location discretion

A while back we hosted a book promotion for "wranglerstar".   This guy has a popular youtube channel and came out with a book.  We have our naming policy so asked to set up his account with his real name.  Nope.   And, of course, a "real sounding name" won't work either because the book has the author listed as "wranglerstar."  In the end, we went with "W. Star".  

While getting this stuff set up he explained that he has received a lot of unwanted attention of the negative sort.   He likes sharing as much as he does, but he wishes to keep his location discreet.   And revealing his name might be enough to reveal his location.

I've met a lot of folks that have a bit of fame like this, and they are adamant that an ounce of discretion can save a hundred pounds of headache.  

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I've used a mail service in missoula for all my mail stuff.   I have moved several times and just keep using the same address.  Smooth.  

One day I got a call from somebody and they said they were at my mailbox and they were looking for ME "how do I get to where your house is?"  ---  this person explained that they were my old friend "_______" ....    I didn't believe them.  I explained that I was not giving tours and ended the call.  How did they get my number?

We've probably had about six incidents where we are glad that we used discretion about our location.  And there's probably a couple dozen more that we don't know about.  

Have you heard about "swatting"?  

the action or practice of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatting


My stuff gets enough attention, and while there is a HUGE amount of love that arrives that is oodles of gifts and fun stuff ...   well .... there are also a few people that passionately upset that I am not their servant to command at will.  Or, more precisely, they sent the commands complete with an "or else" package, and they are working out how to deliver the "or else."  


Thanks to the folks that help maintain our discretion.

I can entirely relate. These days it is far better to be safe because sorry can be permanent.

Redhawk

Just yesterday, I discovered that my smartphone recordes the time date and location of every photo that I have taken. Not a big deal for me.

You must have many people there snapping pictures on their phones. Even if they don't personally hand out information, I think it's possible for anyone who comes into possession of that phone, to discover the location where any given photo was taken.

I understand that you've had issues with vandalism from the locals. Have you also had unwanted visits from people who only know of you through the internet?

You can turn off location caching in preferences, at least on an iPhone.  What I don't know is how much metadata comes along and is available to the clever when photos are posted on the internet.