Hiding on the internet: It's easy

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
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.

Go ahead and burst away but my personal anonymity isn't the issue. Intent is.

You're still kind of new here so you may not know this person:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Before he left he made a comment on here to the effect that most if not everything he said on here was sarcasm. He was fairly prolific on here too. Not everyone on here takes things seriously and they come here just to have fun. And in the case of D4rkKn1ght, at other peoples' expense.

That isn't what I'm doing but you get the point. The whole point was not to take things you see here too seriously if you're reading something from someone you don't know in real life. This kind of takes care of the anonymity issue because if you do take things seriously in those cases and try to track someone down, you could be making a big mistake and make yourself look not too bright . Which is a big reason why I don't do Facebook. It's more invasive than this place. You may know vaguely who a person is from information gleaned online, but you don't necessarily know why they're saying what they are.

This is why all the paranoia about Government eyes peering in on me doesn't concern me much. They could have a dedicated satellite trained on me right now, it doesn't mean they know the real story.

Again, I'm not concerned about people knowing who I am.

I'm concerned about people mis-representing what I say here to other people in real life for the sake of the other people.

I have a reason for doing what I'm doing and I'll be glad when it's over.

I'm getting tired.

I am saving your post BTW because there is some very useful information there.

reply to post by alfa1


You've done your homework and read some of my posts. That's good but that wasn't really my point. Personal anonymity wasn't what I was getting at. You can even come knock on my door tomorrow if you want, it's a free country. I wouldn't recommend it, but it's your prerogative.

Just one thing though. You need to remember that a program on the computer, such as Google earth or MapQuest, is only as good and thorough as the person or people who programmed it. You can be the most technically adept person on the internet, but unless you programmed the program that made the picture you posted, you're at the mercy of those people when it comes to the authenticity and accuracy of the photo.

All I can say is that I hope no one ties to find me based on that picture and the information you gave. No system is perfect. That being said:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

If I wanted someone to see a house that I may or may not live in I'd post it myself. The fact that someone posted a picture that may or may not show where I live without my permission is enough for me to report it and get it removed. Whether it's factual information or not is beside the point. It's presented as such and was done without the permission of the person you posted it about.

The internet may not be a haven for privacy, but there are rules you need to adhere to that can get out of hand if used indiscriminately. I've seen it happen before.

Originally posted by Iamschist
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.

What I've been doing lately hasn't been par for the course my entire life. In fact, this is the first time I've done something of this nature. I never have outright deceived people and I don't really like doing it now. It's too much like work. It's hard. It's just circumstances have gotten to the point, most of which I didn't make, where I see no other alternative.

You may be right though, I may be edging into paranoia territory and I really didn't want it to get this far. As I told someone else, this is really the only venue I can think of to where I can get the point across that, for my own personal reasons at least, would put some issues to rest. I've been contributing here for many years now so I know my way around subjects to where I can stay on topic and say what else I need to say as well.

Thank you for your post and I wish I had the options you do so I could be more prudent than I am and take things more lightly. I'm sure I could find them if I looked hard enough, but the thing is I never really cared about such things before. Like I said, this is my first time doing this, at this level, so I could be doing some things wrong.

Thanks for bringing me back down to earth. You seem like a decent levelheaded person.