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Ask HN: How do you manage your digital footprint in 2023?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your digital footprint in 2023?

#51

Post by scarface74 »

steponlego wrote: post #47
scarface74 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where I work is not hard to find from my posting history on HN and under my same user name on Reddit. It’s a company I know you have heard of Where’s the lie in my statement? Do you fly? Use credit cards? Use a cell phone? Have a bank account? Ever applied for credit? Go to a doctor? I’ve worked with both payment processors and integrated with EMR/EHR systems. I’m well aware of the information captured. No one cares…

The problem with dominating the info-battlespace with scripted replies is it becomes so obvious over time. I suppose that's the idea, the chilling effect is part of the plan.

And you still haven’t address the questions…

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your digital footprint in 2023?

#52

Post by xp84 »

scarface74 wrote: post #44
steponlego wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, I see people like you pop up every time there's a discussion about privacy online. My guess is you work for the US government or a contractor, the messaging is always the same: "Don't bother trying for more privacy." But it's a lame, weak gambit. If the collective you weren't terrified of privacy you wouldn't try this every time there's a discussion about privacy online.

Where I work is not hard to find from my posting history on HN and under my same user name on Reddit. It’s a company I know you have heard of Where’s the lie in my statement? Do you fly? Use credit cards? Use a cell phone? Have a bank account? Ever applied for credit? Go to a doctor? I’ve worked with both payment processors and integrated with EMR/EHR systems. I’m well aware of the information captured. No one cares…

> No one cares about your Reddit history

This seems like a stretch, right? It could be in someone's *major* financial interest to care. For instance, imagine if someone takes out a life insurance policy and a year later, they tragically pass away. If the person posted on Reddit that they did certain illegal or quasi-legal substances, and the insurance company wants to see if they can avoid paying, wouldn't they perform a cursory Internet search to see if they can make a case that you "obtained your policy through fraud"? (i.e. if you didn't disclose in your application that you use those drugs -- which if you did they would have declined you). Or for instance, if a death was ambiguous and could be argued to be a suicide, and the person posted online that they were depressed. Suicide in many situations forfeits life insurance.

I'm picking life insurance as examples, but this is just one reason why it's probably wise to have almost zero public communication about yourself that's able to be tied in any way to your real identity.

And note: I'm not disagreeing at all with your main statement, that unless one is living the real hermit life, "the government," if motivated enough, already can access so much information about you that this kind of stuff is small potatoes.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your digital footprint in 2023?

#53

Post by zamnos »

miked85 wrote: post #45
steponlego wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should change the MAC address of your router. That'll trigger the cable or fiber modem to give you a new IP address usually.

For me at least, that means calling support and giving them the new MAC address.

Who's your ISP? That would make me worried.

https://xkcd.com/463/

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your digital footprint in 2023?

#54

Post by scarface74 »

xp84 wrote: post #52
scarface74 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where I work is not hard to find from my posting history on HN and under my same user name on Reddit. It’s a company I know you have heard of Where’s the lie in my statement? Do you fly? Use credit cards? Use a cell phone? Have a bank account? Ever applied for credit? Go to a doctor? I’ve worked with both payment processors and integrated with EMR/EHR systems. I’m well aware of the information captured. No one cares…

> No one cares about your Reddit history This seems like a stretch, right? It could be in someone's *major* financial interest to care. For instance, imagine if someone takes out a life insurance policy and a year later, they tragically pass away. If the person posted on Reddit that they did certain illegal or quasi-legal substances, and the insurance company wants to see if they can avoid paying, wouldn't they perfo…

> they did certain illegal or quasi-legal substances, and the insurance company wants to see if they can avoid paying, wouldn't they perform a cursory Internet search to see if they can make a case that you "obtained your policy through fraud"?

I posted in another reply that my earliest postings on the internet that you can still find are from my Usenet postings in 1994 - when I was 20.

I’ve always been mindful of what got put in permanent form.

Today it’s harder because everyone has a video camera in their pocket and can disseminate the video worldwide. I’m very aware of that.

The life insurance company could already go through your health care records and it would be much more definitive.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your digital footprint in 2023?

#55

Post by steponlego »

scarface74 wrote: post #51
steponlego wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with dominating the info-battlespace with scripted replies is it becomes so obvious over time. I suppose that's the idea, the chilling effect is part of the plan.

And you still haven’t address the questions…

That's not how I deal with people like you.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your digital footprint in 2023?

#56

Post by hnbear »

a13o wrote: post #4

Use guest checkout whenever possible. If you do need to sign up, give fake info, or highly redacted info. If I decide later they actually need it, I can update it in the account settings. Nobody's ever cancelled my account because I said I was born Jan 1 over 120 years ago. Do digital purchases via some middleman, like a PayPal account backed by a credit card, Apple Pay, etc. Lots of sites have PayPal checkout flows…

Recently on calls asking to verify my birthday I've stopped saying the full 4-digit year. Being born in the 80's it's pretty clear I'm neither 140 years old, nor unborn.

I've been forced to actually say the "19" part for compliance/safety/security reasons multiple times.

They've not cancelled by account, but it's weird the things companies insist on hearing.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your digital footprint in 2023?

#58

Post by hnbear »

My primary email is on my domain that's firstlast.com, so I purchased a random one and use that. Used with Fastmail I typically register as company@company.domain.com and it all forwards automatically.

1Pass+Fastmail will automatically generate forwarding random emails, as will Apple now. I prefer it coming to my own domain though to retain control.

Other details I frequently just make up (name, age, address), unless they're necessary for the service. eg. shipping needs my real address.

I wish there was a phone forwarding service that could randomize the number, similar to the Hide My Email that Apple does. I have a Google Voice, but that's a single number that can't be easily changed.

For things like supermarket rewards that just need a 10 digit number, I've thought about changing them all to 111-111-1111 or something similar. All I want is the real price of goods, but that needs an account of some sort.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your digital footprint in 2023?

#59

Post by theshrike79 »

I've had automatic deletion of all my tweets older than a few months enabled for a few years now. I wish I could do the same for Facebook.

(I did go through the FB history one night manually and deleted some of the edgier shit I posted well over a decade ago - I'm not that person any more).

Fastmail masked emails for all mailing lists and random sites. It's easy to sort them when the address is used only by one location - and as easy to drop if they start spamming.

1Password generated passwords for everything has been the standard for a decade now.

I use my real name only on sites where linking the content I create being linked to my person isn't a bad thing. (Books I've read, a few social media sites where I curate what I post etc).

I'm lucky because young me picked a really popular book with a cool character to choose my nickname from, so that's another way of obfuscating which account is mine and which are someone completely different.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage your digital footprint in 2023?

#60

Post by theshrike79 »

ffgh wrote: post #21
bm3719 wrote: post #6

Keep as much local as possible. Do anything involving money or your personal info inside a dedicated VM running a secure OS, or use QubesOS. Use a dumb phone instead of a smart phone. Keep your passwords in a local encrypted text file. If you need a password or other data on the road, SSH into your home machine from your laptop (which has an encrypted disk). Go back to using fake nick names instead of your real name…

I'm in the process of trying to de-Google my life. Apart from being forced to use Google at my workplace I want nothing to do with them other than google searches. I have 4 Gmails though, a few personal and a few for etc sites. I was thinking about setting up a forwarder for all to 1 email account. Any recommendations for a dumb phone? I know Google and Android phones go hand in hand.

It's a long process, but I did it about 5 years ago (moved to Fastmail).

Buy your own domain, attach it to Fastmail (or use your direct @fastmail address if you don't want to own the domain). Then have Fastmail IMAP fetch the mails from your gmail addresses.

Create a filter that shows you which mails come from gmail-sourced accounts and go through it every once a while, visit those sites and change the addresses. It's a slow process but that way you won't lose any important emails.

I think my Gmail address is used by one store that refuses to give users the option of changing the email :D And they have loyalty bonuses that carry over between years so I can't be bothered to create a new account.

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