Thursday, November 8, 2012

Not That I'm Some Privacy Genius, But...

Waxy, about a year ago:
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.

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.
FYI, as they say.

11 comments:

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

nobody gives enough of a shit about me to find out who I am.

I mean, except for the ones who already have.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

And I'd have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for that search engine...
~

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

zrm has a dog.
~

Substance McGravitas said...

Is the dog using Google Analytics?

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

The real lesson is, don't be an internet Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

What about being an internet zombie?

mikey said...

I 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.

Well, 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...

Substance McGravitas said...

Also HR people who search for ellipses.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

the dreaded mikeylipses...

mikey said...

"I don't always drink rum, but when I do I usually end up doing something stupid..."

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

It's a fine line between stupid and clever, mikey...