this kid is 14 oh my god is no one teaching children to protect themselves online anymore…
Meanwhile us olds are like: I don’t have a carrd and I’m not reading yours
Please don’t advertise your personal information, anyone could find that and use it however they want.
Oh my fucking god it isn’t 1998 anymore no one cares
??? Wtf does this mean??? 80% of employers google you before hiring you, child predators use that info to groom kids, abusers use that info against victims, police/government track activists online? Do you honestly think the internet has gotten safer since 1998????
also don’t tell any rando who wanders onto your blog with unknown intentions the specifics of how they can trigger you???? no????
the fact that its not 1998 anymore is exactly WHY you should be more fucking careful. do you have any idea the tools people have now compared to then? the fact that its gotten exponentially easier to find people in real life based off online info while young people have gotten extremely comfortable sharing all their personal details is deeply concerning.
im sorry no one ever taught you internet safety but that is NOT because its not important anymore. ITS MORE IMPORTANT THAN IT EVER WAS. please listen to the people whove been on the internet longer than youve been alive. our intentions are good and internet safety is vital. especially if youre queer, which i know for a fact a lot of you are.
Listen, guys and gals and nonbinary pals. I know you’re going to think this is all overblown. But give me two minutes of your time.
My current roommate and I met on Tumblr. In the first three minutes I knew her I KNEW HER ADDRESS FROM HER ETSY. She only lived three miles down and one block over from me. Once we became friends, it took me literally fifteen minutes to drive to her house.
“Okay, but you guys are friends, roommates even, you love each other, what’s the problem?”
The problem is, this story doesn’t always have a happy ending.
The problem is, in another story I’m still 32, but she’s 15 instead of 43, and I’m an asshole.
The problem is, I am an adult. If a first meeting goes wrong, I have a car, a cell phone, and a tire iron in said car that I could defend myself with. What do you have?
The problem is, if you put identifying information out in the open, it could cross paths with someone who only lives 15 minutes away. And maybe they don’t care, and maybe they’re a chill person! That’s often the case.
But maybe they’re not.
“But I don’t put that kind of information—”
Listen. I’m gonna tell you I went to high school at General McLane and grew up by the cove. I’m going to mention that I HATED walking to my bus stop because it was out by the highway. At some point in our conversations, I mention that I’m walking down to the corner to get some ice cream.
Go onto Google and see how long it takes you to figure out, within a quarter-mile radius, where I grew up.
I can tell you how long it took me, using only the information I just provided you: two minutes. I looked up the school and got the address. That gave me the town name. I put that into Google Maps. I found Edinboro Lake and another body of water near it. Zoomed in on the streets near that second body of water, and boom. Cove Drive, right next to an ice cream shop, opening onto a highway.
You now have a radius of less than two blocks where I might have lived.
Do you feel a little less safe putting that information out there? You should. Because I didn’t use any special programs, any elite hacking knowledge. I used nothing but Google, the name of a high school, and two offhand conversational mentions, and in two minutes I’d narrowed it down to a single block. Go ahead—try it yourself.
And yes—I can do this for my roommate, too, even having never been to her hometown. All I need to know is the name of her town and a story about crossing the street and a neighbor’s yard to get to the Walmart.
Do not put this information out there, guys. 95% of people you will meet online are legit. Many are delightful.
But some are not. And those are the ones you need to watch for.
THIS. Almost 20 years ago, I took a class on internet security. Nothing fancy, just an overview of the ways that people with bad intentions can gain access to your accounts and information. The number one security risk? People. You. It doesn’t matter how safe you make your systems when a tiny bit of social engineering and half a brain cell can get you to give them the info they need.
Our “final exam” was to find all of the information that we could on the teacher. Now, he supposedly knows everything that you should and shouldn’t do, right? So we shouldn’t be able to come up with much. Except, apparently I’m really good at finding info on the internet. I managed to find his hometown, high school, year of graduation, and even yearbook pictures. I passed the class, but it just goes to show that any schmoe can come up with enough info to track you down and hurt you.
That list of ‘just the basics’ filled me with a feeling of disbelief and horror.
Hey remember when US and Russia was all like “We’re the best!!! We’ve won the space race!!!!” But India sent a kick-ass space probe to Mars and the whole mission was fuel efficient, costed less and a roaring success in the first try and then they were like “…..wait no that can’t be true” and still have the audacity to call us “underdeveloped” or only view us as a ‘third world country’? :)
For anyone who needs more info, the probe was called Mangalyaan (which literally means space probe vehicle) or Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) and you can also get more information here and here
Remember when NYT mocked India for this very thing and an TOI (a major indian newspaper) responded with this? :)
They were being racist asf and we were till respectful literally fuck you if you think ‘third world counties’ can’t be better than you
white people can and should reblog this
and shout out to the women engineers integral to the launch
“Indian staff from the Indian Space Research Organisation celebrate after the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft entered Mars’s orbit.
On November 5, 2013, a rocket launched toward Mars. It was India’s first interplanetary mission, Mangalyaan, and a terrific gamble. Only 40 percent of missions sent to Mars by major space organizations—NASA, Russia’s, Japan’s, or China’s—had ever been a success. No space organization had succeeded on its first attempt. What’s more, India’s space organization, ISRO, had very little funding: while NASA’s Mars probe, Maven, cost $651 million, the budget for this mission was $74 million.
This was not the only success of the mission. An image of the scientists celebrating in the mission control room went viral. Girls in India and beyond gained new heroes: the kind that wear sarees and tie flowers in their hair, and send rockets into space.”
there’s a movie adaptation of this! it’s obviously more dramatized/they use different names but i really really loved the movie! it’s called mission mangal and it was the first time i had heard of this and i was so surprised that literally? no one talked about it??? what they accomplished is incredible.
ALSO, Mangalyaan launched in 2013 and was meant to be a 6 month mission. It’s been in orbit around Mars now for more than 5 years and has enough propellant to keep going for even longer.
“The kind that wear sarees and tie flowers in their hair, and send rockets into space.”
FUCK YES. THIS IS THE TYPE OF REPRESENTATION I’VE BEEN HERE FOR!!
A new version of Phinias and Ferb is being released. It is on a streaming service, and will be rated MA. Everyone wonders what this mature version of their beloved kids show will be. The first season is released, and you start watching it. It is just the same as the first season of the old show. Is this some elaborate joke? Finally at the end of the first episode, it happens. Dr. Doofenshmirtz is defeated, as he usually is. This time, however, as Perry is making his exit, you here Doofenshmirtz yell, “Fuck you Perry the Platypus.” This is the only thing that has changed in the show.
Once I finally have an actual flat and job, I’m gonna start a thing where I invite all my friends over for dinner. And there’s gonna be a dress code but it’s just “that one outfit you never have any chance to wear”. Flapper dress? Awesome. Medival gown that you got at a renesaince fair but don’t actually know what to do with? Yes! Prom dress? Of course! Cosplay you made for that one convention? Definitely. Pikachu onsie? What would be more fitting?
Why did this post suddenly blow up? Several hundred people reblogged this over the last two days. Are we all just really feeling the isolation or?
Dreaming of having a party is a big coronavirus mood I guess
the internet is so cursed, when people look back on the history of covid-19 it’s going to look so different from the history of the plague because we will have left a trace of quarantine playlists all featuring toxic by brittany spears
That is why Toxic becomes an ancient earth ballad.
I can’t believe Doctor Who predicted this in 2005.
I KNOW it’s the ides of march, but in order to practice safe social distancing I’m sorry to say that you may want to to consider not getting together with 22 of your closest friends to stab your local least favorite politician
just a heads up for all the hotgirls out here… kat von d beauty was bought a little while back and kat von disease herself no longer owns it so the company is trying to rebrand to kvd vegan beauty in an attempt to cleanse themselves of her shame. this means theyre trying to get rid of all the products in warehouse with the old packaging that has her name on it and theres crazy sales going on on the website right now. the lipsticks are selling for $5-8 when they used to be $22 a pop…..if you ever wanted that shit i’d say now is the time girls!
so many people like “if i die mysteriously don’t let true crime girls make videos about me in front of string light backdrops” well that COULD NOT be me. if i die mysteriously those girls are the only people even allowed to talk about it
