Hiding on the internet: It's easy

This thread is partly in response to a security topic concerning invasion of privacy on the net that I just posted on, and another topic I just posted on in this forum.

I hope it clears up some confusion on both fronts.

We're on the internet and people put some pretty personal things on this site. Myself included. But the fact is that I've never put my picture up, never told anyone where I live and have made a habit, especially of late, to NOT put names down. Myself included. There's only a handful of people here who REALLY know who I am and of those, only 1 that I concentrate on in alot of my posts. The videos especially.

See that word right under my username? It says writer. That's what I've done for 32 years now and I've gotten quite good at it. I don't need to NOT put my sexual orientation down or any other personal aspect of myself to hide who am I am or who I'm talking to. Read that sentence again for clarification. My writing can do that for me and, whether there are people on here who know who I am but I don't know they're looking, they still wouldn't have anything on me and never will. For the sake of anonymity, I have to assume there are. No names my friend. That's one key. The other is to say things without saying them if you know what I mean. Again, I'm a writer and I'm very good at what I do. I doubt very seriously that anyone I know where I live now has read as intently and for as long as I've been writing intently. In other words I'll run circles around them without even trying while zeroing in on my target.

Like now.

A few months back I wrote a post in a response to a thread about Google. In that post I detailed how you can hide who you really are and what your intentions are anywhere you go on the web or in real life. I used Google as a reference point because it was relevant and to stay on topic. So people know who Taupin Desciple is. Good for them. Who else am I on here? Am I Phage? Am I Diamondsmith? Am I Aeons? Am I mrno1? They can all step up and deny that I am THEM, but that means nothing. Could be me doing it just to screw with people. Trust me, I've done worse. The point is, what people THINK T.D is doing could just be a cover to throw people off track from what he's REALLY doing under the guise of another username. A user no one else but that 1 person knows about.

Prove me wrong.

People can swear up and down and post it on Facebook all day that I'm doing one thing while I'm actually doing another. There's only one person on this board ( actually 2....sorry bro) who really knows the truth. For everyone else........it's deceit. When I'm doing something that I really feel is important to my well being and prosperity, do you really think I'm going to let the whole world in on it? Why use this site? Why not? It's more private than Facebook. Jerry Garcia said it best: "Saying I'm going to do something is like a curse against it happening." I can say I'm a man all I want, even put up a fake birthday and location of someone I know to throw people off, but you or nobody else on here that I don't know will ever know my true intentions. You MAY know my identity, but you don't know them all here.

And the videos I post? I've been in my share of relationships and I know how they work. I know how they start, how they keep going and how they end. If I've done one thing in my life as consistently as write, that would be listening to music. I can relate to music better than people which is why it's easy for me to make connections with music and relationships. Music tends to drive them. The thing about popular songs is this: they're popular because a lot of people can relate to them. Not just one. Even something as obscure as "Forever Seventeen" by Tim McGraw. Trust me, he didn't just make that up off the top of his head. I'M not even that good. There are many women out there like that. Most people just look at songs though as entertainment and fail to see that the words written are an expression of the artist. I write. I should know. And the artists who are able to sell millions of copies of their songs are somehow able to tap into what millions of people are feeling. The same can be said for the people who can match music to other people. They can tap into what they're feeling. And the parts of them they can't tap into? They can flush it out with songs.

The point is that even though people think they can connect the dots between what a person does on here and what their true intentions REALLY are means nothing. As long as no names are used you're doing nothing wrong, and since you're on the internet you can be as anonymous as you want to be while giving the impression you're not. You can even up the ante if you want by dropping a name in public. No harm no foul. And if people want to keep looking in on what they THINK you're doing and posting it elsewhere as fact, well........I hate to see them suffer soon, but they don't get the joke.

Here's to you...........

Great thread, man.
Privacy is freedom. Freedom is the reason we live life.

reply to post by TedHodgson


Wher you got it? I'm looking for a download that WORKS!

Originally posted by TedHodgson

edit on 11/4/12 by TedHodgson because: I'm a fool

Say again?

reply to post by Taupin Desciple


Oops. He revealed what system he used to hide his identity. I know what it is but I'll keep my mouth shut for his account. I know that he said ''I'm a fool'' to the question of his editing.

You are right. S&F. I have been hiding my sexuality here on the internet for far to long. Quite frankly I am tired of it.
So I am going to just come out and say it.

I am Omnisexual. That means I am indiscriminate men, women, plants, animals, the hole on flipper's head, animate, inanimate.

I feel a little better now that I have gotten that off my chest. Hopefully there is still a place for me in this community.

reply to post by Taupin Desciple

Originally posted by swan001
reply to post by Taupin Desciple

 

Oops. He revealed what system he used to hide his identity. I know what it is but I'll keep my mouth shut for his account. I know that he said ''I'm a fool'' to the question of his editing.

You got that right!

I'm a fruity fool......lol

Nah, I was going to say i use a certain program However i realized mentioning my use of said program allows one to trace my currently anonymous hubs

Swan i acquired it from a friend, of a friend of a friend.....No idea where you could find it these days

reply to post by TedHodgson


There is quite a few to choose from.

Do you hide for the sake of it or is there a legit. reason?

reply to post by TedHodgson


lol
I just did not knew you still could post even if you use that kinda program.

reply to post by swan001


Put it this way, For lack of a better explanation it's not something one should publicly advertise

Originally posted by TedHodgson
reply to post by swan001

 

Put it this way, For lack of a better explanation it's not something one should publicly advertise

And yet you just did.

In a roundabout way.

reply to post by Taupin Desciple


Wer are not public, were ATSers. Don't you see the difference?

Originally posted by Taupin Desciple
But the fact is that I've never put my picture up, never told anyone where I live and have made a habit, especially of late, to NOT put names down.

Or we could just go by the simplistic explanation that you've given away some hints already.

You're a married (15 years) man with 2 (or perhaps 1) daughters, live in the southwest (Arizona), in a very small town (incorporated "6 years ago"), part of which is a Superfund site, renter/ property manager, born and raised near South Bend, a Scorpio, not really involved in formal organised religion but do believe that there is a higher power, like 70's music, not very rich at all, have a 96 Olds Delta 88.

I'd say there's enough there for the evil powers-that-be to track you down.
Starting with vehicle registrations, who owns your model in Arizona.
narrow that list to small superfund related towns.
Narrow that list to married men.
Narrow that list by Scorpio birth date.
Cross check against birth and school records for South Bend.

Cant be too many at that point.


Edit - I'll guess your initials are J.R.

reply to post by Taupin Desciple

I hate to burst your bubble....but anonymity only extends as far as you pose an interesting challenge for those with the skills necessary to call you on it. Wired Magazine is one of a few who have done fair and unbiased tests in a very fun way to show how totally unrealistic it is to believe we have any privacy if one cares to look for us hard enough.

To be very specific.....IF I wanted to really push and find someone and it was worth it to me to push the favors and friends to get that little extra at the end I don't have the security access to get myself...here is one scenario for how I start with your screen name and end with your real name and street address.

Now this method takes a hair of cooperation from you..but you'll never know it, let alone feel it, so don't worry.. It won't even pinch.

1. I post something I KNOW you like for topic and that has a link in it. Perhaps I even drop you a U2U so you can't miss it. Wouldn't want my honey pot to stay empty..... The link in my post doesn't go to CNN or somewhere else, but to my site. Legitimate enough...with the valid information I promise. All is good.. Except none of it is there for any purpose other than getting 1 piece of data. Your IP. Now I have to make it a real good one that I KNOW you care about and will post about when you get done..maybe even make ya mad. Why? That is how I can compare my logs on the server to your post date/time stamp and be sure I have the IP of YOUR system and not someone else. Follow?

2. I have the one piece of data I needed most. Your IP. Now I have quite a lot for about 80% of the net world. In the old Dialups, I probably have your street address within a few blocks. Still do for those old fashioned folks.... A GOOD IP trace will go to the nearest hub in the chain. Nearest to you...which on old methods is likely within a few blocks of your living room. Lets say you aren't dial up though...... Well... Step 3.

3. I have to take about 3 seconds and identify that IP block to determine your service provider. Are you cable? DSL? T-lines? It matters for static VS. Dynamic IP (does it change..and how often). Once I have THAT little detail, and assuming it doesn't change on a daily basis (which most don't now) I can start back tracing that IP all over the net to see where else it's been and what else it's been recorded doing within the time frame I can expect you likely had it. Where else do you go? Are you this careful EVERYWHERE? Hmm... Chances are, not. Email? Facebook? Bank Website? You see where I'm going.... Your IP gives me everything else, with the skill and tools to get there.

4. If I want to lean on those friends and favors like I first mentioned, the IP is a shortcut past step 3 entirely and more directly to you. Not a nice name on a printout from Verizon or Roadrunner of course...but the guess work I need to make and the art of the process required for Step 3 goes away almost entirely with that little inside help.


Anyway..... Thats ONE method and yeah..I left a couple blanks for technical process because I didn't mean this as a How-To...just a reminder than however logical it may seem for Anonymity being a sure thing.....it's ONLY an illusion. Drop a nasty note to the City Mayor, Police Chief or...even someone has a terminal case of the Stupids...the President himself. One will find with the speed of a 1,000 angry Cheetahs that not even TOR is enough to hide. It ALL depends on who has a reason to look and how much trouble it's worth to find ya.

reply to post by swan001


Yeah TPTB that monitor the public don't monitor them half as much as ATS

I may be naive but I think your paranoid. Perhaps the prudent person is somewhere between. It sounds like you practice to deceive, claiming to be other people on here, so you would naturally project deception onto others and thus become paranoid.

I seriously doubt anyone cares who you are or even what you might be up to. I have met a few people on here, I like very much, some of them have my name. I am hard to find, unless I tell you. There are lots of women out there with my name, they are on facebook, myspace etc. I am not. lol I can be googled and not found. My IP can be pinged and it will not reveal anything. I use my neighbors wifi or I have a broadband stick. I am prudent, but I don't think anyone is out to get me, why would they be?

I am pretty sure I put lots of stuff on this site about myself I think I even posted picture and stuff, in fact i don't even remember the name of that thread or were its at that I did that in, it was so long back on my responses that I really don't even care to look it up again unless it comes up by random chance. And that's how its been with pretty much all the threads here.

And I am pretty sure none of that really matters, really its the net everything can be tracked there is no such thing as anonymity why anybody would want to do that. Who know, paranoid people will say CIA or the FBI keeping tabs, I say if they cant find some random dude on the internet then we might really need to find us some new alphabetical's that can, and can be more discreet about it. In fact I am way more worried on why the dam grays are keeping track of this #, I guess its all just comedy gold for them. But I know better then that.

And I am a pretty sure it does not matter much as in time its all forgotten as we move on with life, people come and people go, as in real life and so it will be on ATS, In fact I have already forgotten stuff I did and said on this site and on the internet, and I plan on forgetting lots more stuff. In time I have found that you really will forget or move on from everything and it all becomes like water under the bridge. Just part of a scenery you once seen somewhere but you cant quite remember when and were.

I never really got the whole hiding on the internet, that's like one of the worst places to hide in. And in fact I just plain have a hard time in caring about stupid details people might or might not know about me, or that I may or may not have heard about them. Unless it involves me or its some personal matter I could care less what people online say or know or think, or think they know.

In fact you can probably find out more about a person by other ways and means then the facts, like the op said. You would be surprised what there taste in music can say about somebody. Sometimes it says more then a data fact sheet can ever tell you. And I even get that whole sync music thing, I usually just think music is just a bunch of noise, and it is. But it is also much more then that.

Really I do find this whole thing kind of silly, I just cant help but laugh if I think about it.

People can say what they want on the internet, they can even tell there name or were they live and all that, and I really would not care at all, or be bothered all that much, and I am sure most people will just forget it as soon as they get off line and go about there life's. Sometimes being on the internet is like dreaming, as soon as you wake up you forget the dream. And as soon as you get up and go about your daily business you will forget the things people say online. And only the things that pertain to you or your mindframe and thoughts will stick, and those not for very long.

In fact i am pretty sure there have been more then a couple of people on the internet here and there who drooped there name or dresses and how they can be reached, and the fact that I don't remember it at all just shows how important that is.

But this is all me personally, I have found that people are strange and take some stuff that I don't even think about pretty dam seriously, so whatever. To each there own.

Image removed as per member request.

reply to post by galadofwarthethird


Now THAT"S the kind of response I was looking for.

Thank you for that.