It's not enough to just turn off geolocation

bbbhltz@beehaw.org to Technology@beehaw.org – 20 points –

Yesterday while browsing the front page of that other site I came across a video of a TikTok user who finds people based on short videos.

Their TikTok page can be viewed here: https://proxitok.privacy.com.de/@the_josemonkey

(and they also have a webpage https://josemonkey.wordpress.com/)

I find it amazing, geeky, fascinating, and creepy that a single person with a computer — not a government organisation — is able to do this.

It all reminds me of that Wired article from 2009 about the man who tried to go off grid and was eventually found by internet sleuths.

TL;DR doxxing has never been easier, don't say or share anything on the web that you wouldn't want printed on the front page of a newspaper.

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It’s creepy af, but let’s all be careful not to victim-blame please.

Are you referring to "don’t say or share anything on the web that you wouldn’t want printed on the front page of a newspaper."?

That has been the advice given to people since the early 90s when I started using computers and in the context of this video --- a mother explaining to their child how easy it is for a stranger to find where you live --- it fits. I suppose it shouldn't be generalised as someone might take it personally.

I'll keep this in mind in the future.

That, and also just a preemptive caution from having seen similar discussions go that route in the past. As you implied, it’s virtually impossible to exist in the modern world without being findable and harassable, no matter how careful one is.

Also, I’ll just leave this here. 🙂