I have been receiving a flood of emails ranging from polite requests to outright threats of prosecution because of the recent spate of xxx rated leaks.
Despite the fact that I remove threads immediately I have to emphasise that once the genie is out of the bottle it is impossible to prevent the propagation of the files no matter what.
If the files are out there they'll still be there 10 years later and experience has taught me that the harder one tries to contain the spread the faster the news travels.
Deleting all your social media accounts AFTER a leak does absolutely nothing to prevent the spread of the images and videos. Delete them now before you become a victim. Trust me you'll find that life can still be wonderful without having to upload daily images of what you had for breakfast, lunch, dinner and selfies showing what a fantastic high society life you lead.
Legal action only results in more publicity but yields little chance of catching the source of the leak.
Tracking down the perpetrators is extremely difficult because the connections used to upload and publicise the leaks are done behind a proxy chain or the Tor network.
I can't provide the identities of the members behind the leak because they register for the forum using sharklasers, mailinator etc mail accounts via a proxy or Tor connection.
While nothing can be done for cases which are already out there, I can provide some sound advice :
1. DON'T use Social media sites - Facebook, Instagram etc. You expose your life to the whole world. It makes it ridiculously easy to track down identities in any leak. Facebook links all your friends and friends of friends and your life becomes an open book. If you have an account DELETE it before the day is out. You'll be far better off without it because what gets uploaded can come back to haunt you in the most unexpected of ways. Just ask
Anton Casey.
Making your facebook account private does little to prevent snooping because so many people accept friend requests which they shouldn't simply because of a mutual friend flag or to prove they have large numbers of friends. There is also always a risk that the account is bogus and the person making a friend request claiming to be your ex classmate is actually your arch enemy out to pry into your private life and orchestrate your downfall.
Your social network accounts are nothing more than ego trips. Be confident in yourself. You don't need affirmation from others in the form of likes, loves and touchy feeley words of praise in order to lead a happy life. If you must have a facebook account set up one in your dog's name and use his/her photos for the profile.
2. Don't ever record yourself naked, masturbating, having sex unless you have aspirations of being a porn star. DO NOT permit your lover to take compromising images/videos or you either as you have no control over what he might do with the images especially when the relationship turns sour.
3. If you have an uncontrollable urge to store explicit videos and images of your sexual exploits do not EVER store them anywhere on the net. THEY WILL LEAK! Keep them in a USB thumb drive and encrypt the contents so that ONLY YOU have the password.... a strong one.
4. Do not ever send explicit files to "trusted" people. Your best friend or lover today could be your worst enemy tomorrow. Human relationships are like that.
5. If you have any material that you don't ever want made public currently stored in iCloud, Dropbox etc REMOVE IT RIGHT NOW!