It is a common trend for us to get so excited about places, events, clothes, and everything. With the rise of social media features, there is freedom that we get from owning an account; we get the chance to post photos, update the world about the most important events, and even share our location as proof of evidence that we are actually in that beautiful place that the pictures we share show. But why is sharing your location in Africa dangerous? Every day many scenarios of people being kidnapped, killed, bitten, or arrested happen; and one of the reasons they happen is location sharing
Let’s talk more about location and danger.
Have you ever thought that there are so many people following what you post on social media and not all those social media followers wish you well? some are there to track activities that go on in your daily life and look for loopholes to destroy you. Imagine a scenario where a lawyer who uses social media a lot is handling a risky case in court. The person he plans to lead behind bars is looking for a way to destroy him and then one time after having a great time with family he posts “Enjoying a great time in Munyoyo, Uganda with family” and then he goes ahead and pins the exact location in the map, a location both friends and enemies can zoom and track. The next day you hear he was hacked at night. This happened because he indirectly opened the doors of his home at night.
Sharing our location strips us naked to the world and exposes us to the entire world. People who are at risk like lawyers, journalists, and every one of us who may be in great danger. Actually as humans we are prone to danger and at all times we must take precaution not to expose our location.
Let’s now brainstorm why we shouldn’t share our location
It exposes us to surveillance.
Many people have fallen prey to surveillance because of sharing their location on social media. It is at the point of attackers discovering where you are that they as well decide to visit and plant cameras that are connected to other devices. It gets worse if the attackers gain access to your mobile device. At that point, they can use apps that will be configured with surveillance cameras. It is therefore very important to keep the places we stay in private much as we would love the world to know the source of our pride
Location sharing in Africa puts our lives at risk.
We have heard of scenarios whereby someone got killed because they revealed their location on social media or even had their location shared on their phones. Remember that if through your Google account, you shared your location, nobody needs a surveillance camera to monitor your footsteps. All that is needed is a Gmail password to enable the opening of your account and monitor you through Google Maps. If your enemy discovers your location and has been looking for a way to get rid of you, they can easily accomplish their agenda of killing
Location sharing in Africa leads to Arrests and detention.
Some worldwide political systems have a habit of launching unnecessary arrests. If you are someone who may be prone to arrest. Let me tell you a true story on 16 January 2020, the police arrested Jorge Molina, 23 was arrested by Arizona Police after google maps had placed him in the scene. He spent 6 days in prison. This is associated with location sharing. I won’t tell you the rest of the story but I would love to place this link right here to enable you to catch up with what happened. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7897319/Police-arrested-innocent-man-murder-using-Google-location-data.html The bottom line of this paragraph is you shouldn’t share your location
location sharing in Africa as well leads to evasion of your privacy.
Professionals like doctors could have their privacy evaded. Even if they are not available, the world will visit their home unannounced for their service. What about an ex-husband or boyfriend or girlfriend who discovers where you stay and decides to come stalking
What you shouldnt do with your location
- Do not share your location while posting on social media. Someone can easily discover where you are and come and attack you
- Do not allow your Google account to access your location. If you allow it, then your device can easily be monitored especially when a hacker manages to open your account for any reason
- Do not turn on location settings on your phone
Do not allow your location to put you at risk. Stay safe online. Protect your social media accounts and avoid location sharing. Much as social media apps make the idea of location sharing fancy, it doesn’t look good at all in most cases. What looks good is you not sharing your location, and keeping your google account safe by not sharing your location, setting up two-factor authentication, using a strong password
You may want to read the steps for setting up a two-factor authentication for the email account
Why people love sharing location despite the risks(by Axios)
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