Discussion do you prioritize anonymity online?

[bloodandshavedhead]

i know it's rightfully encouraged on here but even elsewhere online like social media…do you not upload photos of yourself, use your real name, share your location, allow strangers on your accounts or post any identifying information? i found that it's so normalized to do most of that and anyone who doesn't is viewed as strange and ignored.

when i was younger i used the internet like any other teenager/young adult who grew up on it. not caring too much about internet safety and digital footprints. maybe even worse because i've shared my address and full name with people lol. nothing bad came from it but nowadays i have no desire to have an online presence like that.

i prefer this forum a lot because i deleted my social media accounts and there's basically none of what i left behind. the validation people seek from likes and comments on their photos. the bots, trolls, ads and forced AI. having the ability to stalk people. addictive content and algorithms. superficial socialization. i'm probably forgetting some examples but i like being disconnected from those things.

To be honest not really, idk there's like nine billion people on this earth, I doubt anyone would take a interest to even memorize anything about my personal life

 

[NonEssential]

I've always kept my irl identity pretty hidden anywhere online. You could google my irl name and you wouldn't find a single picture of me.
Anonymity and privacy are important thing to me, so even though it's pretty much impossible to stay hidden completely, I use things like Linux, Librewolf and VPN to minimize giving out too much info.

 

[violetforever]

I've always kept my irl identity pretty hidden anywhere online. You could google my irl name and you wouldn't find a single picture of me.
Anonymity and privacy are important thing to me, so even though it's pretty much impossible to stay hidden completely, I use things like Linux, Librewolf and VPN to minimize giving out too much info.

oh i'm lucky that when i google my name no images or information come up either.

 

[DeathByBananabread]

yeah, I do~ I try to make sure you can't connect dots all the way back to me~ I prefer for people to not even know what country I live in or my real name~ >_< unfortunately, my mom posts and shares way too much about me with people online and irl against my will~ :/

i can relate, it's been fucked for me, my mom has been mommy blogging on facebook about me as a hobby since i was 7 & before that yapped about me endlessly on a now-defunct forum for moms. the forum may be gone, but there is still a digital ledger of every mistake i've made since i was 7. at one point in time, she forced me to give her my facebook password, then uploaded all my baby photos, including pictures of me naked. i have since deleted that entire account, and i've gotten it to stay dead after it revived itself, but it's my understanding that technically speaking facebook still has all that data. sometimes i've bumped into her facebook friends and been confronted with deeply personal offensive questions. her newest poison is reddit and i've seen her type the full legal names of me and my siblings on there. if this account ever got linked to my real-life identity, the consequences would be indistinguishable from the hell i'm already in.

 

[violetforever]

i can relate, it's been fucked for me, my mom has been mommy blogging on facebook about me as a hobby since i was 7 & before that yapped about me endlessly on a now-defunct forum for moms. the forum may be gone, but there is still a digital ledger of every mistake i've made since i was 7. at one point in time, she forced me to give her my facebook password, then uploaded all my baby photos, including pictures of me naked. i have since deleted that entire account, and i've gotten it to stay dead after it revived itself, but it's my understanding that technically speaking facebook still has all that data. sometimes i've bumped into her facebook friends and been confronted with deeply personal offensive questions. her newest poison is reddit and i've seen her type the full legal names of me and my siblings on there. if this account ever got linked to my real-life identity, the consequences would be indistinguishable from the hell i'm already in.

i seriously feel like the internet brings out the worst in people more than anything. what does she gain from it that is more important than your own comfort?! this is so invasive i'm sorry you're living with this.

 

[inkmage333]

I think I do, yeah. I've gotten to a point where googling my legal name will bring up a bunch of other profiles of people with the same name that aren't me, and no images of me (or at least my face) exist online.

I think I even prioritize anonymity in real life too, actually. I don't use my real name when ordering food or something like that, but rather an alias. Some of my irl friends don't even know my legal name. Even the addresses on my ID and some financial documents aren't my home address!

 

[violetforever]

I think I even prioritize anonymity in real life too, actually. I don't use my real name when ordering food or something like that, but rather an alias. Some of my irl friends don't even know my legal name. Even the addresses on my ID and some financial documents aren't my home address!

i guess i do too. that's why i don't have any friends. i don't want anyone irl to get close to me and know about my life.

 

[sshine]

I care about privacy deeply. I do not have Google. I do not have a phone. You can estimate how many friends I have. I wish I had more friends but most people don't value privacy like I do and I can't handle being around those who don't.

Anonymity and privacy are important thing to me, so even though it's pretty much impossible to stay hidden completely, I use things like Linux, Librewolf and VPN to minimize giving out too much info.

My computer setup looks way more intense than this.

my mom has been mommy blogging on facebook about me as a hobby since i was 7 & before that yapped about me endlessly on a now-defunct forum for moms.

Fucking hell. Thank god my family aren't online much.

 

[camusfan_ig]

For the most part, yup. I use a fake name, never post pics of myself, I'll sometimes use temp emails aswell for certain sites. I think ppl nowadays have forgotten why staying anonymous is SO important. I see ppl posting what school they go to and I'm like Dude cmon I'll never understand personally, but we all have different opinions on this ig

 

[violetforever]

I care about privacy deeply. I do not have Google. I do not have a phone. You can estimate how many friends I have. I wish I had more friends but most people don't value privacy like I do and I can't handle being around those who don't.

i don't have any friends and would rather stay friendless if a social media presence is a requirement to make them too. how do you communicate without a phone? that feels necessary for school/work (if you do that). everything i do on my phone can be done from my macbook tbh i shouldn't even have an iphone i just need a flip phone lol.

For the most part, yup. I use a fake name, never post pics of myself, I'll sometimes use temp emails aswell for certain sites. I think ppl nowadays have forgotten why staying anonymous is SO important. I see ppl posting what school they go to and I'm like Dude cmon I'll never understand personally, but we all have different opinions on this ig

i feel like its bc more and more ppl are open to meeting ppl online today and creating lives online to escape their real ones. maybe thats why they dont care to be anonymous. they value their online presence more. idk its so strange i hate everything about what the internet has become.

 

[sshine]

how do you communicate without a phone? that feels necessary for school/work

I have a phone from my mom but it is an old one that only receives sms for government and bank. It stays at home and is turned off. I use email for school and work but I am not employed at the moment.

i don't have any friends and would rather stay friendless if a social media presence is a requirement to make them too.

Not having social media makes you stand out from most people these days. To me it feels like everyone expects all communication to happen on Instagram alone. I don't know how unusual your habits are but I'm not comfortable giving out my email or phone number because I've seen how easily contacts get exposed through Google, Truecaller, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Then there's the risk of data being sold to advertisers and anyone reading our chats if we use regular SMS or email. I keep suggesting Signal with disappearing messages but people call me strange. Maybe I am but why should conversations have permanent records?

maybe thats why they dont care to be anonymous.

I think attention and status matter more to most people than privacy.

idk its so strange i hate everything about what the internet has become.

The internet reflects how people choose to use it.

 

[violetforever]

To me it feels like everyone expects all communication to happen on Instagram alone. I don't know how unusual your habits are but I'm not comfortable giving out my email or phone number because I've seen how easily contacts get exposed through Google, Truecaller, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

instagram definitely suggests you to follow people you've contacted through whatsapp. that happened to me back when i still used it. i've only been off of social media for a month now but i won't go back. i hate that "exposed" feeling. i'm really not in contact with anybody so i don't give out my number anyway lol.

I think attention and status matter more to most people than privacy.

that's really true and unfortunate.

 

[inkmage333]

At the risk of scaring people, I do feel like it's best to keep as much information about yourself private as much as possible and prioritize anonymity in general, even for seemingly mundane things such as the weather in your location

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TL;DR even small pieces of information can lead to someone finding even bigger pieces of information which in turn can put your life in danger and therefore make it so that your lives will likely end in ways that are NOT on your own terms in the slightest

 

[violetforever]

My ex-girlfriend, for instance, has a TON of information posted on her PUBLIC social media platform such as her city of residence, birthday, and even full name. Literally just those few pieces of information allowed me to find her full address on the voter registry of her state, and even if she didn't already give me her full address prior to our breakup, I would've still been able to find it anyways with the information she posted publicly online. I even found out her middle name, something she NEVER told me during our relationship!

Had I not prioritized my own reputation irl I would've done something with that address (swatting people falsely can get you arrested, apparently, and even if it didn't I'd get a lot of public flak for doing something with it anyways). However, the fact that all that information is public means that someone who DOESN'T prioritize their reputation as much as I do could do something with that information. That doesn't begin to cover the OTHER information she made public, such as her school, year of graduation, major, etc...literally just the most mundane information can narrow someone down to being one person and put their lives in jeopardy

yeah its all there. finding more info about someone is extremely easy if you have just a few pieces of info that piece together well. you dont even have to stop there. once you find enough info on someone it leads you to finding info about people they know or are related to. this is why social media with full names and locations on display is terrifying to me. you are basically giving access to your real life to anyone who comes across your account. its really simple to look up someones full name and city and get their address or workplace.

 

[inkmage333]

yeah its all there. finding more info about someone is extremely easy if you have just a few pieces of info that piece together well. you dont even have to stop there. once you find enough info on someone it leads you to finding info about people they know or are related to. this is why social media with full names and locations on display is terrifying to me. you are basically giving access to your real life to anyone who comes across your account. its really simple to look up someones full name and city and get their address or workplace.

Same, it's a lot easier than anyone expects which is why I'm really trying to stay as anonymous as I possibly can online...not really helped at all by how invasive some social media sites and search engines are (*coughs* Facebook)...I have the luck of having a name just common enough so that when you search it up, people BESIDES me end up showing up (helps also that for some sites like LinkedIn, I set it so that I don't show up in search engines + my profile picture doesn't even show my face on there) but you can never be too careful