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Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

sive.rs

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Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#311

Post by O__________O »

nullc wrote: post #309
O__________O wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, never heard of the book, thanks! While it’s been awhile, whenever I ran into that situation earlier on I first attempted to avoid them being aware I was nearby and would immediately leave the area. Once thought had no option, but to politely ask if we might talk for second and let them know not to say anything, which they were happy to do. Soon after for unrelated reasons ended up moving and have not run…

One option is to immediately walk up and introduce yourself. "Hi, (shakes hands), I'm ascii-frogface . (forceful stare)" They'll either get the point or be oblivious enough to be gaslit into thinking you're someone else. :P

Natural response would be to just say, “oh, I thought your name was [insert prior name]?” - this based on experience, not worth the risk. Beyond that, best to avoid situations if it’s predictably going to happen again, since only matter of time before they slip, decide to mention you prior name behind your back, etc.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#312

Post by O__________O »

hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #149

I guess it's useful to drive away curiosity from laymen but how does it stop corporate knowing me by crosschecking multiple docs? For example the banks for sure need my real name and id and phone number, all other services need those too.

There are ways around this, but requires time, effort, and resources to do so.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#313

Post by O__________O »

underwater wrote: post #230
jacooper wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying what you want without worrying about being canceled in 10 years.

If your words will get you cancelled then maybe you should just keep them to yourself.

Future is unpredictable.

Random opinion today that’s normal completely socially acceptable thing to say, might tomorrow be proof you’re criminal; for example, a country that’s had significant power shift and outlawed a something that before was legal.

Or you’re living in a country that’s you object to actions that have been taken, for example, invasion of another country, and publicly stating objections is a crime.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#314

Post by triplesec »

grugq wrote: post #298

What they’re talking about is called “apparent cover.” That is, a cover story which you don’t have to tell anyone, they make it up in their head from the clues you provide. For example, if you see someone at dawn on the docks with a tackle box, a fishing pole, and dressed for fishing, you don’t think “spy come to take photos of ships.” Providing a plausible identity is a good practice for hiding your identity. I woul…

This looks like what the classic russian bots do nowadays

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#315

Post by coryfklein »

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…

Wait how is this even controversial. We have decades, perhaps centuries, of precedent in liberal democracy of writing under pseudonyms. Since nearly your entire presence online is via your writing, I don’t see how it could possibly be ethically wrong to write online under a pseudonym. If having a fake image in addition to your name bothers you then just use a blank avatar or something.

The whole point of pseudonyms has been that a) your work should stand for itself and not be impacted by your identity and b) to protect individuals.

Can someone use pseudonyms to perform unethical or fraudulent activity, of course. But the pseudonym itself is not unethical.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#316

Post by ttrefa »

tsumnia wrote: post #101
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 like "character work for entertainment only". A persona requires misrepresentation, which is not the same as de facto anonymity. I don't think the persona needs to be completely falsified. Rather, you consider which topics you engage in on a given account. For example…

Do you try to keep them separate in the sense of not being connectable? That could be hard, as writing style is a pretty strong give-away (as recently demonstrated just here on HN where somebody wrote a very simple tool to detect alt accounts).

It's ok if you don't. I'm just wondering if it's even worth trying. The persona strategy could be worthwhile for simple tracking purposes, but for somebody actually trying, it shouldn't be hard to link all your personas, given enough data. Or maybe one should avoid posting with real name altogether, anywhere. That includes though carreer-building blog posts or public documentation, even written in a professional setting where it could be hard to avoid.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#317

Post by jimkleiber »

jabroni_salad wrote: post #118
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.

Ah, yes, I forgot about identity theft

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#318

Post by FrontierPsych »

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

Yes, I get it. When I go for job interviews, they ask me what my weaknesses are, I say that I fuck off every once in a while, that I will sometimes badmouth the company and my boss after I leave the company. That sometimes I go to the company bathroom and masterbate to relieve stress. That I don't really like my mother because she is a meth addict all her life even when she was pregnant with me so when I was in her womb, I was basically on meth, too, and it really fucked up my mental capacities and so sometimes I go off in an irrational manner and maybe will start yelling at people. I belch and fart a lot, too and that usually upsets co-workers.

I go on and on like this for about 20 minutes on all my weaknesses, because I want to make sure that I completely answer their question in an ethical manner, because I don't lie by ommission. They didn't ask me what my "strengths disguesed as a weakness" were, or how to "spin it by giving the best picture of myself" and "market myself" to them.

It's the same with women when they ask about me. I say that I fart and burp a lot as mentioned above. They are not regular farts but real stench bombs. I also pick my nose a lot in public and then eat it but not when people can see.

So far, I can't get a job for the last 15 years despite my interviewing 80-100 interviews per year. And no girlfriend.

But at least I can be internally happy because I'm ethical and honest and never lie, and give the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery

#319

Post by mym1990 »

O__________O wrote: post #77
mym1990 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give insight into how that top 10 chart demonstrates anonymity?

Sure, feel free to point out how it makes me less anonymous.

I just really didn’t understand why that list was posted and then why you responded to it the way you did. Is it because it identified a common writing style that is shared by some others?
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