Giggle Loops

And other feedback systems

This morning I noticed a series of “we see you’re having trouble logging in” emails for my IG account. I really don’t use it much but for some reason I’ve kept it. I have updated the password recently. Seeing this, and wanting to take care of it, I immediately tried to access my account. Denied and into the rabbit hole I go…

I may have shared this already, but a refresher is in order. A good friend of mine, who shall remain unnamed by me, says I’m all edges and corners. While you may interpret this in multiple ways, perhaps he even intends those alternatives, but he says that I am all edge and corner cases. I come about these quite naturally and as a direct result of my own behaviors. I’m simply not the typical user. These characteristics manifest themselves with a remarkable propensity to break systems. These systems can be bureaucratic processes, corporate HR rules, and especially technical systems.

My present status is ‘stuck’ in a loop where I cannot access the account, though I was able to receive emails, click links in those emails, and even change the password to the account which I did, even using a suggested ‘strong’ password.

Now many people would wonder ‘why me?’ Well, I know that it has nothing to do with me being me. Most likely this is part of a brute force effort of many accounts based upon dictionary information from who knows how many cyber breaches that any of us are victim to these days. I’m not an influencer, I don’t have many contacts or followers on Insta. But… if those people don’t practice suspicion and open a link or accept a file from me - even something like a PDF which they open, then Bam! They become a victim by proxy. Lovely, eh?

Now, this is complicated because I haven’t used the native IG app in years. Why? Well, primarily because it is a privacy nightmare. When I do use IG, I’m in a web browser and I use private browsing which minimizes their ability to harvest my web browsing habits, but also eliminates their cookies. The very cookies they’re looking for to verify that I am who I say I am. So I’ve now tried on 3 different devices, 2 different browsers on my computer and all of them say to verify on something else.

So you may be wondering, what’s a giggle loop and why does it apply here? The term I first heard from the British show Coupling. Brian, the whacky Kramer-esque Welshman starts describing that little giggle you have on a subject. That one small laugh that suddenly causes you to laugh a bit more, and then a bit more. Eventually the reinforcing nature of the laughs turns into a full on belly laugh. Well folks, I’ve successfully de-platformed myself due to my own security and privacy actions. At least I didn’t loose the pass-phrase to billions of dollars of bitcoin ;-)