WOW! THE INTERNET I want to share with my readers why I am creating and writing this series on Privacy. Growing up I have always been int...
WOW! THE INTERNET
I want to share with my readers why I am creating and writing this series on Privacy. Growing up I have always been into tech. I was born in the late 80's so as a teenager computers and phones was fairly new to us. What we have access to now is no where near compared to what we had then. This is also why I am so appreciative of retro things because its a reminder of how we advanced over the last two decades. The good thing is that as time passed I was able to learn about tech as I grew up. Unfortunately, what they couldn't teach at the time was how important it is to manage your online privacy.
My first encounter was being on AOL. For those of you that may not know, AOL was probably like the first major email and messaging program. I could be wrong but however this is what I remembered. Aim was the instant messenger for AOL. It allowed you to chat with other people online and so fourth. Well my goofy ass embarrassed myself because I thought it was cute to slick talk online to a complete stranger. It turned out that the stranger found out who my folks were and after that I was in hot water.
Ever since then I realized at a very young age that how I carry myself online could effect how things turns out for me in real life. Conversations weren't as private as I had assumed. Plus it was obvious I still had a lot of growing up to do.
A VICTIM TO ONLINE PRIVACY
Recently, I've had people try to pry their way into my private life and personal matters through the current online spaces I exist in. Even though I create online content, I am very much a private person. What this means for someone who is trying to get to know me better online, its very difficult to get me to open up. I'll admit, there is some trauma I'm still working through as an adult, so I'm not quick to just open up to anyone. I could talk all day about this but the bottom line is I have to get to know you first. Communication is a major deal for me. If we cannot hold a conversation that does not require me to be personal with you right away, then its instantly a red flag to me. I understand, some people are just naturally impressionable and friendly but when it comes to meeting people online I hold them to a different standard. "Anyway I digress."
When I was in college my privacy was completely invaded through email and social media aka Facebook. This happened around the year of 2009-2010. An ex boyfriend of mine who I believed was behind it, published a nude adolescent photograph of me on my hacked Facebook profile. A family member of mine was the one that gave me the courtesy call. I was commuting to school in the morning. Yeah...My day really hasn't even started yet. I was very furious at the news. I was not the type of girl to expose or conduct myself in a provocative way towards anyone. Nothing like that has happened to me before so my first instinct was to get the police involved. Not only did this hacker leak a fake photo of me. My myspace, email accounts, and social accounts were also compromised. I became a victim to online privacy.
It took weeks to recover some of my accounts with the help from the police. Till this day I am not able to recover and access to my original myspace. Unfortunately, the police was never able to track down the IP and location of my online attacker. I had to practically start over online. Not only did this effect me mentally, it started to effect me physically as well. Men that I worked with and went to school with I no longer trusted and cut them off completely socially. Instead of them supporting and demanding the picture to be removed, they were messaging me about how sexy it looked. This made me very uncomfortable for a long time.
As a women, this event just drew more unwanted attention towards me. I have officially lost all of my privacy and for a long time I did not know how to combat that. I'm here to share my story but also encourage others that privacy is your right. However, its up to you to decide what you keep private. Don't let anyone! No matter how influenced, famous or popular someone is -- don't let them make you feel ashamed about the boundaries you set in online spaces. Only those who actually proved that they'll treat your private information responsibly should get access to it. At the end of the day the only person who can protect your privacy is you.
I really hope that anyone who reads through this series gains knowledge from it. I also hope this provides some insight to the ones that questions my intentions through these online spaces. I'm really just trying to stick to my gut and trust my instincts in every aspect while I navigate these spaces as a mother and content creator.
Also feel free to follow my twitter where I will ask questions and take suggestion on the series. This series will also be available soon on my podcast "Let's Talk Red Carpet & Gamez" for those that do not care to read but prefer to listen. If you are an expert on the subject matter of online privacy, I invite you to join me in the conversation for a future episode on the podcast.
With Love,
Kaylee
