~Convel_Deamhan

Online privacy is important. Security is priceless. These are things I didn't known when I came here. And, I realize, looking back, I was too open. I still will be, but not as open as I was. My first journals and submission, the extension of that journal as a Word Doc were maybe a little too private. Not incriminating, per se, as there was nothing in them I'm not proud of, or regret.

But, I realized recently that maybe I'm too much of an open book, an over-sharer. And...that scared me. My own parents said, "Convel, you don't need to share everything with everyone." And...I listened. I thought about it. And I realized: They're right. So, here I am, having taken down my first journal entries, and my first submission, but I'm trying to give something back in turn: Knowledge to my fellow furries.

Be careful of what you post online. There's data in everything. In picture, there's metadata, EXIF data, GPS coordinates, that can be used to trace you; and if you don't want to be traced, there are ways to remove it, where you can still freely share of yourself, of your photos, and your art.

Here's one site that says how:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways.....might-want-to/

And, here's one for GPS coordinates:

http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/remov.....-th-1593773810

But...did you know you can write you own data, your own copyright, your own mini-stories into your pictures, and if they're ever copied, cut up, duplicated, reproduced, or whatever, that data should always be there?

That's called IPTC metadata, and this his how you can write it, in photo editors like Adobe Photoshop and CyberLink PhotoDirector:

https://www.photometadata.org/META-.....de-to-Metadata

And here are the most confusing components, that may take some learning to use:

IPTC Subject Codes:

https://iptc.org/standards/subject-codes/

Subject Code Human-Readable Interface (We use ctrl f to look for specific info, if we can't find it at a glance; it uses very specific language, though, so there's a learning curve):

http://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/subjectcode

IPTC News Codes:

https://iptc.org/standards/newscodes/

News Codes Human-Readable Interface:

http://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/

Interactive, Visual Interface for Viewing IPTC News Codes (Media Topics, Scene Codes, Subject Codes, and Genre):

http://show.newscodes.org/

I only learned about these recently in my life, but I've already started putting them to good use. I hope that they may help others on here, too.

Take care everyone. Please stay safe, both online, and off.

Thank you for reading,

~Convel/Naarassusi

P.S. -- I'll edit and re-post some of the info from those journals, but be more careful about what I share about myself. It's a wild world out there, and we need to be careful in it, and stick together, as a pack, a herd, and a pride; with great, and FIERCE pride!