The paranormal side of privacy and security


I struggled to come up with something to write about for this week’s blog. I did several searches online for information security and related topics, but nothing jumped out at me. So, I decided to write about something that came up last night I got to think about everyday personal security and privacy. I am co-founder of local ghost hunting group and we just accepted three new members into our organization last night. We take what we do seriously because we going to people’s private homes and wander around in the dark unsupervised. There is a high level of trust these individuals are placing us when they let us into their homes to do this. This means we have to choose new members carefully because they are going to be representing us. We need people who are going to respect the homeowners policy regarding what we see in the house (not just paranormal – we seen some really hot stuff that people have).

The most important thing is safeguarding the person’s privacy. Most of our clients are genuinely scared of whatever activity is going on in their home, and we are often their final attempt at a resolution. The very last thing they want is someone blabbing about the fact that they think they have ghosts in their house or business. Fortunately, we are able to debunk probably 75 – 80% of activity as everyday stuff like doors don’t latch properly or plumbing noises, et cetera. Even though that is the case, it still doesn’t mean that they want word to get out. The reason it’s so important to them is that it can affect how they are perceived by others. In the case of a business, it can cost the money customers believe you hear that the place is haunted, or that the owner is a little “off” for thinking that might be haunted.

So, we teach our new members to speak generically when telling investigation stories. Instead of saying something like Bob’s house in Central Omaha, we would just say a house in Omaha. It may seem like a small thing, but it really matters to our clients. The case files and pictures because our website are labeled in the same generic way (unless the home or business owner has given us permission to use their names, like Mystery Manner or the Squirrel Cage Jail in Council Bluffs).