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A horrible article. Offline? The lady has a tech-startup in SanFrancisco. Untracked? Still possible to track her. There is nothing you can do to prevent it. I

by theboss 13y ago

A horrible article. Offline? The lady has a tech-startup in SanFrancisco. Untracked? Still possible to track her. There is nothing you can do to prevent it. If you want to buy a house, you're going to need credit, if you want credit then you're going to be tracked. That's just the way it works in developed nations. It is one thing to be mindful of security. Protecting your data, understanding the limits of cryptography, not giving away important information via social media or to people who don't need it, is all important things to know. In a digital world you leave behind a digital footprint. Having one isn't the problem. Controlling it is. edit: Being untraceable is impossible and a thing of the movies. The moment you are born and issued a birth certificate, your digital footprint has started. The thing to remember is that isn't a bad thing...

pessimizer 13y ago
A horrible comment. These are people who are minimizing their profiles, not magical fairy creatures. Of course if you buy a house under your own name, you will be easy to find - but with a little creativity, you may be able to get around that. Just because these people are guarded about their activities and their images does not mean that they are handing out tips about how to run for Congress anonymously, so there's really no need to argue against that straw man. >The moment you are born and issued a birth certificate, your digital footprint has started. Not everywhere, and not until very recently.
- theboss 13y ago
  These people? I am one of them. I understand the in's and out's of just about the best you can do when it comes to living off the map. The article says they are living off the map, which they certainly aren't. Like I said, minimizing your footprint is one thing, and that is good, but saying these people are "Offline" is absurd.
  - autotravis 13y ago
    > The article says they are living off the map, which they certainly aren't. No, it doesn't. '“It’s basically impossible for you and I to decide, as of tomorrow, I’m going to remain off the radar and to survive for a month or 12 months,” says Gunter Ollmann, the CTO of security firm IOActive'
Zikes 13y ago
Even if you paid cash for that house, the tax records can be public.
- aegirth 13y ago
  If you can afford it, you pay to found a private company, and have that purchase the house. Preferably with cash, and have the company registered in an offshore tax haven.
  - dublinben 13y ago
    Even the 'onshore' tax haven of Delaware allows anonymous corporations.
- Amadou 13y ago
  Even if you paid cash for that house, the tax records can be public. The short version: (1) Hire someone to create a New Mexico LLC, there are lots of companies out there that will do this for you. (2) Transfer ownership of the NM LLC to you - there are no requirements for filing transfer of ownership with any public entity. Just make sure you don't lose the paperwork. If there is no taxable income to the LLC there are no filing requirements beyond paying the yearly registration fee. (3) Purchase house with cash in the name of the NM LLC. Hire a nominee to sign the paperwork, fire the nominee afterwards. You now own a house with no public records of your ownership. If you need to sell you can sell the NM LLC instead of the house and there won't even be a public record of the sale, the deed will still show the NM LLC as the owner. There may be tax implications for such a sale depending on the local state's laws (california for one).
roc 13y ago
It's not about being entirely anonymous. It's about not having individual pieces of data being trivially linked together and pointing at you. That is, it's about avoiding a situation where a yelp review can be trivially linked to your identity from which your home address, work address, children's school, and probably a bunch of purchases or service activity from some website that got (or gets) hacked. EDIT: And it's the future-tense "gets hacked" that ought to be particularly concerning. Considering government contractors and online services leak user data left and right, anything they know will eventually become tantamount to publicly accessible. Managing ones footprint (e.g. putting their toll device in a cage) is a mitigation against not only what is currently happening to that data, but what may happen and what it can be cross-referenced.

by theboss 13y ago

pessimizer 13y ago

A horrible comment. These are people who are minimizing their profiles, not magical fairy creatures. Of course if you buy a house under your own name, you will be easy to find - but with a little creativity, you may be able to get around that. Just because these people are guarded about their activities and their images does not mean that they are handing out tips about how to run for Congress anonymously, so there's really no need to argue against that straw man. >The moment you are born and issued a birth certificate, your digital footprint has started. Not everywhere, and not until very recently.

theboss 13y ago
These people? I am one of them. I understand the in's and out's of just about the best you can do when it comes to living off the map. The article says they are living off the map, which they certainly aren't. Like I said, minimizing your footprint is one thing, and that is good, but saying these people are "Offline" is absurd.
- autotravis 13y ago
  > The article says they are living off the map, which they certainly aren't. No, it doesn't. '“It’s basically impossible for you and I to decide, as of tomorrow, I’m going to remain off the radar and to survive for a month or 12 months,” says Gunter Ollmann, the CTO of security firm IOActive'

Zikes 13y ago

Even if you paid cash for that house, the tax records can be public.

aegirth 13y ago
If you can afford it, you pay to found a private company, and have that purchase the house. Preferably with cash, and have the company registered in an offshore tax haven.
- dublinben 13y ago
  Even the 'onshore' tax haven of Delaware allows anonymous corporations.
Amadou 13y ago
Even if you paid cash for that house, the tax records can be public. The short version: (1) Hire someone to create a New Mexico LLC, there are lots of companies out there that will do this for you. (2) Transfer ownership of the NM LLC to you - there are no requirements for filing transfer of ownership with any public entity. Just make sure you don't lose the paperwork. If there is no taxable income to the LLC there are no filing requirements beyond paying the yearly registration fee. (3) Purchase house with cash in the name of the NM LLC. Hire a nominee to sign the paperwork, fire the nominee afterwards. You now own a house with no public records of your ownership. If you need to sell you can sell the NM LLC instead of the house and there won't even be a public record of the sale, the deed will still show the NM LLC as the owner. There may be tax implications for such a sale depending on the local state's laws (california for one).

roc 13y ago

It's not about being entirely anonymous. It's about not having individual pieces of data being trivially linked together and pointing at you. That is, it's about avoiding a situation where a yelp review can be trivially linked to your identity from which your home address, work address, children's school, and probably a bunch of purchases or service activity from some website that got (or gets) hacked. EDIT: And it's the future-tense "gets hacked" that ought to be particularly concerning. Considering government contractors and online services leak user data left and right, anything they know will eventually become tantamount to publicly accessible. Managing ones footprint (e.g. putting their toll device in a cage) is a mitigation against not only what is currently happening to that data, but what may happen and what it can be cross-referenced.