Food for Thought: How Anonymous Is Your Internet Presence?

A recent thread here on DU produced some interesting replies. It appears that a lot of people still think their Internet presence is anonymous. For a lot of reasons, I can assure you that it's probably not. You may think you have anonymity, but the likelihood is that you have very little. While it's possible to keep your real identity hidden, it's not an easy proposition. Odds are you are pretty exposed out there.

Here are some questions to ask yourself, some checks you can make to see your anonymity level, and some advice:

Questions to Ask Yourself

1. Do you use the same screen name on multiple forum sites? If you do, then your posts on sites may contain more information than you think. It doesn't take long for someone to locate the places your screen name appears and discover clues to your identity. In some cases, people have actually put their addresses, real names, and phone numbers on other forums, while using the same screen name on forums where they'd rather be anonymous. The more unique your screen name is, the easier it'll be to find info about you.

2. Does your screen name actually reveal your real name? This is more common than you may think. People try to be clever with their screen names, but intuitive people can often figure out what's going on. Hint: Spelling your name backwards is lame.

3. Do your profile settings on websites reveal more than you think? Very few forum sites disable profile viewing for non members, and anyone can join to see it. If you identify your city and state, have links to other websites or to your own website, those can be clues to someone trying to figure out where you are. Identifying things like email addresses, IM addresses, and other info in profiles, can also identify you.

4. Do you refer to forums in which you participate on social networking sites where you use your real name? For example: DU members have set up a DU fan group on Facebook. Many people have posted their DU screen name on that group's pages. A site that cannot be named here brags that they have a list of DU screen names and the real names, as used on Facebook. They just read the DU group's stuff to gather that info.

Checking Your Anonymity

1. Google your screen name. See what pops up and click the links. Think about what you find at those links. Have you entrusted your personal information to that quilting site or fishing site? Look at your profiles on forums. Does your Facebook page show up somewhere? Your email address? Use Google's image search, too. Your face may be on there, with a link to whatever online place you store your photos. If your image folders are not protected, anyone can browse through your photos. You'd be amazed by what you might find. Protect your image storage folders. Is someone talking about your posts here or elsewhere? Could be.

2. Google your phone numbers, both landline and cell phone. You may have some surprises in the Google results. Most people do. Also, go to www.whitepages.com and do a reverse search on your phone numbers. Odds are your address is there, even if your phone is "unlisted."

3. Google your email addresses. Again, you may find that you've revealed them in places you'd rather not have revealed them, and may find your email address in surprising places you've never thought of. A clever searcher can put this stuff together. Amazon.com is a common source of information for people who are looking for you.

4. Google your real name. If it's a reasonably unique name, you may find that the old adage, "Fools' names and fools' faces often appear in public places" is truer than you may think. Don't forget to do an image search on Google, too. Oops! That photo you forgot you posted on some place four years ago may be right there staring at you. The same things mentioned in tip #1 apply.

5. Google links to your personal or business website or blog. Use the search form "links:yoursite.com" without the quotation marks. Isn't it amazing what you can find there? The links may well appear in places you don't know about, and may reveal places where you've exposed your identity unknowingly.

6. Google your address. Just enter it, with commas separating elements, in post office format, without punctuation after words like st, ave, etc. e.g.: 1234 mystreet st, mycity, ST, 11111 Just the address, without your name. See your house in Google Maps satellite view? See your name? See your phone number? See the sites where your address appears? Weird, huh?

What Next?

If you discover that your anonymity is a myth, as so many people do, there's little you can do to recapture it. What's on the internet will stay there pretty much forever. What's done can't really be undone. That's a sad fact.

If you can't find yourself, then you've done a pretty good job with preserving your anonymity. You can probably keep doing what you're doing, but recheck from time to time, and keep the risks in mind. It's not impossible to be anonymous, but one slip can end that.

Or, do as I do and just accept that it's pretty much impossible to completely anonymize yourself. I gave up that folly several years ago. Use caution and good sense when posting in public places. Keep your images safe if you store them online. Don't post outrageous or slanderous things publicly. Always keep in mind that you are a public persona, so watch what you say and do online. It could come back to bite you at some point, as many people have discovered to their embarrassment or worse.

Never post anything you wouldn't tape to a public street light.

Back in the early days there was a bit more anonymity, simple because sites weren't logging as much. Now, though, just about every site you visit logs just about everything you do while you're in that site. Your ISP logs (and saves) all your traffic, as do ISPs along the way.

So there isn't really much that is anonymous. It only feels that way because you're sitting in your living room. :)

A town manager I know once told his employees "never type anything into an email you'd be uncomfortable seeing on the front page of the local paper." :D

I have undoubtedly lost opportunities to reconnect with old friends that way, but also avoided cyberstalkers and other unpleasant repercussions.

any thought of anonymity. I use Facebook. I also have a pretty busy website, and have started posting stuff I write here on it, sometimes. I also link to my DU Journal entries on Facebook.

Knowing that what I post may be linked directly to my real identity is actually a good thing. I have to think a little harder about what I post, and that's always good.

medical and financial and "social netowrking" and any other kind. That train left the station a long time ago. Trying to keep it "secret" is basically an exercise in futility.

That is not to say that people should be totally stupid and expose information without any regard to protecting it.

But the ONLY way to control the consequences of disclosure (which WILL happen) is to make the legal (and especially monetary) penalties severe enough to prevent abuse of that information.

e.g. - businesses can and do sell your contact info to others. That cannot be controlled. But how about a very high fine for the use of that information by the second business that deluges you with unwanted offers?

Even serious stalking isn't taken seriously by most police departments. You really have to press to get them even interested. They just don't understand the internet yet.

Most internet users need the reminders. And it seems there are a LOT of people using the medium now who are sorta new to the drill. It amazes me how naive we all can be, and how really at risk so many new internet users are in their innocence of all the data that can be out there about them, and their kids, when they use the internet to vent their spleens or as a babysitter for the youngsters.

Seeing too many parents using the internet as a babysitter without any thought to just how dangerous it can be to not monitor the kids' activities. And it is sad how much precious childhood is being squandered on silly, pointless games. So much good stuff on the 'net, but without parental oversight, too many kids are losing precious time to pursuits that will only dull them, if not put them at risk with predators.

On the bright side, my daughter found out courts and other bastions of public records have searchable web sites ;) She now screens researches suitors before returning calls :rofl: Lots of public information is now easier to access. And BOY are some of my neighbors pissed about that!

edited for more accuracy in my daughter's (grown, she ain't my job anymore;) )use of resources to avoid bad boys.

and no one as has yet connected any of the dots. I do have reasonably unique screen names and haven't found anyone else who has wanted them. So far, all I've revealed is location and former occupation. The former because any moderately sophisticated user can trace an IP number and the latter because of specific sites I post on and specific information I post.

It's still reasonably anonymous out here if you are reasonably careful. I avoid using my real name anywhere because I've had a real life stalker and he was a pain in the ass to get rid of. I don't want another one.

Still, the best bet is not posting anything you don't want on the front page of your home town newspaper, advice my mother gave me a thousand years ago about having pictures taken. It was great advice then and it's great advice now. There's always a chance somebody will connect the dots and find you. It's just not that big a chance now unless that person is in the NSA or FBI.

If you do that, nobody's going to bother looking for you. I'm really just trying to help people understand that, even if they think they're anonymous, odds are they aren't. It takes a real effort to retain anonymity, and it's so easy to slip up.

You give away key components of where you live and your lifestyle by posting photos. Interior shots of houses can betray what types of books you read, how much income you might have, etc. Exterior shots even if you don't have street signs or house numbers in the photo can also give away where you live.

gun enthusiasts website. Within hours, my computer was totally overwhelmed by a virus - I had to re-install all the programs that came with it when it was new, losing all my saved information in the process. This despite firewalls, security programs, etc.

There are also the various government agencies who keep watch on people who they may think of as threats - and as I recall, there were always many more perceived "threats" on the left than on the right according to the old police and federal guardians of our democracy. This was back in the pre-internet days, but I am sure there are many more "guardians" now, with great power under the HSA. I am sure most of us are one someone's list somewhere, waiting for the big day.
Just because you are paranoid does not mean you are wrong.


mark

I just found myself on White Pages. I had removed myself three years ago and now they have a new listing for me. :hi: Thanks for the reminder.

the reality that someone will become pissed at you for no reason whatsoever is very REAL. There are some great people on the internet, but it's also filled with many mentally unstable people who build a web of lies and when that comes tumbling down they may very well go after you. What I've done to help mess things up a bit is to use names which are used by multiple people on the web so you have no idea what is what. BTW, the person who stalked me had my real name because she earned my trust and we used to speak on the phone. It will NEVER, EVER happen again!

negative effect. It makes it that much harder for you to keep track of your web presence.

My screen name, for example, is used by several people, including one person who is in the business I used to be in. We've been in touch, and he gets lots of stuff from people who think he's me.

I'm completely unanonymous. Now, I just post links to my website, where you can see my handsome face staring at you. I've given up any pretense of anonymity. There just wasn't any point, any longer.

Really, I'm just trying to let people know that they probably aren't anonymous, either. It's hard to stay anonymous and still use the internet as it's designed to be used.

I have seen people do that. Always a bad idea.

So even if you delete something from a forum or a web page on your own site, it may still turn up in Google...and it's the older, cached version of the page that keyword searches go to, not the current page that Googlebot may not have visited in a while.

This screen name is not very anonymous at all.

One could easily figure out who I am, where I work and my address, and a lot more.

But I could easily have another presence much more anonymously. Totally anonymously if I wanted to go to that much effort.

1. I use different screen names on every site I've registered at since '95. In most cases (but not the case with my DU screen name) I've seen my screen name used elsewhere, by somebody else.

That said, somebody who knows me could ID me from what I've posted on DU. Fairly easily. Somebody who doesn't know me would have a heck of a time picking me out from the other 10 million or so people in Houston.

2. No. None of them do, and none ever have. Early on a friend adopted the email "drunkalcoholic" when he was an undergrad and then when he was applying for jobs a few months later discovered that it would take an edict from a very high placed university official to have it changed. He got the edict, but the lesson was really obvious to begin with.

3. Nope. They reveal what I think is appropriate. Having nothing to hide doesn't mean exposing everything.

Back in my early grad student days I ran for stu-gov office while chairing a large stu-gov committee. At one meeting somebody said they'd heard I was running for elected office, I nodded, and another guy said he'd checked me out and he thought I'd do a good job. I watched as person 1 asked person 2 how he'd "checked me out," and he pulled out a pile of printouts. It was '95, I think, and he'd used Lycos (I guess) to google me, found my too-obvious handle. Nothing outrageous there, but it stopped everybody dead in their tracks. The quick consensus was that privacy was dead, and all but a few engineers and science students had failed to notice that online discussions aren't all that private. Some shrugged, some predicted the quick end of civilization and the imminent arrival of a Stalinist fascist totalitarian state that would be reading our grocery lists as we got up from the kitchen table. Still, the lesson learned ("nothing online is every truly private") is valid.

4. Never been into the social networking thing. Either in elementary school, college, grad school, or now. I don't do rah-rah, I don't do jingoism, I don't do tribal or trendy (unless completely by accident, then I figure the masses are simply finally, albeit briefly, following my ever-so-wise trail-blazing opinion).

What I lack in discretion I make up for in unadulterated don't-give-a-shit-anymore.

If we continue to enjoy any sort of "freedom of speech" I suspect the internet will take us to a place where people without any kinks in their internet history or without any internet history at all will be most suspect. How many people here on DU give much less credence to the posts of people who block their profile and never leave any evidence that they might have any sort of personal life?

I've been on the internet since 1979 and I've been hanging out with computer nerds since I was a kid. My internet history is full of kinks, including some rather amazing "off-my-meds" sorts of adventures.

Whenever I see these "Food for Thought: How Anonymous Is Your Internet Presence?" kinds of posts I usually suspect someone is trying to poison free expression. Ooooooo..... Big Brother is watching and some creepy-freepy guy is masturbating to your picture in his mom's basement."

Nevertheless I do understand that some people still jump into the World Wide Web innocent and utterly naive... although this occurs much less often then it did in 1992.

Be strong, have courage, and say what needs to be said. Otherwise those who would stifle your freedoms win.

you probably didn't read the whole OP. I say what I think, and I'm not concerned about it. I think everyone should say what they thin, write what they think, and stand by what they say and write.

My point was that not everyone is aware, even in 2010, that they are not anonymous, even if they think they are. It's a good exercise to see what is out there about yourself. I thought I'd show those people how to do that, so they can make their own decisions.

As for posting your naked photos on this site, you're welcome to do so, as far as I am concerned. They'll just get deleted, though, so there's not a lot of point to it.

I even clicked on the homepage link in your profile, so I know you are far more open on DU than I am.

My own internet presence is not so accessible as yours mostly because I'm the parent of teenagers. Although it is fun to embarrass them simply by being their father (and so easy too!) I'm not cruel.

(not naked me, but close enough)

I am not kidding. Some of them keep files on whatever personal, (even gossipy) information they can find out about you. There is at least one RW website dedicated almost exclusively to obsessing over DU and individual DUers.

And we are currently a number one hit on Urban Dictionary!

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dummie

No, but there actually are a handful of obsessive RWers who follow certain DUers like paparazzi, and keep track of every thing they do (and make incessant fun of them of course). I've seen the bizzarre, pathetic, love-hate spectacle with my own eyes. There are a handful of RWers whose lives revolve around being DU voyeurs.

http://www.google.com/search?q=PVnRT&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Unless you're a chemistry student.

in the morass of almost 14 million hits for "supernova"

I'm there, but it would take some doing and I don't mention this site on other sites I visit. I try to keep them separate.

But I do understand the OP's point. :thumbsup:

Clever (maybe?), distinctive, yet very hard to Google.

But, then again, I work for an information security company. I washed the phone number a long time ago. Some of my user names show up, but there's precious little connecting any of them to me.

employment. That was then. I am reasonably anonymous. No ISP (old school H4X0R), screen here here is different than my others and I am a flat out computer security nazi. I've posted pics of myself and crap like that, so if some busy body REALLY wanted to, they could possibly make SOME connections. My personal info is closely guarded, though. My address is completely anonymous. But, really. Nobody wants to come after me anyway.

If anyone wanted to come after me, so be it.

If I cared I would use another screen name that really was untraceable. It's not like it's terribly difficult.

I think Eddie Van Halen posts under that screen name in some message boards. Not to mention the regular guys. So I am just one in a crowd.

Our privacy has been destroyed anyway.

and in no way do I dispute your statement.

I, however, hold my own very firm views on internet privacy and anonimity.
These are:
a) If it takes two years to make a true friend in real life, multiply that by 5 on the net.
b) Take for granted that people are not who they seem to be. If you persist with a friendship and they turn out to be genuine, all is well.
c)The anonimity of the internet provides cover for many social and psychiatric disorders that would be immediately apparent in a face to face meeting
d)90% of internet posts are made by less than 10% of internet users
e)Speaking on the phone is a great way to end the bullshit of 'is someone who they say they are'. Just make sure you are the one who makes the initial call.

Peace :)

You'd have to wade through millions of Google hits to find me.