086 - Be Careful With Public Posts
“Posting real-time locations, travel plans, or identifying details online can sometimes increase risks. Consider delaying posts or limiting who can view them.”
Social media makes it incredibly easy to share our lives with friends and community networks, keeping us connected when we are physically apart. Whether you are letting loved ones know you arrived safely at an event, celebrating a milestone, or highlighting an important community gathering, posting updates feels like a natural part of the day.
However, broadcasting your day-to-day life in real-time creates a digital trail that can quickly compromise your personal safety. For marginalized communities, individuals avoiding immigration enforcement, or anyone dealing with targeted harassment, a public post is more than just a social update—it is a map. Revealing your exact location, your travel plans, or your daily routines can give bad actors or enforcement officials a direct window into your movements. Your privacy is a vital shield, and you have every right to decide exactly who knows your coordinates.
You can still use social media to uplift your community while maintaining complete control over your real-world security.
Shifting your posting habits slightly will help keep your physical locations completely hidden from outside eyes:
Embrace the "Latergram" habit: Wait until you have left a restaurant, a rally, or a community center before uploading any photos or status updates. Posting about your day a few hours later—or even the next morning—instantly breaks the real-time tracking link.
Lock down your audience: Go into your social media account settings and switch your profiles from "Public" to "Private" or "Friends Only." This simple administrative barrier prevents strangers or scanners from digging into your history.
Keep specific plans offline: Avoid posting about your upcoming travel itineraries, daily school drop-off times, or regular work shifts on public forums.
Your story is yours to tell, but it should always be shared on your own terms and on your own timeline.
What Now
If you are a marginalized individual or an undocumented community member concerned that public social media posts, real-time status updates, or geo-tagged photos could compromise your physical safety, privacy, or autonomy, take these immediate actions to secure your digital footprint:
Adopt a Delayed Posting Strategy ("Latergramming"): Break the link to real-time location tracking by waiting until you have completely left a venue, rally, or community space before uploading any photos or status updates. Waiting a few hours or until the following day prevents enforcement officials or bad actors from tracking your exact, current coordinates.
Lock Down Profile Visibility to Trusted Circles: Go into the settings of your social media platforms and change your account visibility from "Public" to "Private" or "Friends Only." Restricting who can view your past and present posts prevents data brokers, scanners, or outside entities from archiving your movements and routines.
Turn Off Biometrics and Enforce Alpha-Numeric Passcodes: If you are navigating high-risk physical spaces, open your device's master settings to turn off facial and fingerprint recognition. Enforcing a complex 6-digit passcode or passphrase ensures that your device's contents and social media apps cannot be accessed without your explicit consent during an enforcement encounter.
Move Personal Coordination to Encrypted Spaces: Stop planning community gatherings, travel itineraries, or mutual aid actions on public timelines or via unencrypted direct messaging services. Switch your group communication to end-to-end encrypted platforms like Signal to ensure your conversations remain confidential.
Utilize Expert Privacy Frameworks for Marginalized Groups: For advanced instructions on scrubbing existing public records and managing digital tracking, consult the open-source Surveillance Self-Defense manuals curated by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. You can also review comprehensive "Know Your Rights" safety tools provided by the National Immigration Law Center to build a localized family safety plan.
Local Resources
Lutheran Community Services Northwest https://lcsnw.org/office/vancouver/
(360) 694-5624
Clark County Volunteer Lawyers Program https://ccvlp.org/
(360) 695-5313
Northwest Justice Project https://nwjustice.org/
(360) 693-6130
