Internet, Anonymity and You
 

Hey guys!

I was wondering, what do you guys think about internet and anonymity? Do you ever worry that people can find out information about who you are, where you live, what your phonenumber and income is and so on or don't you care?

I used to not care until I quite harmlessly posted some numbers on the population size of norwegian minke whales in a discussion on whaling. Afterwards, some guy wrote me a private message saying he would hunt me down and kill me and my family. The threat didn't scare me (much at least), but I'll admit I was quite shocked that someone would write something like that to me over something as factual and cold as population numbers. It's the kind of stuff that makes you lose faith in humanity a little and reminds you that the net is full of complete psychos.

Since then, I've been a bit more aware. For example I never got involved in a discussion like that again. I've also been a little more concious about staying anoymous on internet forums. Take my full name for example, I don't share it with that many norwegians. If someone knows where I live, they could narrow it down quite easily. For that reason, I try not to leave trails on the internet which could lead back to me although I have left a couple of pictures up here and so on (might have to delete those btw!!).

Not saying I don't trust you guys and I'm sure this might inspire a few jokes but ;) what do you guys think? Anyone have similar experiences?

Just on the minke thing, was it a PM through the website, I am guessing obviously? Were you supporting an argument or refuting? Just interested in all.

I'm too lazy to care, as my MB forum name might suggest.

it's impossible to stay anonymous on the internet. you may have heard of the things that 4chan members have done to people - in a manner of hours, they can track down telephone numbers, home addresses, schools, and more from just a few small seeds of information.

then there are the sites that most people don't know about... my friend works as a private investigator in the US, and with a social security number, he can get instant access to credit histories, address histories, known associations, bank accounts... the works. these are private subscription sites that are not open to the general public, but this information is out there nonetheless.

just googling your user name i know you're a 20-something student from Oslo, studying arctic terrestrial invertebrates. your Flickr account has a picture of a van with a visible license plate number along with several pictures of you, plus full names of people whose photos you uploaded (friends perhaps?). your blog also gives full names of several colleagues. googling their names brings up UNIS - is that where you go to school? i could go on, but i guess i've proven my point...

it's a small world out there, and anyone can access it without having to step foot outside. be careful!

Actually it probably wouldn't be too hard to track me down if someone wanted to, although I'm not sure how they'd go about it. The details of my life are pretty non-descript, nothing you could easily narrow down. Unless I've told anyone here my full name, which I'd probably hold off on.

I generally don't think about it, I've never been in any situation which made me think about what I was putting out there.

Yeah, I know. These are things I'm aware I share with the world. Still, it doesn't say my full name or where I live, although I'm sure it's possible to find it somewhere. Also, you may be able to find pictures of me outside musicbanter, but if so, I think I'm in pictures with several people and you shouldn't immediately know who's who I think .. at least I don't think I'm sharing any pictures with the world that say "Here I am! This is me!"

But yeah, information is real easy to dig up. Maybe I should change my username. ;)

I try to be as smart as i can about it but really theres no way to comnpletely avoid i dont think. I have Myspace and Facebook accounts but even though i use my privacy settings and don't put any personal information ie phone numbers and address on there because of those and various other sites theres too much information about me out there if people really were determined to get to it.

I also tried to practice anonymity on this site too but thats all gone to hell.

actually you do give your fill name and home town on your blog :D

Yeah, I found it too after my last post ;) Furthermore, no domain owners are really anonymous I found.

It's almost depressing how easy it is to find out details about me on the net.

Some of the details of my life are somewhat distinct like I'm studying arctic invertebrates so I guess I'm the opposite. :p:

Just for kicks I googled my user name (noise sparked my curiosity) and thankfully not too much came up. Mostly a bunch of Christian websites talking about the virtues of being a submissive wife...lol.

Sure, if you're on the internet actively and people really want to dig up something about you, they are going to find away. But I think being discreet discourages people from wanting to do that. I'm amazed sometimes at the amount of information people are willing to share on this website alone.

this is why it's good to use different usernames wherever you go. i don't use 'noise' anyplace else. plus it's just a word, so it wouldn't be any use searching it in google...

I use nonsubmissivewife (or variations) on alot of websites, but none of those have my name anywhere. I think I'm safe from being found out...but perhaps not. :p:

Theres this girl i know, shes a friend of my sister. She had her address and possibly her phone number on FB. I think she only took it down when this guy she was talking to through FB happened to be a police officer and told her to take it down.

I stopped thinking about too much anonymity when I realized the most personal information about me wasn't off of my Facebook, it was coming from my highschool's site.
You can find my graduation pictures, my old bands and performances, even my school play and character, just by knowing my name.
It's horrible, but true.
Creepy, but I can't do much about it.

Well in terms of forums, this is the only one i go on, so in that sense it's quite easy to keep a check on my anonymity. Since i've started here i've actively kept a detachment regarding me in real life and me on here, so i dont share any information with anybody except my username and place of origin. I dont even accept people on msn or anything like that.

I've also become a lot tighter on facebook, only accepting requests from people i know. I do use online banking for convenience, but have enough confidence in the security measures to feel safe doing it.

A girl I know had some issues with a man in a neighborhood she moved to. He found her online, without her knowing, and started talking to her. At first he was friendly, then he started making comments about her children, and talking about the inside of her home -- things he should've never known about. Turns out, he had been reading all of her emails, basically following everything she did on her computer. It turned into quite the debacle. She ended up moving again less than a year later.

Just goes to show the internet can be used in reverse too.

Do you know how he was able to read her e-mails? Was he able to determine her password or something?

Not really sure. I got the impression that he was just all around hacker.

I googled my full name & the results I got were a garage in Devon and a facebook page that isn't mine but someone who shares the same name as me.

So i'm not really that worried.

My full name is so common that when I googled it there were so many hits on a bunch of different people. The only thing that popped up regarding me was my LinkedIn profile. I suppose that could be bad.

You can't get a more common name than mine... but add my middle name and you might have better luck.

I'm not at all worried that somebody, even if they did threaten me, would actually go through with whatever they were threatening. Sure the internet can be a dangerous place but unless your a 13 year old girl chatting with a 40 year old perv (which would be your own dang fault if anything bad happened) I don't really think theres any danger.

I mean even if I posted my phone number and home adress right here right now it'd be no different than the dozens of phone books i'm sure have it.

What do you do for business?

My name is anything but common.
So it's easy to find me.

Yeah same. Also my username pops up a bunch of hits... most of them on mb.

Lolol. I can't imagine googling "story" and getting your name anywhere in the first 100 pages.

I work for a steel sales company. Excitement.

Haha no it's my last name. My last name is already extremely rare and when combined with my first name (In quotes ex. "Story *******") the only thing that comes up is me.

I figure that anybody who has enough of either:
-Money
or
-Probable cause + legal authority

can find you and monitor you no matter what you do to 'stay private'. Anonymity is an illusion - it's only real as long as nobody cares who you are.

tis not bad. I have to edit 3000 files by monday giving them all keywords, description and categories.

My first name is pretty rare. xD
My last name is a common name in Spain and Mexico.
Even though I'm Puerto Rican.

That's cool I didn't know that. One of my friends is half Puerto Rican and his mom teaches Spanish at our school.

Also, my first name is pretty rare as a name.... but very common as a word:p:

That's what I was saying before, you crazy boy.

I'm the 1st hit that comes up when I type my real name on google - my fb account... lol =/

^ But I don't think we'll ever get to know your name or how you look like, in here.

Ummm :o: yeah... a little mystery isn't necessarily a bad thing...

Tell me your name or I'll kill you.

Hahahahahaha, I do enjoy the occasional irony joke ;)

I'm terrible about this, especially on this site. I'm the only one in the US with my name spelled the way it is (my mom found this site that tells you how common your name is...and she checked mine) so... meh. I usually avoid facebook and myspace just because it isn't really my thing (k, truth: i don't get how to use them really...) but my band has one and its not cautious at all. Oh well. If i get stalked and die, it happens. *sob*

Yeah, I try to stay as anonymous as possible now. I never had a big threatening moment like you, tore, but over time the light sort of turned on.

I used to write articles for various sports sites a while back, with my full name attached. These articles would link to the site's message board, where all of my posts were visible... So a simple google of my last name brought up articles, which brought up my username and posting history, which brought up your typical sports banter where I call people "fucking douchebags" and discuss which celebrity is the hottest- stuff I wouldn't share with my mama.

That's not a good thing when you run city programs. My boss, or anybody involved in the programs I oversee, could do a quick google of my last name and find out I'm actually not totally the wholesome guy I am around kids. Outside of work I'm a normal dude who likes beer, boobs, bad words, and some other b's I can't share or can't think of at the moment.

Me and only one other person have my name in the US. That's why I stick my username these days, don't give away my exact location, and I've been apprehensive to post a picture that actually shows my face (without shades, etc). :)

First thing that came up when I searched my name was my facebook page, then my blog, some old school stuff, and some stupid sites I joined in middle school. Stuff from MB doesn't even show up until the third page. I'm not very careful at all about staying anonymous, but like VeggieLover said, if i get stalked and die, it happens.

I think I share alot on the internet, but only with people I trust.
I googled my username, and as my first name is common as muck, nothing :D

i'm definitely more conscious about what i disclose as i get older. not paranoid or anything, sure... most of our information is out there, so is everyone else's, unless there's a reason it should stand out significantly there's no real reason to worry.