If you thought the notion of someone following you around town was creepy, prepare for the next level of weird, brought to you by technology: cyberstalking. Without ever leaving their home, individuals looking for cheap thrills or to satisfy some unhealthy urge can monitor your activities and make your life miserable.
Cyberstalking often turns into harassment, with the cyberstalker sending their victim messages through email, texts or IM services such as Facebook. While some activities may be benign, things can easily escalate if proper measures aren’t taken. There are different levels of actions available to you, with some more or less appropriate for the given situation.
Like most of life’s problems, prevention is often more effective than treatment. One of the first precautions to take is to limit the kind of information you share online. A common mistake people make is oversharing details about their personal lives.
This can be anything from variable information (where you are at certain times of day) to static information (birthdays, home addresses, etc.). Sure it seems okay to post on Facebook for your family to see, but be aware that what you post may become accessible to others. This is especially true on public services such as Twitter, where anyone can see what you’re putting up.
Keep names, contact information and addresses to yourself as much as possible. Only share them with people you know and trust, and ensure those people know not to give your information away without your permission. Remember, all it takes is your phone number or email address for a cyberstalker to be able to start contacting you.
You may also want to consider purchasing a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service to keep the most malicious stalkers at bay. In simple terms, a VPN keeps your internet usage private by making your IP address anonymous and encrypting your internet traffic. While it won’t keep you from oversharing, it will keep your information from being taken forcibly.
Even if you keep your information private, if your accounts become compromised, it won’t do you much good. Use strong passwords with different types of characters (uppercase, lowercase, numbers, symbols, etc.) and keep them varied between your various accounts. If you have trouble managing multiple passwords, consider a service such as Blur to help you keep track.
Blur (formerly DoNotTrackMe) helps keep websites from tracking you, but it also allows you to save and manage your passwords between the different devices you may use. It also lets you create temporary credit cards and phone numbers if you feel the need for extra security.
Cyberstalkers, not unlike identity thieves, thrive on any information they can get their hands on. Sometimes your information can be stolen by mistakenly visiting a fake website or responding to an email from a suspicious person (or a friend whose account has been stolen). Be on the lookout for anything suspicious, such as being asked for your login details, or links that ask you to click on them (click here to see my pics!).
Malware can also lead to problems, so use an anti-virus service on all of your devices (that includes smartphones and tablets). Avast Anti-virus is available for multiple platforms and is totally free unless you decide you need the extra features offered by the premium version.
Supposing you keep most of your information private, you might still run into a cyberstalker who doesn’t know a lot about you, but is still interested in making your life miserable. It may be in the form of posts on one of your social media feeds, often in the form of “trolling” or posting defamatory statements and just acting like a general nuisance. You might be communicating on Twitter and find some jerk keeps posting offensive things targeted at everything you say.
Just like back in grade school, the best thing to do is to ignore these kinds of people. A great majority of cyberstalkers are doing it for attention, and they virtually feed off of your distressed responses. Yelling in all caps over the internet or trying to argue with them will only make things worse.
If you get a strange email (especially if you get more than one from the same person), delete it or report it as spam. The more you react, the more drawn in you can become, and the harder it can be to escape. But, if things start to get uncomfortable…
In most cases, there are rules in social media services that forbid harassing other users of the service. At times machines and website moderators can’t catch everything, so it may be up to you to report someone who is breaking the rules (and cyberstalking is almost certainly going to be against the terms of service). What’s more, cyberstalking is also against the law in many states and countries.
When cyberstalkers begin moving from being annoying to seemingly dangerous, it may be time to contact the authorities. Police are increasingly cracking down on cyberbullying and cyberstalking, as both activities continue to grow in frequency and in the number of lives affected negatively. Consider talking to a friend or family member if you believe you’ve become a victim of cyberstalking.
In many cases, the stalker is someone you know or have met, and while it’s never recommended that you confront your stalker, it’s best that your family knows who is giving you problems. In some cases, this is enough to give your harasser cold feet. More than anything, there is one absolute way, albeit extraordinarily inconvenient, to put a stop to cyberstalking.
Sometimes the only way to win is not to play. While it’s unfortunate, the most surefire way to put a stop to cyberstalking (especially if it’s become serious) is to totally unplug. That means suspending or at least not using social media accounts for a while, blocking messages from suspected harassers on your mobile and just generally getting off the internet.
Considering the multitude of benefits that can be had from social media and the internet, this certainly isn’t the first step you should take. But it should always be an option, and it should be comforting to know that there is an “off” button to cyberstalking.
Ultimately avoiding criminal activity and harassment shouldn’t be your job, but if you don’t take steps to keep yourself safe, you may live to regret it. Keep as much of your personal information to yourself as you can, and be certain that you can trust the people you do share it with. Use up-to-date security software to keep your information from being stolen as well.
Don’t get into fights with people online, and always consider using the proper legal channels to handle any pesky stalkers that just won’t go away. Remember that you’re in control; you can always put an end to cyberstalking if you’re willing to do what’s necessary.
