I was stalked for years by a scrote who r*ped me. These are my tips for protecting yourself from LVM/rapists/stalkers/etc who use the internet to their advantage to find you and make your life a living hell. This isn’t all inclusive, and please add more that have helped you.

-Be aware of what is in the background of your pictures. Can you see a house number? License plate? Work badge that states where you work? Don’t put it up.

-Don’t post pictures of the outside of your home; people can reverse image search to see similar areas that might expose where you live.

-Don’t post pictures of the inside of your home...they can map out your home (think windows, doors, etc). This gives them more info to possibly break in and harass you.

-Don’t post where or when you are going on vacation. They can either show up there or show up to your house when you’re not there.

-Look yourself up on the Internet. Use “first name+ last name” in Google. Find out what the internet knows about you and scrub it. Delete old MySpace accounts. Remove your name from social media accounts. Make your Facebook not advertised to search engines. Most websites have a way to remove your information. You can also email the website owner (they usually have an admin contact somewhere on the page) to kindly remove it.

-Don’t tag your location in places or check-in to places unless you have already left. You will be messaged by people who are also there and possibly followed. Social media platform algorithms are set up (unless you disable it and even then it’s not trustworthy) to advertise you to people who are nearby. Don’t live stream.

-Keep your profiles PRIVATE! Don’t accept anyone you don’t know in person and have vetted. Social media fame isn’t worth your safety.

-If you send a picture to someone, remove metadata embedded in the pic. Metadata includes location of where the picture was taken, what was used to take the picture, and more. Use an app on your phone or there are tutorials of how to do it on a computer, just Google “remove metadata from pictures”. It costs money to use an app to do this typically.

-Don’t post your birthday (hello vaccination cards), your mom’s maiden name, and ANY other identifying information.

-Get a Google voice number to give to people who aren’t fully vetted. Those numbers are easily changed so you don’t have to change your REAL number when scrotes start scroting. This might be necessary if a block and delete turns into them using other phone numbers to continue to harass you.

I hope this prevents any creepy men from harassing or abusing any of you Queens 👸🏽 I learned these out of necessity.