How is a stranger able to enter my Linder Home?

[Rick Rowley]

Last night, while entertaining a close friend of the opposite sex in my Meadowbrook Linden Home, a STRANGE, UNINVITED PERSON appeared without invitation. I did NOT know this person, had never seen nor met this person, have no frame of reference to put her in. She refused to leave, took control of pose balls that were active, refusing to leave when asked and only did leave when she asked for a payment of $1,000L and I refused. She arrived without clothes. My question is this: I have kept my house "Locked" with Linder so how did ANYONE enter without invitation? And HOW can I insure myself and invited visitors that this kind of thing will never happen again?

The damage, fallout and embarassment is immeasureable and both myself and my guest feel totally violated.

[Rolig Loon]

Locks are for show in SL.  There's no way that a lock will keep anyone out of any place.  All you have to do to get past a lock is sit on something on the opposite side, or simply teleport in.  Now, if you have a security system in place, that system can eject an unwanted visitor, but there's still no way to keep a camera out.  So long as the insides of your home are within camera range (generally in the same sim, but not always), anyone can cam there.  You'll have to move to a private island where you are the only resident if you want true privacy 

That doesn't mean that you have to tolerate idiots like your unwanted visitor, however.  That's what Abuse Reports are for.  Stay calm long anough to get the intruder's name, take a quick photo, save any typed chat, and submit the report.  Be as factual as you can -- resist exaggeration or speculation -- and don't give the person the satisfaction of knowing that you are rattled. People like that seem to live for the shock value of their intrusions.  If you come close to ignoring them, they are less likely to return.

[Lindal Kidd]

Rolig is correct.  There is NO real privacy in SL, and locks on doors are only for fun, not for real deterrence.  But there are some security features you can employ, and some actions you can take.

Ban lines.  In About Land/Access tab, if you uncheck the public access box, yellow "police tape" ban lines will surround your property and roof it over at 50 meters.  You and people on your Access List will not see them, and be able to enter your parcel.  I don't like ban lines.  They ugly up the landscape and prevent innocent people who just want to pass over or through your land from doing so.  But it is one option.

Security systems.  You can get many types of "security orbs" from the Marketplace, some of them free.  I don't like these either...they can be tricky to set up, and you have to make sure they are not affecting people OUTSIDE your parcel or you can be reported for abuse. 

Invisibility.  Ban lines and security orbs only prevent physical intrusion.  People can still move their cameras inside your house and look at you.  In About Land/Options tab, uncheck the box "make avatars and chat visible to people outside my parcel".  People outside your parcel will still be able to see a blip from you on their radars, but cannot see you or hear your local text chat.  (And you cannot see or hear them either.)

You can also limit voice chat and gesture sounds to your parcel with the Sound tab of About Land.  And of course, IMs (text and voice) are always private.

Open access poseballs:  Many pieces of scripted furniture allow the owner to set them to "group access only".  You and your partner will have to wear the correct group tag to use them, but no one else can. (You may need to create a private little group to use this feature.  That's another topic!)

As I said, I don't like all these methods much.  We are only in SL a few hours a day, and it seems uncharitable to block off a bit of it for all the hours we are not there.  Besides, people can't actually take or damage any of your stuff.  But there is a very effective method of dealing with intruders when you ARE home:  The eject and ban function.

Right click an intruder on your parcel.  Select Eject.  You will get a menu with choices to eject, ban, or eject AND ban.  I generally select the last one.  Poof!  They are tossed out of your home and can not get back in unless you remove them from the parcel ban list.

That's generally all that's needed.  If they were extremely rude or did some nasty griefing while they were there, you could Abuse Report them, but in the usual run of things, it's a case of overkill.

I teach a class on Avatar Safety on Saturdays at 12 noon SL time, at Caledon Oxbridge University.  We cover all this and many more Second Life hazards, and the class is free.  I hope to see you there!

[Irene Muni]

Totally agree with the perfect answers of Lindal and Rolig.

I emphasize the Eject and Ban system (see Lindal's answer).

[Ivo Takacs]

Rick,

 

EVEN when your lock the doors/windows the people will still be able to enter your home, to avoid this, you can go to your land´s settings and then BLOCK him/her on the land´s ban list, you can also create a group where only people on your group would be able to visit your land and finaly you can CHECK the box on the land´s settings/privacy where only AUTHORIZED people could visit you