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Using VPNs for "privacy" on forums, and forum spammers

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PlainName:

--- Quote ---But it's not a person, it's a machine
--- End quote ---

Careful what you wish for. What do you think the odds are of you arguing with Google's algorithm to give you back your automatically banned account? It is hard enough to even get to the point where you're talking to a live person, but at least you might have chance (albeit really tiny) with them if they got out the right side of the bed that day.

A big problem with privacy today is that it's not a real person with an interest in you collect and acting on the data. It's a machine who cares not one jot about who you are, just that the data points say you are a kiddy fiddling terrorist with a gun fetish. OK, (hopefully) a bit of an exaggeration, but maybe you haven't figured out why your credit rating is so low you can't get an overdraft. Or even a bank account. It's not a real person making those decisions.

peter-h:
Sure; one can de-anonymise big databases if one has access to other big databases. But who is going to do that, in the context of this discussion which is anonymity online?

The biggest danger to one's privacy, and at the same time the biggest source of potentially real hassle, is a theft of some bank database. It's been done although usually the thief managed to get only partial data. Usually... one Swiss bank employee did rather better ;) And airlines have had the whole lot stolen. These are serious because your full confirmed name, address and - directly or indirectly - financial data is leaked.

DiTBho:
I'm thinking about someone who wants to open a channel on YouTube. If you want to get money by advertising, from sponsors, etc, you have to expose your name and surname.

PlainName:

--- Quote ---Sure; one can de-anonymise big databases if one has access to other big databases
--- End quote ---

Those reports didn't use multiple big databases. The amount of data collected for one can be enough, which is why it's important (if you care about any of this) to restrict sucking to needed data rather than data they can grab just because they can.


--- Quote ---But who is going to do that..
--- End quote ---

Are you kidding?!?! Who isn't going to do that, is the smaller subset.


--- Quote --- ... in the context of this discussion which is anonymity online?
--- End quote ---

If you don't have multiple online IDs, who you are online is getting to be more you than what your birth name is. And if you do have multiple online IDs, it doesn't take a lot to tie them together. Remember, you have to always keep them completely separate; the data analyzer only needs to make a match once.

I think we also need to recognise that 'privacy' covers several different things. On the one hand there is the danager, as you note, of some online database being grabbed resulting in a financial offloading event. But that's different to being stalked by a nutjob, tagetted by scammers, or your potential future employer seeing what dirt they can dig up before offering you a job. Or, indeed, the aforementioned 'computer says no'. Perhaps we need another (or several) word(s) so we're each on the same page when banging on about it.

peter-h:
Yes; this is why

- you should use a different ID on every forum
- be careful what you write about yourself
- any videos you publish will identify you readily (especially if somebody is out to get you legally because a court order on youtube etc will instantly give it to them)
- if you run a forum, don't put stuff in the server log which you don't need to run the site
- if you run multiple sites which need auth, keep the auth data in one place and use oauth on all the others, so no personal data is stored on them
- put as little on FB and LinkedIn as possible

Then there are practical things e.g. you don't want your business customers to discover what you do in your private life. Let's say you are on a boating forum, and you post that you have a $300k boat...

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