Tackle it Tuesday: Internet Safety

July 29, 2025

Welcome to Tackle It Tuesday, a social media series where an autistic employee at AAoM (yours truly) writes workplace (and now more!) tips to better cope with the stresses of a world not built for neurodiversity.

This Tackle it Tuesday is on internet safety. Like the previous series of entries, this is a big topic, so I’m going to focus on protecting your personal information.

In the current age of the internet, sharing every detail of your life has been normalized on platforms like Facebook, X, Discord, TikTok, and Instagram. This includes information that can put you in harm’s way; some seriously dangerous people ruin lives over internet arguments if they have access to even one piece of your personal information. There are ways to make it way harder for that to happen, however.

An image on a green background. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Internet Safety This one is very personal to me, as I am both an autistic person and an avid internet user. Internet safety resources are not catching up to the modern day, and a lot of safety (both physical and mental) tips are being left to the wayside. And this is especially true for autistic people: most internet resources aren’t made for autistic people in mind."

An image on a green background. On the left of the image, there is a person in a blue shirt with arrows pointing to the person. The arrows have the person's name, address, and phone number. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Internet Safety Some personal information should not be shared, but it won’t immediately put a target on your back if you do share it. Other info is much more sacred. This is to help prevent doxxing: publicly sharing personal information maliciously."

An image on a green background. There is extra text in a yellow box with a warning sign. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Personal Info Tier List Tier 1: Caution (You can reveal this, but keep track how much you reveal) Age Birthday Gender First Name (if your first name is uncommon everywhere, move to Tier 2) Country of Origin Non-Specific Occupation (such as saying you work at a restaurant)."

An image on a green background. There is extra text in an orange box with a stop sign. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Personal Info Tier List Tier 2: Dangerous (People can build a profile off of this + Tier 1 info) State/Region Face Place of Employment (if at a countrywide chain store, such as McDonald's)"

An image on a green background. There is extra text in an red box with a danger sign. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Personal Info Tier List Tier 3: Red Alert (Do Not Share) Home Address Phone Number City/Town Personal/Work Email Address Place of Employment (if local or in combo with city of origin) Last Name Mother’s Maiden Name Any personal information that’s not yours."

An image on a green background. On the bottom center, there are three sheets of paper, labeled Tier 1 Personal Info, Tier 2 Personal Info, and Tier 3 Personal Info The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: How Personal Info Works This also depends on how much information is shared together. The more information is shared, the easier it is for someone to find out even more things about you, including things you don’t share. This leads to our next section."

An image on a green background. On the bottom left, there is a phone book with an arrow pointing to a computer. The computer screen shows a website that says "Address Finder" with graphics symbolizing a person's personal info. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Digital Phonebooks There’s sensitive information considered public record, but should not be in any common internet user’s hands. Most of these are collected on websites designed to be digital phonebooks (as old as that sounds). If you look up your full name, public databases pair that with your address, phone number, and family members’ names."

An image on a green background. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Protect Yourself These websites are required to have systems to request to remove your information. Use them. Even if they’re hard to find, find them. Your privacy is worth the time spent. (This information is in a green box). A quick search of your full name will reveal many sites that do this, which will give you many targets to request your info be removed."

An image on a green background. In the center, there are logos for Incogni and DeleteMe The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Protect Yourself Paid services like DeleteMe can do this for you, and remove you from spam call lists too. Once you clean up your personal info off of these websites and prevent more information from being shared, your privacy is protected."

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