Some forums members have been stalked and harassed lately. For those who are concerned about being identified, I came up with a short list of things to do. Might look like a hassle but it will save you some troubles down the line.
While you might think that your identity is hidden from a single source of information, the aggregated information from all your activities on the Web can easily profile you if you’re not careful. While experienced hackers could probably get to you easily, you have to make it as hard as possible for the average Joe to find you.
You have to create a new identity from scratch. New email, new names, nicknames, social network accounts, etc. This identity should not come into contact with your other identity, ie, it needs to be impossible to link your FaceBook accounts, emails , names etc to your real identity.
1- New email
Your new email should not contain a phrase or expression found in your real identity(no nicknames, see below). When signing up, everything should be fake: name, age, birth date, location and city. Most email providers will ask you to give a valid area code. To go around this, go to google maps, pick a location, and take the area code of any restaurant or store.
2- New Social networks accounts
Your new Twitter, FaceBook and other social network accounts should not come in contact with your accounts from your real identity. That means no common friends and no messaging people you know in real life. They should not contain names, nicknames, phrases or even avatars that you normally use with your real accounts.
If you think avatars and quotes are harmless, they’re not. If the same quotes can be found on your 20 accounts, then you might have a problem. Same logic applies to a picture of a hot black girl spreading her ass. Might not look like you at all, but if you used the picture everywhere for the past 15 years you might have a problem too.
3- Nicknames
That sounds obvious, but don’t use nick names associated with your real identity. For instance, suppose you subscribe to a forum with your fake email but you use your favorite nickname, Joe24521. Your fake email could now be associated with that nickname and you have contaminated your identity.
Nick names are important, because they can be even more unique than real names. There might be a hundreds of thousands of John Smith in the world, but only a few Joe24521 in the entire planet. If you did some shady activity in your past under a unique nickname, someone could dig it 20 years later and hold it against you (true story).
4- Don't share personal information
Most members of this forum seem to know this rule well, but sometimes a little slip can be harmful. When you post on forums and write emails, be vague about your personal information. Stalkers like to analyse your every post and put together little pieces of information that, when amassed, can help identify you. Your ethnicity, age, whereabouts, and even favorite movies, music and artists can be used to profile you. So it's a good idea to just avoid talking about your personal life.
5- Websites
Nowadays, it is common practice to hide your registered information about your website. If you don’t, WHOIS records are public and your name and address could be found under 3 seconds. It’s easy to legally hide these records as most providers like Go Daddy offer privacy protection for cheap, so don't forget to do it.
6- Hide your IP address
When you have someone’s IP address, It’s not possible through legal ways to obtain his identity unless you’re a law enforcement official and you force the ISP to share the information. However, with free geolocalization services it’s possible to pinpoint most people’s city with about 99% accuracy. Works best on western countries. So hiding your IP is a good idea.
You can use proxy servers to do so. I used Hotspotshield in the past to watch TV programs that were blocked in my country (they block access by IP address). You can go to sourceforge.net and find other proxy programs, of if you want an instant quick proxy protection, go to Google and type “web proxy servers”.
While these steps will not prevent hackers from finding you, this will discourage the common manginas and feminists, who are usually not trained in the art of boldness.
While you might think that your identity is hidden from a single source of information, the aggregated information from all your activities on the Web can easily profile you if you’re not careful. While experienced hackers could probably get to you easily, you have to make it as hard as possible for the average Joe to find you.
You have to create a new identity from scratch. New email, new names, nicknames, social network accounts, etc. This identity should not come into contact with your other identity, ie, it needs to be impossible to link your FaceBook accounts, emails , names etc to your real identity.
1- New email
Your new email should not contain a phrase or expression found in your real identity(no nicknames, see below). When signing up, everything should be fake: name, age, birth date, location and city. Most email providers will ask you to give a valid area code. To go around this, go to google maps, pick a location, and take the area code of any restaurant or store.
2- New Social networks accounts
Your new Twitter, FaceBook and other social network accounts should not come in contact with your accounts from your real identity. That means no common friends and no messaging people you know in real life. They should not contain names, nicknames, phrases or even avatars that you normally use with your real accounts.
If you think avatars and quotes are harmless, they’re not. If the same quotes can be found on your 20 accounts, then you might have a problem. Same logic applies to a picture of a hot black girl spreading her ass. Might not look like you at all, but if you used the picture everywhere for the past 15 years you might have a problem too.
3- Nicknames
That sounds obvious, but don’t use nick names associated with your real identity. For instance, suppose you subscribe to a forum with your fake email but you use your favorite nickname, Joe24521. Your fake email could now be associated with that nickname and you have contaminated your identity.
Nick names are important, because they can be even more unique than real names. There might be a hundreds of thousands of John Smith in the world, but only a few Joe24521 in the entire planet. If you did some shady activity in your past under a unique nickname, someone could dig it 20 years later and hold it against you (true story).
4- Don't share personal information
Most members of this forum seem to know this rule well, but sometimes a little slip can be harmful. When you post on forums and write emails, be vague about your personal information. Stalkers like to analyse your every post and put together little pieces of information that, when amassed, can help identify you. Your ethnicity, age, whereabouts, and even favorite movies, music and artists can be used to profile you. So it's a good idea to just avoid talking about your personal life.
5- Websites
Nowadays, it is common practice to hide your registered information about your website. If you don’t, WHOIS records are public and your name and address could be found under 3 seconds. It’s easy to legally hide these records as most providers like Go Daddy offer privacy protection for cheap, so don't forget to do it.
6- Hide your IP address
When you have someone’s IP address, It’s not possible through legal ways to obtain his identity unless you’re a law enforcement official and you force the ISP to share the information. However, with free geolocalization services it’s possible to pinpoint most people’s city with about 99% accuracy. Works best on western countries. So hiding your IP is a good idea.
You can use proxy servers to do so. I used Hotspotshield in the past to watch TV programs that were blocked in my country (they block access by IP address). You can go to sourceforge.net and find other proxy programs, of if you want an instant quick proxy protection, go to Google and type “web proxy servers”.
While these steps will not prevent hackers from finding you, this will discourage the common manginas and feminists, who are usually not trained in the art of boldness.
