A word on personal identity security...

There area many people on-line who wish their identies to be secret, however they do not realise that they have released information about themselves into the Web's public domain access.

Yes I do know some people couldn't care more, if you are one of them then don't bash me for trying to help others who do want to be un-identified.

In a simple expairment I discovered the names, and adresses of several froum-goers (on other forums), so much to the effect that I could compile some basic scripts, put it into a choppy (poorly thought out) data base and be able to profile uses/people. I won't go into detail on this, however, I will tell you how to keep your identity to yourself.

The most obvious thing is to know what you post in forums, never post your name, name of your work/school/street, or what sports team you play on, these can all be reverse searched back to you. Same applies to personal websites etc... if your employer/organization/education center post your name into a Web-accessable location (they may do so without your knowing, i.e. on my School's website the students who built the site have their names on it, same with students on the honor roll, and students who are on sports teams all have their names on-line, and more then likely do no know about it), if they do have it posted, ask for it to be removed, if you are not sure, ask them or check yourself.

Another problem is MS office documents, people upload these and do not know that it holds the "author name" directly in the file, and can easily be found.

More over, people use E-mail services where their names are sent along with it.

And lastly, when you register a server/DNS some one can run a "whois" lookup on your server, this can be used to locate your personal contact information.

I hope this has helped anyone who cares to remain un-known, yes there are a few things I have left out, but I don't worry about them that much, these are just some of the bigger issues that come to mind, and I am posting this on several forums.

Interesting first post. Perhaps you might go into a little bit more depth with your ideas. Posting this particular thread into several forums here will be frowned upon, and I am going to suggest against it. Search for identity theft here. I wrote a couple tuts, that are very similar to some ideas you have presented here. They maybe of interest to you.

Welcome to Antionline.

you're quite right Drakain, and I've pretty much done what you suggested all along..
I might of slipped up here and there but I tend not to use the same nick twice.

so.. a challenge for you.. tell me who I am on some other forums.
(please pm info.. lol)

and a mighty fine first post..

edit : dopey.. i think he meant posting it on other forums besides AO

edit 2 : suggestion.. when you pick a nick.. use a common name..

Drakain.. it took me two seconds using google to find that you have 4,343 posts on another forum.. your birthdate matches what you put in your profile here along with your website.. now, if I went thru every post you did at that forum.. don't you think I could find out more info that would eventually lead me to you ?

come on now.. practice what you preach.. ;) :D

edit 3: ok, i just searched my nick.. and there are a lot of "sumdumguy's" out there hehe.. sounds pretty funny.. but in the first 5 pages.. (as far as i cared to search) there was only one sumdumguy (that's me) and it's at AO.. so I believe that you'll still not find out who a really am..

/sdg pats himself on the back, struts around the room.. yelling "find me if you can"

and if pwaring reads this.. paul.. you better keep your trap shut buddy..<smile>

edit 4 : ok my last edit hopefully.. and I guess I can't really expect Drakain to just pm me with what he finds.. put it out in the open Drakain.. as i couldn't resist showing that I found another website.. one that you'd have to look to find.. I'll just post the update found at that site.. one he's closing down.. sorry to make you the object of my search Drakain.. I hope you see why I did it.

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Update: -(October 1, 2003)-

Happy October, it's been nearly a month since I last updated. Well lets see... I'm slowly closing this down, that will be when the sub-site will be launched for the <edited out> Project (see Augest 2nd update) where I will link there, then to a main page were you can find other intrest sites I'm running, as of now, I'm creating a <edited out> website, along with a group of authors, and to top it off, my parents want me to build them a webpage to sell some stuff on... well enough of that, on to the news.

You may not know this, but my working style when it comes to MU*s, is one hour of work, while watching tv and chatting, oddly enough I made a huge leep in my @doing swaper (this is the first time I have touched it in a long time), most of it is complete, all that is left is working on the @do-fix portion to fix the code if it breaks, then compile the code into a cut/paste and debug it a few times, then you all will have a nice automated @doing changer :)

So in end... lotsa work done, goana do that, then head over to.......

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so folks.. you see.. he is quite correct.. protect your online indentity.

and USE DIFFERENT NICKS.. common names..

over and out.. sdg

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Posting this particular thread into several forums here will be frowned upon, and I am going to suggest against it.

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Other forums as in: www.blizzforums.com , www.digitalhangout.com etc...

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Drakain.. it took me two seconds using google to find that you have 4,343 posts on another forum.. your birthdate matches what you put in your profile here along with your website.. now, if I went thru every post you did at that forum.. don't you think I could find out more info that would eventually lead me to you ?

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Yes, but I am well awar of that fact, I allow it to be like that, reason? Well there is nothing there that will lead you to me, maybe within a WMD attack range, but not to me.

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/sdg pats himself on the back, struts around the room.. yelling "find me if you can"

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Meh, I'll give it a shot on google, but it's somthing like 12am here, so I doubt i'll get any results.

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so folks.. you see.. he is quite correct.. protect your online indentity.

and USE DIFFERENT NICKS.. common names..

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I use the name Drakain Zeil everwhere, people can identify me from other places (like deviantart), and know who my on-line persona is, it's my RL one that I'm more concerned about. I've actualy set it up so you can easily locate anything that I am working on by looking around on the web.

Some times I use an shortened alias depending on what the site is, other then that I just go by Drakain Zeil everywhere.

But yes I suggest users who are protective do change their names from pace-to-place.

Anyway, off I go looking for you.

ps. That website of mine is poorly written, and you could have found it by clicking WWW above my post ;).

ok.. understood.. so, you're absolutely sure that you've never revealed anything in all your posts at blizzforums.com that would lead to you ? if so.. I applaud you..

and good luck on your search for me.. I could even give you my ip and I believe you wouldn't find me.. (without help from folks who actually know me) even if you tried contacting the isp it would be a dead end.. I know this because I'm a dunner.. and my account leads nowhere.
because I don't have an account.. I'm "surfing in the wind.."

anyway.. I do believe that this all has merit. maybe it has been brought up here before but it's worth bringing it up again..

cheers..


catch me if you can.. ;)

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even if you tried contacting the isp it would be a dead end.. I know this because I'm a dunner.. and my account leads nowhere.

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I could always try to locate your ISP, they are normaly within a good distance from you. I havea a dynamic IP adress, however my isp uses a static gateway, but luckly that gateway's server is located just outside of my city, I've use AO's IP locater to find it ;).

I can't find you with what I can find.