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How can someone go off-web and anonymize themselves after a life online?

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Re: How can someone go off-web and anonymize themselves after a life online?

#21

Post by dwaltrip »

This is quite an interesting topic. For me, the thing is, I have no idea what I am going to be up to in the coming decades. What if I want to serve in some local comminity position? Or create my own company? All of the sudden, that hasty from-the-hip comment I posted to a forum years ago might actually matter. I find it quite tiring to stress over my online "brand". Locking down my Facebook profile has helped, I will say. Using my real name on HN, especially as someone recently trying to pivot into web dev, has definitely affected the way I post. I am more considerate, which is good. But I also self censor more.

The never-forgetful nature of the web definitely changes things.

Re: How can someone go off-web and anonymize themselves after a life online?

#22

Post by user24 »

jheriko wrote: post #19

stop using the internet. then get a fake identity in the same ways that have been possible for hundreds of years now... that big trail of data on the internet is useless if it points nowhere. what i never understand is why anyone wants to do this unless they want to do something wrong and get away with it. i also think we all collectively need to get over privacy - if its not about being caught out doing wrong things…

> what i never understand is why anyone wants to do this unless they want to do something wrong

The definition of "wrong" is subject to change when the next political party come to power.

Re: How can someone go off-web and anonymize themselves after a life online?

#23

Post by wil421 »

I think that the question is "How can I mitigate the risk my online identity poses?"

Once on the web I dont think you can get off, the tag I use on HN is one I have used for years, but in those past years I was always a lurker almost never ever commenting (until recently). Now when I search my tag on google HN comments come up, my NSA comments could label me as anti-govt, but thats not the case.

Without going RMS I dont think you can really get off-web if you still want to use the internet in any fashion.

Re: How can someone go off-web and anonymize themselves after a life online?

#24

Post by jokoon »

I was scared while reading the best answer:

> Shops know what you buy in what amounts, because nobody buys all the same brands you are getting fingerprinted constantly. This is used for targeted advertising, but it can also theoretically be used to track you.

I live in france and I wonder if this is even legal here.

Even if you change you name, if you start buying some sort of the same combination of grocery article, it can lead back to you if they do some statistics on every people shopping on the globe. Even if you use cash, they can still know that someone bought the same combination of articles somewhere.

Not using a smartphone will reduce how you're located. A classic GSM phone can still be located being around a cellphone tower (and more precisely by using triangulation, but it's painful), but smartphones have a tendencies of communicating your GPS coordinates, which allows to track everyone's location at the same time. The amount of hardware required to store all that information must be quite astronomical, but still, a latitude and longitude will be precise and just take 16 bytes at most, which is ridiculous.

Re: How can someone go off-web and anonymize themselves after a life online?

#25

Post by damon_c »

The hard part is that in the next decade or so, there is going to no longer be an "off-web".

Your face, walk, voice and probably the pattern of places you go and the smell of your breath will be just another set of tracking cookies for which you will be unable to switch browsers to be rid of.

Say goodbye to "incognito mode".

Re: How can someone go off-web and anonymize themselves after a life online?

#26

Post by rpgmaker »

jheriko wrote: post #19

stop using the internet. then get a fake identity in the same ways that have been possible for hundreds of years now... that big trail of data on the internet is useless if it points nowhere. what i never understand is why anyone wants to do this unless they want to do something wrong and get away with it. i also think we all collectively need to get over privacy - if its not about being caught out doing wrong things…

This brings up an interesting question: who are you on the web anyways? Take my case: I have never signed up for a social networking account on the likes of facebook, myspace, etc. I just don't like to give up that much control about my personal information. To me, just putting it out there, even without the govt snooping on it is giving up WAY too much control over it. Many websites I used to visit have become "social" over the years though but no matter, I don't use my real name there, or real personal email account. On my android phone I purposely created another gmail account, not linked to my real personal one. I have avoided google+ like a plague and I have seen first hand how nuclear they have gone in order to make people enable the goddamn + account. But the question still remains, who am I online? I'm still signing up to sites and email accounts that even if they don't represent the whole picture they still have parts of it. It struck me that it may not matter if those accounts don't particularly link to my real name: it is still me doing all that stuff online. Am I just my name or what I do? (Google probably doesn't care that much about my "name", they're still getting a lot of information from "me". To them all of us are probably just a unique ID on their servers.

I'm not a tinfoil hat kind of guy or anything like that. My efforts are still limited by the convenience of the internet once you sign up to the many services available. People somewhat skilled in tracking people online can probably still track the real me: just because I haven't made much effort in actively learning all I would need to do in order to really hide myself online. I still think that I at least have mitigated it a bit so that not any Joe Schmoe can track me. First I couldn't review apps on the play store, now I can't comment on youtube wtf?? but still, you will have to do more than that to get me on, google. I still think that they will end up forcing everyone to g+ in the end, at that point I will seriously consider just leaving google altogether.

Re: How can someone go off-web and anonymize themselves after a life online?

#27

Post by downer88 »

Systemic33 wrote: post #4

It all really comes down to how far you want to take anonymity. I think the first thing to do is dox yourself, and methodically go through the websites and both change all info to random unrelated information, and then delete or deactivate, whatever is possible. The next step without taking drastic measures such as new identity, is to simply stop using the internet. And remember to not be included in digital pictures…

That means not owning a cell phone. Maybe not using a phone at all. Even possessing a land line or using pay phones might not work.

You also need to use cash. But possibly only make withdrawals directly from a human bank teller, and not an ATM. You'll still show up on bank cameras though. Maybe check cashing and pawn shops is the way to go. Just having a bank account could be problematic, because oft he transaction register.

Using paper cash, you'll still have to consider serial numbers on bills as clues in the long run. Like it or not, the paths of exchange that bills follow can be traced to a degree, using the same imaging software that post offices use on mail, and banks use on paper checks. It's not as reliable for the smaller bills, but for larger denominations, they tend to take short paths exiting the bank (mostly via ATM) and then immediately returning to the bank through business deposits.

So even if you float through space, absorbing all light like a black hole, your gravity will still influence the light-emitting bodies around you.

Re: How can someone go off-web and anonymize themselves after a life online?

#28

Post by bovermyer »

user24 wrote: post #16
atmosx wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are oversimplifying. The thing is that it's good to be part of a community. Feels good to use your real name and it's only natural. Facebook is an awesome service to find old friends, find new friends with the same interests, exchange visual info (sharing your baby's picture with your family) etc. Being able to sync devices across is awesome. But try that outside Google/Apple and you're against a wall. Of course…

It's impossible not to over-simplify without writing a 10,000 word essay on the topic. I'm not advocating disappearing altogether. There's nothing wrong with keeping in touch with my friends on facebook, sharing the odd picture. I do disagree that it feels good to use my real name. I wish I'd been more careful peppering my various accounts with references to my real name. I'd really love to be able to press a button…

In my opinion, user24, I like being publicly linked to everything I say or do online. It means that the "me" that exists online is in perfect harmony with the "me" that exists in the physical world. Anything I do online has repercussions for my offline life, and vice versa. It makes me more connected with the world.

Re: How can someone go off-web and anonymize themselves after a life online?

#29

Post by k-mcgrady »

The biggest problem is probably going to be preventing other people from putting you back on it (tagging you in photos, writing about you etc.).

I recently went through the Google listing for my name and found dozens of profiles and sites I couldn't even remember signing up for. I was able to get most closed successfully. One site I had particular issues with was FriendFeed. I believe I signed up with my Twitter account, which I have since deleted. In otherwords I can't sign in to shutdown the FriendFeed profile. It also seems impossible to get in touch with them so that profile is stuck on the web when I would rather it wasn't.

Once you remove yourself from the first few pages of Google (time consuming but not difficult) your online life is invisible to most people. The only people that will find anything are those that really dig.

P.S. If anyone knows how to get my profile removed from FriendFeed when I can't login please let me know :)

Re: How can someone go off-web and anonymize themselves after a life online?

#30

Post by user24 »

bovermyer wrote: post #28
user24 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's impossible not to over-simplify without writing a 10,000 word essay on the topic. I'm not advocating disappearing altogether. There's nothing wrong with keeping in touch with my friends on facebook, sharing the odd picture. I do disagree that it feels good to use my real name. I wish I'd been more careful peppering my various accounts with references to my real name. I'd really love to be able to press a button…

In my opinion, user24, I like being publicly linked to everything I say or do online. It means that the "me" that exists online is in perfect harmony with the "me" that exists in the physical world. Anything I do online has repercussions for my offline life, and vice versa. It makes me more connected with the world.

You don't fear that one day you might be denied entry to the UK for this tweet? https://twitter.com/bovermyer/status/398163555742396416
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