A decade ago, the idea of making a full time living from playing video games seemed like a fantasy. In fact, most people thought that you were wasting your time if you spent your days gaming, but now that’s all changing. There are a lot of new trends that are shaping the industry and giving people more ways than ever to make money from gaming. Esports is a big one, but not everybody is good enough to compete with the big stars and win competitions. A lot of people also make good money from streaming on sites like Twitch. If you can build a big enough following, it can be a great way to earn money. However, you do have to be careful.
A lot of Twitch streamers have been the victim of an extreme “prank” known as swatting. People find the real address of the streamer and make a call to the police, giving them false information about a dangerous situation. This often leads to the streamer’s house being raided by the police and in some cases, has even led to a fatal shooting. There are also issues around stalking or even people retaliating against streamers because they don’t like the content of their stream. That’s why it’s so vital that you protect your identity if you are going to stream online, but a lot of people don’t consider it. These are some of the best ways to protect your privacy when streaming.
Account Security
Firstly, you need to make sure that your account is secure because if people can get into it, that means that they can find out all sorts of information about you and they can also sabotage your channel. That’s why strong passwords are absolutely vital, and you should consider using two factor authentication as well, to give yourself an added layer of security. If you are not great at coming up with passwords, visit https://www.howtogeek.com/ for a quick guide to help you out.
Get A Virtual Mailbox
Interaction with fans is a big part of streaming and when you start to build a following, people may want to send you things. Developers and publishers may also want to send you copies of their new releases or even some merchandise, so you need an address that you can use for streaming purposes, but you obviously can’t use your own. But you can use a virtual mailbox service (check out https://physicaladdress.com/ for more info). You can have mail sent there and then forwarded on to you, so nobody ever needs to know your real address.
Never Use Your Real Name
You’d be surprised how easy it is for somebody to find out information about you if they have your real name. As soon as they get your full name and a few other basic details, they will be able to find out where you live. Never use your real name anywhere during your streams or on your website if you create one.
Pick A Different Birthday
Your birthday is a very useful piece of information for hackers because it’s often used as part of a security authentication. It’s also a very distinctive piece of information so it makes it easy for people to narrow down your true identity. That’s why you should pick a different birthday as well as a different name.
If you are going to set up a streaming channel of your own, it’s important that you follow these safety tips.
