How to be geolocated to a Czech Embassy fashion event in D.C.
Do you care about online privacy? Do you love fashion? Then you should read this.
Last week, the Embassy of the Czech Republic did a preview of its cool Fashion in the Garden project. It was the perfect way to celebrate Petra Ptáčková, a Czech designer who focuses on sustainable fashion (you can follow her Instagram here).
If you know me, you know how much I love clothes — and how much time I spent fretting about the future of the human race. I joined forces with my much more fashionable friend, Andrea Goldstein, to explore the garden installation and take notes.
I really loved the clothes chosen for this installation — they were whimsical, with ironic details, and created the feel of a fairy tale forest run by humorous elves. Check out this embroidered straw baseball hat from Petra’s Insta, to understand what I mean:
While hanging around the installation, Andrea and I also realized that we could turn our outing into another lesson on geolocation and privacy. We took a few pictures, and before I tweeted them out the next day, I tweeted out a clue:
For those of you who are wondering, that’s a Czech beer I’m holding (big thanks to the embassy for spoiling us with these!).
The next day, I tweeted some pictures and asked people to geolocate us and to tell us where we went and why. Again, for a newbie, these looked hard (a lot of people will privately tell me how difficult these challenges can appear — they’re afraid of getting made fun of on the internet for stating the obvious, which, I think, is a testament to how awful internet culture can be) — there’s hardly any background! For someone familiar with open source research however…
The first person who correctly identified our location and the event was Ken Campbell!
Ken even noticed that we were at the preview!
It took him exactly 9 minutes. Probably less than that, since Ken didn’t see my tweet right away.
Here is how other people went about locating us:
And:
Congrats to the Embassy of the Czech Republic for publicizing this event so well that it was the first image that came up, by the way!
Also:
Yep, we thought some of you would zero in on the brochure!
And, of course, people did pick up on my clue AND matched up my dress to the bit of sleeve showing in the original picture (good job!):
Now, why is all of this important?
For one thing, it drives an important point home: Staying inconspicuous in D.C. is very, very hard. This is something to keep in mind for all of you working sensitive jobs in the D.C. metro area.
Obviously, Andrea and I plotted this experiment out together. But what if we hadn’t? What if I was just some random person, tagging her in stuff online? Andrea does important work on the Hill — what if there are unpleasant people tracking her? I’m not saying, “Don’t go to fun fashion events! Don’t post cool pictures online!” What I am saying is this:
Be aware of the information you are posting AND the information that others post about you. The second part is something we often miss out on. I’ve gotten into the habit of asking friends, “Is it OK if I tag you in this? Should it go on the private Instagram or the public?”
In the year 2020, that’s not paranoia. That’s common courtesy.
Your digital footprint can intersect with the digital footprint of another person in ways that can be exploited — be aware of that.
Finally, if you’re going to be stalked, you might as well look fashionable.
Just kidding. Or am I?
With special thanks to Kirsten Fedewa and everyone else at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Washington D.C.
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