Confessions: Staying Safe on the Wild Wild Web

Confessions of an Insomniac Book Devourer #12

When the whole Hale/Harris thing broke (some time ago), I decided not to immediately weigh in on the blog, mostly because tempers on both sides were insanely hot. There's nothing wrong with being upset, it's just that writing while upset is a bit like tweeting while impaired- you shouldn't do it, and it often ends up biting you back- hard. And then some of the details of the fiasco didn't come out until later: how an author came by the address of someone who'd not liked her book, how the publisher wasn't involved (at least, not from what I've seen), and how book bloggers would react (vehemently).

In this post, I'm not here to rehash what has been said or rant and rave about my opinions, but instead I'll address another topic: pseudonyms, online safety, and trust (with a slice of opinion- this is a confession, is it not?).

I was one of those people who used the internet to find a pen pal- but the conditions of my penpal were that it had to be online only. I didn't want just anyone to be my penpal and learn my address- at the time I was an eleven or twelve year old, and online safety was stressed in tv reality shows like "To Catch a Predator". I also didn't use my full name, so no one would be able to look me up. I found a pen pal from South Korea who corresponded with me for the longest- roughly 9 months. I'll never forget her, but to this day I have no idea if she's dead or alive, if she's still in South Korea, or if her first name was actually the one she gave me or something else.

If I had found that my pen pal, Kim, had a different name, would I have been mad at her? No. She had every right not to share anything about her life with me, and I had the same rights to privacy as her. Even if it turned out she was actually a 40-year-old male government spy from Madagascar, I wouldn't be very mad- we shared interesting cross-cultural conversation, and that was something I craved at the time.

Pseudonyms are widely used online, because names hold power in our ever-evolving tech-centric world. They are also widely used with authors- some of the most famous authors had pseudonyms to protect their identity, or even their gender. To find an author who thinks she's being catfished by a reviewer (who has every right to a pseudonym) is kind of weird- no 'one' reviewer has the power to kill your career/book, no matter how influential. One mislaid article (or bad talk show interview), on the other hand...

The name I use on this blog isn't a pseudonym, but it isn't my full name either. I'm sure if someone truly wanted to, they could find me, because I've shared much of my life with you here and on other social networks. I don't recommend it, though... I have a miniature direwolf who regularly ventures the yard in search of strangers to munch on, in addition to retired neighbors who stay at home and have fishbowl windows that look directly onto our property- they also consider themselves an unofficial neighborhood watch. So yeah, you're not welcome to visit my red-blooded, second-amendment-happy city, capiche?

How does one book blogger stay safe on this Wild, Wild, Web? Using pseudonyms withholding your full name are a good start, but probably not the final answer. Updating your passwords and antivirus software regularly also grants a degree of safety against hackers, but not against people who want to come and visit.

I think it's a good idea to think twice about who you give your address to- if you enter a physical copy giveaway and win (and it's a copy direct from the author, not through a blog tour company), make sure to look at the author's social media before accepting. Most authors are great and know the boundaries of the book blogger (or reviewer or plain reader)/author relationship, but now I think prudence is in order. It's probably a good idea to write down the people who have your address- if worst comes to worst, you'll know who had the easiest access or who may have slipped up and passed along your information.

The last thing I would like to rehash is the topic of trust- right now, a lot of book reviewers are second-guessing the trust they grant authors, and some authors are rethinking the trust they give book reviewers. Trust is a two-way street in the book blogging industry- authors have to trust reviewers enough to believe they won't judge the book because of outside factors, and reviewers have to trust authors enough that if they don't like the book and write a review on it, that the authors won't seek retribution.

I have had the good fortune of never having a "bad" author experience yet, but there are authors I would probably think twice about working with (mainly those who've made headlines). But will I trust the next author who reaches out to me in search of a review? Yes. There will be a brief perusal of the reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, along with a glance at their social media- and to be honest, I always have done that with people who ask for a review. But will I run a background check and try to obtain their address? Never.

It isn't easy to trust someone online- someone who could be hiding behind a pseudonym or an avatar, nameless or faceless. It's always good to remember there is a human on a computer somewhere who must be behind it, a human with commitments, relationships, and the capability to make huge mistakes, just like the rest of us. But most of us wouldn't advertise and try to justify huge mistakes by putting finger to keyboard.

Just sayin'.

Some Helpful Links:
Information on Web Safety for Adults
Cyberbullying (Wikipedia)