Last month, an anonymous blogger popped up on WordPress and Twitter, aiming a giant flamethrower at Mac-friendly writers like John Gruber, Marco Arment and MG Siegler. As he unleashed wave after wave of spittle-flecked rage at "Apple puppets" and "Cupertino douchebags," I was reminded again of John Gabriel's theory about the effects of online anonymity.FYI, as they say.
Out of curiosity, I tried to see who the mystery blogger was.
He was using all the ordinary precautions for hiding his identity -- hiding personal info in the domain record, using a different IP address from his other sites, and scrubbing any shared resources from his WordPress install.
Nonetheless, I found his other blog in under a minute -- a thoughtful site about technology and local politics, detailing his full name, employer, photo, and family information. He worked for the local government, and if exposed, his anonymous blog could have cost him his job.
I didn't identify him publicly, but let him quietly know that he wasn't as anonymous as he thought he was. He stopped blogging that evening, and deleted the blog a week later.
So, how did I do it? The unlucky blogger slipped up and was ratted out by an unlikely source: Google Analytics.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Not That I'm Some Privacy Genius, But...
Waxy, about a year ago:
nobody gives enough of a shit about me to find out who I am.
ReplyDeleteI mean, except for the ones who already have.
And I'd have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for that search engine...
ReplyDelete~
zrm has a dog.
ReplyDelete~
Is the dog using Google Analytics?
ReplyDeleteThe real lesson is, don't be an internet Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
ReplyDeleteWhat about being an internet zombie?
ReplyDeleteI think I've done a near perfect job of creating a firewall between mikey and that old fat unemployed dood in California. Searches for one never seem to turn up links to the other, and vice versa. They both have their own google accounts, so while google could certainly know they are typed with the same fingers (pretty sure they can't be arsed, but they could...), mostly nobody else can.
ReplyDeleteWell, except for when I'm drunk and post a blog comment from the wrong account. Like so many international men of mystery, it is the Rum that is my ultimate undoing...
Also HR people who search for ellipses.
ReplyDeletethe dreaded mikeylipses...
ReplyDelete"I don't always drink rum, but when I do I usually end up doing something stupid..."
ReplyDeleteIt's a fine line between stupid and clever, mikey...
ReplyDelete