cyber stalking laws?

attackofpotato

hi, sorry if this is in the wrong place I'm just scared and need advice.

well to start off a long story I was best friends with my cousin for years but I stopped talking to her in May last year and since then what she's been doing I can only describe as stalking. I had a twitter account that was separate from everything else I had on the internet, nobody irl knew about it and it wasn't connected to any other accounts I have. therefore she didn't know about it either. I used it as a place to vent about her, she SOMEHOW found it, screenshot the tweet and used it to start trouble so I deleted my account. I gathered she found it through either the username (which was one I commonly used) or the email address.

I made a new one with a brand new email address and username both of which she didn't know and used it to vent about my mother who I don't really have a great relationship with. and now what's scaring me, today I found out she somehow found my twitter account, the account she couldn't have found and has been screenshotting every single tweet I've put up regarding my mother, obviously waiting for something, and then today she sent them to her obviously leading to quite a large fight.

I had to put an IP tracker on tumblr as even though I blocked her and changed the username she still found it and she is literally searching through it at least 5/6 times a day. I know everything I put online is in the public domain but she is literally scouring the web for me and saving my tweets to her computer hoarding them for god knows what. god knows what else she has of me saved to her computer.

seriously, she scaring me and is ruining my life and I really need to know if there's anything I can do about it. I'm terrified to use anything on the internet in case she finds it and uses it against me. please help!

aaakev

You could stop posting crap online about people, problem solved!

Have you no one you can vent to without doing it publicly? Seems to me like you brought it on yourself tbh even though your cousin sounds like a bit of a head case

dickwod1

attackofpotato wrote: »

I really need to know if there's anything I can do about it.

Stop tweeting! :pac:

Hotale.com

I don't think she's doing anything wrong if you've published it in a way that she, or anyone else, can see your posts without hacking.

Mikros

If you are posting things publicly there is not much you can do. "Venting" about people you both know is only going to attract her attention more, and it is not a good idea for many other reasons. I doubt you would like if someone was posting things about you online without your knowledge.

If you are that concerned make your accounts private and then you wont have to worry about it. The more information you put out there the easier you are making it for her to find you.

attackofpotato

Hotale.com wrote: »

I don't think she's doing anything wrong if you've published it in a way that she, or anyone else, can see your posts without hacking.

yeah I'm well aware that I'm to blame too. it's the fact that she is basically monitoring my internet activity and saving **** to deliberately cause trouble in my life.
you don't see anything wrong with that?

attackofpotato

Mikros wrote: »

If you are posting things publicly there is not much you can do. "Venting" about people you both know is only going to attract her attention more, and it is not a good idea for many other reasons. I doubt you would like if someone was posting things about you online without your knowledge.

If you are that concerned make your accounts private and then you wont have to worry about it. The more information you put out there the easier you are making it for her to find you.

my account was on private! that's what makes it worse. I literally only took it off private yesterday so I have no idea how she found the account but when she did she must have made a fake profile specifically to monitor me.

Mikros

attackofpotato wrote: »

my account was on private! that's what makes it worse. I literally only took it off private yesterday so I have no idea how she found the account but when she did she must have made a fake profile specifically to monitor me.

I'm not trying to make little of your issue, as it is obviously causing you a bit of distress, but the solution to this is very simple - just leave your accounts on private. She will get bored of it sooner or later and in the meantime you don't have to worry about it.

Hotale.com

It's not that hard to find people online. She could have just went through some people you know's twitter pages and see if you follow them, or if they follow you.

No Pants

Take screenshots of all her tweets about you and post them up.

attackofpotato

Mikros wrote: »

I'm not trying to make little of your issue, as it is obviously causing you a bit of distress, but the solution to this is very simple - just leave your accounts on private. She will get bored of it sooner or later and in the meantime you don't have to worry about it.

I know you're not trying to belittle my issue and I would normally just leave it. the first time I did, I just deleted the account, made a new private one and left it at that. My problem, and the reason I'm getting creeped out, is that she ha now been doing this for a YEAR, which make me refuse to believe she'll grow bored of it soon. I wish it was a case of leaving my accounts private but I've already tried that and it's obviously not working, not to count that I can't figure out how she found the account in the first place as it had a username, email address she didn't know, it didn't have a picture of me, it didn't have my real first name and was in no way connecting to any other internet account I own.

attackofpotato

Hotale.com wrote: »

It's not that hard to find people online. She could have just went through some people you know's twitter pages and see if you follow them, or if they follow you.

she doesn't have a twitter and I don't follow anybody we know irl nor would she know anyone I follow as she never cared enough to remember the names of things I was interested in. I understand what you're saying but trust me, that is not how she found me.

Hotale.com

attackofpotato wrote: »

she doesn't have a twitter and I don't follow anybody we know irl nor would she know anyone I follow as she never cared enough to remember the names of things I was interested in. I understand what you're saying but trust me, that is not how she found me.

Report her to the guards maybe? Doubt they'll do much though

No Pants

Hotale.com wrote: »

Report her to the guards maybe? Doubt they'll do much though

Report her to the guards for what?

Hotale.com

No Pants wrote: »

Report her to the guards for what?

If you thinks she might be using illegal means to get access to your twitter account?

XIXIX

Here listen up brother/sister!

You're right, this is out of order. You need to confront her and tell her to f*** off. Post your rantings on here. Or better again, not at all!

You do not need to broadcast all your sh*t online. Don't worry about it. Just stop giving the **** ammo. Stop posting your sh*t online.

Not your fault, just be smarter. Use this a lesson.

P.S. if your reading this cousin whateveryournameis, **** off, and give your cousin a break!!

All views are my own and should not necessarily be acted upon.

No Pants

Hotale.com wrote: »

If you thinks she might be using illegal means to get access to your twitter account?

Okay. I'm guessing she'd want to do her own investigation and bring the evidence found, plus a copy of the applicable law to the Garda station with her in order for anything to happen.

Restraining orders etc. might not be possible if there's no physical threat.

AlanS181824

Stop "venting" online for one thing.

Hope you get it sorted though.

the_syco

If you mentioned her by name, she could probably take you to court over libel.

hullaballoo

Ah jays, right. That's enough of that. I'll post a proper response later when I'm not on my phone.

hullaballoo

Sorry for taking so long.

If you find you are being tracked or "stalked" on the Internet, the least best course of action is to post publicly about it looking for a solution.

The best thing to do is to keep your thoughts to yourself or between you and a confidante, if you really must "vent".

As for social media sites, the rule of thumb is that no matter what your privacy settings are, don't post anything you wouldn't like the whole world to see.

This is all just common sense and, frankly, has nothing to do with Legal Discussion.