Social Media
Social media may be important to your mission to inform stakeholders of progress, increase awareness for your mission and update family and friends of deployed members. It is important however to understand the risks of using social media in insecure or hostile environments, and the implications it might have on safety, security, disruptions and legal issues.
Language and Tone
Language barriers can create issues when using social media. Your content may be translated using AI and the output could be taken out of context i.e. ‘lost in translation’.
Geolocation
All social media platforms allow media (photo and video) uploads, and some offer live streaming. Uploading or streaming media to social media risks leaking metadata about the media to the internet if it is not removed prior to uploading. Metadata includes:
- GPS coordinates the media was captured
- Direction the device was facing
- Date and time the media was captured
- The type of device the media was captured on
This sensitive metadata could be used by an adversary to locate you, your team, your accommodation, places you visited, your device and more.
Recommendations:
- Disable geolocation on your device for the camera
- Avoid posting media in real time - delay all social media posting that could be geolocated
- Do not live stream whilst in the field