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Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

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Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#91

Post by RealityVoid »

3pt14159 wrote: post #76
chaboud wrote: post #19

Ah yes... I'm Skimmington Harborough, Esq., I come from a family that made its fortune in philanthropy generations ago. This seems like a pretty straightforward mechanism for covert operatives, to generate a believable (and memorizable) cover that pulls attention away and maintains coherence. That said, as someone who prizes ethical behavior, it's not possible to practice this and remain wholly honest without some so…

I was an NOC Agent for Canada then I got married. There's so much data out there, nothing is easy with creating a false persona. Your eyes, walk, fingerprints, etc. It's possible in the short run, but you're leaking a lot of data doing it. My MO when I really didn't want to end up Googleable was to just give my real first name and leave it at that even if people pressed. Edit: The reason is simple. If someone gives a…

Fascinating. How long were you a NOC for? I guess your spouse did not know of it while she was your GF. Did it impact your life negatively, having to maintain secrecy? You must have been for quite a while, I understand a long time passes before agents are fully functional.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#92

Post by ghaff »

philwelch wrote: post #71
onetimeusename wrote: post #22

I've noticed the number of places that let you use ephemeral accounts has really dwindled. Spam, marketing, LE, and I am sure other reasons have it so persistent accounts are more common. So creating a persona is probably the easiest way to be somewhat anonymous online but it's getting harder to create unlinked accounts (using new phone numbers and unlinked to your other accounts) and when it crosses into the real wo…

A fun book about this stuff is Michael Bazell’s Extreme Privacy: What It Takes to Disappear in America . With extreme effort you can keep a surprising number of things unlinked from your government name if you really want to.

Thanks for the link. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole on this a few years back after seeing on of the hosts of the reality show Hunted (former White House CIO) give a talk. There was a long Wired article on this topic years ago too.

https://www.wired.com/2009/11/ff-vanish2/

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#93

Post by rco8786 »

rlt wrote: post #31

Satoshi is the only very high profile person I’m aware of to remain completely (pseud)onymous. Many others have tried and failed (though they often broke the law, so that might be the main distinguishing factor)

Banksy

Daft Punk

Deadmau5

Members of KISS (for a while)

Blue Man Group

But if you're following the advice in this article...nobody should ever know that you're not actually a real person. So you might "know" lots of folks online who are not who they say they are.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#94

Post by RealityVoid »

chaboud wrote: post #19

Ah yes... I'm Skimmington Harborough, Esq., I come from a family that made its fortune in philanthropy generations ago. This seems like a pretty straightforward mechanism for covert operatives, to generate a believable (and memorizable) cover that pulls attention away and maintains coherence. That said, as someone who prizes ethical behavior, it's not possible to practice this and remain wholly honest without some so…

I used to think lying wash wholly inethical. But I don't think this anymore. Lying is somethimes the ethical thing to do. I believe the goal matters.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#95

Post by wongarsu »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #23

I had an idea for a funny little startup once: “Adopt an alter ego” Essentially a marketplace where you can buy and sell prebuilt identities - complete with associated, aged, and populated social media accounts, email accounts, pictures, websites, etc. I just like the idea of being different people online.

Sounds like a side project idea: you enter a description of a persona, the bot buys some phone verified social media accounts, as well as gmail/msn/whatever (plenty of market places around) add uses GPT3 to periodically generate posts on said social media accounts, using the persona description.

Then you just need to fill the pipeline with persona ideas, and get nice account packages after a couple months.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#97

Post by PragmaticPulp »

One very important thing to keep in mind: If you generate a fake persona and present it as entirely real, you are being dishonest.

This may not matter for inconsequential things like the pen name for your SubStack or something. However, it definitely matters if you plan to engage in anything serious or do any business under that persona.

If you run into situations where you're forced to switch to your real identity (e.g. employment relationship, legal matters, or even an accidental leak) then you could lose a lot of credibility. People will naturally wonder if you were trying to hide something from them, regardless of your initial intentions.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#98

Post by rodolphoarruda »

That is a good approach. My persona is going to turn five years old now, but it looks much older. In fact, my persona looks older by design, which reduces the need for profile maintenance but, in turn, is often targeted for age prejudice. I'm called "old fart" many times a week, and it kinda sucks.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#99

Post by Adraghast »

j0hnyl wrote: post #86
zem wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banksy is way more famous than Satoshi and has remained pseudonymous

From what I understand art world folks very well know who Banksy is, but I don't think such is the case for the tech world and Satoshi.

Hardly just the art world. That he’s Robert Del Naja (aka 3D from Massive Attack) has been semi-public knowledge for a long time.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#100

Post by rt4mn »

chaboud wrote: post #19

Ah yes... I'm Skimmington Harborough, Esq., I come from a family that made its fortune in philanthropy generations ago. This seems like a pretty straightforward mechanism for covert operatives, to generate a believable (and memorizable) cover that pulls attention away and maintains coherence. That said, as someone who prizes ethical behavior, it's not possible to practice this and remain wholly honest without some so…

> That said, as someone who prizes ethical behavior, it's not possible to practice this and remain wholly honest without some sort of ethical loophole

The primary "ethical loophole" here is that there is no viable ethical alternative. Something can not be immoral if it is the best of a series of bad options, and if you want to exsist in the world and protect your privacy, the only real option is to create a persona.

There is literally no other option that I have been able to find that both protects your privacy and also does not require you to sequester yourself from humanity entirely.

Pure anonymity bars you from the following activities: joining a social group, signing up for some longish term business relationship (hiring a contracter, signing up for a service), engaging in the political process, holding a job, and probably more that I cant think of. You simply wont be able to do any of those things if you tried to give your name as "chaboud" or "rt4mn".

The best option if you care about your privacy, in those scenarios, is to use a nickname/alias/persona, and be honest and say "no its not" in the vanishingly rare case where you are asked directly whether or not that's the same name you have your birth certificate.

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