Some safety measures against stalking

Excerpt from a DM conversation, person asked how I keep myself safe while still having a very public presence

Stephanie Hurlburt
 Some things that have consistently helped, in terms of online presence. Like for instance just being hyper aware of location sharing. Twitter is actually really good about this-- you can turn off all the location-sharing settings and they strip all photos of location data too. But I also did my own security aside from that-- I disabled a lot of location settings on my phone, particularly photos, and I'm still careful how I share. I never share a photo while I'm in that location, I always wait till I'm back home, and I never take any photos near my home or that show the view out my windows etc


 Stephanie Hurlburt
 There's also physical security. I own an adda lock, a handheld noise alarm, pepper spray. I just found out about quikclot which I may get-- these days I often forget to carry all that, I go through phases when I do every day. I went through the legal process of getting a restraining order, and every place I am concerned about gets copies and photos of the person for their security team.


 Stephanie Hurlburt
 I used to take measures for speaking at places-- I'd sometimes ask not to advertise when/where I was speaking, I'd ask about security and for back entrances and escorts. These days I mostly rely on back entrances and don't involve organizers so much cause that was getting to be too much trouble for what I got out of it.


One thing that helped me was experts in domestic violence safety telling me that the only 100% surefire way to stay safe is to stay inside all day and never do anything or talk to anyone. Anything else is a risk. But here's the deal, 100% safe is no way to live. I have to ask what life I want to live and if the fear is getting in the way of that. I can't live life in constant fear, I choose not to. It took some therapy to get to that point.

So I'm pretty much myself, with location safety online and some physical safety measures taken. I don't really hold back anymore other than that, even though the danger's still just as great.

 Stephanie Hurlburt
 Anyway I can ramble a whole lot about this, and should get around to writing a post, but maybe that helps a bit