How to Protect Yourself as a Streamer

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The issue of streamer privacy is rarely discussed, often coming to light only after someone has been doxxed, swatted, or faced severe harassment. Regardless of where in your streaming career you’re at, there are steps you can take to minimize the risk of this happening to you.

What threats are out there?

Unfortunately, we live in a reality where there are individuals online who derive pleasure from causing harm. Two of the larger risks to watch out for are:

Doxxing: This involves someone gathering personal information about you (like your home address, phone number, real name, or details about your family) to harm or manipulate you. They might threaten to release this information or use it for blackmail.

Swatting: Here, the perpetrator calls the police, impersonating you and falsely claiming you're planning something dangerous like a bombing or a killing spree. This prompts a forceful police response, often involving a SWAT team entering your home. Doxxing usually precedes swatting since the attacker needs your address to make the false threat.

What steps can I take?

Never Expose Your Real Name

If you can prevent sharing/exposing your name, you’re 95% of the way there in terms of protecting your privacy. Some guides recommend adding your personal information to a block list, but by the time this information has been collected it's often too late. It's much better to be proactive and try to scrub your footprint.

It can be a simple task for a bad actor to pinpoint your location if you aren't careful about what you share. Be careful that what you share (and stream) doesn't have identifying information (such as your other online accounts - YouTube, Twitch, Gmail, etc). Never send media through platforms or channels that do not strip EXIF data.

Use a VPN

While employee awareness has risen over the past decade, social engineering should always be treated as a potential hazard. If you click a suspicious link from chat or a bad-actor obtains your IP, the possibility of them calling your ISP and using social-engineering to reveal more information about you is not a non-zero chance. However, don't be fooled by VPN advertisements into thinking this will provide you full anonymity on the web - this is simply another layer of security. Remember to be very wary of suspicious looking links.

Use a Unique Username

If you’re just starting out streaming, create a new username instead of using an old one. If your old username was involved in a data breach for a service where you used the same username, your personal details like your name, address, phone number, and more could be accessed by malicious individuals.

Use PayPal Business for Donations

If you choose to accept donations through PayPal, remember that it is not anonymous - your name/email will be visible. To prevent this, upgrade to a business account to ensure that the sender only sees what you have set as your business name.

Remove Yourself From Data Brokers

There are dozens of data brokers in the U.S. who sell and share your data - some household names being BeenVerified, TruthFinder, Intelius, and Spokeo. A bad actor will try to find your associated information from these sites, which will give them a greater comprehensive view of your personal information (addresses, relatives, phones, emails, and more).

Removing your information from these sites can be troublesome - you have to manually go through each site, find your associated profile, locate the opt-out instructions, and complete it. Keep in mind that these sites aren't always under an obligation to perpetually keep your information removed, so the information can resurface after several months or years.

If this sounds like too much work, there are cheap options like PrivacyZen that starts at $12/mo which will automatically scan and remove any exposed information from these brokers (every 7 days). You can also sign up for a free scan to learn where your information is exposed (+ free guides on how to remove it).