How to Secure Your Gab Profile
A slew of articles have started popping up in the OSINT/Infosec space about how to conduct investigations on Gab. I thought I would take a different approach and help out users which are new to the platform (Like myself) secure their profiles, increase their privacy and ensure that information which is able to be extracted from their profiles is kept to a minimum.
See articles on Gab OSINT:
Below is a short checklist to secure you profile.
1. Lock Your Account
After heading into ‘Settings’, go to the left table and select ‘Profile’. On this page you will be able to “lock” your account and prevent any unwanted followers from following you.
2. Post Privacy, Search Engine Opt-Out & Hiding Your Network
Next head to ‘Preferences’. Here you will be able to opt-out of search engine indexing, prevent people seeing who you’re following and followers along with setting your post privacy. Depending on the type of account you want to have, your post privacy settings may be different.
3. Two-Factor Authentication
Lastly but most importantly, head to ‘Account’ to setup two-factor authentication. Ideally you would set this up via a burner phone however its not essential.
That’s it! As easy as that to secure you profile. It goes without saying that you should try to avoid posting your location, real name, age or any other personally identifiable information.
My final 2 cents…
Despite what the media has to say about the “alternate” social media site Gab (Didn’t all social media sites start out as being alternate?), I would recommend anyone who is concerned about privacy and censorship to make the switch to Gab. Censorship is a slippery slope and who defines what “hate speech” is matters a lot. Ultimately it will never be you or me who defines what it is and as such, one day what you thought were rational, logical ideas may come under attack and you may be censored. That’s why I will always side with the organizations and companies who do not oppose talking freely, but rather embrace it.
I will be posting more articles about OSINT, cyber security, threat intelligence and investigating.
