You don’t must be a star to possess stalkers. As an artist, especially if you’re a girl, putting yourself out there on stage or perhaps behind the screen on social media, generates plenty of attention, making you a possible target of fraud or a victim of stalking or harassment.
As you become more responsible as an independent artist, it’s important for you to give some thought to your safety and security. Stalking can happen to anyone and also the tools available on the web make it easier than ever for somebody to seek out out personal information about you and track what you’re doing. Whether or not you aren’t celebrity famous, someone who might not be the foremost mentally or emotionally stable might take an unhealthy interest in you.
This article isn’t meant to be an in-depth guide, but more to travel over some basic steps you’ll desire help protect your privacy online, so you’re awake to what personal information, including your car’s Vehicle positive identification, also exposed online for others to determine.
1. Use a nom de guerre
This is a noticeable one that you just should know, but I just want to show that there are good reasons why stage names exist. Chances are high that you have already got a stage or artist name that you’ve been using for your music career. Use your pseudonym on channels you control, like your website and social media accounts. This ensures that your real name isn’t publically displayed. This is often not visiting deter anyone from learning of your real identity, but it definitely adds a layer of protection.
2. From people finder sites, Remove your personal information
Many people don’t understand how much of their personal information is out there for almost anyone to look for and access. All of this information about you is compiled legally and made available on various sites, starting from background checks to helping people find old friends and members of the family.
To educate yourself on what people can easily study you, try visiting a well-liked computer program like Google and search your real full name and therefore the city you reside in. If it’s quite common, try searching along with your artist/stage name.
3. Get name privacy
If you obtain your name using your own finances, your information is also publically available.
ICANN’s WHOIS is a web service that publically provides contact information about who has registered for a site name for anyone to go looking for during a public directory. It provides information, like full name, address, telephone number and email address.
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4. Delay Posting your Instagram and Snapchat Stories
Something that helps show a more personal side of you as an artist is Instagram and Snapchat Stories that are great social media tools. But they will even be used for others to work out where you’re, especially if you’re using location tags or stickers on Instagram.
If you’ve got some suspicion that somebody could also be stalking you, you will want to delay posting until you’re not therein area or location. In cases where you recognize the precise person, block them from your social media account. You’ll still want to delay posting videos that show your location because it’s easy for somebody you blocked to line up a secondary account employing a fake name.
5. Use a P.O. box
If you utilize an email marketing service like Mailchimp, you must know that you’re technically speculated to provide a physical address or P.O. confine the footer of all of your emails. Not having this violates anti-spam laws.
I mention this because you will not realize that your home address is being exposed to your fans once you send your email newsletter. I do know that the templates available on Mailchimp automatically display your physical address within the email footer. This is often common with email marketing services, so if you join up with an account using your home address, it should be displayed for your fans to determine.
6. Use stronger passwords
Surprisingly, there are still many folks who use very basic passwords, like ‘password’ or ‘123456.’ The last item you would like is for a stalker or hacker to possess access to your email account or the other site that will have sensitive information.
At the very least, use passwords that contain variety, symbol, and upper case. Security experts also suggest changing them often.
Try to not have one standard password you utilize for all sites and accounts. Personally, i take advantage of different passwords betting on the sort of site. I’ve got one separate password for social media sites and a special set for any price associated with e-commerce. My banking password is exclusive, and that i have a unique password for my email accounts.
7. Manage Privacy Settings on Facebook
As we all know, Facebook features a lot of knowledge on us, much of which we volunteer. It’s an excellent tool to stay in-tuned with our friends and family, but it’s important to manage your privacy settings. You would like to manage or limit the knowledge or photos the general public can access. You don’t anyone to be able to find your personal account, although your business Facebook page should be your main point of contact for fans.
Conclusion
I’m not a cybersecurity expert, but these were some things I noticed as a web marketing professional that might compromise an artist’s personal information. At the tip of the day, there’s no sure way of avoiding stalkers, but i feel taking these basic steps will remove any easy ways for people to access private information about you.
If anyone does harass you or cause you to feel uncomfortable online, report and block them. Make certain to file a police report and document all the contact you’ve had with the person.