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Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username across 400 social networks

sherlockproject.xyz

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Re: Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username across 400 social networks

#71

Post by ivanmontillam »

lakomen wrote: post #63

Why is this not a website but I have to install something?

I would assume it's because checking usernames using your own IP address leads to better results while making it a website would forcefully make it a SaaS (to cover cloud costs).

I'd argue instead why is this not a GUI? Making it a CLI makes it less user-friendly.

Re: Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username across 400 social networks

#72

Post by s1artibartfast »

exabrial wrote: post #40
s1artibartfast wrote: post #20

I dont plan to run for president or anything, but find myself increasingly censoring my online speech. I think the biggest risk is some out of context post being pulled into a civil suit, or professional cancellation following that. Things like advice in an alcohol recovery forum would be prime evidence for a liability suit. There are also groups that vacuum the internet for offensive posts, and use them to try to ge…

It's a relatively new and novel thing for people your age to be able to look up anything online, to the point where it's scandalous. This card will be played over and over again by politicians, influencers, prosecutors, police, etc, until the smartphone-from-birth generation reaches office. At that point, it'll be so easy to dig up dirt on anyone, people will just stop caring (as they should anyway). We're just in a…

Im not so confident. Digital natives seem just as eager to apply purity tests as anyone, if not more so. Throwing rocks still feels good, even if everyone is living in glass houses. It was true in the 1300's when the saying was coined, and is still true today.[1]

https://www.bookbrowse.com/expressions/detail/index.cfm/expr...

Re: Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username across 400 social networks

#73

Post by philipkglass »

dylan604 wrote: post #41
tonmoy wrote: post #19

For people who want to have a professional social presence (FB/linkedin) as well as an anonymous one (Reddit etc), it’ll be super useful to see if the accounts are truly unlinkable. Moreover if you are opening a new anonymous account, maybe a good idea to search the new username using this tool to make sure it’s not “taken”

Until some ML process is learned to give a probability that accounts are the same based on writing styles Staying anonymous is very difficult

Stylometry tools may be useful if you already have a small candidate pool of suspected aliases. They produce too many false positives to be useful for blind cross-linking of accounts. Once or twice somebody has done stylometric analysis of HN accounts and I've looked at the results for my accounts. Even though I don't try to obscure style across accounts, stylometry didn't match my actual accounts with each other. My top matches were for accounts controlled by other people.

Re: Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username across 400 social networks

#75

Post by morkalork »

Tepix wrote: post #23

And this makes it obvious why you should use a unique username everywhere! It makes pervasive tracking a lot harder. Also when you do any research on health related topics, be extra privacy conscious.

In what kind of dystopia would one need to hide doing research on health related topics? Oh, right.

Re: Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username across 400 social networks

#76

Post by [deleted] »

pluc wrote: post #64
fragmede wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clean up the online footprint for someone that hires you to do so before they run for office. I don't remember every single web site I've every signed up for going back to when I started using the Internet, and neither can you.

Internet Archive likely renders that point moot, no? There a plenty of sites that index tweets outside of Twitter for example... at least there used to be

[deleted]

Re: Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username across 400 social networks

#77

Post by w4ffl35 »

Tepix wrote: post #23

And this makes it obvious why you should use a unique username everywhere! It makes pervasive tracking a lot harder. Also when you do any research on health related topics, be extra privacy conscious.

Actually, this makes it obvious why you should keep a page that contains all your links. It's easy to just make an account and pose as someone in order to destroy their reputation. It's also difficult to get unique accounts, often times my accounts overlap with existing names. Even my real name is shared with many people. Employers who use technology like this are actually quite foolish to do so.

Re: Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username across 400 social networks

#78

Post by w4ffl35 »

karlzt wrote: post #69
Tepix wrote: post #23

And this makes it obvious why you should use a unique username everywhere! It makes pervasive tracking a lot harder. Also when you do any research on health related topics, be extra privacy conscious.

Or better yet, be extra privacy conscious with everything you do.

I strongly suggest the opposite. Collect everything and do on a personal site, do good seo on your pages, expose your content. Go totally anon for anything you don't want exposed of course. But you should expose as much of yourself as you're able and control the conversation.

Re: Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username across 400 social networks

#79

Post by JSteph22 »

naavis wrote: post #68
Tepix wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it creepy if you google a job candidate?

In many parts of the world it is illegal for a recruiting party to search for information on a candidate without their consent.

Whichever parts of the world that may be, you can guarantee that it happens anyways.

Unenforceable rules are never followed.

Re: Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username across 400 social networks

#80

Post by mrtksn »

Tepix wrote: post #23

And this makes it obvious why you should use a unique username everywhere! It makes pervasive tracking a lot harder. Also when you do any research on health related topics, be extra privacy conscious.

>And this makes it obvious why you should use a unique username everywhere!

Actually I was disappointed by the post, I was hoping it will be able to find the same person regardless of the username through analyzing the writing style, what they are talking about, the timezone etc.

The username doesn't prove anything, anybody can take any username anywhere. If someone targets you, they can take usernames on platforms you haven't claimed your username yet and pretend being you and damage your reputation.

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