Potentially. People can take all sorts of things as justification for targeting you. Maybe you made a seemingly innocuous comment on HN or another website tha

Potentially. People can take all sorts of things as justification for targeting you. Maybe you made a seemingly innocuous comment on HN or another website that someone took as a personal slight (say, your comment about tech companies "getting ahead of themselves" with drones and self-driving cars). Maybe you made a comment that sounded vaguely like a religious or political position that someone finds very offensive. Maybe you have a particular habit, desire, or interest that is illegal or that some people consider immoral or offensive, which you don't particularly advertise but you happen to mention somewhere. Maybe someone thinks you downvoted them even though it wasn't you. All of a sudden, you're a target -- and someone is able to go from a handful of comments you made on some website to knowing your home address, your place of employment, your family/religious/social circles, and maybe something about you that could get you into trouble with one of those groups. Note that it's not just "on the internet". Somebody might see you talking to their ex in a public place (you were just asking for directions) and decide to pick up whatever snippets of personal information they can about you by listening in at the checkout. The internet only comes in once they've decided to come after you -- and they're able to tie in to the giant database their company maintains that sends you coupons or whatever in the mail, and now they have all of your personal information including some you'd rather not have every stranger on the planet knowing.