Reliance on Technology is making you a target??

    Everywhere you see there are talks about how great the advancement in technology is for the people and worldwide.  However, no one ever talks about how technology could be creating more issues for people than they need.  With the introduction of AIM, many bored children (my sister and I were among them) went into chat rooms talking to strangers at all hours of the day.  Because many were young and didn't think of the dangers, many gave away information that shouldn't have been shared or even met up with the people they were talking to.  Online chats allow anyone to be whoever they want to be.  Online chats are what gave birth to shows like To Catch a Predator (TCAP) and Takedown with Chris Hansen.  TCAP - Offenders a page of all the adults who were caught and charged with attempting to be inappropriate with minors on the internet.  In TCAP's case, the advancement of technology assisted in capturing these individuals.  Giving them evidence in the case.

    However, swatting (sending police or other emergency services to your location) and doxxing (posting personally identifiable information or locations to the public) is also something that technology has given the populace.  This is just something that happens to individuals, but also their businesses are affected by this.  Followers or believers of the doxxing side will then spam down vote or leave terrible reviews about businesses at the behest of the poster that released all the information.  And once the information is out in the open there is no way to get it back without moving and changing everything that was shared.  Swatting however is a more dangerous game of retaliation.  It is defined as "people making fraudulent 911 calls reporting serious-level criminal threats or violent situations like bomb threats, hostages, killing, etc. to fool the police into raiding the house or business of somebody who is not actually committing a crime.” (Kolodny & Ward, 2023).

    Some people on this list were targeted for things as little as their user handle on their social media accounts. It could be considered the new standard for taking a hit out on someone.  How long before individuals are being swatted due to a new application or patent that they are creating or a multi-billion dollar business idea.

Reference

Kolodny, L. & Ward, J. (2023, June 29). The FBI has formed a national database to track and prevent 'swatting'. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fbi-formed-national-database-track-prevent-swatting-rcna91722.