4 ms·

I occasionally offer to dox people to show them how bad their OpSec truly is or as an example of why I don't use social media like Facebook for privacy concerns

by Nadya 9y ago

I occasionally offer to dox people to show them how bad their OpSec truly is or as an example of why I don't use social media like Facebook for privacy concerns. Doxing people is often trivial since nearly anyone contributing to discussions online have large online profiles. It isn't a very difficult task - just a game of connecting the dots and knowing how to construct specific Google search queries (eg: "site:___ + 'some info'"). If a journalist can find it - any internet layman who knows how to Google can find it.

Spare_account 9y ago
I've been wondering if it is possible to dox my Reddit account. I like to think I've been careful not to give too much away but I wonder if it is true. I would like to find a white hat site that prepares a report on what they can find about you. (For the record, my reddit account has a different username than my HackerNews account)
- Nadya 9y ago
  >I would like to find a white hat site that prepares a report on what they can find about you. This would be difficult to start as it would require trust. I already do exactly this ("white hat doxing") but do you trust that that is actually what I'm doing? Maybe it would be easier as an established corporation with an explicit privacy policy. >I've been wondering if it is possible to dox my Reddit account. You can make it much more time consuming and more difficult (read: but not impossible) to do so by using this userscript as frequently as possible: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/10380-reddit-overwrite https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/10380-reddit-overwrite I personally run it for all posts older than 2~3 weeks (when activity/relevance of the post is nearly equivalent to "0"). Some sites still archive posts w/o updating for any future edits, there is web cache, etc. But those are far harder to search and tie together than simply browsing your comments on your profile. Note that some subreddits may ban you for using it and you'll get a bunch of AutoModerator posts asking you not to do that because of thread integrity and blah blah blah.
  - Zak 9y ago
    I hate it when people use these scripts and do have a rule against deleting posts that have replies in one subreddit I moderate. There are two kinds of things harmed by this behavior: * In communities where people buy and sell things, or offer pay for services (e.g. /r/forhire), a glance at someone's account history provides some insight into their likely reliability. It's not much to go on, but that's inherent to doing business with strangers online. * In many communities, previous discussions are full of useful information for future readers. Removing half of a conversation often ruins that utility.
    - Nadya 9y ago
      >In communities where people buy and sell things, or offer pay for services (e.g. /r/forhire), a glance at someone's account history provides some insight into their likely reliability. It's not much to go on, but that's inherent to doing business with strangers online. Trivially solvable with an alias used exclusively for such dealings where you don't scrub history. Also, as mentioned, it isn't necessarily that good of a rule anyway. Better than nothing but not necessarily by much. >In many communities, previous discussions are full of useful information for future readers. Removing half of a conversation often ruins that utility. I value my personal privacy (and time) more than any use my conversations will have for future readers. I don't have the time to selectively edit/delete hundreds of posts. One argument against this would be to "post less" but then many of those "useful posts" may not have ever been made to begin with so there isn't a net difference. Also - quoting the most relevant bits of a post in your own post helps retain at least some context. Even if you were to edit/remove your post now - I have two pieces of it quoted that a future reader would at least have some context as to our conversation.
      - Zak 9y ago
        I'll grant this for that technique: while your website linked to your username here made it easy to guess your reddit username, 5 minutes of looking did not recover your deleted comments. It's a little difficult for me to wrap my head around the mindset though: if you're concerned about privacy, why would you post anything sensitive to reddit? If you haven't posted anything sensitive, why delete it? I'll admit, I've never been the victim or perpetrator of doxxing, so I may be missing something.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  Do you think it would be possible to link your HN and reddit accounts? I just creeped your whole comment history and you only leak a small pattern of facts here (country, gadget, a couple repeated interests). The interest related subreddits would likely still be a pretty huge haystack.
- rawnlq 9y ago
  There's a reddit account summarizer (I know you said you don't own /u/spare_account on reddit, this is just an example): https://www.snoopsnoo.com/u/Spare_Account https://www.snoopsnoo.com/u/Spare_Account
  - yazan94 9y ago
    I just used this for my reddit account... holy crap its kinda scary how accurate it is. All it takes is for you to slip up in a comment here or there, add in a detail somewhere once, and its all there. I think i need to start using temp reddit accounts, and just jump ship every few months.
- kbenson 9y ago
  > I would like to find a white hat site that prepares a report on what they can find about you. To me there seems to be an inherent catch-22 involved in that. To be responsible, you have to confirm the person requesting the information is the person that wants doxxing. In providing evidence you are who you say you are, you're seeding that company with information to better find you that might not be easily found otherwise. It would take a strict separation of the sales and operations teams, to make sure this was a useful and accurate service, and with all that work it likely wouldn't be cheap.
  - breischl 9y ago
    What if the service/whitehat did an ID verification before releasing the info they uncovered? Basically ask a few things generally like what credit report agencies sometimes ask (Which of these addresses are yours? What is your username on this site? etc). Only release the info if there's a match. Presumably you'd want to get paid up front, since you'd have done all the work in either case.
    - corobo 9y ago
      "Please provide your ID" "Ok so here's what we found on you" reads content of ID
      - Whitestrake 9y ago
        Maybe: "Here is a link to an encrypted report containing info on what we found. Please verify your ID and we will give you the key."
- celticninja 9y ago
  Have a look at snoop snoo and see what it says about you based on your Reddit comments.
- liberte82 9y ago
  Have you ever gilded someone and paid by credit card? If so, your credit card is linked to your account.
ConceptJunkie 9y ago
I often think about the Witness Protection Program and how much harder it must be to be a part of it in the age of social media and new forms of instant communication. While it's hard enough to cut off ties with family and friends, etc., it must be much worse when there are so many ways to keep in touch with people. Worse, I can't imagine someone in the program would be able to have any kind of online presence. It would be too easy to leak details about yourself.
- Pica_soO 9y ago
  the worst doxxing source are github repos. One wrong reflex to sign in as author of a new class, one insider joke - and boom, there is the way to trace - never going away.
rfrank 9y ago
> If a journalist can find it - any internet layman who knows how to Google can find it. News organizations have access to many non-public databases.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

by Nadya 9y ago

Spare_account 9y ago

I've been wondering if it is possible to dox my Reddit account. I like to think I've been careful not to give too much away but I wonder if it is true. I would like to find a white hat site that prepares a report on what they can find about you. (For the record, my reddit account has a different username than my HackerNews account)

Nadya 9y ago
>I would like to find a white hat site that prepares a report on what they can find about you. This would be difficult to start as it would require trust. I already do exactly this ("white hat doxing") but do you trust that that is actually what I'm doing? Maybe it would be easier as an established corporation with an explicit privacy policy. >I've been wondering if it is possible to dox my Reddit account. You can make it much more time consuming and more difficult (read: but not impossible) to do so by using this userscript as frequently as possible: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/10380-reddit-overwrite https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/10380-reddit-overwrite I personally run it for all posts older than 2~3 weeks (when activity/relevance of the post is nearly equivalent to "0"). Some sites still archive posts w/o updating for any future edits, there is web cache, etc. But those are far harder to search and tie together than simply browsing your comments on your profile. Note that some subreddits may ban you for using it and you'll get a bunch of AutoModerator posts asking you not to do that because of thread integrity and blah blah blah.
- Zak 9y ago
  I hate it when people use these scripts and do have a rule against deleting posts that have replies in one subreddit I moderate. There are two kinds of things harmed by this behavior: * In communities where people buy and sell things, or offer pay for services (e.g. /r/forhire), a glance at someone's account history provides some insight into their likely reliability. It's not much to go on, but that's inherent to doing business with strangers online. * In many communities, previous discussions are full of useful information for future readers. Removing half of a conversation often ruins that utility.
  - Nadya 9y ago
    >In communities where people buy and sell things, or offer pay for services (e.g. /r/forhire), a glance at someone's account history provides some insight into their likely reliability. It's not much to go on, but that's inherent to doing business with strangers online. Trivially solvable with an alias used exclusively for such dealings where you don't scrub history. Also, as mentioned, it isn't necessarily that good of a rule anyway. Better than nothing but not necessarily by much. >In many communities, previous discussions are full of useful information for future readers. Removing half of a conversation often ruins that utility. I value my personal privacy (and time) more than any use my conversations will have for future readers. I don't have the time to selectively edit/delete hundreds of posts. One argument against this would be to "post less" but then many of those "useful posts" may not have ever been made to begin with so there isn't a net difference. Also - quoting the most relevant bits of a post in your own post helps retain at least some context. Even if you were to edit/remove your post now - I have two pieces of it quoted that a future reader would at least have some context as to our conversation.
    - Zak 9y ago
      I'll grant this for that technique: while your website linked to your username here made it easy to guess your reddit username, 5 minutes of looking did not recover your deleted comments. It's a little difficult for me to wrap my head around the mindset though: if you're concerned about privacy, why would you post anything sensitive to reddit? If you haven't posted anything sensitive, why delete it? I'll admit, I've never been the victim or perpetrator of doxxing, so I may be missing something.
maxerickson 9y ago
Do you think it would be possible to link your HN and reddit accounts? I just creeped your whole comment history and you only leak a small pattern of facts here (country, gadget, a couple repeated interests). The interest related subreddits would likely still be a pretty huge haystack.
rawnlq 9y ago
There's a reddit account summarizer (I know you said you don't own /u/spare_account on reddit, this is just an example): https://www.snoopsnoo.com/u/Spare_Account https://www.snoopsnoo.com/u/Spare_Account
- yazan94 9y ago
  I just used this for my reddit account... holy crap its kinda scary how accurate it is. All it takes is for you to slip up in a comment here or there, add in a detail somewhere once, and its all there. I think i need to start using temp reddit accounts, and just jump ship every few months.
kbenson 9y ago
> I would like to find a white hat site that prepares a report on what they can find about you. To me there seems to be an inherent catch-22 involved in that. To be responsible, you have to confirm the person requesting the information is the person that wants doxxing. In providing evidence you are who you say you are, you're seeding that company with information to better find you that might not be easily found otherwise. It would take a strict separation of the sales and operations teams, to make sure this was a useful and accurate service, and with all that work it likely wouldn't be cheap.
- breischl 9y ago
  What if the service/whitehat did an ID verification before releasing the info they uncovered? Basically ask a few things generally like what credit report agencies sometimes ask (Which of these addresses are yours? What is your username on this site? etc). Only release the info if there's a match. Presumably you'd want to get paid up front, since you'd have done all the work in either case.
  - corobo 9y ago
    "Please provide your ID" "Ok so here's what we found on you" reads content of ID
    - Whitestrake 9y ago
      Maybe: "Here is a link to an encrypted report containing info on what we found. Please verify your ID and we will give you the key."
celticninja 9y ago
Have a look at snoop snoo and see what it says about you based on your Reddit comments.
liberte82 9y ago
Have you ever gilded someone and paid by credit card? If so, your credit card is linked to your account.

ConceptJunkie 9y ago

I often think about the Witness Protection Program and how much harder it must be to be a part of it in the age of social media and new forms of instant communication. While it's hard enough to cut off ties with family and friends, etc., it must be much worse when there are so many ways to keep in touch with people. Worse, I can't imagine someone in the program would be able to have any kind of online presence. It would be too easy to leak details about yourself.

Pica_soO 9y ago
the worst doxxing source are github repos. One wrong reflex to sign in as author of a new class, one insider joke - and boom, there is the way to trace - never going away.

rfrank 9y ago

> If a journalist can find it - any internet layman who knows how to Google can find it. News organizations have access to many non-public databases.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]