Also don't forget to hide whois on that created .com domain.
Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
261–270 of 329 posts
Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#262I 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.
The main roadblock here is the crime. You would need some safeguards to make sure these people aren't real enough to receive any government benefits, or open a bank account.
Crime is a largest potential customer ofc.
Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#263Satoshi 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.
The identity and face of Daft Punk are very well known. Thomas Bangalter and Guillaume-Manuel de Homem-Christo have been djing without mask outside of that specific project.
Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#264Satoshi 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.
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Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe I'm from a different era, but I still think that the best default position is that anything somebody has listed about themselves online may be a work of fiction that we shouldn't be expected to take at face value in most contexts. If encryption is not immoral, encrypting your personal information is also not immoral, even if you also want plausible deniability. Privacy is not unethical. If a persona and pseudon…
> As a person who prizes the idea that what we say and do are more important than who we are I am not sure I follow - what we say and do is who we are, how could it be otherwise?
That's my point. Saying that there's an unethical dishonesty to using an alias or an entire persona is missing the point that it's actually unimportant, and behavior is the only thing that matters. I was responding to a comment that stated that "it's not possible to practice this and remain wholly honest without some sort of ethical loophole". I disagree that an online persona is inherently unethical or even dishonest, because the basic assumption should be that it's all unimportant and possibly fake.
Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#266This works, as long as you don't have to paypal people. Is there a way to make paypal transactions anonymous to the other party?
The only reliable use case of crypto
Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe I'm from a different era, but I still think that the best default position is that anything somebody has listed about themselves online may be a work of fiction that we shouldn't be expected to take at face value in most contexts. If encryption is not immoral, encrypting your personal information is also not immoral, even if you also want plausible deniability. Privacy is not unethical. If a persona and pseudon…
I’m not sure how you’re pulling encryption into this argument. You can be honest or dishonest and it will be encrypted and decrypted all the same. Your second argument to me doesn’t follow. You are saying what you say and do is more important than what you value, I think, but you are also saying that what you say and do are not important so you can be dishonest. My conclusion is that you prize winning over being ethi…
You use an alias or a persona to mask your identity, just as you use encryption to mask information. Keeping something intentionally hidden, either via an alias or encryption, is not dishonest nor unethical.
I do not prize winning. I'm not sure who is "winning" or "losing" when I decide to not publish my name. I'll note that I use my real name and attach my real identity to lots of things. I just don't agree that people who choose to mask their identity through a plausible persona are somehow walking an ethical tightrope. They are entitled to use a fake name.
Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#268Satoshi 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)
Because he’s not a real person. He’s a CIA or NSA project. It’s like the group “Anonymous” that conveniently only shows up when the CIA has an objective and then disappears again.
Just another Nicolas Bourbaki crippled by threshold multisig cryptography I'm afraid.
Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#269[deleted]
Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#270Ah 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…
You have no ethical obligation to provide accurate personal information to an untrusted party.