How to be both famous and private

This is your daily 5 min read of Nosy Eye. We give you the lowdown on how to improve your online privacy so you can shake off people trying to be all up in your business.

Here’s what we got for you today:

• How you can maintain your privacy while being an internet celebrity (big or small)

• Action Tip: What you can do today to improve your online privacy in 10 minutes

Being internet famous is a pretty sweet gig…

Like all jobs, though, it comes with a contract and this gig has an unspoken social contract that goes something like:

There’s an assumption that “you signed up for this”. If only it were that simple. Getting to such levels of social status requires a bit of work and luck.

The tradeoff shouldn’t come at a severe cost of your privacy, however. So here's how you can have your cake and eat some of it. 

First, the options of fame at your disposal

There's levels to this. Choose what’s best for you and your goals:

• Anonymous — no one knows who you are.

• Pseudonymous — you’re using a fake name, but have some ties to your real identity.

• Real Name Identity — It’s good ‘ol you. For some reason though, people act like they actually know you.

Don’t Use SMS Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

Text messaging (SMS) 2FA runs you the risk of a 3rd-party intercepting your information.

Let's say someone tries to access an account of yours and hits the 2FA wall (shame on you if you don't have this yet). The email or phone number attached to the account will be partially revealed which is plenty of info to get the search party on your identity started.

Another way is for the bad actor to “sim-swap” your phone in which they contact your cell provider and impersonate you in order to gain access to your phone number.

Instead, use a Two-Factor Authentication App in which they make it easy for you to add apps and services for 2FA and more difficult for 3rd-parties to intercept.

Use throwaway/alternative email addresses for your persona accounts

Do not connect your personal info and important email addresses to your online personas.

It takes 5 minutes to set up a new email address via Proton Mail, Gmail, and Outlook, to name a few.

If you have an Apple account, you have the option of “Hiding your email address” when signing up for new apps.

Apple will randomly generate an email address specific to that app as an added measure of security.

Obscure your business/corporation ties

Businesses have to be registered with the government (you know, taxes). The government is a public entity so the information about your business is also public.

All it takes is a few minutes for a bad actor to perform a Corporation & Business Entity Search for any US State.

The information under those filings are enough for anyone with time to find more personal information about you.

You can start with searching for your business ties and obscure the phone numbers, owner(s) of the LLC, etc. where possible. But talk to a lawyer to properly explore your options and implement the right measures.

Additionally, if you have a website, make sure you check the option for domain privacy (it’s free) in your registrar. This will keep the identifiable info about who owns the the domain private.

Educate your family, friends, and associates.

Your operational security (OpSec) is on point and everything you share online is on a need-to-know basis. Great work.

But you're only as private as your most talkative friend…

A bad actor doesn’t need to be an elite hacker to get dirt on you. They can just look at everyone connected to you instead and work those angles.

This is a good opportunity to remind your inner circle and associates not to share information about you, let alone themselves, with anyone online.

Take the time to see what photos, posts, and additional identifiable info you are tagged in that could be tied to you.

Action tip: Here's one thing you can do today in 10 minutes to improve your privacy

Remember we mentioned the 2FA apps? Here are a few you can check out:

• Authy

• Google Authenticator

• Microsoft Authenticator

The following are additional open-source alternatives for those with Android phones:

• FreeOTP

• Aegis Authenticator

There are plenty of others out there. Feel free to do a little more research to find what you’re most comfortable with.

The chances of getting your phone sim-swapped or cloned is not uncommon. A 12 year old (seriously) doesn’t require much to figure it out.

It’s much easier to perform the small preventative steps that improve your privacy than wait to overhaul your entire life, especially if it’s the result of getting “hacked” (which is really stressful).

That's all we have for you today.

There's a lot more, of course, but you'll think we're really crazy. Not that we care.

It's just better that you get this info in bytes so you can actually do something about it.

But if you want more, reply "I want to eat" and we’ll cook something up for you. Also, feel free to send us questions if there’s something you’d like more clarity on.

Anyways, bye for now.

DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is strictly educational and some entertainment. Please do not use easily identifiable data online, as you do not know who is going to give it away.