PERSONAL SECURITY Keeping your personal information safe and out of the hands of hackers is just as important as keeping your devices safe. A. SHARING OF PERSONAL CONTACT DETAILS A large part of journalism is building up networks of contacts, and this includes sharing contact details. Experienced journalists will be doing these things anyway, but it is worth repeating regardless. • Separate personal and work-related contacts. Don’t use your personal phone number or email address to contact sources or communicate related to your work. Maintaining a barrier between your work and personal communication means you’re not inadvertently sharing communication methods that can be used to get additional information on you. • Keep separate devices. Ideally, you’d want a separation between your work and personal devices as well. Having a work-only phone that you can use to record interviews or communicate with sources means attempts to compromise your sources won’t also compromise your personal contacts too. B. LOCKING DOWN PERSONAL ACCOUNTS Every now and then you might be in a position where your reporting attracts (or might attract) the wrong kind of attention. In cases like these, it is often useful to pre-emptively lock down your social media accounts until the worst kind of attention subsides. The unfortunate reality is that, short of dropping off the grid and removing yourself from society entirely, there is no way to prevent you from being doxxed. The aim is to minimise the impact when it does happen, and to leave as little information that can be used against you as possible. • Manage your privacy settings. Social media platforms have various options to limit the amount of information you share online. It is important to be proactive about your privacy - once privacy has been lost, it is near impossible to claw it back. For example, limiting your posts to “friends only” on Facebook for personal posts will prevent others from seeing what is happening in your personal life. Limiting who follows you, who responds to your posts or who can see your profile images can all be done on the platforms pre-emptively. • Curate your audience. In addition to managing your privacy settings, you can and should curate your audience. While this is easier on platforms with bidirectional relationships (think Facebook friends, as opposed to followers on Instagram) it is incumbent on you as a user to curate your audience. Posting personal information to a closed group of friends and family is preferable than posting it in public where you have no control over who sees it. • Locking it down. If you expect severe threats or backlash, consider shutting down or deactivating your personal social media accounts for a while. Anyone trying to obtain personal information on you might become frustrated at the lack of personal information out there and abandon the attempt. Deactivation on most social media platforms is quick and reversible. Page A SURVIVAL 16 TOOLKIT FOR JOURNALISTS A SURVIVAL TOOLKIT FOR JOURNALISTS Page 16