Get Your Royal Name Here! (Please Don’t!)

These little apps that give you your pretend royalty name are so cute except THEY’RE A HORRIBLE IDEA! Stop it! Don’t do these!

Many of the apps include questions that either expose your current information or – worse – expose answers to questions from financial institutions as security questions. Ultimately they all lead back to identifying you in ways you don’t want to have used against you.

Listen, when you participate in polls, questionnaires or fun little apps on this social network, you begin by exposing your name, maybe your college or high school, then a few pictures of yourself, your friends and family and maybe your kids just by starting. You’re immediately handing all of your profile to the app developer, whom records the data you just delivered.

A little side hint: changing your profile name when you break up with someone doesn’t matter, we log you by your internal ID, not your name.

That basic information is just the entry point of cross-referencing your identity against other sources: public, leaked, hacked or otherwise. Data criminals are just warming up at that point.

If an app asks for your (current or first) street name, your grandparent’s name, your first pet’s name, or any digits of any phone number you ever had, or birth dates (month, date, year of you or your family members), to the name of your oldest niece/nephew…. STOP! That’s a terrible idea. Don’t answer that. Just … don’t.

With 2 data points, you can be found. It will take a lot of time but it only requires 2. Every additional detail is a bonus of less time until you’re literally handing over every intimate detail of your life, instantly. It will be available for sale in no time.

Give less. Protect you and yours.

Need help? Ask. I’ll find you. We can go from there.