Is It Possible To Erase Yourself From the Internet?

Barence writes "Do you remember what you posted on that music forum in 2004? Or which services you tried for webmail before Gmail? We often forget online services, but they don't forget us. PC Pro has investigated whether it's possible to retrospectively wipe yourself from the internet. It discusses how difficult it is to get your data removed from Facebook, Google and other popular web services, as well as reputation management services that promise to bury unwanted internet content on your behalf."

Comments

What about slashdot?

[dnahelicase]

How do I get rid of all those incriminating posts from all that time I wasted on /. while I was at work?

Re:What about slashdot?

[RedHackTea]

su -c "rpm -e myself"
su -c "yum remove myself"
sudo apt-get purge myself
sudo apt-get remove myself
sudo find / -iname "*myself*" -exec rm -rf {} \;
'; delete from users where id='myself'; delete from posts where user_id='myself'; --

Re:What about slashdot?

[Anonymous Coward]

I know what you mean. I have a lot of posts that I'd rather not admit to.

Re:What about slashdot?

[fermion]

Seriously, as much as people complain about facebbok, at least you can request your profile be per antsy removed. Why /. Won't do this is beyond me.

Re:What about slashdot?

[oztiks]

Do what I do, write your nick backwards ...

oztiks

Re:What about slashdot?

[jmcvetta]

delete from users where id='myself'; delete from posts where user_id='myself';

TRUNCATE users CASCADE;

Re:What about slashdot?

[Anonymous Coward]

sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda bs=1M

Much more secure, but you'll need an OS reinstall after running disk destroyer.
Replace the value '/dev/sda' with the results of fdisk -l if you really want to wipe the whole system.

No.

[Anonymous Coward]

No.

Re:No.

[Anonymous Coward]

Jack Bauer can.

Re:No.

[Guy Harris]

No.

Ian, is that you?

Re:No.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't an EMP wiping out the entire electronics infrastructure, including all magnetic and solid state storage, of the US do it? This assumes 'you' have no content residing overseas of course.

Re:No.

[acid_andy]

It's the only way to be sure...

Re:No.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't believe him, then take it from me.

-Barbra Streisand

Re:No.

[foobsr]

Betteridge's law of headlines is an adage that states, "Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."

Random headline from Washington Post: "How High Should You Be on High-Dividend Stocks?"

CC.

Re:No.

[Mashiki]

Why do you say that? Oh right, I'm guessing you're one of the idiot generation that grew up believing that "social media is the end-be-all" of everything online in turn simply posted with your actual name in the first place. Unlike those of us who started using this intertubes thing in the 70's, 80's or 90's and didn't, in which case when we decided we wanted to abandon a pseudonym we could.

Re:No.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you started using this intertubes thing in the 70's or the first half of the 80's, you almost certainly were using your real name, because your account was made that way by whatever institution provided your connectivity. I was here starting in 1982, and I don't remember many pseudonyms in the early days. They started showing up, hmm... maybe in the late 80's?

So there are usenet posts from the early 80's with my real name on them, but more or less everyone who posted (or emailed...) was doing the same.

Of course, this "harvest all the data!" fad hadn't started up yet.

Re:No.

[hcs_$reboot]

Did you google "jack bauer" recently?

Re:No.

[grumbel]

Depends on how far and where you have spread. A lot of stuff I have written over the years on forums is gone, as either the forums are gone completely or the data was lost of a redesign or crash. Of course decade old Usenet stuff from me is still around and so are some mailing list archives. The biggest issue with the Internet isn't that you can't delete stuff from it, you can and most stuff will just disappear by itself, the tricky part is that you don't have any control over which part will disappear and which won't. Sometimes things will turn into a meme or enter some place that gets mirrored a lot and then they will become nearly impossible to get rid of, but other times when you look for old stuff all you find is that the server had a robots.txt and things never made it to archive.org or anywhere else.

Re:No.

[LynnwoodRooster]

That's the EXACT reason why I make sure and do a hard printout of The Internet every few weeks... When the EMP goes off, don't come crawling to me begging to use my copy!

This problem is easily solved

[Spy Handler]

by using a handle (pseudonym) and never your real name.

Take that, Zuckerberg and Schmidt

Re:This problem is easily solved

[sinij]

It takes more than that. You also have to compartmentalize your real and assumed identities so your friends and acquaintances who do not value your privacy do not link them for you.

I find facebook's "is this really X's real name" queries to your social contacts especially dangerous.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[mrbluze]

It takes more than that. You also have to compartmentalize your real and assumed identities so your friends and acquaintances who do not value your privacy do not link them for you. I find facebook's "is this really X's real name" queries to your social contacts especially dangerous.

Facebook is an intel organization's dream.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Kenja]

And never buy a house or sign up for anything offline or do anything that ever goes into any form of public record. Basically, you need to go live in a cabin in the woods.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[XxtraLarGe]

by using a handle (pseudonym) and never your real name.

It's a lot easier to connect the dots than you might think...

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Anonymous Coward]

by using a handle (pseudonym) and never your real name. And never doing any of the following: applying or using credit or debit cards, taking a job (under the counter OK), buying or renting a car, owing or renting an apartment, applying for unemployment insurance or other government benefits, or showing one's face in a public or private (for StreetView) place.

ftfy

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Githaron]

TFS said retrospectively (while meaning retroactively).

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Jason Levine]

I do that with a "blog/social media name" that I use. (My Slashdot account pre-dates this pseudonym.) The problem is that as I get in touch with more and more people online under my pseudonym (especially as I go to conferences and the like), more and more people know my real name. Which means that any one of them can reveal it online (whether out of malice or just not thinking). My pseudonym will be publicly linked with my real name someday. It's inevitable. My only home is to delay that for as long as possible.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[MouseR]

Where your life will be filmed by the myriad of critter cams out there.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed. Maybe it's as simple as relating a particular username here that you used when you signed up with Verizon/Comcast/whoever. I know I certainly don't bother coming up with different usernames for different places. I only do so if my goto name is already taken.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[BitterOak]

by using a handle (pseudonym) and never your real name.

It's a lot easier to connect the dots than you might think...

Yep. Sometimes it's something as simple as an IP address, cookie, or Flash cookie that will do it. Or something more subtle, like unique web browser signatures (eg. the collection of fonts installed on your system is reported by some browsers and and can serve as a unique fingerprint.). And keep in mind, as far as I know there are no privacy laws that prevent an ISP from reporting the real name of a subscriber given their IP address, and many give that information out to police without warrants.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought intel made semiconductors?

Re:This problem is easily solved

[YodasEvilTwin]

Facebook has a fucktonne of information about me ... none of which matters. Oh god, someone might show me a relevant ad! Or find out that I said silly things to my friends on the internet! Nobody gives a shit.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[DogDude]

Not true. The only contact I have with The Database is the house that I own, and it really doesn't do too much. Very occasionally, I'll get a piece of snail mail because of my house ownership, but that's really it. If you do no credit cards, no banks (credit unions), no online services, etc. then just owning a house doesn't really put you in The Database as much as one would think, considering it's public record.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[honestmonkey]

Yeah, maybe so, maybe no. Did you every "Like" something? How about a song somebody sent you the link to? How about a Youtube video of a song, say from "Glee"? And also, do you live in one of the states where it is LEGAL to fire your ass or kick you out of an apartment if you are gay or suspected of being gay? Fucked now, hey. Just because you said silly things to your friends.

Anything and everything can come back to haunt you. And occasionally someone does give a shit.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Charliemopps]

That doesn't work... at all... they don't care what your real name is. All they care about is being able to uniquely identify you, and target you with adds. Your full name is a horrible data point for that because there are probably dozens, if not thousands of other people with your same name. I have a rather unique name IRL and there are still at least 20 people I've found with the identical first and last.

Instead they track you based on dozens of data points combined. Any of which can not match, but if they have enough data points they can still be sure it's you based on the rest of the data points that match.
So lets say they have the following info on you:
Email address
IP address
Operating system
Browser
Fonts installed
Start page (where you launched their site from)

This is a rather simple list. Most marketing software tracks much more than this.
So they track when you login. In general, most of the above information is given over by default by your browser, besides the email address. The email address is the holy grail of data points because, even if you give them a bullshit email address (like you make up one on hotmail just for spam) you tend to use that same account on all sites. So every time you login they log all this data on you. Then their software collates all this data into: 100% of the time you logged in with all of the above data being the same with the exception of IP address. That seems to change between 2 IPs daily. Then, once a moth both those IPs change at random. A quick query shows that the first IP belongs to AT&T, and is clearly your home IP address. The second IP belongs to a company, and you access it between 8 and 3pm... so now they know where you work, and the hours you work.

Generally they don't need all of this, as long as they have a verified email address. BUT... then you come to the point where you switch emails. Or you have multiple accounts to thwart your tracking efforts. BUT, they have all of these other data points. They can still confirm it's you to an error fact higher than the number of people in the united states. That's good enough for them, and they link the data between the 2 accounts and add your new email address to your list of email addresses in their database.

But you say "AH WAIT! I didn't give my new email address to that site... I went over to this other one! They can't track me!" That's great, but it doesn't work. As things go now, the site you're at purchased a marketing package from a cloud service company. A company that tracks all of this data across thousands of sites. The marketing service likely even has peering agreements with other services.

Long story short? No matter what you do... how you protect yourself... you can not evade this tracking. You could use TOR but that would just be another data point for them. The very fact that your IP changes every time you log in is identifying. You may think that none of this matters, they don't have any of your real life data. But the fact is, they don't care about that. They just want to sell you stuff... whomever you are. Oh, and by the way, the second you buy anything online, they have all that real life data in spades.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[WinstonWolfIT]

Thoreau and Kaczynski tried it, but then they couldn't resist writing a manifesto.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[YodasEvilTwin]

You seem to be saying that living in the US is the problem.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[chilvence]

Assuming this is something that happened to you, surely if that is the law and the general sentiment around where you are, you should be more prudent about not making it obvious? A bit like, how one can heartily enjoy the occasional spliff, but one wouldn't go blabbering about it to everyone in the world (which is essentially what doing anything with facebook actually is)

Also, move to somewhere less fucked in the head. Just saying...

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Anonymous Coward]

It's trivial to block nearly all of the things you describe. I use noscript, adblock with a privacy list, disconnect.me, request policy, useragent spoofer, and block all cookies except ones I explicitly allow and even those only persist until I close my browser.

And if they are still able to form an "identity" with whatever info they can gather, it doesn't matter if it's impossible to connect back to my real identity. I don't care if a company has my anonymous profile, that's fine. It harms me not at all. Only if that data can be de-anonymized would I be worried; and when properly protected it cannot.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Anonymous Coward]

If you are willing to make a reasonable effort to avoid advertising, the advertisers don't care about adverting to you. It's all algorithmic anyway, nobody's job depends on selling Joe Blow a fleshlight and a russian bride by next thursday.

I think what we're talking about here is paranoids who think the CIA/NSA is collecting a profile on them, in which case none of this really matters because they are directly tapped into your internet connection.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Charliemopps]

you don't seem to understand. Some of that marketing companies biggest customers are probably your ISP, your bank, your school, your employer. You can not escape this. You cannot be anonymous on the internet and still use the internet in any meaningful way. Could you use TOR and never do anything but IRC chat and remain mostly anon? Probably. But what's the point then?

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Anonymous Coward]

I have never seen a single poster I consider truly intelligent who uses Slashdot.

(OK, John Carmack and a few other luminaries used to post here occasionally, but still...)

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Anonymous Coward]

I can vouch for this I accidentally clicked on Glee and now half my facebook friends think I'm gay. Even though I'm married happily for 15 years.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[penix1]

Having a house, a baby, a spouse, Social Security, or any other form of government interaction. It is all public record and "in the Database" as you put it.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[penix1]

Or getting married, having children, owning or renting a house or any other thing society requires for living in its world.

ftfy

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you seen how some nobody has something major happen to them and their facebook photos are the ones used in the article? Especially the stupid or embarrassing ones?

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Anonymous Coward]

You seem to be saying that living in the US is the problem.

It's a problem. But living other places there are problems, too. Maybe different problems, but problems nonetheless.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed. Maybe it's as simple as relating a particular username here that you used when you signed up with Verizon/Comcast/whoever. I know I certainly don't bother coming up with different usernames for different places. I only do so if my goto name is already taken.

You mean, you're the original AC?

Re:This problem is easily solved

[honestmonkey]

Maybe, partially. But part of it is a change that many older people might not realize, and I think probably younger people don't care enough about until it's too late. When I was growing up, if you wanted "dirt" on someone, you had to do physical work - root through their trash, talk to people they knew, try to get access to records that may or may not be available down at city hall or whatever. Now, you google them and get just about everything. Younger people think it's fun to post everything online - look at the recent reports of guys being caught raping someone because someone took a video and posted it. I mean, WTF were they thinking? They weren't. And even if it's not rape, everything you say can and WILL be used against you, in court, in the job market, in life. It sucks, but that's the way it is. Not just in the US, I think.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[DogDude]

I understand that. I'm saying that from personal experience, being in The Database solely from owning a house doesn't have very much of a real world effect. I don't have credit cards, or work with banks or buy stuff online, so I can't tell what the trigger is that inundates most people with marketing garbage. With just a house, there's surprisingly little, even though, yes, of course one is in The Database.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[honestmonkey]

There are 29 (I think that's the number) states were this is the law. So now, I have 21 to choose from (assuming they don't have some other fuck-ass laws). Or I can leave US and move to Canada, where there is no censorship, but at least great health care.

So you are saying, don't ever do ANYTHING that ever again there after might be misconstrued and used against you, because you always know that the future holds, eh? Good fucking luck with that.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Darinbob]

Ted, is that you?

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Anonymous Coward]

I have never met a single person I consider truly intelligent who uses Facebook.

Yes, you have. You frequently meet people who use Facebook who are objectively smarter than you, in fact.

You see, my definition of intelligence includes not doing stupid things which are easily avoided.

Then there has never been a single intelligent person in all of history.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[chilvence]

I didn't say you should like it, I just said maybe be a bit pragmatic. Like, if I lived in Saudi Arabia, I wouldn't give anyone a reason to suspect I was an atheist. The other choice is take society head on, again nothing wrong with that, but you best have some kind of plan...

But yeah, I would wager that 90% of the history of migration is motivated by not wanting to put up with the neighbours....

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Anonymous Coward]

You think your local DA can be found through is mortgage? There's way around these things.

I, myself, do not own a house or a car. I just so happen to be the executor (not a publicly disclosed function) of a public trust which happens to own a house and a car. All of the public record with none of the my name attached to it...

Re:This problem is easily solved

[elucido]

Use a virtual machine.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[mianne]

Do you use a different virtual machine for every different site you visit? Do you ensure that none of these machines have the same exact combination of installed services and browser extensions? Do you just ignore any site which requires disabling javascript just to see the page, navigate the site, or interact in any way? Do you ensure that your browser ID, IP address, and other Unique Identifiers you may or may not be aware of are completely disabled or randomized across all VMs? When a /. article links to another site (Github, Youtube, Wired, Wikipedia, Mathematica, EFF, etc.) Do you take care to view the linked url, write it down, start the new VM and then type the url in there? Do you always ignore any links which use url shorteners provided such as bit.ly? Do you make sure that none of the missives you post use a similar vocabulary, phrases, or sentence structure?

If you don't take all these precautions, it's possible , nay likely, that your VM is still sending out a very clear picture of who you are, your interests, and what you do online. And if you take all of these precautions and probably another dozen or two I hadn't extemporaneously come up with, such as your Faraday cage and tinfoil hat, then how to you have time to do anything online or off?

Re:This problem is easily solved

[mianne]

and before you get all pedantic on me.. I intended to write, "disabling Noscript" or "enabling javascript" above. but just that one mistake could link just a couple of your hundreds of identities, and it could all snowball from there.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that you, sunbathing next to the cabin? OH PLEASE put on some shorts, no more hairy asses, we can see you for crying out loud from way up here crystal clear!

Keep that smile on, best you mind a happy tune the rest of you, that's how that cabin dweller isn't hunted down and buried under his cabin because nobody would ever know anyway lol! I can tell you the mm resolution is fine technology to work with, I'm proud of my American engineering brothers when I see the quality of this thing each day... and wOOt wOOt hot babes ViSiBLe from outerspace, no wonder NRO didn't want those Hubble class telescopes no more, these make out tits and adaptive optics plus enhanced 3D data streams provide realtime video even in perspective shifts says it all! Your momma be proud, this shit me cry at night with how I know they can see looking up at the stars in enhanced IR mode, they can track me if they wanted but everyone knows we don't do that to our own unless they babble on in bars about their day job.

I wonder if there's a market for spy satellite porn? Yeah my badge even tells everyone I'm not permitted to copy data or even have electronics with me, fuckers would have my job faster than a rat's ass if they could get at me for carrying even an iShitszu through the door.

Ah, the agent life, yeah! baby!, funded by you're friendly government spying on you... Right on, they pay me to watch your asses! And, soon every government will have these spy satellite operators watching your ass from space like me... And little drones to hunt your ass down if you step outta line, so keep your ass clean or I'll report your dirty ass to our fine sanitation department -- our little nickname for the DHS! Lmao, the CIA gets to be the International Sanitation Depart. now. Why someone has to keep this country clean, my drunk ass doesn't give a shit who does the effing cleaning as long as it ain't me.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[allo]

you need just one VM, which has a fingerprint, which is shared with many other VM users. think of the tails live-system for example. I think it has a fingerprint, which is unique to one version of tails, and shared between many users of this version.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[allo]

these people are not your problem.
Of course, one post can link the names. But it does it on a content-layer, not on a semantic layer. So it will only link them, for people reading the post, not for data mining companies like facebook, because they cannot parse the post in the right way, yet.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what they want you to believe.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Anonymous Coward]

If you really want to see how identifiable your browser fingerprint is, check this out. There's nothing fancy about my setup, but I was still unique among ~2.7 million tests.

Panopticlick - EFF

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Anonymous Coward]

As others have said, it doesn't help if your real name and your handle get linked.

I have multiple handles that I use, and have gone to some lengths to try to keep them separate. The one I use on here is my *LEAST* separated (there are plenty of links out there on 'dead' sites that link my non-anonymous /. handle with my real last name. I've done my best to bury them, but they are still there.) I have two others - one where it is almost completely separated (At least, if I search for my real last name plus that handle, I don't get any legitimate connections on the first four results pages, only random circumstance, only one of which is even *ME*,) and a second that is absolutely separate. (I only use it via 'private mode' web browsers running in VMs. It's the one that, should I ever run for public office, could prove annoying. Not illegal or anything, just annoying.) Of course, I also make sure not to have multiple handles on the same site, so that a site admin couldn't link them by my IP address.

Of my three handles, one of them I assume that there are plenty of people that know the real name/handle link. The second I know only a few people know the link. The third I'm about 99% sure NOBODY knows the link other than me.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[Pieroxy]

Basically, you need to go live in a cabin in the woods.

I saw the movie. No thanks.

Re:This problem is easily solved

[strikethree]

No. He merely used examples that are applicable to his situation, which is in the US. What he is really saying is that living anywhere that there are judgmental and prejudiced people is a problem. I have news for you: They are _everywhere_ and in some situations, you are likely one of THEM.
   

Step 1 - NEVER close an old email account

[gubon13]

I can't speak to getting rid of specific old traces of yourself, but you're definitely SOOL if you close the email account on which old forum/website accounts were based. Even removing data from spokeo.com and similar sites is based on access to email addresses that, again, were associated with old accounts.

Re:Step 1 - NEVER close an old email account

[Anonymous Coward]

so to that I would say, never use a free isp email account as thats the number one reason people seem to close email accounts when they are changing provider.

Re:Step 1 - NEVER close an old email account

[Anonymous Coward]

Weird you should say that. I use 10 minute mail to create forum accounts and write down the login and password. No problems so far.

Re:Step 1 - NEVER close an old email account

[Anonymous Coward]

So... you keep all your L/P data... even the ones from 15 years ago?

Re:Step 1 - NEVER close an old email account

[magic maverick]

I can't say I do from 15 years ago, but I have done for the last 6 years at least. Every time I create a new account, I invariably record the details (including the fake DOB and mother's maiden name -- jokes on them, I'm a bastard) in a text file along with all the rest.

I also provide various fake email addresses (mailinator ftw) and record them.

Basically, I could prove that I (Dr. Janet J. Smithers) do in fact own three /. accounts, six Wikipedia accounts, various file sharing accounts, multiple Yahoo accounts, Google accounts, multiple forum accounts, etc. Even though I do not use the same pseudonym anywhere anymore (I provide a different one in every location). I also try and vary my writing style, here I'm literate. Over de i kant rite 2 gud. It makes it harder connect the dots I hope.

I also don't have Flash or Java plugin installed any longer, which limits attack vectors there. I limit JavaScript to certain domains. I have installed RequestPolicy and other privacy preserving plugins. Though I still find it strange I keep getting ads for chew toys...

The point of all that was, I can't remove myself from the Internet. E.g. to delete /. posts would require more effort than I feel like putting in. However, I can limit the damage by separating various parts of myself and making it harder to connect them. If I could delete forum posts from 2002 I would though.

Re:Step 1 - NEVER close an old email account

[NatasRevol]

Step 0 - never do anything that's put on the wayback machine.
http://archive.org/web/web.php

Re:Step 1 - NEVER close an old email account

[greg1104]

The only embarrassing things I did online 15 years ago were posts to Usenet that seem a bit immature now. I think it was easier then to see that things you posted went out of your control and might be around forever though, because that distribution was itself sometimes a technical problem to be solved.

I've had the same e-mail address for over 15 years though. For the majority of the login/password combinations I created, I outlasted the site I created it on. I'm not exactly worried that I can't provide the credentials for the gopher account I signed up for once in the early 90's.

Re:Step 1 - NEVER close an old email account

[Anonymous Coward]

I also don't have Flash or Java plugin installed any longer, which limits attack vectors there. I limit JavaScript to certain domains. I have installed RequestPolicy and other privacy preserving plugins. Though I still find it strange I keep getting ads for chew toys...

It may sound paradoxical, but the fact that you don't have Flash or Java plugin installed and JavaScript limited (on presumably on non-iOS based browser) makes you easier to track from the web site perspective, since most folks do have these things. You may not realize how your setup makes you stick out like a sore thumb for advertisers, like google.

Re:Step 1 - NEVER close an old email account

[allo]

nope. of course you could say "hey, the guy blocking cookies is here again", but as soon as there a two of them, its hard to distinguish them. if you allow cookies, you get a different fingerprint than everyone else, if the site gives you an id. the more people block tracking, the bigger the anonmous mass gets.

Re:Step 1 - NEVER close an old email account

[L4t3r4lu5]

I don't see proxies listed anywhere. I also don't see browser ID string spoofing either.

Head over to https://panopticlick.eff.org/ and see how unidentifiable you actually are.

Re:Step 1 - NEVER close an old email account

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you realise how much browser info can be leaked through Javascript? It is easier to make your browser look less unique with Javascript disabled than it is with it enabled.

Re:Step 1 - NEVER close an old email account

[tehcyder]

I also try and vary my writing style, here I'm literate.

Isn't that sticking your head above the parapet?

Re:Step 1 - NEVER close an old email account

[magic maverick]

gud poignt. i shuld b karful.

Keep out of my archives

[Improv]

I'm not happy when people dig into forums and start scrubbing bits out of them; it means that if I want to keep an accurate history of things I can look at, I need to save a copy, and if I'm having an internet argument with someone I need to stash a copy of everything they say on my website (or at least ready to go up there) to preserve coherency.

For people who I think might try to disappear, or for people who frequently delete or censor their blogposts/discussion posts, I already do this, but it's a pain in the butt. I don't want it to be more common.

It's healthier for society to accept that people change than to let everyone reenact 1984 every time they get nervous.

Re:Keep out of my archives

[CanHasDIY]

It's healthier for society to accept that people change than to let everyone reenact 1984 every time they get nervous.

I take this statement to mean you've never actually read that particular tome.

You should.

Re:Keep out of my archives

[Anonymous Coward]

Speak for yourself.

Re:Keep out of my archives

[Improv]

I have. Perhaps you're familiar with the editing of history that was a theme in the work?

Re:Keep out of my archives

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want to be sure of keeping a record put it on a system you fully trust and control, period. This isn't just about people having privacy - this is also about sites that just go offline (remember Geocities?).

Everyone being able to control their own content matters more than your "archives", and will also lead to people contributing more and higher quality content in the first place. Sorry if this is less convenient for your particular use case, but it's just the right way to do it for both technical and ethical reasons. Get familiar with mass-downloading/crawling software, write a few scripts, and you'll be fine.

Re:Keep out of my archives

[vux984]

It's healthier for society to accept that people change than to let everyone reenact 1984 every time they get nervous.

I can control what I do. I can't control whether or not 'society will accept that I've changed'.

As long as that remains true (and I don't see it changing anytime) only a fool will 'rely on society to accept...' anything, if they have any choice in the matter.

Re:Keep out of my archives

[Anonymous Coward]

...and if I'm having an internet argument with someone I need to stash a copy of everything they say on my website

The above sentence is one of the most profoundly pathetic things I have ever read on the internet
or anywhere else.

You must have a lonely, sad, and very tiny little life.

Re:Keep out of my archives

[CanHasDIY]

Well, sure, by Big Brother, but not even Party members were allowed to alter their own history without express permission.

Re:Keep out of my archives

[greg1104]

I'm not worried, my geocities forums will always be there.

Re:Keep out of my archives

[Improv]

Sure. Metaphors only go so far. My point is I don't want others erasing bits of history that I depend on, and so letting people erase is kind of scary.

The actor is less interesting to me than the act; Big Brother itself is not scary, the acts that Big Brother did were scary. They would've been just as scary done by a big corporation in a "free" market ("Jennifer Government" is an interesting libertarian dystopian exploration of that) or done by some other social organisation.

Re:Keep out of my archives

[Improv]

Oof. Never been compared to Ron Paul before. Harsh.

Yes you can

[Anonymous Coward]

My friend #### ######## already did it.

#### is a genius who has written a worm that crawls through the internet and replaces any occurrence of his name with hash marks.

--AC

Re:Yes you can

[Anonymous Coward]

Your search - #### ######## - did not match any documents.

Wow! What's his name?

Re:Yes you can

[Anonymous Coward]

and I have your password: *******

Re:Yes you can

[Anonymous Coward]

His name is Hash isn't it?

Re:Yes you can

[Karl Cocknozzle]

His name is Hash isn't it?

Of course! My good friend Hash Tag! We went to university together--great guy... Can really wail on the guitar.

Re:Yes you can

[YodasEvilTwin]

Wow that shows as hunter2 to me

Whats the internet?

[vlm]

Whats the internet? They just listed some specific services. I'm on usenet going back to 1989, I believe. Certainly 1991 at worst. Anyone younger than 35 or so pretty much just said "usenet? whats that?"

Amusingly they didn't list what it takes to remove yourself from compuserve (I was on from 1981 till... donno) and prodigy and myspace and ...

30 years from now you'll mention you were on linkedin and the 22 year old girls in HR who filter the resumes will say, "huh? Whats a linkedin?" Ditto facebook, G+, etc.

Re:Whats the internet?

[Cassini2]

Fortunately, the search engines appear to have forgotten about USENET. I'm in the same boat, and I used my real name too.

My current strategy is to avoid saying anything on-line that could blow back to me, and I always use a pseudonym. However, with a vast history, I wonder how anonymous I really am.

Re:Whats the internet?

[Finallyjoined!!!]

I too was on usenet & CIS in the mid 80's, yet I have neither a facebook nor a twitter account.

30 years from now you'll mention

I suspect 3 years is the more accurate prediction.....

Re:Whats the internet?

[AmiMoJo]

Back then everything was done with pseudonyms so you can just switch to a new one and ditch your old identity any time you like. All you every posted was text or low res images. Nowadays every site wants your real name, and everyone uploads high quality photos with geotagging.

PS. I'm 32 and have been using Usenet for at least 15 years.

Re:Whats the internet?

[CheshireDragon]

32, and no I didn't question it.
I was probably there with you :P

Re:Whats the internet?

[femtobyte]

20 years ago, there wasn't a highly developed industry devoted to tracking your every internet move for profit. Now there is. That changes a lot --- the HR drone 30 years from now may not recognize the "LinkedIn" brand-name, but they'll be able to pull up every bit of collected data, meticulously passed from tracking corporation to tracking corporation at every merger, to determine if your past life conforms to a suitably-exploitable profile.

Re:Whats the internet?

[Anonymous Coward]

In 30 years i'll either be dead or part of singularity, no one is going to give a shit i was the beer garden last saturday night.

Re:Whats the internet?

[femtobyte]

Lucky you. We don't all have the option of "peaceful death from old age" to avoid the next 30 years of dystopia, so some of us actually do care what happens.

Re:Whats the internet?

[Anonymous Coward]

Google Groups search finds any post on Usenet matching the search criteria. Note that flaming or embarrassing posts are generally at the top of the search results.

Re:Whats the internet?

[0111 1110]

Really? How far back does it go? Can I find my posts from the mid to late 90s?

Re:Whats the internet?

[Anonymous Coward]

Google bought a large historical archive, probably rescued much of the information from being lost. Reports are some of the 1980s is missing, though some early posts from as far back as 1981 are there. The 1990s are supposed to be accounted for, text posts only of course. It was seen as a good thing at the time to save that history, and it likely is, but yes there can also negatives for things some would rather be lost.

Re:Whats the internet?

[TheSeatOfMyPants]

The 90s are *supposed* to be, but it's not the case... I don't know how many other groups are affected, but at least some of the ones I hung out on (like rec.games.computer.ultima.dragons) from 1995 through the early 00s are missing quite a few posts.

Re:Whats the internet?

[vlm]

Back then everything was done with pseudonyms so you can just switch to a new one and ditch your old identity any time you like.

At least WRT usenet, my ISPs From: lines were in this format:

From: blah@isp.com (My Real Legal Name Goes Here)

So, no, its my real name all the time. Not so much for fidonet, etc, of course.

Just for fun I googled and the oldest usenet post I can find (which is weird, I know there's older) is me joining a flamewar in the mid 90s about what numerous Z80 active low control signals do when the CPU is reset and my insisting that having physically done this stuff 15 years previous to the flamewar that the active low control lines drift high and the people who were wrong insisting the control sigs go hi-z aka high impedance / tristate. Almost two decades later and I still don't know WTF those guys were thinking... I was there, man, they don't do that, and no amount of experience or quoting data sheets or books would convince the wrong guys. In summary, we got trolled, I guess.

The irony is there have been so many Z80 clones and Z80 derivatives and Z80 cores inside non-z80 chips like Z80 based microcontrollers and stuff, such that yes on an original date coded 1977 (or whatever) genuine Z80 from Zilog inc I was certainly correct, but there probably does exist some weird thing out there that might tristate the control signal lines while hoping the designer installed sufficient pull up resistors.

Re:Whats the internet?

[Legion303]

Just let it go, man.

Re:Whats the internet?

[tehcyder]

In 30 years i'll either be dead or part of singularity, no one is going to give a shit i was the beer garden last saturday night.

1. Most people don't die at the age of 45, so you should be OK.

2. If the singularity happens, why do you think humans will be allowed to stay around?

Re:Whats the internet?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just passed the 30 mark and I was on usenet half the time I used the internet. Fortunately I used fake email addresses the moment webmail (hotmail, lycos, excite) appeared. I said some really stupid stuff but it isn't traceable back to me.

Re:Whats the internet?

[AK Marc]

The nice thing about USENET is that so few archive back that far. I have posts saved in my newsreader that I can't find archived online, they are so old. At least then I used a pseudonym I never used since, though I used my real name as well within posts, but then my name here is my real name. Never caused me any trouble, and likely never will.

Re:Whats the internet?

[Plumpaquatsch]

The nice thing about USENET is that so few archive back that far. I have posts saved in my newsreader that I can't find archived online, they are so old. At least then I used a pseudonym I never used since, though I used my real name as well within posts, but then my name here is my real name. Never caused me any trouble, and likely never will.

Errm, chances are that they were archived by DejaNews, later bought by Google. And since we are talking about Google, you can be sure they still have them even though they removed them from public access via Google Groups.

Re:Whats the internet?

[AK Marc]

Google groups may have sucky search, but I've found posts that look to be the middle of a thread, that I can't find the start of.

Don't do it!

[The Good Reverend]

I've never understood the fascination so many tech luddites and techies-who-think-they're-cool-by-hating-being-on-the-internet to try to erase their online presence. It'll only come back to bite you.

You don't have to share everything, but establishing your presence and "owning your name" gives you some measure of control in regards to what people find if they search for you. If you go the "you can't see me" route, anyone with a vendetta or anything (good or bad) that gets you in the news is suddenly all anyone searching sees. You can't control everything by being online, but you certainly have more control than if you try to hide.

Re:Don't do it!

[Anonymous Coward]

Why stop with just your real name? Barney Stinson doesn't.

Re:Don't do it!

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

You don't have to share everything, but establishing your presence and "owning your name" gives you some measure of control in regards to what people find if they search for you.

I'm less worried about my reputation and more worried about people looking for ways to leverage inadvertantly disclosed information about me to their own advantage. If your are lucky the best you can expect is to control some of what google shows on the first page of search results under your name. That's only good for the most casual of searchers - anyone actively looking for dirt on you will go far past that first page of hits.

With respect to reputation if you do suddenly get famous enough to be "in the news" google is going to put that stuff right up there at as the first hits anyway because any news site is going to have a much higher page rank than your piddly facebook page -- seen that happen to a couple of friends already.

Re:Don't do it!

[Anonymous Coward]

If you go the "you can't see me" route, anyone with a vendetta or anything (good or bad) that gets you in the news is suddenly all anyone searching sees. You can't control everything by being online, but you certainly have more control than if you try to hide.

I hate to break this to you, but you're wrong, the news media usually comes out ON TOP of *anything* about your name that was there before the bad news came out.

You're better off the radar than on it, the only problem is those employers who rudely expect you to HAVE a FARCEbook.

Re:Don't do it!

[Anonymous Coward]

> You don't have to share everything, but establishing your presence and "owning your name" gives you some measure of control in regards to what people find if they search for you.

Totally disagree... not "owning your name" is best. I have a fairly uncommon name, but I am *so grateful* that there are now 5 or 6 others of me out there in the google results. Now when people search, they dont know which one of those people they are finding... whereas before, I (and my usenet history going back 15 years) was the only one that would pop up. The noise level is now rising making it harder to find the signal.

Re:Don't do it!

[cusco]

Over a decade ago, when the phrase 'data warehouse' was still just a new buzzword, Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems said, "Privacy is dead. Get over it." Much as I really dislike the guy I think that there was a lot of value in that statement.

Re:Don't do it!

[Anonymous Coward]

Well Mr. Reverend, we see you've posted some shit on the interweb!

Revered: that wasn't me!

We did you post this and this and this and this and .... this^n?

yes and no and yes and yes and no and yes and no and yes and yes and .... no^n

Well MR. xxxx, did you post this? It has your name by it.

Me: Nope it's not me. I have never posted as Mr. xxx or xxx. Ever.

Re:Don't do it!

[grumbel]

gives you some measure of control in regards to what people find if they search for you.

Only when you are into search-engine-optimization, otherwise you can write insightful stuff for years, but some silly blog post that got popular for one reason or another might bobble up to the top of the search results. All the stuff you do online isn't really properly reflected by the search results people get when they input your name, only a small seemingly random portion is.

Yes

[futhermocker]

But you'll need loads of cash, connections in South America and a replacement face.

On a serious note, no. I have always been careful (since CompuServe) but there are some traces, if you dig usenet. Most sites from back then are gone. Lucky I have a generic name, first hit is a guy somewhere far away, so I am happy...

change your name

[stenvar]

You can erase your history completely if you change your name. Your new name (if well chosen) will have no Internet history associated with it.

Re:change your name

[EvilSS]

Or pick one so popular that it's impossible to pick you out of all of the other John Smiths on the net.

Re:change your name

[Anonymous Coward]

IMHO, this is the best argument for not using your real/legal name onilne. EVAR!

Maybe you meant change your real name? Changing your legal name creates a paper-trail that links the old and new names.
Or maybe you meant "buy a new identity on the black market?" Surely you're not suggesting that one should have to become a criminal to escape the stupid stuff s/he wrote on Internet years ago.

Re:change your name

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Or pick one so popular that it's impossible to pick you out of all of the other John Smiths on the net.

Exactly. It is far easier to hide in a crowd of a million than yourself in an empty field.

Anyone considering getting a fake id in real life should pick from the most common first and family names (there are name frequency lists you can google for) - John Smith really is super common but it is almost a cliche. If you go with something like Tom Johnson you will still be in the company of hundreds of thousands of other Tom Johnsons and not seem quite so fake.

Re:change your name

[AmiMoJo]

Most service that claim to need your real name actually just need a real sounding name. There is no need to use your actual name in the first place.

Re:change your name

[Anonymous Coward]

But Lexis-nexis will...

Re:change your name

[greg1104]

Not necessarily. True story: I once had "Greg Smith Equipment Sales" try to buy my web site because I was messing with their search rank. What really killed both of us was a baseball player with that name though. Once ESPN started writing about him I was done with being in the top 3. I wouldn't recommend just any common name; what you really want is the name of a celebrity. I use "Michael Bolton" now.

Re:change your name

[Anonymous Coward]

If you go with something like Tom Johnson you will still be in the company of hundreds of thousands of other Tom Johnsons and not seem quite so fake.

Uhm, no, not that name, please. Tom Johnson was the fattest kid in my grade school. He was a good guy, but still.

Re:change your name

[Anonymous Coward]

I wasn't fat, I was big boned, you prick.

Re:change your name

[Anonymous Coward]

yes i can see that in your Michael Bolton nick.

Re:change your name

[WhatAreYouDoingHere]

hmm.... how about "Max Power?"

Re:change your name

[Anonymous Coward]

I recommend the proud name of Anonymous Coward.

http://www.houseofnames.com/coward-family-crest

I'm thinking of naming my child Etcetera. Imagine any list: Taylor, Tommy, Jill, Etcetera.

Re:change your name

[bakes]

The most common given name in the world is Mohammed.
The most common family name is Chan.

Mohammed Chan. Must be lots of those.

Re:change your name

[Anonymous Coward]

Change your name to Lorem Ipsum. You may not disappear, but no one will ever find you.

Re:change your name

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're going to rename yourself to hide, using an existing famous name will work very well. E.g. Tom Cruise, Clint Eastwood, Michael Johnson etc.

Re:change your name

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

If you're going to rename yourself to hide, using an existing famous name will work very well. E.g. Tom Cruise, Clint Eastwood, Michael Johnson etc.

No it won't - because everyone you have to deal with using that name will specifically remember you because you have a famous name but aren't that person.

You used to be able to

[Anon-Admin]

Many years ago you could e-mail an address at google, yahoo, as well as others and they would remove your personal data from the listings. I used to do it every year. Do a search on my self and remove all reference to me. It worked great but they all stopped it and no longer honor requests for removal.

They really should bring it back, Not saying there needs to be a law but a movement to be an upstanding member of the online community and let you request removal of your information.

Re:You used to be able to

[Anonymous Coward]

Why the hell would they do that? They are making money off that information. You are a product, not a customer, and products don't get to dictate who they get sold to or how they are used.

Re:You used to be able to

[SoundGuyNoise]

How come OJ Simpson never did that?

Erase? No. Obfuscate and Edit? Yes.

[WillAffleckUW]

Even your kids school records were visible on the internet back a few years ago, as well as all property and marriage/divorce transactions.

But you can obfuscate things and edit some of them.

You'll still be there, and any decent investigator could find it, but not the average person doing a google search.

Besides, they're all on the Wayback Machine.

Is It Possible...?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Of course it is, do you have a very large asteroid handy?

magic

[slashmydots]

I'm not on the internet in the first place. Any site that asks for a real name didn't get one. I never touched myspace or facebook, etc. Even my Gmail name is fake. So I'm all set.

Re:magic

[1s44c]

I'm not on the internet in the first place. Any site that asks for a real name didn't get one. I never touched myspace or facebook, etc. Even my Gmail name is fake. So I'm all set.

Doesn't gmail log every IP you logged in from?

Re:magic

[Anonymous Coward]

You're not on the Internet? Then how are you reading Slashdot?

Re:magic

[cusco]

Fail. They don't really care what your actual name is in most cases, you're a set of IP addresses associated with a browser serial number, a set of fonts, a series of cookies, etc. If anyone is actually interested in the real identity of slashmydots they'll take your IP to the ISP and find out who pays the bill.

Re:magic

[tftp]

Doesn't gmail log every IP you logged in from?

GMail can read your mail; that is a bigger hole than the IP address of a coffee shop.

Google, however, usually does not have a need to try and discover your real life identity. It is not automatically published for everyone to see. That is what is important. If a corporation sells your browser fingerprint, use a different browser. This one, FF with AdBlock + NoScript + Ghostery + whatever else, shows no ads, blocks web bugs, and runs no scripts. It may still be tracked by IP addresses and other unique information, but why advertisers would be building a list of people who refuse their product? What would they do to me, send the mafia in? I'm not their client, and they move on. I don't need to outrun the bear, I only need to outrun the average Internet user.

Re:magic

[tehcyder]

You're not on the Internet? Then how are you reading Slashdot?

Mind meld.

Re:magic

[Anonymous Coward]

Until you break the law, get married, buy a house, graduate from college, do something noteworthy....oh wait, you're posting to /. from your mom's basement.

It's complicated

[caywen]

I have a solution, but it involves simultaneous use of biological viruses and nukes. At a minimum, my solution will at least erase anyone's desire to care.

My net history is all a clever ruse:

[Hartree]

I make people think I'm another harmless fool on the internet.

By pretty much being another harmless fool on the internet.

Remember. Sincerity is the key to everything.

Once you can fake that, the rest is easy.

Re:My net history is all a clever ruse:

[1s44c]

So your master plan is to fool people into believing you are what you actually are?

Re:My net history is all a clever ruse:

[honestmonkey]

My god, it's brilliant! Nobody would believe that!

Re:My net history is all a clever ruse:

[Hartree]

Exactly. No one would believe the boring truth when the other option is a juicy conspiracy theory.

Bank Account?

[fldsofglry]

Assuming you have a bank account and a credit report, you can't. The info is stored somewhere, which undoubtedly is a computer connected to the internet.

Make it a publicity right

[Animats]

While, in the US (or even the EU), we're not likely to see a "right to be forgotten", we might have a "right not to have one's identity exploited for advertising purposes". You should be able to quit an ad-supported service and insist that none of your data every appear on a page with an ad. If it does, the advertiser has to pay you a publicity fee. California has a law like that for photos - if you use someone's photo in an ad without their permission, you owe them at least $500 - much more if they're famous.

Re:Make it a publicity right

[Anonymous Coward]

Citizen #505-13-1234, you are under arrest for the transmission of Senator McMoneyPants's location yesterday from your phone. As you used an ad-supported browser to post said personal information, you are in violation of the Animats Act of 2014. Assume the party submission position.

The best kind of privacy

[TsuruchiBrian]

If 100% of everything anyone ever did and said were preserved for all of history, it would be the best thing that could happen for privacy.

Sure everyone could find any information they wanted, but that information would be less exploitable.

For example, a company you applied for a job to finds a picture of you getting wasted on New Years. Should they not hire you because you are a drunk? Well it turns out that they can also find drunk pictures of just about every applicant so you are no different.

Every single "bad" thing about you will either turn out to be something that is not really that bad in light of the fact that almost everyone does it, or actually bad (in which case you might need to go to jail).

Another example: Your girlfriend finds out you cheated on her using google. You are an asshole. It also turns out that 70% of the people she knows have cheated. It also turns out she cheated on you too. This sucks. Well yes, but was it worse than when we all successfully hid our cheating? At least now cheating doesn't seem as bad. In fact it may not even be considered cheating anymore since everyone knows about it immediately after it happens.

The real reason for wanting privacy is to not be able to be singled out. If everyone is able to be singled out, then nobody is able to be singled out. When a regular polygon gets infinite sides, it becomes a circle with 0 sides.

Re:The best kind of privacy

[Anonymous Coward]

The real reason for wanting privacy is to not be able to be singled out.

Why do bathrooms have stalls then? We all go, and we all know that we all go.

Privacy has value beyond not being singled out.

I would hate to live in the world you described.

Re:The best kind of privacy

[Shagg]

Or go with Plan B: Don't cheat.

Re:The best kind of privacy

[Anonymous Coward]

There is absolutely no way people would stop taking being wronged personally simply because "everyone does it" - furthermore, this would lead to rather twisted and unnatural incentives where people are pressured to never party or experiment as a way of making themselves more appealing candidates. Everyone being exposed and everyone behaving naturally is not equilibrium, at least some people would start living more straight-laced and the effect would snowball until we're in a self-imposed puritanical society.

Re:The best kind of privacy

[SirGarlon]

The real reason for wanting privacy is to not be able to be singled out.

You can't control who will single you out, or for what. If I am someone who judges people harshly based on X, then I only care whether you do/have done X, or not. I don't care how many other people have done X, because I am looking at *you* and judging you based on X.

So the fact that 75% of people have done X is irrelevant, and the fact that you have done 93 other things that are mildly embarrassing is irrelevant. If X, then I treat you badly.

That is how discrimination works.

Re:The best kind of privacy

[Anonymous Coward]

You scary world was making sense to the word "girlfriend" ... what is that?

Re:The best kind of privacy

[Anonymous Coward]

In a lot of countries the bathrooms have no stall doors, you just do your business out in the (relative) open. Those people live just fine in that sort of environment; it is less about privacy, per se, and more about your personal EXPECTATIONS about privacy. In the world described the expectations would change, and eventually become accepted as the norm.

Re:The best kind of privacy

[YodasEvilTwin]

That's not about privacy, that's about vulnerability (literally being caught with your pants down). It's an evolved instinct. If you could shit anywhere at any time without any physical risk then the only reason for privacy would be fear of being singled out ("Dude! That's rank!").

Re:The best kind of privacy

[YodasEvilTwin]

Are you really sure that people are more capable of limiting their misdeeds than of adjusting to changing social norms? Have you studied history at all?

Re:The best kind of privacy

[YodasEvilTwin]

So you expect an extreme minority of do-gooders to somehow come into power and wealth and suppress the flawed majority?

Re:The best kind of privacy

[YodasEvilTwin]

Who are you, the Pope?

Re:The best kind of privacy

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know what he expects.. but I expect the flawed majority to have a vast pool of flaws, not all of which are shared amongst the whole flawed majority. Quite a number of those flaws are going to be judgemental type of issues. Because thats what people do.

Exposing all our flaws to the flawed majority won't result in the flawed majority not judging you for your flaws since they recognize a kindred spirit. They'll judge you for your flaws because they're the flawed majority. If they were capable of not judging you, they'd be the perfect minority. Or.. dead.

Re:The best kind of privacy

[hairyfish]

If 100% of everything anyone ever did and said were preserved for all of history, it would be the best thing that could happen for privacy.

Sure everyone could find any information they wanted, but that information would be less exploitable.

Not just less exploitable but no-one would care. Supply and demand etc... Back in the day it was shock for a women to reveal her knees in public, now no-one blinks an eye. This is exactly the same situation. We're all shocked by the first revelations of this new privacy free world, but within one generation it will be considered normal and no-one will care.

Re:The best kind of privacy

[hairyfish]

It's only because you have been brought up in a world of stalls that this seems abnormal. Raise you kids in a world of stall-less bathrooms and they wouldn't think twice about it. Those crazy kids and their rock and roll music, why can't they listen to bee bop like we used to do...

Re:The best kind of privacy

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes. I cited the puritanical period. Look it up. Part of what made it tick was the small nature of communities leading to essentially no privacy - a woman branded as a "whore" would be screwed for life. Come urbanization and the relative anonymity of the masses and people were able to live more freely.

Re:The best kind of privacy

[russotto]

Or go with Plan B: Don't cheat.

Might work in the specific case, but not the general. As Richilieu said, "If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged. "

The more tortured the logic from the "evidence" to the accusation the better. And the best part? Any defense you raise only makes you sound guilty.

Re:The best kind of privacy

[TsuruchiBrian]

Yes but it's easier to be a discriminator of X in a world where most people can pretend they don't do X. You are free to discriminate against people who do X even if 75% of people do it, but it depends on what your discrimination is. If you are deciding not to date people who pirate music (about 75% maybe?) then fine that's your right. If you decide you want put people in prison for music piracy, now you will be ostracized (i.e. de-elected).

The thing that allows you not to make something that 75% of people do, is the fact that not all 75% of people will get caught. If, however nothing was private and non-one could be singled out, and 75% of the population was going to have to go to jail, then the discrimination becomes unacceptable.

Re:The best kind of privacy

[TsuruchiBrian]

Funny you should mention stalls. I am quite a prude myself and have noticed a shocking trend that more men's bathrooms have no dividers between the urinals. I am made slightly uncomfortable by this, but I imagine that someone growing up in a world with no dividers would just be used to it.

Furthermore, I don't think bathroom stalls exist to protect privacy. I think they are there because no one wants to look at people shitting. They are not to keep people from getting to see you shit (although it does that too).

I am in favor of people being allowed to try to keep their data private if they want. But I think the mountain of data people are forced to sift through provides much better privacy.

Re:The best kind of privacy

[mapuche]

My kids go to the kindergarten, and they (boys and girls) go to the same bathroom, with no doors. They don't have these kind of problems. The problem is when you grow up and aquire fears.

Re:The best kind of privacy

[tehcyder]

Funny you should mention stalls. I am quite a prude myself and have noticed a shocking trend that more men's bathrooms have no dividers between the urinals. I am made slightly uncomfortable by this, but I imagine that someone growing up in a world with no dividers would just be used to it.

In the UK (and as far as I remember in Europe mostly) stand-up urinals don't have dividers and have never had dividers. You're right, it doesn't bother me, it's something you grow up with.

Furthermore, I don't think bathroom stalls exist to protect privacy. I think they are there because no one wants to look at people shitting. They are not to keep people from getting to see you shit (although it does that too).

Amen to that.

Re:The best kind of privacy

[tehcyder]

My kids go to the kindergarten, and they (boys and girls) go to the same bathroom, with no doors. They don't have these kind of problems. The problem is when you grow up and aquire fears.

My kids had to be taught about privacy. It's nothing to do with fear, it's about being civilised and recognising your own and other people's boundaries.

Feed the Monster Garbage

[MonkeyBot]

I was thinking about this earlier today while reading the article on Raytheon's Riot Program. I don't know if you can effectively remove yourself from the internet, but you might be able to muddy up your profiles with garbage to the point that the information that can be gleaned about you from the internet is of little or no value to a mass data harvester like Riot. I think this is the way to go in the future. You can't erase the data someone has already compiled about you, but you can feed the beast garbage until it vomits.

Re:Feed the Monster Garbage

[Anonymous Coward]

Better than muddying the water, what if you post awesome things about yourself. "${insertName} is the best coder that I have ever had the infinite pleasure to work with. His code is a thing of beauty and makes lesser programmers weep with joy."

Re:Feed the Monster Garbage

[Anonymous Coward]

I think this is the way to go in the future. You can't erase the data someone has already compiled about you, but you can feed the beast garbage until it vomits.

This is the correct strategy, and it applies to many privacy problems.

Don't just try to not let the ad-targeting/data aggregation guys not know about you with script blockers. We need to actively add incorrect information to their databases to lower their accuracy and thus value. This is how you fight data retailers with economics, and it helps protect others, not just yourself. We the tech-literate can protect everyone's privacy, and I believe it is our obligation to try.

Re:Feed the Monster Garbage

[cusco]

Here's one that I and several hundred of my closest friends do; when the cashier at the grocery store or wherever asks for your phone number to use for your discount card use the number (321) 123-4567. Works pretty much anywhere, and if you encounter somewhere that it doesn't just fill out a card with that number so that it will in the future. I like to use the name George Orwell on the card, but there are others in use as well. It's eternally amusing to me the number of cashiers who think that's my actual phone number.

It's the New You

[Nefarious Wheel]

How do I get rid of all those incriminating posts from all that time I wasted on /. while I was at work?

Log out and sign up with a different nick.

Re:It's the New You

[Anonymous Coward]

Get back to work Chris, I know it's you.

Re:It's the New You

[Seumas]

Yeah, I don't get it. Whenever I hear shit like this, I think "wait, why is this a problem?! Why are you using your REAL IDENTITY everywhere?!".

I mean, granted, I use my real first name -- but everyone knows I'm a fucktard within like two minutes of meeting me, so hiding my stupidity is sort of a lost cause.

Re:It's the New You

[peragrin]

The best part is if you a consistent alias you can search for that instead of a name.

Re:It's the New You

[greg1104]

You only need one leak between a consistent alias and your legal identity to connect all the dots though. The idea that you'll be forever vigilant and never goof up on an alias is a bit optimistic. Why is that approach any less prone to mistakes than being vigilant about your real name? You could rotate aliases instead, but that increases complexity, and complexity introduces its own increased odds of error. You could make the same argument about having a single alias too. I see having to guard at least one usernames as being unavoidable if you want to participate on discussion forums. I don't have any illusions that using a non-real name on its own provides me improved security though.

Re:It's the New You

[cusco]

Always figured if someone was actually interested enough in me to do a search they may as well find something of interest. I'm not ashamed of my opinions, including those that I've changed over the years, and I've tossed a couple of stories out there as well. I've never worried about prospective employers searching my online history either, since if they're the type who would find my opinions troubling then I probably wouldn't want to work for them anyway.

Re:It's the New You

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it possible to erase yourself from the internet? Ask Katherine Huftsman.

Re:It's the New You

[Anonymous Coward]

+1 Naive

Re:It's the New You

[anagama]

Google's youtube had no trouble connecting my real name to my youtube alias. I suspect that it's extremely hard to never leak information, possibly involving separate hardware (or at least virtual separate hardware), vpns for unrelated IP addresses, and never giving google your credit card info -- for each online alias. I do have an android phone and google play account so it isn't rocket science to imagine how google could cobble together who I am from that info. IP address plus credit info (which includes real name) compared to IP address plus youtube login and it is a reasonable guess I'm that alias.

Re:It's the New You

[sumdumass]

This is exactly true.

I used to play a game and we did a lot of outside the game strategical collaboration. In doing this, we use Google Docs and everyone who edited some of the papers made gmail accounts under their game persona. Anyways, to cut to the chase, I recently logged into Google Drive which everything was migrated to for a copy of one of the docs. on the right hand side of the page was everyone who collaborated on them and I didn't recognize any of the name. They also had pics associated with the names. It didn't take long to figure out that Google associated them with a live person and put the image from their profile on them. I was also able to look at the Gmail addresses associated with them to find not only the character Gmail address but their main identity on Gmail. I then followed that identity and put a couple clues together from discussions in game and was able to find out an alarming amount of information about them. In one case, I was even able to use Google maps and their street view thing to get a street address on one of them from what she described, pics posted to her face book page, and posts on her friends pages.

Re:It's the New You

[lister king of smeg]

you could use a pre-paid credit card for your android or various other google marketplaces (books, music, play etc.) paid for with cash.

Re:It's the New You

[Anonymous Coward]

I've seen the internet lose plenty of things. Internet archive looks like it is up-to-date on a forum I used to frequent just from the front page, but navigate beyond it, and it's immediately obvious they didn't back up posts for the last 5 years for some reason. Lost many forums that went down and no internet archive or other mirroring services.

People are overthinking things. Just don't use a real name. Don't share info and pictures (photos of self plus gps info on most cameras these days) on these anonymous accounts. Ditch them every once in a while and start a new one.

Most important, know that what you say and do reflects back on you eventually. Like you said, it's impefect and governments can eventually find you. If you plan on getting a job with the FBI/NSA, they can probably find a lot of this stuff about someone even if they are relatively anonymous to the rest of the population. So if you know something can embarass you later, don't say it.

But this goes for real life too now, in the mean time. With smartphone cameras and recorders, you have to figure you're being recorded all the time now.

We have to come to terms with it. Technology has erased our privacy forever.

Re:It's the New You

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not me. I'm not Chris. No Chris around here. Chris went back to work. He's very, hardworking, yes. Industrious. You should give him a raise.

Re:It's the New You

[anagama]

True, but I didn't think of it at the time which is an example of how leaking info is so easy.

Re:It's the New You

[allo]

But one link between them is easier to erase, and harder to find while its still there. So chances are good, nobody will find the link, if its only a single link.

On the other hand ... if you comment some blog and it demands an e-mail address, just make some up, its never verified. I think for comments and such stuff, accounts/email-addresses should always be optional, only for the case you want some reply from the author or notification about further comments.

Re:It's the New You

[allo]

they would have had trouble, if you would have never given them your realname.

Re:It's the New You

[allo]

> "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
for example they are so stupid, they mix up average and median.

Re: It's the New You

[ripvlan]

Of course remembering to do that is "work". Many years ago I posted a comment about some training I took (actually, I wrote it on paper and the instructor typed it in). It was basic "loved the class" stuff. A few years ago I googled myself and that quote popped up...on some Russian website, it was a partial copy of the training company website. Some entity had started to create a catalog of some sort, more of a mishmash of info, and had made a partial copy of our comments (or it was the brochure or like...dunno it didn't make much sense).

I never would have guessed that my name existed on the web. It is as if my name appeared in a newspaper article and someone had copied it to the web.

So removing your name? Probably near impossible. Not wanting to put it there in the first place? Maybe out of your control.

Be careful what you say, "they" might be listening.

Re:It's the New You

[cusco]

Keep in mind that Carlin had to deliver that line to an audience of mostly-average people . . .

Re:It's the New You

[voidphoenix]

A median is a kind of average. Perhaps you thought average only referred to the arithmetic mean? Look it up and educate yourself.

Re:It's the New You

[g0bshiTe]

I agree with this totally. I thought common sense would dictate that privacy is non-existent in a virtual environment. Connected means I have zero expectation of privacy. With that in mind even before I knew anything really about computers back when I was using Nutscrape 3 as my browser of choice I never used my real information on websites I frequented. The only way to trace me at that time would have been the IP I was assigned and what node I dialed into as well as my phone number.

Re:It's the New You

[Anonymous Coward]

... stalker. >.>

And now your tales of stalking are forever recorded!

Re:It's the New You

[Anonymous Coward]

And then with binoculars I was able to see what she wore to bed every night.
 
Stalk much?

You need to take off and nuke it from orbit

[Anonymous Coward]

that's the only way to be sure.

Its all about the noise

[Anonymous Coward]

As a fellow AC you should know better. The question is wrong. Keep the signal to noise ratio high and you will never have a need to regret your internet diving past.

Re:Its all about the noise

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually is the opposite, keep the signal to noise ratio low (much more noise than signal). Unsurprisingly Apple has a patent to this technique http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8,205,265.PN.&OS=PN/8,205,265&RS=PN/8,205,265

FTFY

[tacokill]

Facebook is an intel organization

Re:FTFY

[Anonymous Coward]

Facebook is an intel organization for people without intelligence about their privacy.

Re:FTFY

[Kaenneth]

... for our corporate overlords, and may also be useful to the elected government, as they serve those overlords.

Re:FTFY

[Gr8Apes]

Unfortunately, even if you are aware and intelligent, that doesn't stop the stupid from tagging your happy anonymous butt in that picture they took 10 years ago of you with their sister... and blammo, now you are "in the system" and identified, your correlation factor may be low, but something will come up when you're queried and if it's the only thing....

The only way to "erase" yourself is not to remove all bits of you, but to poison the well. Create many false accounts and post lots of irrelevant things, some about you with bad data if you're already all over the net. The higher the noise level you create with the more false data, the less valuable the "true" data is since data mining becomes less and less certain. Another fun thing - make some accounts with variations of your name, close but not exact, then post the passwords in forums and let random people take them where you want. Remember, you're not interested in reputation - you're interested in bad data.

Your last option would be to have been born a John Smith or Kim Davis - I've known a few of both. Locating specific people with those names is rather difficult.

Re:FTFY

[penix1]

Another fun thing - make some accounts with variations of your name, close but not exact, then post the passwords in forums and let random people take them where you want. Remember, you're not interested in reputation - you're interested in bad data.

Yea, that is one way to quickly become a blonde, bald, hermaphrodite with serious mental illness bent on world domination. That should trigger the DHS watchlist developers scouring the net for their next target.

Re:FTFY

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, even if you are aware and intelligent, that doesn't stop the stupid from tagging your happy anonymous butt in that picture they took 10 years ago of you with their sister... and blammo, now you are "in the system" and identified, your correlation factor may be low, but something will come up when you're queried and if it's the only thing....

The only way to "erase" yourself is not to remove all bits of you, but to poison the well. Create many false accounts and post lots of irrelevant things, some about you with bad data if you're already all over the net. The higher the noise level you create with the more false data, the less valuable the "true" data is since data mining becomes less and less certain. Another fun thing - make some accounts with variations of your name, close but not exact, then post the passwords in forums and let random people take them where you want. Remember, you're not interested in reputation - you're interested in bad data.

Your last option would be to have been born a John Smith or Kim Davis - I've known a few of both. Locating specific people with those names is rather difficult.

Great idea!
Gives a new meaning to the term multiple identity disorder.
One name with multiple useless identities.

Re:FTFY

[Smauler]

I'm lucky... I've got a common name.... there are at least 10 people in the world with more internet presence than me now. They're mostly scientists and mathematicians, for some reason or another.

My dad has a similar common name, has been online for over 20 years, and isn't near early hits with him. Unfortunately, His namesakes seem to be mostly New York based male strippers, and criminals.

Re:FTFY

[bakes]

Yea, that is one way to quickly become a blonde, bald, hermaphrodite with serious mental illness bent on world domination

They found him. Pope Benedict has now resigned.

Re:FTFY

[Gr8Apes]

If there are now 100 "Reginald von Hoobydoobies" instead of just 1, or maybe 200, 1000? These are computers we're talking about, after all. Granted, that particular name... I think you're hosed. (Now someone will post links to multiple existing "real" people) Additionally, you should use appropriate measures to be sure they don't all lead back to a single IP, and you will most likely want designated proxies to maintain the appearance of account 23 being from IP x.

Re:FTFY

[Anonymous Coward]

I have the curse of a unique name. My last name is very rare, and I am by far the most active one online.

My first name is common, but I am the only one in the world with my combination of first and last name. The only other person with my last name with my same first INITIAL is of the opposite gender, but is a published scientist, so if you search for just my first initial, you get that person about as often as me.

Re:FTFY

[dywolf]

Very true.

lucky for me, there's some semi-famous skateboarder and a rocket scientist both with my exact name. appropriate diligence on my part (aliases, disposable emails, fake "information" for accounts that dont need it, etc), combined with their real personas, and I'm pretty well hidden myself. googling myself returns nothing.

I am spartacus

[tacokill]

I have nothing else to say but that seemed relevant

Re:I am spartacus

[tehcyder]

No, I'm Spartacus...

I kind of did that with usenet

[peter303]

Mid-80s UNIX discussion groups. Used the the telephone version of the internet at the beginning. I used my real name them because thats all schools would allow on your account. Plus local servers erased stuff 30 days old due to disk space then. I never foresaw ten years later google would buy up all the archives and put it searchable online. But now google has "aged out" lots of its older stuff. Or it drops 50 pages deep unless you home in on it exactly.

Re:I kind of did that with usenet

[the eric conspiracy]

I have a similar experience - I used to admin some echomail stuff on Fidonet in a similar timeframe. This was transferred via a gateway into Usenet for a while.

Now though it's starting be hard to find traces of it. So maybe after 30 years or so you will disappear.

In a word...

[garyoa1]

no

No - Free Speech

[ZombieBraintrust]

No you can't erase yourself from the internet. Free Speech means people can talk about you. They can talk about where you live, what you did, and all the things they hate about you. You may be able to erase a few things you posted here or there, but you can't erase history without trampling on peoples civil rights.

Re:No - Free Speech

[Anonymous Coward]

You may be able to erase a few things you posted here or there, but you can't erase history without trampling on peoples civil rights.

Wrong, Expect to have the IP brigade against you with an attitude like that! - Yeah they posted the info, it still belongs to the poster according to copyright laws so it IS enforceable in a court of law, as tested by the RIAA several hundred times.

Re:No - Free Speech

[YodasEvilTwin]

Things people say about you are not copyrighted works produced by yourself.

Re:No - Free Speech

[ZombieBraintrust]

tested by the RIAA several hundred times.

the RIAA tried to erase themselves from the internet? Why didn't we let them?

Re:No - Free Speech

[Anonymous Coward]

No, they try to erase their works from the internet, works they claim shouldn't be there, you do the math.

Geocities

[Jhon]

Oh how I wish the wayback machine could remove all the old geocities data...

Re:Geocities

[1s44c]

Oh how I wish the wayback machine could remove all the old geocities data...

Because it's a waste of disk storage?

Well...

[pi8you]

Seeing as Bill Gates ended his Reddit AMA with this this image today, I'm gonna say no. - http://i.imgur.com/D3qRaty.jpg

Re:Well...

[chilvence]

Forget the internet, how do I erase something from my MIND? Pass the toilet bleach, would you?

Re:Well...

[gmhowell]

Forget the internet, how do I erase something from my MIND? Pass the toilet bleach, would you?

Most of us use either mind bleach or eye bleach, but if your mind is synonymous with toilet...

it's just too risky

[catmistake]

I'm not taking any chances. I'm repartitioning and reformatting the Internet, wiping 37 times with random 1's and 0's

Re:it's just too risky

[Anonymous Coward]

Random 1's and 0's? But that's my user name!

I remember

[1s44c]

Do you remember what you posted on that music forum in 2004?

I have never posted to a music forum. But if I did post something offensive or objectionable so what? Anyone that judges too harshly on such minor matters is best avoided anyway.

Or which services you tried for webmail before Gmail?

I used my own webmail before and after gmail. I once setup a gmail account solely to send my mail server test emails.

It discusses how difficult it is to get your data removed from Facebook

I've never had a facebook account. If I wanted the US government to build semantic graphs about my interpersonal relationships then I'd get a facebook account, but until that time I don't see the need for facebook in my life.

Re:I remember

[honestmonkey]

People are missing a key point here. Well, several, actually. Yeah, it doesn't matter if you're friends or family find out you got drunk last Saturday, and fuck 'em if they can't take a joke, right? But there are, for instance, states (29 I believe) where you can be fired for being or appearing to be gay. So any joking or Liking of "Glee" or "Le Cage aux Folles" could make it so that you can't get an apartment. But also, you might leak enough information so that it would be easier to steal your identity (mother's maiden name or favorite movie or first school you attended). "This is John, I've known him since we went to ABC elementary school." Lots of folks don't realize how much information is now available about everyone that just wasn't 20 or 30 years ago.

Also, you're 6 foot, dark haired and named John Smith. Well, we wanted to hire you, but here's a 6 foot, dark haired John Smith on Facebook saying he wants to "kill the pigs". Sorry, we can't take a chance in hiring you.

It doesn't matter if YOU care or not. It only matters how much hassle it can cause you at some point. Think it won't happen to you? Good luck.

Re:I remember

[tehcyder]

But there are, for instance, states (29 I believe) where you can be fired for being or appearing to be gay.

That's why sane countries have laws that limit absolute freedom of speech/action so as to avoid discrimination as far as possible.

Re:I remember

[honestmonkey]

I honestly have no idea what you just said. It doesn't seem to make much sense. The laws I was talking about are sort of the opposite of free speech. They limit people's ability to get jobs or live where they want, on the basis of appearance. How does limiting free speech reduce discrimination? The answer to speech you don't like is speech you do like, not limits on speech. And which are these "sane" countries?

Answer:

[DigMarx]

No, and it shouldn't be possible. Using an alias online is just smart practice, but something's got to be done about the rampaging herds of Internet Fuckwads (greater or lesser). How appropriate would it be for past online shithattery to come back and bite the shithatterists. "I see here you've got an MBA, Mr. Douchesuit, but can you explain why you had an AOL account for 8 years, and what led you to choose the handle T!ts0rG+FO?"

"You can't delete something from the Internet."

[Tumbleweed]

"It's like peeing in a pool. Once it's in there, it's _in_ there." - some old 90s sitcom

Re:"You can't delete something from the Internet."

[CheshireDragon]

That's not entirely true. However, I don't think the internet can be drained.
Not drained but billions of (insert all magnetic storage here) can be discharged around the world. There is a way, but I don't want my door being kicked down in 5min for saying how.

Re:"You can't delete something from the Internet."

[callmebill]

It was Joe from News Radio.

Yes, you can!

[ctrl-alt-canc]

rm -fR -u $USER /dev/eth0 should work.

Sneaky fuckers...

[Anachragnome]

Sneaky fuckers...

What do you think is the best method to get people to update old data? Require them to prove themselves in order to delete it, then simply ignore their request to delete it.

The moment you touch that old data, you've updated it with your current IP address. Once they have that, they can then connect the dots between new and old data, thus providing them with a much greater amount of information.

Re:Sneaky fuckers...

[CheshireDragon]

This is where having an available proxy comes in hand :)
You are using a proxy....aren't you?

Re:Sneaky fuckers...

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah, But I am behind Swedish vpn at the moment. True story.

Yes, sort of

[rbprbp]

Some erasing will eventually happen. Smaller forums, newsgroups etc... will eventually die (domain expires, owner loses interest, they become spamfests and then are punished by Google's algorithms etc...).

Re:Yes, sort of

[Anonymous Coward]

Surprisingly many messageboards are mirrored. Also, apparently there's a business in cloning messageboard threads to hijack google hits and inject ads. This means your posts may never go away. They'll just be cloned again and again by spammers everywhere.

Re:Yes, sort of

[Anonymous Coward]

Usenet archive, the only one left, will go away when Google goes out of business or someone figures out how to hack that archive a delete posts.

The only website...

[Anonymous Coward]

The only website i could find on google containing my real name encountered an unrecoverable database deletion for no apparent reason a few months ago. I'm now officially a ghost.

For established webservices i tend to recover the associated email then said webservice account then scrub and delete everything.

Successful identity erasing can be achieved with the proper means and skills.

YES

[Anonymous Coward]

WHY you start with a ton of lies and crap to begin with and then when you leave nobody knows
haha
suckers

/. membership

[volmtech]

I had an early /. account that I forgot my log in information to. I would like the cred that my low digit number would bring. Is there any way I could reactivate my first account. Or is all my cred already blown because who would forget something as important as that?

Re:/. membership

[Anonymous Coward]

I have the opposite problem. For privacy's sake, I'm considering abandoning my low UID account tied to my real name. So, I'm considering trading for a new handle in the log 6 range.

In the interim, AC it is.

nt

[shentino]

All it takes is one asshole figuring out your real name and bam, they can streisand your identity all over the internet across a bunch of servers.

And all it takes is one asshole sysop to say "fuck no" to your request to disappear and you're stuck.

Once your data is on someone else's server, you are at their mercy and they have you by the balls.

not enough

[Chirs]

You'll need to change your computer, OS, ISP, web browser, IP address, email address, credit card number, paypal account, facebook account, geographic location, etc. as well, otherwise the marketing companies will just use that stuff to match the new name against the old one in their database.

If someone manages to do it...

[GuB-42]

Erasing himself from the Internet is no small feat.
If someone manages to do it, I'm sure his story will be in every tech news sites... oh wait...

nt

[shentino]

1. You need to vanish from the internet yourself
2. you need the total cooperation of the admin of every server your info has shown up on.
3. you need the total cooperation of everyone who could put your information back on

In short, it's an exercise in diplomacy and social engineering. It has little to do with technical issues.

Even worse

[Anonymous Coward]

Thousands of people have been posting as me on Slashdot. How do I erase those posts?

1996 newsgroups....

[Anonymous Coward]

the real question should be: do you remember what you posted in 1996 in alt.erotica.bestialities? Well, now you and the world do thanks to Google indexing the newsgroups archives!

Re:1996 newsgroups....

[Anonymous Coward]

As long as nobody finds out I was among those who created the infamous alt.sex.bestiality.hamster.duct-tape group... Originally meant as a joke but then the perverts moved in...

With a name like mine, it doesn't matter

[Anonymous Coward]

If your family name is Coward and your parents name you Anonymous you kind of blend in with the crowd.

Is it possible to spy on and arrest banksters?

[Anonymous Coward]

Before civil war?
Why don't we get some fucking warrants and go arrest these cock suckers?
This is the better question.
The rest of this discussion is retarded. Really. Nothing being solved here.

Easy...

[jesseck]

Just shoot your hard drives. That's what Adam Lanza did, and all the media reported he "left no online trace".

Use virtual machines. SOLVED.

[elucido]

If you load up a virtual machine then there are no unique cookies, fonts, or anything on it uniquely you.

Re:Use virtual machines. SOLVED.

[nickserv]

I don't know why the parent isn't modded higher.

You can do a few easy things to take yourself out of the "low hanging fruit" category, listed in order of extremeness & difficulty :)

1. Diable all browser plugins. I only use Flash very occasionally on an as needed basis. There's loads of hidden Flash on sites. Very easy to do in Chrome.
2. Install an extension called DoNotTrackMe, it's free and blocks nearly all of the nasty commercial trackers. https://abine.com/dntdetail.php
3. Install another extension called HTTPS Everywhere from the good people at EFF. https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
4. Use an app or manually manage your cookies regularly. On the Mac at home I have an app that regularly erases all the cookies and DBs web surfing leaves behind except for the ones I have marked as favorites. I have a similar app that erases other data at regular intervals such as caches, logs, etc.
5. Don't use FB and other free social sites and services e.g. Google Docs. (Use Libre, etc.)
6. Use a Robots.txt file in every directory that could ever put online. They work.
7. Use LastPass (free) which stores all your web site login data in an encrypted file which only you can access from any computer. You can use a different email address and login ID with every website you surf to then.
Even if you just don't want to have to remember multiple web site logins and passes I could not imagine web life without LastPass anymore. https://lastpass.com/
8. Use pre-paid credit cards.
9. Change your name to be the same as that of a famous actor who is the same sex and a similar in age & appearance as you. I happen to have this by luck, if you Google me you must troll through several pages of celebrity garbage to even get to results for anyone with the same name.

Do all of the above in a VM with default settings from a variety of connections and you're pretty un-trackable for all but the most sophisticated out there.

Re:Use virtual machines. SOLVED.

[tehcyder]

Change your name to be the same as that of a famous actor who is the same sex and a similar in age & appearance as you.

Except that everyone will assume you are a wanker or a stalker or both.

isn't it easier

[cinnamon colbert]

to move to another country and change your name ? Or at least just change your name , and manufacture an excuse that lets you get a new social sec number ? http://askville.amazon.com/social-security-number/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=2358575

You live 100% cash?

[earls]

Nice!! And just one more question - do you keep it all at your residence? Or the stores? ... Then again, NC is pretty lax on gun laws... :)

Re:You live 100% cash?

[DogDude]

Credit unions are much better than banks. They tend not to sell your information as readily as banks do. Credit unions are federally insured.

Witness a mob hit

[Arancaytar]

And enter the witness protection program.

It's almost certainly easier to scrap your identity in real life than online.

That crucial leak ...

[Taco Cowboy]

You only need one leak between a consistent alias and your legal identity to connect all the dots

"Taco Cowboy" has been my consistent alias, and it needs only *** ONE leak to connect the dot between the real me, and "Taco Cowboy"

With that in mind, I never participate on any event that connects my real world identity with my online alias

The Internet Archive...don't forget

[ElitistWhiner]

...is a ' snapshot' in time. You were there!

You're in it and you don't erase that past, neither.

NO

[Anonymous Coward]

that's why you keep your real name OFF THE PUBLIC INTERNET

Sure

[jandersen]

Ever heard about Big Data? That's where companies use software to identify people from their postings on popular forums - LinkedIn, Twitter, ... I work in a company that produces this kind of SW. We are doing well.

One does not simply...

[advid.net]

One does not simply delete something from the Internet

You are better off hiding it

[Chrisq]

Create a lot of profiles with your name, with a lot more interesting things than you. John Smith the actor. John Smith the nuclear physicist. John Smith who saved the USA from danger. Just make it up and post it.It has to be crazy enough that people don't know its you. You could pay people to change their name to John Smith and do things to get in the news - like pissing of the balcony at a film Premier, making a life-sized bacon statue of Muhammad, attempting to ascend Everest on a pogo-stick, or descent on a spacehopper. Anonymously start a cult who's members all have to change their name - at which point you can anonymously use your real name. Soon anyone who searches for John Smith will have to go to the 99'th search page to find you.

Funny

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't delete your PCPRO account...

accountkiller.com

Pee

[Cyfun]

Trying to delete something from the Internet is like trying to get pee out of a swimming pool. Best case scenario, you waste enough time and draw so much attention to yourself that the Streisand Effect ensues.

I get around it easily enough... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

"All they care about is being able to uniquely identify you, and target you with adds" - by Charliemopps (1157495) on Monday February 11, @05:53PM (#42866271)

NOT A PROBLEM, per this application I designed & the custom hosts file it produces (in part for stopping that very thing you noted by stalling out the very mechanisms used in combination AGAINST YOU, the websurfer, alongside browser features (Opera noted specifically below in my 'p.s.' section...)):

---

APK Hosts File Engine 5.0++ 32/64-bit:

http://start64.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5851:apk-hosts-file-engine-64bit-version&catid=26:64bit-security-software&Itemid=74

Which, if you read the list of what it can do for you as an end user of the resulting output it produces listed in the link above, you'll understand how/why...

"It's as strong as steel, & a 3rd of the weight" - Howard Stark from the film "Captain America"

---

Especially vs. competing alternate 'solutions', noted below in AdBlock/Ghostery & yes even DNS servers, next, as 'examples thereof'...

Solutions that used to be good & I even recommended them in security guides I wrote up over the decades now -> http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=d&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=%22HOW+TO+SECURE+Windows+2000/XP%22&btnG=Submit&gbv=1&sei=ka3yUKzxB-6_0QHLroCQCA

That did extremely well for myself (and users of them), for Windows users, for "layered-security"/"defense-in-depth" purposes - the BEST THING WE HAVE GOING vs. threats of all kinds, currently!

(Not anymore though, & certainly NOT far as AdBlock's concerned especially, not after this):

---

Adblock Plus To Offer 'Acceptable Ads' Option:

http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/12/12/2213233/adblock-plus-to-offer-acceptable-ads-option

(Meaning by default, which MOST USERS WON'T CHANGE, it doesn't block ALL ads - they "souled-out"... talk about "foxes guarding the henhouse")!

---

Plus, Adblock CAN'T DO AS MUCH & not from a single file solution that runs in Ring 0/RPL 0/kernelmode via tcpip.sys, a driver (since it's part of the IP stack & tightly integrated into it) which is far, Far, FAR FASTER than ring 3/rpl 3/usermode apps like browsers, & addons slow them down (known issue in FireFox).

To wit, 10++ things AdBlock can't do, hosts can:

---

1.) Blocking rogue DNS servers malware makers use

2.) Blocking known sites/servers that serve up malware... like known sites/servers/hosts-domains that serve up malicious scripts

3.) Speeding up your FAVORITE SITES that hosts can speed up via hardcoded line item entries properly resolved by a reverse DNS ping

4.) AdBlock works on Mozilla products (browser & email), hosts work on ANY webbound app AND are multiplatform.

5.) AdBlock can't protect external to FireFox email programs, hosts can (think OUTLOOK, Eudora, & others)

6.) AdBlock can't help you blow past DNSBL's (DNS block lists)

7.) AdBlock can't help you avoid DNS request logs (hosts can via hardcoded favorites)

8.) AdBlock can't protect you vs. TRACKERS (hosts can)

9.) AdBlock can't protect you vs. DOWNED or "DNS-poisoned" redirected DNS servers (hosts can by hardcodes)

10.) Hosts are EASIER to manage, they're just a text file (adblock means you had BEST know your javascript, perl, & python (iirc as to what languag

Re:I get around it easily enough... apk

[Ash-Fox]

Sorry, tl;dr.

Sort-of, given time.

[jimicus]

A lot of people have said "No, never". But this isn't entirely true, for a number of reasons that are more to do with practicalities than anything else:

  - If you - or someone else with the same name as you - is reasonably active online, then Google et al will prefer more recent things when someone searches for you. That ill-advised comment you made on a forum ten years ago? Unless you have a very unusual name, probably no longer a problem.
  - Things come and go, and when they disappear from the spotlight your data tends to vanish into obscurity with them. Forums, news aggregators, social networking sites are all subject to this. When was the last time you logged into Friends Reunited?
  - Even if your name is plastered all over the news for something - news websites get updated, moved onto new platforms - and quite often the archives don't entirely survive the transition. Archive maintenance is a low priority when the thing that gets pageviews and advert clicks is the recent news.

It's really simple, actually - just 3 steps

[LynnwoodRooster]

1. Google yourself

2. Open up each page where your name appears.
3. Apply White-Out.

Problem solved!

Fast answer: No

[Anonymous Coward]

What happens on the internet, STAYS on the Internet

Are you unimportant enough to care?

[cpghost]

Barring some exceptions (Streisand et al.), it's usually the nobodies who care about this. They're the most vocal "right to forget" advocates. Seeking to remove everything about them on the Internet helps them feel more important than they really are. This is not meant to offend them, as there are legitimate needs to remove that one embarrassing photo or video... but we're talking about people who want to vanish entirely off the Net here.

forums + lists..

[DECTerm]

While you can "easily" remove your account from Google/Facebook etc, its impossible to remove your account from Forums, I am registered at the past on forums that I don't use anymore, there is no effing way to delete your account, I bet this is intentionally, as *if* you could remove your account (and *if* possible your posts) there would be a mess on the forums. Also another big shit on the internet, is the mail lists that their archives are visible, so even you are off from one list, your posts and email are still there...

Wrong Question Title

[peetm]

"Is It Possible To Erase Yourself From the Internet?"

Should be

"Is It Possible To Erase Yourself From the world-wide-web?"

The Internet is the network, not the content the op is talking about.