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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

#111

Post by MrOwnPut »

Adraghast wrote: post #99
j0hnyl wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I love there's no reference of that in his wikipedia article directly, but it appears 3 times in the referenced source titles:

https://en.wikipedia.org//wiki/Robert_Del_Naja

Out of curiosity, why do you believe it's not Robin Gunningham?

That seems to be what https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy suggests, and the reasoning seems sound.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#112

Post by SyrupThinker »

minsc_and_boo wrote: post #84
mikece wrote: post #3

Anonymity is impossible, especially online. About the best one can do is to engage in clever obfuscation though there's a benefit to creating multiple personas for online activity: it makes it easier to keep your silos of interest separated. It's not for everyone but it can be handy.

The fact that you take any action to obfuscate your identity only makes you stand out more from the herd, not blend in. It's like wearing a ski mask in a store. Your profile(s) are more noticeable even if you're not immediately identifiable.

Maybe to some actor that has sufficient data to correlate identities.

But if I introduce myself to someone with an alias or claim false traits, they will not immediately just know it’s fake unless they have additional contradicting information.

Most people do not casually wear ski masks, but they tend to not lie when asked for a name.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#113

Post by [deleted] »

adenozine wrote: post #50

I love Derek's writing. He's so casually eloquent, without being up his own ass like PG. I've learned a lot from reading what he's produced, and I can certainly attribute (in part) a few successful endeavors to being a "slow thinker" as he calls it. We live in such an insane, reactionary world these days and I find it very refreshing to hear from people who've clearly thought hard about what they're about to say/writ…

[deleted]

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#114

Post by yieldcrv »

zem wrote: post #65
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 is way more famous than Satoshi and has remained pseudonymous

its only entertainment that Banksy is anonymous, the fact you haven't looked this up bolsters the point

personas are good enough information, it satisfies the curiosity well enough to not dig deeper

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#115

Post by boffinism »

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.

I love the idea that social media accounts, like wine, are more valuable if they're sufficiently aged.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#116

Post by vmoore »

> Am I talking with someone from Australia? Philippines? Brazil? Are they 20 or 60? Male or female

Well due to how easy it is to create a fake identity on social media, knowing who someone /really/ is, is the real quest. I've experimented with creating completely false identities on social media, and populated the profiles with plausible information.

I went the extra mile and created fake domain names, under my alias, fake AI created profile pictures, fake family members, even fake boyfriends. I avoided anything that could be unraveled like saying I work at such and such a company, when there is no employee records under my name at that company (Fake LinkedIN profiles are a hard problem).

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#117

Post by vmoore »

zem wrote: post #65
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 is way more famous than Satoshi and has remained pseudonymous

Banksy is purportedly Robin Cunningham. Google is the greatest OSINT tool ever created.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#118

Post by jabroni_salad »

jimkleiber wrote: post #96

makes me think of disinformation and differential privacy: too hard to hide the truth so fill the space with lies so it takes too many resources to find the truth.

My strategy for this is actually to use other people's names. You can try to dig in but if you try to look me up on any other website you're gonna be playing the wrong game.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#119

Post by zajio1am »

rt4mn wrote: post #100
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.…

> 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 are simple ethical alternatives, just not disclose that information, or just avoid that questions. Lying in this case is clearly unacceptable.

It is also a signalling issue. There is a universal social contract not to lie. If someone is willing to lie in such minor issues, then such person is totally untrustworthy, because there is no reason to assume they would not lie or hold other social contracts in more serious cases when it does not suit them.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#120

Post by onetimeusename »

ghaff wrote: post #24
onetimeusename wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about signing in to apps which often uses a phone # and email? Also, betting on Tor is like betting there there are no 0-day exploits in browsers or Tor's network. Not a bet I would make.

It all depends on your threat model at the end of the day. I could create a blog and social media accounts in a few hours and, unless I do something stupid, it's going to be pretty hard for Joe Random on the Internet to figure out who I am. But if I start writing things that catch the attention of the FBI? They'll figure things out quick enough.

I am assuming you are talking about Tor. This is a sophisticated view of things and it's correct. Tor provides as good security and anonymity as a public VPN. But Onion Routers and therefore Tor were built with the intention of protecting against powerful adversaries that can perform MITM attacks. You could argue that the FBI is an even more powerful adversary I suppose but I think there is a mismatch in what Tor was intended to do in theory versus what it provides in practice and without knowing that you could be making a mistake. So I think it's unfortunate that people have to know how to do this analysis before making decisions.
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