ways to protect celebrities from media
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Kim Kardashian West’s reported robbery at gunpoint in Paris has inspired much discussion, from speculation about the stolen jewelry to the whereabouts of the Kardashian-West-Jenner clan during the attack. But, perhaps one that may loom larger than the rest going forward is this: What role did social media play in the incident? As Leslie Jones made clear after her social-media attacks this summer, using accounts should not and does not qualify someone for harassment or danger of any kind. Yet these incidents continue to occur. In an age where stars as varied as Chrissy Teigen, Justin Bieber, and Martha Stewart update their Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat accounts with their every move, how can celebrities stay safe when their brands depend in part on seeming accessible and available, leaving their whereabouts open to the public often in real time?
According to Shawn Tuma, a cyber-security attorney with Scheef & Stone in Frisco, Texas, this can be a tricky line for celebrities like the Kardashians to toe.
“They use their social media, they use their public presence as a huge part of their business model,” he told VF.com on Monday. “So what this shows is the importance of evaluating your risk profile, whether you're a company, whether you're an individual, and saying, ‘How much risk am I exposing myself to?’ And then looking at it and saying, ‘What level of security do I need to implement to match the risk that I'm exposing myself to?’”
And when it comes to Kardashian West, who documented her Paris Fashion Week trip across social-media channels, it isn’t hard to trace the risk. The attack came just days after flaunting a large diamond ring on Snapchat; the robbers were reported to have taken $10 million worth of merchandise while Kardashian West was locked in the bathroom of her Parisian residence.
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“From a very big picture, what this shows is the interaction or interplay between physical security and cyber-security, which includes social- media security, while revealing information on social media that is often helpful when protecting and keeping one physically safe,” Tuma said.
He pointed to the mid-September security breach that involved the hack of a White House contractor’s e-mails to reveal the schedules of dignitaries, including the First Lady, Hillary Clinton, former president Bill Clinton, and Vice President Joe Biden. Even with a supposedly air-tight lockdown on top-secret information, these public figures were at risk for a security hack. Someone like Kardashian West, Tuma says, can only attempt to keep her personal schedule private as much as possible. As he puts it, all that bad people need is a little information to make a plan and take action.
“All a conspiracy is is planning in strategy to accomplish something in secret,” he says. “Criminals do that all the time . . . But when you're looking at a $10 million pay day? People go to some pretty extreme measures.”
The Kardashians themselves have acknowledged the dangers of social media, as BuzzFeed noted on Monday. They’ve spoken about the dangers of Snapchat itself, which is able to post a user’s location instantly. Kris Jenner has even said she’s grown “paranoid” at the idea that her family’s information is so readily accessible.
Jason Porter, vice president of Pinkerton, the famed private-security firm, said that though the easiest solution for the Kardashians might be to scale back their social-media use, it’s not always within their control.
“We try to coach and counsel our clients to take a look at what they're posting, give them guidance along the same lines not to post about where you are . . . ” he said. “But it's something that from a security perspective, you want to watch in-bound as well, to be able to watch a situation where you are going to potentially see a larger crowd because of this. You could be at a restaurant and someone else is tweeting, ‘Hey, we’ve got x, y, z celebrity here’ . . . then when you’re getting ready to leave, you’ve got a group of fans outside.”
He said this situation brings up another issue: Can the celebrity interact with his or her fans safely? And for the Kardashians, so much of this interaction happens across social media, where Kim has 84 million followers on Instagram alone. For now, her family has been staying uncharacteristically silent on social media. (The exception being Kylie Jenner, promoting her lip-kit brand on Snapchat on Monday afternoon.)
But, as Tuma said, social media for the Kardashians is all about “putting the glam and the fashion and everything out there”; it seems to be an integral part of their successful brand. Even as Kim and her family move on from this traumatic incident, a Kardashian-less Internet is hard to imagi