He peered at her. “I’ll start with the least telling items and move to the most dangerous.”
“Seriously?” she asked. “You really see something that could be a problem in this post?”
“Several things. The first is the desk in the background. Your mail is lying on it.” He enlarged the photo on his screen.
She leaned forward and stared at the screen. “So? You can’t read my address on it.”
“I might only be able to make the photo this big while still in Facebook, but I can always save it to my hard drive and enlarge it even more.”
“And your point is?”
“Before posting a photo, look at it in the largest size possible while still in focus to see if it reveals any information. For example, I can’t make out the complete address on the envelope, but I can see a portion of it. With the way auto-complete works on our computers, I’d venture to say if I enter the portion I can read into an address form online, the app will complete the rest for me, and I’ll know exactly where you live.”
“Wow,” Jada said from across the table. “I use auto-complete all the time and never really thought about how it could be used for something bad.”
He switched his focus to his sister. “Most people don’t. But once you’ve been in law enforcement, you have a tendency to look for those kinds of things. Even if you don’t want to.”
Kinsley shook her head. “So anyone who saw this post could enlarge my picture and see enough of my address to find me.”
“Yes, if they thought of it. But as Jada said, most people don’t think of it.”
“So it’s not as big of a deal as you’re making it.”
“Oh, it is.” He locked gazes, because he didn’t like her discounting this information. “Problem is, the people whohavethought of it are the ones who are up to no good and will use it to their advantage. So when you post any pictures on your social media, you need to make sure you blur out anything that might lead to your location.”
Kinsley tipped her head, like she wasn’t fully convinced. “I don’t hate the fact that my friends on Facebook might see something and figure out where I live. Not that I want them popping by unexpectedly, but it wouldn’t be horrible. It’s just the general public that I’d like to keep it from. I don’t accept them as friends, and my friends are the only ones who can see my posts.”
“Or so you think.”
She jerked back.
Dev didn’t like seeing her response, and he wished he had better news for her. “People can hack your friends’ accounts. Happens all the time. If the friend isn’t a close friend but more of an acquaintance, you probably won’t notice anything odd about their posts, and you may not know they’ve been hacked until it’s too late.”
Kinsley frowned. “So what other red flags does the picture hold?”
“You received a package from Kohl’s.” He tapped the store’s logo on the side of the box.
“How does that help you?”
“It tells me this box was likely shipped to you and to look for an address label.” He shifted the photo on his screen until a prominent address label was displayed on the side. “I don’t have to explain this one.”
“I usually don’t look at the pictures larger than my phone displays them. I guess that means I miss some things.” She clutched her hands together. “But that changes now. I need to go back through my social media to delete any posts with items like this on it.”
“You can and should do that so anyone who goes to your profile now doesn’t see it. But once the photo is on the internet and other sites pick it up, it’s pretty much there for life and remains discoverable.” He rushed on to try to encourage her. “It’s still worth the work, though. Once removed from your profile, it’s less likely that anyone will see it.”
“You’ve made your point.” Kinsley set her jaw. “I’ll take care of that tonight, and I promise in the future, I’ll be more careful.”
“And, you’ll keep your promise that until our shooter is behind bars, you won’t post anything at all.” He kept his focus on her.
“Yes, I promise.” She looked at Jada. “I’ll need your help to hold me to that.”
“Of course, sweetie. I’m always glad to stop you from doing things that are bad for you.” Jada got a twinkle in her eye, and Kinsley laughed.
Dev appreciated his sister lightening things up. “We should also check your security settings. I know you said you have your posts set to just your friends, but do you have your friend list set to private?”
Kinsley’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not sure on that one, but really what difference does that make?”
“Cybercriminals could open a fake account with your name and profile. Impersonating you, they then send messages to your friends list. They can ask for sensitive information or money, often claiming an emergency.” He took a long breath. “And they could troll through your friends’ pages until they find an unsecured account and hack it. Then use it to target you in the same way.”
