Security expert: Online privacy possible but not plausible

Online privacy is hard to come by these days. But some level of digital anonymity is possible, according to owner and chief investigator of BrightStar Investigations, Craig Smith.

“Anything you put online can be used against you later in life,” Smith said. “Unless you go in and physically delete our digital footprint, it’s there forever.”

Smith spent about 45 minutes using public search tools to investigate KRDO’s digital content director, Chris Loveless. Though Loveless is a savvy web user, his privacy habits are pretty typical. He’s spent some time increasing his Facebook security, but not much else.

“I don’t feel like I have a whole lot to hide, a whole lot of tracks to cover,” Loveless said. “But I, probably like most people, haven’t taken as many steps as I should have.”

Smith created a dossier of information he discovered about Loveless, including his age, address, phone number, political affiliation and religion. He also found an old dating profile and blog posts that Loveless forgot he created years ago.

“The things I found on Chris, they can be found about most people,” Smith said. “We’re not entitled to privacy when it comes to things that we volunteered for the world to see.”

Even though Loveless had tight privacy settings on Facebook, Smith was able to find pictures and information through his Facebook friends and relatives. He was also able to glean information about Loveless by looking at various pages he had “liked” on Facebook.

“I am surprised at some of the stuff he found like the posts on the Arbor Day website, the dating site information that I had forgotten about, old blogs that I had forgotten about,” Loveless said. “I think I’ll probably be moving forward thinking a lot more about what I’m doing and what the future implications could be.”

Smith recommends hiring a private investigator if you’re concerned about your digital footprint, but also recommends some simple steps you can take towards privacy.

Start by doing a Google search on yourself or your email address to see what you can find. Since Facebook is the biggest database, make sure your privacy settings are enhanced and consider untagging photographs of yourself. Make your friends list, timeline and all your “likes” private.

“Before you go to a job interview, I would deactivate Facebook,” Smith said.

Besides being cautious of information you volunteer on the Internet, it can be more difficult to remove information that is public record like your phone number and address. Websites like Whitepages.com and Spokeo.com store that information and users have to request to be removed from each site.

“It’s absolutely possible to live off the grid,” Smith said. “But it’s very difficult to accomplish.”