Do you still feel anonymous online?

[MinatoArisato]

Years ago there was something therapeutic about being able to go online and pretend to be someone else. These days every site tries to tie your real self together with your online persona. Everything you do or say is tracked or censored.

Now I censor everything I say or post more than I do irl when in the company of friends. Do you think there will ever be a day again when we get the perks of the old internet back?

[WaffleCrisp]

At 7/10/16 08:30 PM, MinatoArisato wrote: Years ago there was something therapeutic about being able to go online and pretend to be someone else. These days every site tries to tie your real self together with your online persona. Everything you do or say is tracked or censored.

Now I censor everything I say or post more than I do irl when in the company of friends. Do you think there will ever be a day again when we get the perks of the old internet back?

All I know is that I'm glad I don't see Grammar Nazis on Newgrounds anymore. Good riddance. I don't want that kind of old web.

[Neoslayre]

Nah

[Oddlem]

I typically just lie about my information if I'm prompted to give some details away on a website, so I still feel anonymous. Besides, I don't really go on social media either way so that probably adds to it.

[Kiwi]

Remember that one time that the one user on this website sent those cross-dressing photos of another user to the users parents/school/etc

Fucking wild times

[Obsix]

Don't really care anymore. So as long as they don't monitor by porn fetish, the rest is just trivial shit I do.

[LaserVision]

Not at all

[MinatoArisato]

At 7/10/16 09:04 PM, Oddlem wrote: I typically just lie about my information if I'm prompted to give some details away on a website, so I still feel anonymous. Besides, I don't really go on social media either way so that probably adds to it.

I started lying about everything, and still do for the most part. But any time I bought something I had to start using real information. Pretty sure you can't do an alias for that. At this point I've had to link so much personal info that I'll probably never be unknown again lest I fake my death.

[MinatoArisato]

At 7/10/16 09:08 PM, Kayleeee wrote: Remember that one time that the one user on this website sent those cross-dressing photos of another user to the users parents/school/etc

Fucking wild times

I don't think I was ever active on the forums for that, I believe it happened though. Thankfully my crossdressing photos are safe and sound.

[MinatoArisato]

At 7/10/16 09:14 PM, X-Gary-Gigax-X wrote: The people over in the chans use proxies for nearly everything they do. It's almost strictly for personal safety.

I mean, sure, getting tupperware full of cow manure is probably not the worst thing that can happen, but it's the most likely thing if internet sociopath #68925 finds your dox. The worst thing that happens is if he shows up at your address.

4chan or the other chans? I only browse 4chan these days and its normie central. You can tell all the posters are mostly younger and all over social media an tumblr.

[MinatoArisato]

At 7/10/16 09:27 PM, Obsix wrote: Don't really care anymore. So as long as they don't monitor by porn fetish, the rest is just trivial shit I do.

I've got a thing for Palutena.

[Kiwi]

At 7/10/16 10:52 PM, MinatoArisato wrote: I don't think I was ever active on the forums for that, I believe it happened though. Thankfully my crossdressing photos are safe and sound.

It definitely happened. I was there.

[MinatoArisato]

At 7/10/16 09:54 PM, Homicidee wrote: I mean half the people on NG lie about thier own age just to fit in.

I routinely have thoughts about my age and start panicking internally. My old memories are still fresh, and very little about me has changed. Think my grammar might've gotten worse though.

[MinatoArisato]

At 7/10/16 10:43 PM, SansNumbers wrote: I try to reveal as little personal information as possible but over time I find that my dumb blabber mouth makes it increasingly difficult.

Me too, I don't know what the issue is with my personality, but no matter how much I remind myself to restrain my words, I always spew personal details or talk about my life way more than I should. It's probably why no one likes me, I spend too much time talking about my own experiences.

[MinatoArisato]

At 7/10/16 10:46 PM, BonemanCharles wrote:

That's awful, I'm very sorry for you.

[MinatoArisato]

At 7/10/16 11:55 PM, LuckyLightTitan wrote: Tor is the only thing that keeps you actually anonymous online.
Anything else doesn't.

Pretty sure Tor isn't even anonymous anymore, I don't use it, but I've heard its full of police nodes trying to catch criminals these days. I miss the days where nobody knew what a torrent was and limewire was the standard means of downloading music. Now I risk getting fined by my ISP for downloading games or movies.

[Ganon-Dorf]

I've made my accounts less connected, set all of my Youtube videos to private, mostly because I'm getting settled into my career and opinions I held when I was 17 or 18 I may not hold or express in the same way I did when I was younger.

That shit can hurt and haunt you, although it's not hard to find my accounts or facebook for that matter.

I'm not sure if it was anonymity for me, I never really cared about it; besides, it's not hard to become anonymous on forums or youtube or the internet anyway.

[billybobthwarten]

not really.

but i also don't have anything more than a facebook when it comes to social media and it's more about contacting people in messages.

[Tony-DarkGrave]

At 7/10/16 11:55 PM, LuckyLightTitan wrote: Tor is the only thing that keeps you actually anonymous online.
Anything else doesn't.

Tor has been compromised for the last few years and so has the Tails OS the US government got their hands on the source code. Get with the times.

[Haggard]

At 7/11/16 05:37 AM, Tony-DarkGrave wrote: and so has the Tails OS the US government got their hands on the source code

Wow, I wonder how they managed to do that.

[Tony-DarkGrave]

At 7/11/16 05:43 AM, Haggard wrote:

At 7/11/16 05:37 AM, Tony-DarkGrave wrote: and so has the Tails OS the US government got their hands on the source code

Wow, I wonder how they managed to do that.

They broke into it thanks to being able track Tor nodes and traffic which Tails uses as a its in and out for Internet traffic.

[Haggard]

At 7/11/16 05:50 AM, Tony-DarkGrave wrote:

At 7/11/16 05:43 AM, Haggard wrote:

At 7/11/16 05:37 AM, Tony-DarkGrave wrote: and so has the Tails OS the US government got their hands on the source code

Wow, I wonder how they managed to do that.

They broke into it thanks to being able track Tor nodes and traffic which Tails uses as a its in and out for Internet traffic.

Anyone who knows the least bit about how the internet works shouldn't be surprised that it's not exactly rocket science to track the traffic of Tor nodes. Also, it's not really hard to "get your hands on the source code" of an open source project.

[DamnedByFate]

NG is literally the only online community I'm active in and no one here knows me IRL, so yes.

[MinatoArisato]

At 7/11/16 05:52 AM, Haggard wrote:

At 7/11/16 05:50 AM, Tony-DarkGrave wrote:

At 7/11/16 05:43 AM, Haggard wrote:

At 7/11/16 05:37 AM, Tony-DarkGrave wrote: and so has the Tails OS the US government got their hands on the source code

Wow, I wonder how they managed to do that.

They broke into it thanks to being able track Tor nodes and traffic which Tails uses as a its in and out for Internet traffic.

Anyone who knows the least bit about how the internet works shouldn't be surprised that it's not exactly rocket science to track the traffic of Tor nodes. Also, it's not really hard to "get your hands on the source code" of an open source project.

Mmm, basically the more you learn about the internet, and the more you realize businesses understand it, the less anonymous everything becomes. Last week tonight did a pretty good segment on it with Jon Oliver and Edward Snowden going through all the ways the government can see his penis.

[MinatoArisato]

At 7/11/16 03:42 AM, Lich wrote: It's descending to the point where it looks more suspicious if you have a minimal/no online presence tied to your real persona at all. Best to appear normal by just having a social media account and a public email account for trivial things, login maybe once or twice a week and VPN everything else.

That feel when you want to research an event in the news like a shooting or some big scandal, but don't want to type it into google too many times for fear the government will think you're associated.

[All-American-Badass]

Ever since i abandoned my facebook acount almost 4 years ago out of forgetting the email i used for it and not caring enough to create a new one. I've been pretty damn anonymous across all my accounts. hell i've made sure no one on one site knows about my account on another site. like no one here knows who i am on Imgur and Reddit and vise versa.

[Stretchysumo]

I feel as if nothing I say online even on "anonymous" imageboards is truly anonymous. Even with TOR and a VPN you can still be tracked. I honestly don't care that everything I've ever said online is sitting in multiple data centers because I don't use social media and I'm not high enough on the totem pole to have this data actively looked at by the FBI nor have I done anything that serious. It does disturb me that everything I've ever said on the phone, texted, posted online, done or said is available to multiple people and easily accessible by even local law enforcement, but it's something we all have to live with. We live in the age of the surveillance state, but most of us will only be used as a statistic because it's impossible to dig through all the yottabytes of information. It is near impossible to attain true secrecy and privacy nowadays.

[Big-Boss]

Pretty much.