6 ms·

I honestly love this as someone who never has a consistent identity in terms of the name I use online and not keeping a long history such as re-creating account

I honestly love this as someone who never has a consistent identity in terms of the name I use online and not keeping a long history such as re-creating accounts whenever it is convenient. This is especially relevant on social media platforms where I don't want to feel like someone can just dig up something I've said or shared 5 years ago and use that against me. It also helps me stay myself without changing my behavior to align with others.

lemonlearnings 1y ago
Good but temporary. Big tech has your browser fingerprint against that plus LLMs will probably be able to match it again by text using cosine similarly. Maybe you use tails everywhere and run what you say through LLMs to rephrase. Might be OK then.
- kachapopopow 1y ago
  oh I've accepted that. luckily I have GDPR on my side.
  - hobs 1y ago
    With that use case you either dont have enough anonymity, or will forget the number of identities and leave a lot of traces, like admitting you are in the euro zone.
    - kachapopopow 1y ago
      I don't care about that much if I did I would never use social media and sit behind a VPN 24/7.
komali2 1y ago
{ concerned_with_privacy: true, online_usernames: ['kachapopopow', ...] } ;) As someone else mentioned, most likely you've been fingerprinted. But at least yes you can't be looked up directly, only if someone uses a databroker.
- krets 1y ago
  True, you don’t need to be impossible to be fingerprinted. If someone really wanted to track you manually using databrokers, be my guest :) But for most people here I think it’s about not being the easiest prey. And make the automatic and general algorithms hard to track you.
  - komali2 1y ago
    The "my bike lock is better than yours" strategy of personal information security :p
timeon 1y ago
For this you need to change more than just account. The way you write is your fingerprint. Concrete example with HN accounts was posted and tried several times.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- Wistar 1y ago
  Good thing I use AI to do all my writing.
eastbound 1y ago
This website analyzes speech to find your probable alternative names on HN. It’s probably easy to recoup a few more signals to find your name on other apps: https://stylometry.net/user?username=kachapopopow https://stylometry.net/user?username=kachapopopow NB: Seems offline, but it was quite efficient !
- kachapopopow 1y ago
  thankfully my speech patterns naturally shift over time for who knows why, sometimes I start using commas too often. Sometimes I start my sentances with capitals, however, it's rare to see me put too much thought into things I write. sometimes i just dont bother using the shift key at all
cluckindan 1y ago
Unless you rotate IPs and browser fingerprints for each identity and alter your visited sites, usage patterns, typing speed and style, mouse movements etc. etc. the data brokers will be able to connect your ”inconsistent” identities.
- Jensson 1y ago
  Most attacks on people are done by those who just google your name and see what comes up so some very minor privacy work helps a lot. Its a lot of work to be completely safe but its very little work to be basically safe.
  - cluckindan 1y ago
    This was not about targeted attacks/doxxing, but systemic data gathering and enrichment.
    - Jensson 1y ago
      The comment you responded talked about attacks/doxxing: > I don't want to feel like someone can just dig up something I've said or shared 5 years ago and use that against me
- kachapopopow 1y ago
  "I have no idea who you are talking about leave me alone you freak." if data is linked to me via some vague data that is based on similarities there's no world where that can be used as a trustworthy source or at least not putting doubt into the person who is using such data as often times it also links to a bunch of incorrectly assigned data. It's like trusting LLM's with everything they say.
  - cluckindan 1y ago
    Multimodal approaches are commonly cited as 89 to 97% accurate under experimental conditions. Certainly Google can be assumed to have much more data over a gazillion metrics, potentially making their accuracy close to 100%.
RataNova 1y ago
That makes a lot of sense, especially in a world where the internet never forgets

lemonlearnings 1y ago

Good but temporary. Big tech has your browser fingerprint against that plus LLMs will probably be able to match it again by text using cosine similarly. Maybe you use tails everywhere and run what you say through LLMs to rephrase. Might be OK then.

kachapopopow 1y ago
oh I've accepted that. luckily I have GDPR on my side.
- hobs 1y ago
  With that use case you either dont have enough anonymity, or will forget the number of identities and leave a lot of traces, like admitting you are in the euro zone.
  - kachapopopow 1y ago
    I don't care about that much if I did I would never use social media and sit behind a VPN 24/7.

komali2 1y ago

{ concerned_with_privacy: true, online_usernames: ['kachapopopow', ...] } ;) As someone else mentioned, most likely you've been fingerprinted. But at least yes you can't be looked up directly, only if someone uses a databroker.

krets 1y ago
True, you don’t need to be impossible to be fingerprinted. If someone really wanted to track you manually using databrokers, be my guest :) But for most people here I think it’s about not being the easiest prey. And make the automatic and general algorithms hard to track you.
- komali2 1y ago
  The "my bike lock is better than yours" strategy of personal information security :p

timeon 1y ago

For this you need to change more than just account. The way you write is your fingerprint. Concrete example with HN accounts was posted and tried several times.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
Wistar 1y ago
Good thing I use AI to do all my writing.

eastbound 1y ago

This website analyzes speech to find your probable alternative names on HN. It’s probably easy to recoup a few more signals to find your name on other apps: https://stylometry.net/user?username=kachapopopow https://stylometry.net/user?username=kachapopopow NB: Seems offline, but it was quite efficient !

kachapopopow 1y ago
thankfully my speech patterns naturally shift over time for who knows why, sometimes I start using commas too often. Sometimes I start my sentances with capitals, however, it's rare to see me put too much thought into things I write. sometimes i just dont bother using the shift key at all

cluckindan 1y ago

Unless you rotate IPs and browser fingerprints for each identity and alter your visited sites, usage patterns, typing speed and style, mouse movements etc. etc. the data brokers will be able to connect your ”inconsistent” identities.

Jensson 1y ago
Most attacks on people are done by those who just google your name and see what comes up so some very minor privacy work helps a lot. Its a lot of work to be completely safe but its very little work to be basically safe.
- cluckindan 1y ago
  This was not about targeted attacks/doxxing, but systemic data gathering and enrichment.
  - Jensson 1y ago
    The comment you responded talked about attacks/doxxing: > I don't want to feel like someone can just dig up something I've said or shared 5 years ago and use that against me
kachapopopow 1y ago
"I have no idea who you are talking about leave me alone you freak." if data is linked to me via some vague data that is based on similarities there's no world where that can be used as a trustworthy source or at least not putting doubt into the person who is using such data as often times it also links to a bunch of incorrectly assigned data. It's like trusting LLM's with everything they say.
- cluckindan 1y ago
  Multimodal approaches are commonly cited as 89 to 97% accurate under experimental conditions. Certainly Google can be assumed to have much more data over a gazillion metrics, potentially making their accuracy close to 100%.

RataNova 1y ago

That makes a lot of sense, especially in a world where the internet never forgets