Slashdot Mirror
The Man Who's Kept His Face Off the Internet for 20 Years
An anonymous reader writes: Jonathan Hirshon is a 48-year-old Silicon Valley PR guy. He was an adult when the internet went mainstream, and he went online with a unique bit of forethought: "I decided to play a game with myself: How long could I keep my picture off the Internet." He's managed to keep the internet free of his image for two decades, and he's expanding the game. Hirshon is rallying the troops to outsmart Facebook and Google facial recognition. He asked his friends, "If you're so inclined, take a moment and tag me in some random picture or image. A leaf on the wind, a howler monkey, geometry equations, George Clooney, a large steaming pile of excrement—select an image that you think best suits me or [is] based solely on your whim."
I'm just a few years younger and my face is not on the internet either, despite publishing youtube videos, etc..
"I decided to play a game with myself: How long could I keep my picture off the Internet."
A game which he will probably shortly lose, since the first rule about keeping your photo off the internet is not to brag about how you've kept your photo off the internet.
(ack: "Posted by Soulskill on 2015-08-08 0:03 from the good-luck-after-this-article dept.")
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
between the two greatest pasttimes of internet users: "laziness" and "being a dick". Which one will win?!
Greg Egan claims there are no photos of him on the Internet either, although I wonder how you could possibly verify that.
This is my real face ---> :-)
Somebody posted it years ago and now it's everywhere! Maybe you've re-posted it and not known the harm you were doing. Please stop.
An easy claim to make, but to verify, we'll need a picture for comparison.
You won't find mine either. I've been on the net since before www, but you won't find a picture of me. Go ahead, please, try. You have my email address and from that you can get my last name and address. First person to send me a link to an image of my face I'll send you a bottle of nice Irish or an old Motorola HT, your choice.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
That should be the standard pretty much.
The only people interested on your regular life are people wanting to wreck the hell out of it.
Meh, not everything here has to be news per se - it's a discussion topic. One of the best parts of this place (sometimes...) is the discussion.
you have a driver's license and they got a photo and Name & address on record, think of all the electronic and paper trails the system has on you, about the only place that dont have your info is facebook which dont really matter anyway
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
The Goatse Guy also kept his face off the Internet. However, the other end was not so fortunate.
Table-ized A.I.
I've never published or had published pictures of me either. It's not really all that hard, just don't participate.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
It may be true that he didn't put his picture up on the Web for 20 years. However, especially in the last five years, given the parties and events that he probably has to attend for his job I'm sure that someone has captured him in a photo and posted it onto the Internet. He may not be the primary person of interest in the picture but I'm sure that he's on there.
Of course to verify that there are no pictures of him on the Web then he would have to upload a picture of himself onto the Web.
And technically he's talking about the WWW. If he's ever e-mailed a picture, sent a fax of his picture over a VOIP line, or transferred some files of FTP then he's had his picture on the Internet.
No one took his picture and put it on their Facebook/whatever?
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
No reputation is worse than a bad reputation. What you did isn't as bad as what my imagination uses to fill empty spaces.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
I once had a UK police officer officer call me in Holland (on my mobile phone) to ask why my car was parked too long in the UK, had I abandoned it? The owner, of the house it was parked outside, was complaining.
I explained to the police officer that the woman thinks she owns the road outside, and my car is a taxed and legally parked car on the street and the woman uses the police to harass me, because she doesn't like a dirty car outside her house.
The rozzer got from my car plate to home address and from my home address to my mobile phone records to my telephone number, all without a warrant or good reason.
They simply assume all people in uniform as the good guys and all purposes they ask for records are good purposes. Instead I had this repeated telephone call from different police to harrass me about the car I'd legally parked on the street, and each one had a hefty roaming charge.
When I returned to move the car and stop the calls, the woman came out to gloat at her victory.
So much for the right to privacy. It struck me that the police had my location (from the cell phone location record), my call history and photograph and no checks on how it was used. And we found out Murdochs papers pay policemen to give them these records, so the leaks are just the tip of the iceberg.
Way to throw down the gauntlet, Mr Hirshon.
I've got $10 that says this guy's dick pix will be all over the Internet by Sunday. Or, we'll find out that he's the subject of the most famous ass pic ever.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I'll bet he's the Goatse guy.
Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!
Vote for Bernie in 2016!
He was PR manager for Sony, and he worked at Apple. He didn't spend that time stumbling around with a paper bag on his head - he had lots of photos taken (cough*Internet Archive*cough). Same with his school years.
tl;dr? He's a spin doctor. He tells huge lies and people buy them. There's a big difference between asking that people mis-tag photos with your name and not having any photos of you on the internet - to do that he'd have needed to avoid ever being photographed. Hint: if you ever had a school year photo taken - it's on a reunion site somewhere, and you have been tagged. If you hold a prominent position in a large company - you will have your photo taken and it will be posted. If, as he is, are "active" in the Jewish community (a self-promoter) then you should avoid posing for photos in the Jewish News - too late Johnboy! (man of the year and member of a board of trustees).
Obscurity != Security
I won't send you the links... but I personally am aware of at least 5 pictures of Greg Egan on the Internet, since I have met the author at a convention, and the author is quite recognizable in the photos.
I am aware of a good 30 of them... but then I used to work at Whistle with Julian, and know what you look like; in other words, the same "cheat" I used to make the same response about Greg Egan... ;^)
I was free and clear until I decided I wanted a Linked In. I knew that would put a picture of me up, but I figured the dubious loss of that would be made up for by the dubious gain of having a Linked In.
You never go on vacation? Because if you do, your picture is bound to be on someone's vacation pictures online. But even close to home, you have to stay away from anything anyone might find remotely interesting. Live in a big city? Better stay away from the cathedral, library, train station, etc...
My company did many, many jobs for the government. It is fair that the government is known to the people and, by extension, I am as were many of my employees. It was usually just newspaper articles or some quick blurb on local television but the pictures are out there. As I am now running for office my picture is going to be more prevalent. I do not like it but I have no means or real desire to curtail it. Anyone involved in working for the people must be known to the people (unless it is some secret shit - and then it should only be for a limited scope).
"So long and thanks for all the fish."