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Researchers Say They Found IP Addresses for ‘Anonymous’ Econ Forum Posts

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Re: Researchers Say They Found IP Addresses for ‘Anonymous’ Econ Forum Posts

#51

Post by tatrajim »

olliej wrote: post #19

Because people keep on acting like these researchers have retroactively removed the anonymity of this forum, or somehow everything was anonymous before this published, lets go over the facts: 1. ejmr made a system that includes hashes that could be trivially linked to ip addresses 2. ejmr claimed posts were anonymous 3. this researcher realized that the hashes could be trivially linked to ip addresses 4. the research…

> ejmr made a system that includes hashes that could trivially be linked to ip addresses

"trivially be linked" = searching 3 quadrillion possibilities?

Suppose that in the near future that a quantum computer enables the "trivial" piercing of current anonymity assumptions, should those individuals also be fair game for doxxing: "they were never anonymous"?

Your casual appropriation of "triviality" to dismiss moral concerns over this paper and the authors' possible motives rings hollow in me.

Re: Researchers Say They Found IP Addresses for ‘Anonymous’ Econ Forum Posts

#52

Post by pseudo0 »

timmytokyo wrote: post #24
mutant_glofish wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the aim of this "research" is helping to fix the security defects of EJMR.

The aim is muckraking. The authors are shining light on widespread moral corruption among elites in the economics profession.

It looks more like retaliation against anonymous whistleblowers:

> EJMR has been used to expose multiple counts of plagiarism, corruption and serious professional misconduct that would not likely have been shared for fear of retaliation by their higher ups or colleagues. Indeed one of the co-authors of the paper had their own likely plagiarism exposed by anonymous EJMR users, calling into question the motivation for the study.

Re: Researchers Say They Found IP Addresses for ‘Anonymous’ Econ Forum Posts

#53

Post by mcpackieh »

mcpackieh wrote: post #7
mutant_glofish wrote: post #6

Since when trying to dox people is called academic "research"?

They call it "A study into toxicity" . I call it gonzo research.

I think I wooshed some people with this comment. Gonzo journalism is when the journalist participates in the story. Gonzo research then is when the researcher participates in what they're studying. In this case, the researchers ostensibly researching toxicity are doxing people, which is toxic behavior. This makes them gonzo researchers.

Re: Researchers Say They Found IP Addresses for ‘Anonymous’ Econ Forum Posts

#55

Post by wildrhythms »

philprx wrote: post #12

Using ChatGPT for a "neutral and expert question" is really broken: it gives the public the opinion that ChatGPT output could be trusted whereas it's so often wrong... That's really dangerous (beyond the immediate stupidity of asking such question to a LLM) because it may give an impression that ChatGPT answers should be trusted and neutral... It's neither.

Right, who told these people that ChatGPT is 'neutral' or an 'expert' in any topic?

Re: Researchers Say They Found IP Addresses for ‘Anonymous’ Econ Forum Posts

#56

Post by mcpackieh »

protomolecule wrote: post #45
14 wrote: post #18

My dad has been saying for years, even before the internet took off, never write anything you don’t want the whole world to see. When the internet came along he reiterated the same message saying don’t write anything online you don’t want your friends, your boss, the police, a judge or anyone else to see. Anyone who goes online with the belief that they are anonymous and writes things that can seriously hurt their ca…

What about saying things you don't want your friends, your boss, the police, a judge or anyone else to know you said? What about reading or watching things you don't want your friends, your boss, the police, a judge or anyone else to know you read or watched?

Indeed. Don't say, read, write, watch or do anything you wouldn't want your friends, boss, police, or judge to know... and now you are no longer your own person but rather an inoffensive amalgam of the beliefs of others.

Re: Researchers Say They Found IP Addresses for ‘Anonymous’ Econ Forum Posts

#57

Post by skulk »

tivert wrote: post #26
Paul-Craft wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make it sound like it's a matter of academic freedom. It is not. Do you or do you not think that it should be acceptable to use language like "d4mn j3ws" in an academic forum?

> Do you or do you not think that it should be acceptable to use language like "d4mn j3ws" in an academic forum? Of course it's not acceptable. It's not acceptable for any academic to disagree with me period. All those posters need to be rooted out, fired, and blacklisted.

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but you need to have a little more empathy for those aren't part of your "white boys club." Don't you think women and minorities need to know if their colleagues are posting their horribly sexist and racist thoughts online? Read the examples in the paper and then tell me that the colleagues of these people don't have a right to know.

Re: Researchers Say They Found IP Addresses for ‘Anonymous’ Econ Forum Posts

#58

Post by skulk »

protocolture wrote: post #48

Even with the IP address, how do they determine identity? Do they have the NAT translation logs for all major universities?

The paper explicitly claims that it doesn't identify users, merely links posts to IP addresses which belong to autonomous systems that are owned by universities or other elite institutions.

Re: Researchers Say They Found IP Addresses for ‘Anonymous’ Econ Forum Posts

#60

Post by skulk »

SanjayMehta wrote: post #54

How do they define “toxic?” A list of naughty words? Strange topic of research for an economist.

No, it's more than just words. Would you want to participate in a profession where roughly 50% of your colleagues go behind your back to spew outright hatred at your ethnic group? Do you think you have a right to know about such behavior?

Here's a direct quote the paper has from EJMR: "And America lost its war against blks. [...] At least until we resolve to final solution"

Do you have any empathy at all for those on the other side of this?

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