Well, it's finally happened. After more than a year of online privacy (which I treasured sooooo much), my online alias has been discovered and my anonymity breached by someone in my real life.

I'm not freaking out about it, don't worry. And I won't go dark and retreat like I did previously. Mostly because, I haven't really posted anything too controversial that would cause much fallout in my real-life.

The biggest impact to me is the validated lack of trust I have for people in my real life to respect my boundaries. But this is a good reminder for me, so I remember to keep my walls up and guarded.

I know who this person is. It's someone that's done this to me before. And it's someone that used the information they found out about me online to shame me and destroy all my self-confidence. And I had an online support system that I had to let go of too, because this person infiltrated them. It was horrible.

I'm just waiting for them to do the right thing and reveal what they've done to me. And until they do so... no trust from me. So far, they're keeping it a secret. Probably because they're hoping I'll reveal something online that they can use against me. But that won't happen.

Anyhow, let me tell you all how they did it. And I'll have to add it to my previous post about "Ways an Online Stalker Can Find You". This is a new way that definitely caught me by surprise! So let me inform you all and you can take any necessary precautions to protect yourselves.

They found me via TikTok. I was very careful to NOT provide TikTok with my phone number or email address when I created an account so nobody in my real life could find me there. BUT...

...there is a Privacy Setting in TikTok called "Users who open or send shared links". And of course it was defaulted to ON (see screenshot below).

Anonymity Breach
Anonymity Breach

This person sent me a TikTok link via text because they know me in real life so they know how to contact me via phone and email. And I wasn't being careful enough and I CLICKED on it!

And bam! As soon as I clicked on it, this person received a TikTok message "Pepper Valentine just viewed your shared link!" and DAMMIT! Now they have my online alias to EVERYTHING!

So that's how my anonymity breach happened and how my online alias was discovered in real life.

The biggest lesson learned here - don't trust people in your real life to respect your boundaries or your privacy. And also, don't post anything online that you wouldn't want to get out in your real life anyway.