Online anonymity...

AnonoBoy · 21-04-2012 07:05PM

Surely everyone knows to set up fake email accounts for all their hatemail at this stage?

I've got so many pseudonyms I don't even know my real name any more.

AnonoBoy · 21-04-2012 07:07PM

philstar wrote: »

how anonymous are we on boards.ie?

..........how much do the mods know about us?

I asked the mods there Philip and they said they don't know anything about you.

But also they wanted to let you know that you've left the lights on in your car so when you're finished that cup of tea you should pop out and shut them off so your battery doesn't go flat like it did last Sunday.

phasers · 21-04-2012 07:17PM

I've searched my whole name and gone through ten pages of Google and nothing's come up. It just returns a load of auld wans and obituaries.

shopaholic01 · 21-04-2012 07:20PM

phasers wrote: »

I've searched my whole name and gone through ten pages of Google and nothing's come up. It just returns a load of auld wans and obituaries.

It's a blow to the ego alright

:D

token101 · 21-04-2012 07:25PM

With my email, I wouldn't be very difficult to trace on Boards anyway

You're not totally anonymous anywhere, but for the purposes of forums like this I think that the anonymity to a point is good. If you had to give your full name here the opinions wouldn't be so forthright and it wouldn't be anywere near as interesting or as honest. I wouldn't be ashamed of any opinion I'd ever have on here, but I'm not sure I'd be so forthright in a pub, mainly out of not wanting to piss people off or ruin a night though

But people posting threats and stuff just baffle me. They clearly don't understand the ease of access to IP addresses, etc, and what they're saying is illegal.

phasers · 21-04-2012 07:30PM

shopaholic01 wrote: »

It's a blow to the ego alright :D

Ah I've such a granny name it doesn't surprise me, and I don't exactly share much info online. Most people here don't even know if I'm a guy or girl

Killed By Death · 21-04-2012 07:33PM

I'm quite careful about online anonymity. I put nothing online that is associated with my real name. No Facebook, no Linkedin etc! As far as Google is concerned I don't exist and that's how I like it!

I can't believe people were dumb enough to send death threats from their work e-mail addresses, what goes through their heads? Thick or what!

As for people on forums who upload their real picture or even worse pictures of their kids with their username...that baffles me

token101 · 21-04-2012 07:37PM

Killed By Death wrote: »

I'm quite careful about online anonymity. I put nothing online that is associated with my real name. No Facebook, no Linkedin etc! As far as Google is concerned I don't exist and that's how I like it!

I can't believe people were dumb enough to send death threats from their work e-mail addresses, what goes through their heads? Thick or what!

As for people on forums who upload their real picture or even worse pictures of their kids with their username...that baffles me

But what about people tagging you in Facebook photos? It's a losing battle these days tbh! There's more advantages to Linkedin and Facebook than there are disadvantages (if you're not a complete tool). I'm with you on the email/forums thing though!

Killed By Death · 21-04-2012 07:41PM

token101 wrote: »

But what about people tagging you in Facebook photos? It's a losing battle these days tbh! There's more advantages to Linkedin and Facebook than there are disadvantages (if you're not a complete tool). I'm with you on the email/forums thing though!

I stay out of photos!! Nah, I value my privacy more than the supposed 'advantages'.

token101 · 21-04-2012 07:43PM

Killed By Death wrote: »

I stay out of photos!! Nah, I value my privacy more than the supposed 'advantages'.

If you have female friends like me you must be like the Predator man! Yuo can never avoid it! Friend of my GF took 188 photos on a single night out :eek:

Killed By Death · 21-04-2012 07:45PM

token101 wrote: »

If you have female friends like me you must be like the Predator man! Yuo can never avoid it! Friend of my GF took 188 photos on a single night out :eek:

Bloody hell! She should get a job with the Paparazzi ! :eek:

humbert · 21-04-2012 07:45PM

Using the same pseudonym everywhere is nearly as bad. I've a friend who does it and it's also his email address. It's completely unique too. He might as well wear an ankle tag.

44leto · 21-04-2012 07:48PM

You are never totally invisible or anonymous on the internet, if they want to find you they will.

secretambition · 21-04-2012 07:53PM

This is probably a silly question, but with all the talk of email addresses here, can other posters see the email address you registered with?

humbert · 21-04-2012 08:14PM

secretambition wrote: »

This is probably a silly question, but with all the talk of email addresses here, can other posters see the email address you registered with?

You gave them your email address?? :eek:

fergalr · 21-04-2012 08:19PM

I find the actions of the 'artist' distasteful.
I don't agree with killing things, unless there's a good reason, in general; life is good, and precious.

Its really not surprising that people had a revulsion to what they saw as the gratuitous killing of a pet. Its maybe even a good thing.

Perhaps the cat was going to die anyway; but the artist did not make it clear that the killing was an act of mercy.

Using the killing to shock and provoke is distasteful.
Turning the pet into an item of consumer goods is also a very distasteful way of making a point. It seems to show a lack of respect for the pet. A pet cat mightn't deserve a lot of respect (?), but surely it deserves some modicum.

All that said...

I do agree with the artist, that there is a degree of hypocrisy in how we think about our relationships with various animals.

People have been prosecuted for killing pets before. Yet, industrialised slaughter of animals, which sometimes live in very bad conditions, is widely tolerated. Such animals are reared and killed for meat, and maybe also for handbag manufacture.

There does seem to be a contradiction in how we think about these things, if we are appalled by this womans actions, but ignore the other situations.

(I've posted (some might say provocatively) on this subject, on Boards before.)

I still think what the artist did was distasteful; but that doesn't mean her entire argument had no merit.

Regarding anonymity on the Internets:

In general, it is best to assume that you are not anonymous.

Anonymity, in the face of someone who is specifically trying to track you down, is extremely difficult to achieve.

In general, users of boards.ie would have essentially no anonymity, from the perspective of the administrators.

You are effectively completely unanonymous to your ISP, to law enforcement, and to anyone with resources to invest in tracking you down.

Unless you are very technically sophisticated, it is best to assume you are not anonymous.
Even if you are very technically sophisticated, you'll probably make a mistake, and reveal who you are, anyway, if someone clever is out to track you down.

There's a level of 'anonymity', that most people are interested in, which is whether their comments show up in a quick google, or whether they can be found in 10 minutes searching; thats a different story.

Whether people should be able to be anonymous is again completely different story.

lividduck · 21-04-2012 08:25PM

Palytoxin wrote: »

Googled myself there, not in the first 10 pages of the normal part or the first 15 of the images:D, can't be bothered looking any further- I have the same name as a famous artist though so his paintings take up the first few pages:)

Your real name is Caravaggio!:D

gurramok · 21-04-2012 08:47PM

If you have quite a common name like mine, googling my real name returns literally hundreds of thousands of results if not a few million(:D), handy not having a rare name

And i never link my youtube account to facebook, too much info to be revealed

Only two people on boards know my real full name in real life so I guess there are only 2 ways in which I'd be identified, that is if that person 'rats' on me to others or the mods reveal my identity(ip) to the authorities for ahem illegal activity

The Snipe · 21-04-2012 09:10PM

dark crystal wrote: »

She killed her cat to make a handbag

What a weirdo.

And I even wrote a book on it too!

:D:D

ilovesleep · 21-04-2012 09:15PM

I was involved last year with a man, only briefly so I knew fcek all about him. He turned out to be a head wreck with empty promises. God only knows why he did it. For control definately for one - keeping me hanging for him. Mean, cruel pr1ck. He lied to me carelessly with empty promises without a thought as to what that would do to me. He was unable and/or unwillingly to fix things when I got annoyed. There is no place for lies. It was a form of emotionial abuse if you ask me and had me questioning my own mind.

Anyways don't know what came over me but a quick google of his first name, county and profession and some information appears. A man with the same first name with a surname following it. I threw this name into google images and low and behold there he is. He lied to me about his surname too. I found out so much information about him.

Jesus fcuk I am tempted to fcuk with his head.

fergalr · 21-04-2012 09:21PM

gurramok wrote: »

If you have quite a common name like mine, googling my real name returns literally hundreds of thousands of results if not a few million(:D), handy not having a rare name And i never link my youtube account to facebook, too much info to be revealed

Only two people on boards know my real full name in real life so I guess there are only 2 ways in which I'd be identified, that is if that person 'rats' on me to others or the mods reveal my identity(ip) to the authorities for ahem illegal activity

In 5 minutes of looking at your older posts, I reckon I found enough to identify exactly who you are, without getting anything from boards, but with access to a few government databases (maybe not even with that).
You've given out most of your important details, and more than enough to find who you are.

Thats only with 5 minutes, I'm sure theres more info in the intervening years.
I'm not trying to worry anyone or anything, but everyone should be aware that it is very hard to stay anonymous, and should not think they are more anonymous than they are.

Again, it is very hard to not leak information, over time.

We tell the world an awful lot about ourselves when we post on forums such as boards over a long time, and thats without sophisticated methods (looking at text identification, persistent spelling errors, linguistic analysis, times of day we are active, etc etc). (Or, of course, just getting the IP from boards.ie which state or law enforcement or maybe a civil suit could do)

gurramok · 21-04-2012 09:27PM

fergalr wrote: »

In 5 minutes of looking at your older posts, I reckon I found enough to identify exactly who you are, without getting anything from boards, but with access to a few government databases (maybe not even with that).
You've given out most of your important details, and more than enough to find who you are.

Interesting, like what? Do you know the name of my cat for example?

You have access to my ISP's IP database and run a check on said IP with my ISP to determine who I am and where I live? By the way, I do not live in the area in which I previously posted alot about, guess travelling about keeps big brother from watching

shopaholic01 · 21-04-2012 09:27PM

fergalr wrote: »

In 5 minutes of looking at your older posts, I reckon I found enough to identify exactly who you are, without getting anything from boards, but with access to a few government databases (maybe not even with that).
You've given out most of your important details, and more than enough to find who you are.

Thats only with 5 minutes, I'm sure theres more info in the intervening years.
I'm not trying to worry anyone or anything, but everyone should be aware that it is very hard to stay anonymous, and should not think they are more anonymous than they are.

Again, it is very hard to not leak information, over time.

We tell the world an awful lot about ourselves when we post on forums such as boards over a long time, and thats without sophisticated methods (looking at text identification, persistent spelling errors, linguistic analysis, times of day we are active, etc etc). (Or, of course, just getting the IP from boards.ie which state or law enforcement or maybe a civil suit could do)

:eek::eek::eek:

Is your real name Bond, James Bond?

fergalr · 21-04-2012 09:31PM

gurramok wrote: »

Interesting, like what? Do you know the name of my cat for example?

You have access to my ISP's IP database and run a check on said IP with my ISP to determine who I am and where I live? By the way, I do not live in the area in which I previously posted alot about, guess travelling about keeps big brother from watching

Do you want me to post in this thread, my guesses/filterings of the various facts you have posted in other threads?

(I'm not an expert in this, or a PI or anything, but I've done a little work on online anonymity.)

fergalr · 21-04-2012 09:36PM

shopaholic01 wrote: »

:eek::eek::eek:

Is your real name Bond, James Bond?

Its 'Fergal', actually. But don't tell anyone, its a secret.

gurramok · 21-04-2012 09:38PM

fergalr wrote: »

Do you want me to post in this thread, my guesses/filterings of the various facts you have posted in other threads?

(I'm not an expert in this, or a PI or anything, but I've done a little work on online anonymity.)

Post general stuff yeh, but any personal stuff like you say who I am in real life and where exactly I reside, PM. I wonder is this a test by an online expert indeed:)

mightdomighty · 21-04-2012 09:50PM

Online anonymity is an illusion

Can't help thinking this lady is quite resourceful.

Mad as a bag of cats but resourceful

Galwayguy35 · 21-04-2012 09:53PM

Every time I google my name its always the same result that comes up first because its the same name as a former Eastenders actor.

fergalr · 21-04-2012 09:55PM

gurramok wrote: »

Post general stuff yeh, but any personal stuff like you say who I am in real life and where exactly I reside, PM. I wonder is this a test by an online expert indeed:)

I'll delete any of this post if you want; but its just repeating stuff you posted yourself (and if you were being misleading then, its wrong now; of course).

When I saw your post count, I figured you were either being really careful, or would have given a lot of info out over the years; so I was curious, and just did the 'find other posts' button.

Well, like, based on some of your old posts - and again, I just had a quick look - it seems like you are a 37 year old male, from finglas (probably). Probably lapsed catholic/catholic family background. Your mother was 36 when you were born.

That sort of stuff would narrow the field a lot, if someone with access to DOB/birth data was looking for you.

You passed your driving test the week before 19-03-2003.
In 2003, you lived half a mile from st helenas road.
Those two pieces of info probably be enough to ID you, with access to driving license database.

Stuff that would definitely identify you are old posts about the makes and models of car you bought (01 1.4L MPI comfort model skoda fabia) in 11-07-2003.

With that set of details, thats almost certainly enough for someone with access to the car reg / tax databases to find your identity - so certainly government. No idea if someone can get that info in a civil case (guess not?).

Not sure if PIs can get access to that (?) - I'm sure they shouldnt be able to, but I don't know if they can.

There's other stuff; you might have had a nokia n95 in 2009; not a common phone. If you gave your phone company your address and demographic data(?) that might be enough to ID you?

This is all just telling you back stuff that you have posted yourself, and its just what I saw at a quick glance.
I'm sure someone thoroughly reading through all your posts would find more.

But I think what people don't realise is how quickly someone doing this professionally could use the information to narrow the field.

Its like in this paper:
http://dataprivacylab.org/projects/identifiability/paper1.pdf

they showed you could ID 87% of the US population, using just Zip gender and DOB. (DOB is obviously a big one).

But the point is that you really only need a very few pieces of information to ID someone, if you have the right database; we almost all leak enough information to be ID'd without meaning to.

It was found that 87% (216 million of 248 million) of the
population in the United States had reported characteristics that likely made them unique based
only on {5-digit ZIP, gender, date of birth}. About half of the U.S. population (132 million of 248
million or 53%) are likely to be uniquely identified by only {place, gender, date of birth}, where
place is basically the city, town, or municipality in which the person resides. And even at the
county level, {county, gender, date of birth} are likely to uniquely identify 18% of the U.S.
population. In general, few characteristics are needed to uniquely identify a person.

On-line anonymity and privacy, and our expectations of it, is becoming pretty important, as more of our lives go on-line.

shopaholic01 · 21-04-2012 10:03PM

fergalr wrote: »

I'll delete any of this post if you want; but its just repeating stuff you posted yourself (and if you were being misleading then, its wrong now; of course).

On-line anonymity and privacy, and our expectations of it, is becoming pretty important, as more of our lives go on-line.

Is he right?????

*start posting lies*

Online anonymity...

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