As I'm sure you may have noticed, I had to block my own site for a while. No, this wasn't some sort of protest against internet privacy laws, but it did have to do with my internet privacy. I recently had the unfortunate experience of being the target of internet harassment.
I've worked really hard to make the conscious decision to keep track of what I put out there in internet world. On this blog, I've been very deliberate to not post my full name, where I work, or even full pictures of myself. This blog is probably my most public online image and as such, I've tried to keep it really private where it matters. On the other hand, I am more public on my social networks where I have tight privacy settings and monitor who I accept as friends or links or put in my circles.
Despite that, I found something that I couldn't control - what other people said about me. Just because I could control what I put out about myself, didn't mean that others where unable to say false things about me on the internet or share my private information. Finding this gap in privacy and reputation control was incredibly disheartening.
While I did my best to report any posts about myself or my friends, I realized that the biggest thing I could do was stop the poison from spreading anymore. I double checked and reinforced my privacy settings, but I knew I would have to tackle the bigger question of what to do with my blog. While there is not personal information and there are no pictures, I do share a lot of personal experiences. This blog is as much a way for me to remember some really cool things I did, as it is a means for me to let people know what's out there. I really love my blog and I realized that I didn't want this person to touch something that I love.
I hope I didn't lose any of my followers by having to privatize my blog. It's made me really happy to see the number of readers I get a month grow. Based on the countries that read my blog based on my stats, I don't think my Twitter and Facebook messages got out to everyone so here is hoping that you're still checking on me.
If any of you have been the target of internet harassment or defamation and would like to reach out to me with how you dealt with it, I'd really like to hear about it. I'm not really sure what my options are and I'd be really comforted to know that I have some.
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