I hadn't intended on writing a second blog post this month, but the recent storm that has hit editing circles has highlighted what I call a hidden trap of the internet. And this one is one that would seem as obvious as the nose on my face, yet there are fools who just don't understand it.

Nothing on the internet is private. Not emails. Not personal messages. Not even chat room conversations.

If a computer or electronic device is involved somewhere within the process of passing information from one person to another, then there is a very real possibility that the information could be leaked and made public.

On November 12, 2021, Victoria Strauss released a blog post on the Writer Beware blog about an editor and their shady practices. Within the editors' circles, there is concern about this particular editor's practices and how it might reflect on editors as a whole, but most of the conversation I've seen centers around the shocking nature of the editor's emails and communications.

I don't want to get into the disconnect between client expectations and services provided by this editor, because that's not the hidden trap that I want to highlight. I want to focus entirely on the fact that the whole world now knows exactly how this editor communicates. And the reason we now know this is because a screen capture of email communications was shared as part of the Writer Beware blog post.

And that is the hidden trap.

What might start as private won't necessarily remain that way.

If you take the time to read through that Write Beware blog post, you'll see in one of the editor's emails that she comments on how she's sending the abusive email to the Writer Beware team from a private account.

"I do not find it appropriate to converse through my business account."

Most employers monitor their employee's emails for anything that could have a negative backlash on the company. They monitor for spamming and abusive language. And they monitor for inappropriate communications. This is standard practice, particularly in government agencies and high-profile companies. And it's for this reason that many people will use personal email accounts for certain activities.

But if cops can be fired because of comments made on a private Twitter account when they were teenagers, it's foolish to think that anything that goes through the internet can't come back and bite you in the ass.

Even with those so-call private communications, all it takes is for someone to take a screen capture of that little conversation, then share it on public channels.

Then your ass is toast.

And this is not the first time that I've seen so-called private communications be made public in this fashion.

Do you remember CockyGate?

If you look back to 2018—or for that matter, just type in CockyGate into a Google search engine and see what comes up—you'll encounter a trademark scandal that swept through the entire publishing industry. No corner of the industry was safe from the backlash.

But if you look through those random articles, most of them will center around the trademark mess that happened. Not many will look into the other things that happened that were lessons to be learned by writers about the ways of the internet—the hidden traps.

In 2018, I wrote two different articles about some of the hidden traps that I was focused on at the time. On my personal blog, I was focused on the mob mentality that was going after ALL trademarks being lodged, including the legitimate ones, and how people were being bullied in the extreme. However, on this blog, I commented on how having a drunken rant on Facebook Live was probably the worst thing that an author (or any public figure) could do, and again I spoke about mob mentality on social media.

But there was a hidden trap that even then I had overlooked. Looking back on it now, it was so obvious.

CockyGate started because someone took a screen capture of an email and shared it on Twitter.

What was intended as private communications was made public.

In legal terms, it's known as being discoverable.

Above, I commented on how it's common practice for businesses and government agencies to monitor email communications of their employees. This is because if anything should happen where legal action is being pursued, the lawyers involved could request those email communications. At that point, even that secret recipe for Grandma Tilly's cookies could become subject to scrutiny.

Just because those emails are electronic doesn't mean that there isn't a "paper trail" of the communications. And taking a screen capture of that communication adds another layer of complexity to the discoverability factor.

But let's shift this conversation completely away from emails and talk about something that some people might not consider as discoverable.

Even private chats in chat rooms are not private.

Prior to 2023, I would take part in a daily morning write-in on a chat room facility that we've been using for years. The room is a public room, and anyone can join in—but sometimes, you get the odd creepy dude coming into the room that starts using the private chat facilities for one-on-one conversations, making the others in the room uncomfortable.

there was one morning where we had someone go into the room claiming to be a psychologist wanting to talk about his patient. The ethical gray area here was part of the concern that most of us in the room had, but with each of us present, he would send us a "private" message. What the guy didn't know was that each of us was taking screen captures of the conversations and sharing them with the moderators for the room.

And that's how I got involved.

I could see how the conversations made each of the room users feel uncomfortable. It wasn't any one particular statement, but the sum of the conversation. And when he cornered me with his "private" chat…

He was mortified to learn that his so-called "private" chats were actually public knowledge. Me, being me, explained to him that NOTHING on the internet is private. I told him about the screen captures of the conversations, and he never came back.

I don't know if he's reasons for being in the room with a group of writers were legitimate or not, but he learned a lesson about one of the most dangerous hidden traps associated with the internet—or at least I hoped he learned it.

It doesn't matter what the channel is. Nothing is private on the internet.

The lessons I teach my children about this

The world of social media is here to stay. My children have never known any differently, and because of who I am, I've made sure that my children know exactly what sort of dangers exist on the internet.

It has been said again and again in this house that you never say or do anything that involves the internet that you wouldn't be happy with if it was ever made public. When I see articles like the recent Writer Beware post, I make sure that my children at least know about it, highlighting the screen captures that were made public.

And they are highly conversant on how easy it is to take a screen capture on their own phones—a little feature that my daughter took advantage of when a bully decided to use Snapchat to attack her, resulting in disciplinary actions taken by her high school against the other student involved. (Snapchat is designed so the messages disappear after they've been seen, but screen captures are there for as long as you need them.)

And that's the point.

This little hidden trap will only catch out the bullies and the idiots, because they falsely believe that private communications will remain private. Meanwhile, the rest of us who are just a little techno savvy will take a screen capture of that abusive message. And if the ones attacking us continue to be abusive…

Well, I think you get the moral of this story.

An added note about Writer Beware

If you are new to the publishing industry, then you will want to check out the Writer Beware blog. It is sponsored by the folks at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. And the entire blog is dedicated to highlighting the scams and charlatans that might prey on the unsuspecting writer.

Sometimes, it's a dodgy publisher or shamgent (a shady so-called agent). Other times, it's contract clauses that are deeply concerning and are opening up a writer to a world of hurt. And other times, it's just keeping the writing world up to date with the crazy that is known as #DisneyMustPay.

The blog series does use a significant number of screen captures, which contain the information that the post is warning us against. So, I would avoid using a reader that strips the images from the posts. Those images ARE the post.

The posts are not about tearing people down, but rather ensuring that writers know about the dangers that exist, so we are able to traverse the muddy waters of the publishing industry a little more safely.

While some of my posts are about the hidden traps of the internet, Writer Beware is about the hidden traps of the publishing industry.