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> "... when I type "aunt", readers have no idea how I pronounce it ...". From the language survey, there were quite a few questions dealing with word choice (e

> "... when I type "aunt", readers have no idea how I pronounce it ...". From the language survey, there were quite a few questions dealing with word choice (e.g., coke, soda, pop). There are also algorithms that can predict, with varying levels of accuracy, the writer's gender [1]. Combine these with browser font identification [2], geolocation [3], and other comparable data, and lying or omitting data isn't going to provide much in the way of anonymizing you or your data. [1] http://www.hackerfactor.com/GenderGuesser.php http://www.hackerfactor.com/GenderGuesser.php [2] https://panopticlick.eff.org/ https://panopticlick.eff.org/ [3] http://html5demos.com/geo http://html5demos.com/geo

maxerickson 13y ago
Why would you trim the majority of my comment which is essentially in agreement with what you have written? I get that you are just elaborating on data leakage, I just don't understand the style you chose to do it in. "identity characteristics leak out all over the place" isn't exactly a brazen declaration of how easy it is to stay anonymous.
- yaddayadda 13y ago
  I read your comment as saying that you could lie in text about identifying information and things that might betray you in a f2f interaction, such as regional accents, weren't as important in textual interactions.
  - maxerickson 13y ago
    My intent was more that it is straightforward to be aware of several of the most blatant leakages. Combating dialect analysis is a lot tougher, but the quiz likely used 25 of the highest value differences (many of the choices are laser specific: http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/maps.html http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/maps.html ). Context also matters a lot. If there is no obvious path to an IP or browser interaction, all that stuff goes away.
    - 001sky 13y ago
      What would be interesting is a look into passive elicitation of information. Its easy to falsify something when you know someone is looking to use a single data-point against you. But tryly powerful social engineering would manipulate your confidence, and extract high-information-content data passively (when you are not expecting it), and to do this they need to instill confidence that you <are not being ovserved or monitored>. Yet they still may need to promt information flow, to feed the analysis. Which is sort of the art of interviewing, but now in a bit more 21st century context.

maxerickson 13y ago

Why would you trim the majority of my comment which is essentially in agreement with what you have written? I get that you are just elaborating on data leakage, I just don't understand the style you chose to do it in. "identity characteristics leak out all over the place" isn't exactly a brazen declaration of how easy it is to stay anonymous.

yaddayadda 13y ago
I read your comment as saying that you could lie in text about identifying information and things that might betray you in a f2f interaction, such as regional accents, weren't as important in textual interactions.
- maxerickson 13y ago
  My intent was more that it is straightforward to be aware of several of the most blatant leakages. Combating dialect analysis is a lot tougher, but the quiz likely used 25 of the highest value differences (many of the choices are laser specific: http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/maps.html http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/maps.html ). Context also matters a lot. If there is no obvious path to an IP or browser interaction, all that stuff goes away.
  - 001sky 13y ago
    What would be interesting is a look into passive elicitation of information. Its easy to falsify something when you know someone is looking to use a single data-point against you. But tryly powerful social engineering would manipulate your confidence, and extract high-information-content data passively (when you are not expecting it), and to do this they need to instill confidence that you <are not being ovserved or monitored>. Yet they still may need to promt information flow, to feed the analysis. Which is sort of the art of interviewing, but now in a bit more 21st century context.