Digital Kidnapping—A New Kind of Identity Theft

Author: Nikki Williams

Date: September 2, 2015

Link: https://www.digitalethics.org/essays/digital-kidnapping-new-kind-identity-theft

First Impressions: The essay probably discusses kidnapping of information such as photos, videos, information, and more to be used against the victim.

Quote: “Ways to steal personal information are quickly outpacing protective measures granted to internet users through general legislation or attempts at self-governance by internet entities, such as Facebook and Twitter.”

Reflection: 

Nowadays, it is relatively easy to steal someone's information, primarily since everything you need about this person can be found in one area, Social Media. The hacker can add you as a friend on Facebook. I mean, why not? The more friends, the better right? And he can follow all your other friends to make it look like you know him, so why not accept his friend request and give him access to all the photos you have on Facebook. The same thing with Instagram, "the more followers the popular I'm going to get," right? So you follow this anonymous guy, then all your data can be salvaged by him. The same goes for parents that post live updates of the condition of their babies. People should know how to manage the security of their social media profiles to avoid digital kidnapping and identity theft, but the only problem with people is that they wait for it to happen before doing anything about it. An example would be making photos private; people only make it private when they realize other people have been using their pictures for other purposes, such as forums about obsessions and others, in different areas of the internet. When creating a social media account, people should have a walkthrough on the privacy settings or take their time when setting it up, because some are not aware of the dangers of posting personal information and forgetting to make it private. There are instances where-in they have made the settings private, but still ending up seeing their data on different sites. The only solution to this is to stop posting online.

5 Things I Learned

1. Digital Kidnapping is a new kind of identity theft where-in people take screen shots of pictures posted on social media, blogs, and other online sites.

2. The only way to not be a victim of digital kidnapping is to not post photos online.

3. People should take time fixing their privacy settings.

4. (Instagram) people should only follow friends and family that they know.

5. In the case of identity theft, people should inform their friends on social media that they are being copied by a rogue account.

5 Integrative Questions

1. Should social media companies be blamed for digital kidnapping?

2. Is it safe to post photos online if your account is on private?

3. Is it possible to delete information found online that were stolen from your account (images that were stolen through screenshot).

4. For us not to be a victim of Digital Kidnapping, should posting photos be stopped?

5. Should there be an algorithm that finds the stolen picture and deletes it if it is found again on the web.