LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — On Thursday, we shared a story about a Lexington woman who was stalked while at work after using the dating app Tinder.
University of Kentucky Director of Cybersecurity, George Insko, tells LEX 18 how people can better protect themselves while talking to someone on a dating app.
Before you go on a date, he says it's essential to do a little digging on a person: one way to do that is by doing a reverse image search on Google. By putting an image of the person in Google, you can hopefully tell if that person is a troll account.
During Thursday's story, police revealed they believe the woman was tracked at her job through the location device on the app.
Insko says it's crucial to be careful with these apps.
"Make sure they are only sharing location when the app is running," he says. "Oftentimes, they run 24/7, and you don't want that. Things like your fitness watch will collect GPS information about you, so if one account gets hacked, they can get into your Fitbit account and see what your running habits are and where you are during the day, and start profiling you with that information."
Of course, if you start to get a bad feeling about somebody, it's essential to report it as soon as possible.
"Oftentimes, stalkers are very meek and shy and socially awkward, and that interaction with the police will cut it off right away because they don't want to deal with it at all; that's why they are in the spotlight," said Insko.
