Serious safety advice: In the coming days a trawl of Social media accounts will take place to identify people for enforcement. Please follow the below advice for your own safety, share it with others (or don't I really don't care).
Tips to Keep in Mind When Creating an Account:
Do you want to use your legal name? Some social media sites have so-called “real name policies,” but these have become more lax over time. If you do not want to use your legal name when registering for a social media site, do not. If you choose to register with another name you’re known by, consider who it is that knows you by this name, and if it makes sense for you to appear on this site with it.
When you register, don't provide more information than is necessary. If you are concerned with hiding your identity, use a separate email address and avoid giving your phone number. Both of these pieces of information can identify you individually and can link different accounts together. There are a number of services that offer temporary disposable email addresses especially for this purpose, but bear in mind that even during that brief time you have access to whatever email address you’re given through a service like this, you’re entrusting that company with whatever data you’re passing their way.
If you are looking for Military level encrypted email service.
Proton is incorporated and headquartered in Switzerland. This means all your data is protected by strict Swiss privacy laws and Swiss neutrality. You can sign up for free with Proton mail here:
Proton Mail is the world’s largest secure email service with over 100 million users. Available on Web, iOS, Android, and desktop. Protected by Swiss privacy law.
proton.me
Be careful when choosing a profile photo or image. In addition to
metadata that might include the time and place the photo was taken, the image itself can provide some information.
How to remove Metadata from Photos:
Windows OS
MAC OS:
How to disable location tagging on Android Cellphones:
Apple iPHONE:
Before you choose a picture, ask: Was it taken outside your home or workplace? Are any addresses or street signs visible? Even the smallest of details, such as reflections captured in the image, can reveal unique identifying points of the location it was taken.
It is very simple for analysts to conduct what is known as "Geo Location" to determine the location where the photgraph was taken based on landmarks and topographical features, example below:
Be aware that your IP address may be logged at registration.
Choose a strong password and, if possible, enable two-factor authentication. It doesn't need to be overly complex for example I created a simple Password looking at things next to my laptop and as you can see it is reasonably strong 
View attachment 929853
Beware of password recovery questions such as “What city were you born in?” or “What is the name of your pet?” because their answers can be mined from your social media details. You may want to choose password recovery answers that are false. One good way to remember the answers to password recovery questions, should you choose to use false answers for added security, is to note your chosen answers in a password manager.
Check the Social Media Site's Privacy Policy
Information stored by third parties is subject to their own policies and may be used for commercial purposes or shared with other companies, like marketing firms. While reading privacy policies is a near-impossible task, you may want to read the sections that describe how your data is used, when it is shared with other parties, and how the service responds to law enforcement requests.
Social networking sites are usually for-profit businesses and often collect sensitive information beyond what you explicitly provide—where you are, what interests and advertisements you react to, what other sites you've visited (e.g. through “Like” buttons). Consider blocking third-party cookies and using tracker-blocking browser extensions to make sure extraneous information isn't being passively transmitted to third parties.
Change Your Privacy Settings
Specifically, change the default settings.
For example, do you want to share your posts with the public, or only with a specific group of people? Should people be able to find you using your email address or phone number? Do you want your location shared automatically?
- Even though every social media platform has its own unique settings, you can find some patterns.
- Privacy settings tend to answer the question: “Who can see what?” Here you’ll probably find settings concerning audience defaults (“public,” “friends of friends,” “friends only,” etc.), location, photos, contact information, tagging, and if/how people can find your profile in searches.
- Security (sometimes called “safety”) settings will probably have more to do with blocking/muting other accounts, and if/how you want to be notified if there is an unauthorized attempt to authorize your account. Sometimes, you’ll find login settings—like two-factor authentication and a backup email/phone number—in this section. Other times, these login settings will be in an account settings or login settings section, along with options to change your password.
- Take advantage of security and privacy “check-ups.” Facebook, Google, and other major websites offer “security check-up” features. These tutorial-style guides walk you through common privacy and security settings in plain language and are an excellent feature for users.
- On your phone, you may have to switch out of the app itself and into your phone’s settings to toggle which parts of your phone’s data and features the app can access. Turn off all unnecessary access to things like location, pictures, contacts, and anything else that isn’t absolutely necessary for the app to function.
Finally, remember that privacy settings are subject to change. Sometimes, these privacy settings get stronger and more granular; sometimes not. Pay attention to these changes closely to see if any information that was once private will be shared, or if any additional settings will allow you to take more control of your privacy.
Keep Separate Profiles Separate [ I cannot recommend this enough - I personally have multiple online IDs each for different things and nothing track back to my day job or personal life]. For a lot of us, it’s critical to keep different account’s identities separate. This can apply to professional profiles, anonymous accounts, and accounts in various communities.
Phone numbers and photos are two types of information to keep an eye on. Photos, in particular, can sneakily link accounts you intend to keep separate. This is a surprisingly common issue with professional profiles. If you want to maintain your anonymity or keep a certain account’s identity separate from others, use a photo or image that you don’t use anywhere else online.
To check, you can use Google’s reverse image search function. Other potentially linking variables to watch out for include your name (even nicknames) and your email. If you discover that one of these pieces of information is in a place you didn’t expect, don’t get scared or panic. Instead, think in baby steps: instead of trying to wipe all information about you off the entire Internet, just focus on specific pieces of information, where they are, and what you can do about them.
Test if your email has ever been compromised in a security breach, you can achieve this by visiting the following website:
Have I Been Pwned allows you to search across multiple data breaches to see if your email address or phone number has been compromised.
haveibeenpwned.com
This is important to check because compromised emails usually end up on the DarkWeb where they are sold for a few hundred $ per block of thousand, example:
View attachment 929854
If your email is compromised, do not panic, change your password, create a new email account with Protonmail - DO NOT USE YOUR REAL NAME, and use that for all your social media activity.
Familiarize Yourself With Facebook Groups Settings
Facebook groups are increasingly places for social action, advocacy, and other potentially sensitive activities, but group settings can be confusing. Learn more about group privacy settings and work with group members to keep your Facebook groups private and secure.
Privacy Is A Team Sport
Don’t just change your own social media settings and behavior. Take the additional step of talking with your friends about the potentially sensitive data you reveal about each other online. Even if you don’t have a social media account, or even if you untag yourself from posts, friends can still unintentionally identify you, report your location, and make their connections to you public. Protecting privacy means not only taking care of ourselves, but also taking care of each other.
Stay safe.
