How to stop stalker colleagues finding my

[twootwoo]

Facebook or any new social media accounts I'm setting up.

I don't want to be recommended as 'people you may know etc."

I am in a work what's app, will them having my phone number mean that I will be linked up to them when I start social media accounts.

How can I stop this happening.

My friend left the business and said she was getting some of them pop up on "people you may know."

They are trouble makers who say they "research people every night."

Omg add the question marks. Atrocious grammar sorry!

Use a different name and don't link your mobile or email to the accounts.

Sorry to be obtuse - I'm clueless with tech for the most part.

Do you mean I would have to get a new mobile phone and phone number?

If you have to be in the WhatsApp group buy a cheap pay as you go phone and use that for work.

You don’t need to add your phone number to any social media accounts. I don’t have mine on Facebook or Instagram. I also use a different email for creating the account than my normal everyday one.

You can create a completely private account, in Facebook you can edit your settings so your profile picture is private therefore only people who see it are friends you accept. You can change your name so it’s not obvious to find. If you edit all your settings properly then no one will be able to see any information about you unless you accept them as a friend.

on Instagram, you can’t hide your profile picture but you can have a different name and username. (You can be found by name and username) as long as your profiles private then they won’t have any information about them unless you add you as a friend.

No I'm leaving the job. I have just noticed that even when you delete people's numbers from the phone you can still be linked to them.

Also in WhatsApp too you can edit your privacy settings so those people don’t see when you were last online, see your profile picture and you can remove read receipts so they won’t know if you’ve read the message.

If you delete them but they have deleted you then yes they can still message you. You would need to block them. Alternatively you could search for them on social media and block them without even adding them.

Thank you for all your advice @Hiddenvoice. The thing is, I am setting up a business, so I can not really have the accounts as private.

I'm terrified that they will find me and leave bogus reviews and ruin it all for me. They are a particularly nasty bunch.

Find their accounts first and block them?

i was going to suggest the same.

don't forget to also do this on instagram if you use that too.

easiest way to deal with this by far

Just go on their accounts and block

Thank you. I will have to try and find them all.

do you have to be in the work WA? if so tell work they must give you a phone and a simcard.
Then leave the group anyway.

and you don't have to link your SM to your phone. You can lock down your SM so that people can't find you and if they do they can't see anything other than your profile picture.
Set it so that you have to approve all followers. And then reject anyone you don't know personally.

You don't have to input your phone number to any social media accounts. Use a different email to your work one and have a generic user name like 'redrose123'.

You don't have to have a profile picture, but you can also just post a picture of a flower or a landscape. Something they won't recognize you by. If they ask if you have social media, say no.

And use the private setting so only people you want to can see your page.

Absolutely refuse to be in a work WhatsApp. How ridiculous. Companies ran successfully for years before WhatsApp came along.

My old work had one and I removed myself and changed my settings so people had to ‘invite’ me.

If you can't have your accounts as private , then that makes it quite tricky.

Your best best is to use a name completely unrelated, a profile pic that is quite generic , no (real )details that can be seen in the about section for example and not add anyone connected to them in any way. The majority of people you may know suggestions I get is because we have friends in common and not much else. Preemptively, you can search for them and try and block them.

You need lock down your privacy. Then all they will see is your profile picture and nothing else.

If you haven't done it before you'll need a good hour. You need to go through all your personal info and set to 'only me'. All your previous cover and profile pics. Your friend list and every album.

Just lock down absolutely everything to either 'only me' or 'friends'. Remove any settings that are 'friends of friends' and 'public'.

Honestly it's just good safety regardless.

Sorry didn't see the thing about you being private.

Can you just block everyone of your colleague. Essentially find them on Facebook and block them all. You don't have to be friends with someone to block them.

Good luck with your new venture!
Set up a new user email address for your business and use a business name that isn't obviously 'you'. You don't have to attach your phone to your social media but it is helpful to do so for extra security.
I'm wondering if you do add your phone number it might then trawl your phone for potential friends and you could then block them straight away as you set up the new social media account?
Or, if you can afford it, you could have a second phone number for your business and make sure that's not connected to your personal info.
Then make sure you aren't friends with your business.
I would also try to block as many of them as you can from your personal profile anyway, they sound seriously odd.

Thanks everyone, I have taken all your tips into account! I don't even have personal social media, but I will need one for my business.
They looked up my family because they know my surname. I can tell by the comments they make!

@ElBandito Thank you. I can't wait to start my business, I won't be using my name. They are odd, but also very malicious.

If they do happen to find out what I'm doing now and they decide to leave a bad review or whatever these sociopathic types like to dream up, I suppose there is always libel and harassment laws to pursue!

The social media platforms will use anything and everything they have at their disposal to try and figure out who you know in real life and recommend them to you. They will also nag you non-stop to give them this information (e.g. making it look like you can't opt out of giving them your phone number, when you can).

On trick I use is "plus notation" in email addresses. It works on gmail and few other email platforms. What you can do, is if your email address is [email protected] you can put in "twootwoo+[email protected]" when you create your Facebook account. All the emails will still come through to the same account, but they won't be linked on the backend, they'll be treated as completely separate email addresses.

At least I've never seen any company ever check for plus notation, and I've used this trick to set up multiple paypal accounts before, and they're the ones that you would think would be legally mandated to.

Find their accounts first and block them .

Get a second phone number to use for social apps

Hard to secure your account without two factor authentication etc X