get spammed as well (because you only use that email to purchase, not to write messages to colleagues or family). Keeping track of your emails is simple. You can alter an address book very easily to suit your needs. Be sure to vary the names you come up with, and include bogus first/last names, age(s), sex, and location. Signing up for an email should not require you to outline the basics of your life. Don’t use the same security questions or passwords for different things (facebook and bank logins, for example, should be very different).

Personal Information Don’t risk telling people your real name (first or last), or the names of the people you know. Don’t disclose your specific geographic location (city, town etc). If you are linking to something on a personal social site that you use (facebook, myspace, google+), make sure that all profile images are completely obscured. Better yet, simply summarize or quote what’s being said in your post, as opposed to linking to imgur (again, you’ll want to make sure that your imgur account doesn’t contain anything personal).

If you are on social media sites, or manage a blog, be aware of the information you include. You may keep your reddit account clean, but if you link to another site that has some personal information about you, then that can lead to problems. I always tell my friends to limit the information they post on FB, and encourage people to set their photos etc to “Only Friends” (I’m wary of even the “Friends of Friends” setting).

Don’t Use Auto-Fill Whether you’re using a personal computer, laptop, or cellphone, don’t use the auto-fill capabilities. Clear your browsing history when you’re done on a public computer, and try using incognito windows.

Conduct Self-Searches It's always useful to try and see what you can find on the internet using either your real name, or an alias you use. Knowing what currently exists on the web will help you keep track of any significant (or alarming) increases. If you are good, or have a friend that knows of a good service to use, try testing it out to see if it can unearth anything you were previously unaware of.

This isn’t so much about safety, but take care when posting a new thread or commenting on an existing one. Don’t submit anything that you would be ashamed to have connected to your real identity. If you feel compelled to comment on subs outside of the RP sphere, consider using a secondary reddit account.

Take care, and be well.

:0)

EDIT: I had a brief chat with someone that knows a bit more about this process, and they pointed out something I found rather interesting. If someone starts asking you to confirm or deny personal information - the best response is a non-response. If you confirm a detail (geographical location for example), then they know one more thing about you. Similarly, if you deny a specific detail (example: Do you shop at x store? -- No, I have never been to x store) then that's still giving the individual a useful piece of information.

Both on the RPW sub and on other RP/W related blogs - there have been instances of doxxing (or attempted doxxing) very recently. I urge everyone to think very carefully about what information they disclose. One woman was encouraged (by an outsider) to post a picture of herself so that people could more effectively tell her how to look younger. Meanwhile, there's been a lot of "selfie" posts on another sub that shall not be named, and it's a luxury they think they can afford. Another incident almost occurred when a user asked other women here to friend her their information on a gaming site. It was an innocent mistake, and everything was sorted out - but the problem could have been much more serious. Being doxxed and having your real identity exposed could have wider reaching consequences than you realize.

Also, please understand that even if you delete your comments or a thread you posted - there are sites that search, save, and file everything you write. Furthermore, anyone can take a screenshot and other subreddits have used screenshots to talk about material that was removed. Bottom line: you never know what other people are doing for certain, so just be careful.

I don't mean to sound like an alarmist, but I think many people take it for granted that their identity is secure. If your user name is tied to other sites you use that are tied to your actual life, I encourage you to change them immediately.

Be careful, and be safe.


Here are some other sources I found about taking preventative steps: