Prepper Privacy: What You Should Keep To Yourself And Why

As an active prepper, you need to be very cautious and need to think through every step you take, especially if you’re the type that’s active on social media. It’s all about the amount and quality of the information you provide throughout your activity. Even though you’re well intended, the information that you link and provide, in some situations might proof to be detrimental rather than beneficial to the cause you aim to serve in the first place. The first thing you really need to understand is that out there (in the social media environment), you’re visible to EVERYBODY, not just to those you consider allies. So the information you provide and means you provide it have to be very well thought through.

The first thing you need to watch out for is general safety. So when dealing with subjects like classified, secret or top secret information make thorough research in the matter and decide whether what you’re about to disclose is going to have good or dire consequences. For example, overexposing secret military technologies or maneuvers might not just give a hint to the right people, but it could also be used against them. Secondly, you’re personal safety and the safety of the ones you hold dear should not be jeopardized. Do not release unnecessary information about yourself, keep a low as possible profile.

Do not submit unnecessary photos of yourself (or you family and friends), do not make your contact information available and when writing articles or doing demonstrative videos, never use your own alarm passwords, garage door passwords etc. Even when it comes to your conduit in everyday life, keep the same low profile you keep on the internet: do not advertise yourself through t-shirts, posters or even car-stickers. This way you’re privacy will keep as safe as possible and even if you’re flagged as a persona non-grata you’re hard to track and the pesky protesters against what you “preach” and share will keep away from your house.

What you look like

Posting photos of yourself or your possessions over social media is a bad idea. Bragging about your new gun or that fancy generator that you just got put in might get you in more trouble than it is actually worth. Even if you think the image itself reveals nothing about you or your current location, know that many of the smart phones or technological gismos today attach hidden time and GPS coordinate tags to the metadata of the imagine file. This invisible geotag is always on, and it’s not easy turning it off, unless you’re very knowledgeable in the field. However, reading the data is not hard at all. So everybody who isn’t aware of this tracking method has been sending pictures that are easy to read out. The privacy of your home or secret hideout can easily be pin-pointed on the map.

What you say

To disclose more personal information about yourself than you absolutely have to. Any type of email or direct conversation throughout the social media devices has to be very well thought through, so don’t let your mouth get in trouble. Confidentiality is key, even when talking to an apparently average Joe, like you neighbors or the store clerk that asks you jokingly if “with all this stuff you just bought you’re preparing for World War 3”. Many times such friendly conversations are meant to inform a higher authority.

What you text

Whether you’re texting via the sms service or simply forwarding emails (or any other type of internet messenger), be advised that at the end of the day, all this sort of information is not 100% secure. So don’t reveal too much about yourself or your prepper lifestyle.

Where you live

Your home is you’re sanctuary and it should be respected as such. Privacy should be encouraged, even in the youngest of your family members. Because keeping the front door or the garage door wide open gives a clear view inside. Even during night time, all drapes or shades should be closed at all time, because it takes nothing more than a cheap telescope a clear path for your privacy to be violated. You’re home is only as safe as you make it.

What you drive

Yes, you read right. You’re very own vehicle could be a dead giveaway about who you are and what you do if it’s personalized. Any sort of sticker (the ones that show the amount of family members, the honor role son / daughter, customized license plates, etc.) could mean one step closer to revealing you identity and location. Even the car dealer license plate frames should be off limits. The more inconspicuous you’re ride is, the better.

Keeping everyday confidentiality to a maximum requires nothing more than awareness and common sense. Most of us playing the confidentiality card, but how many of us actually play it properly, it’s up for debate. We’re living in a day and age where information equals power and there are those out there who will stop at nothing in getting it and using it for unorthodox purposes. No piece of information is useless and nothing should be left to chance when it comes to your safety and to the safety of everything you hold dear.

Related article:

Survival Cooking 101: How To Cook Without Electricity

How To Hide Your House From Google Maps

As it turns out, there is a way to prevent strangers from seeing your home online through Google Maps. Many people still don’t know that Google actually has vehicles driving around the world taking what are called “street view” pictures. If your home can be seen from a public street, there’s a good chance it’s on Google Maps. And this could be a problem as these detailed pictures can give a lot of information – too much – that someone can view remotely. The possibilities are somewhat alarming.

How Google Maps May Threaten Your Privacy

If you want to find out whether your home is on Google Maps, simply go to Google Maps and type in your address. When the map appears you might see a small stick figure on the left side of the screen. Drag that stick figure to your street, and your house – and others – will appear. (Note: If the street is not highlighted in blue on the map, then your house and street have not been photographed.)

This can be a major problem for privacy because the Google picture can show strangers a great deal of your home and your life. When Fox and Friends contributor Kurt “the Cyber Guy” Knutsson went to Google Maps he discovered something bothersome — the inside of his garage and its contents, because he had left the garage door open the day the Google car drove down his road.

That’s not all that Knutson saw on Google. Google had taken a picture of his cars.

“You could see our license plates plain as day,” Knutson said. Knutson’s discovery indicates that details of your private life, and information that could harm you, can show up on Google Maps. Google claims it blurs out license plates and individuals before it posts pictures to street view, although it’s obvious that doesn’t always happen.

How To Hide Your House

The bad news is that there is no way to keep your address off of Google Maps. The good news is that you can get Google to blur out your property so Google Maps users will not see it. Here’s the process which is outlined at Google.

How To Get Your Property Blurred:

• Go to Google Maps and type in your address

• Bring up the street view of your property

• Look at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen you should see an Icon Labeled: “report a problem.”

• Click on “report a problem.”

• You will get a page labeled “report inappropriate street view.”

• Look for the words “Privacy Concerns” and click on them.

• If you want your house blurred, click on “my house.” Then choose the option: “I have a picture of my house and would like it blurred.”

• Adjust the image and show Google which part of the photo needs to be blurred.

• Type the verification code at the bottom of the page into the box provided and click submit.

• Check back in a few days to see if the image has been blurred.

You can also get license plates and faces blurred. For example, if you want a picture of your business on Google Maps but don’t want the license plate number of your vehicle parked in front of Google, you can get that blurred. You can also get your car blurred out as well if you want.

Google wants you to report license plate numbers and faces that aren’t blurred so it can blur them out. This process does seem to work, and it is free.

Google Is Watching You

The amount of information Google collects through Google Maps and posts online is frightening. Not every address is included in Google Street View, though. Addresses in many rural areas are not on street view. Although, chances are that your home is on it if you live in a suburban or urban area.

By Daniel Jennings

www.offthegridnews.com