Anonymity and online identity, yet again.
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| Author | Topic: Anonymity and online identity, yet again. |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 3171
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written Monday, June 12 2006 15:23
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Given the fact that I have an incredibly common first name, an even more so last name and a completely uninspired nickname I can't really have anything from the internet connected with me. Posts: 776 | Registered: Friday, July 4 2003 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Monday, June 12 2006 16:10
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With a few checks, I've determined that my name is swamped by entirely unrelated individuals of the same name. I show up a few times, but never with much information attached, and with no real identifying markers to determine that it's me as opposed to someone else. On the other hand, there are some people who are abusing my name and costing me employment! For shame! —Alorael, who was confused when he saw a Google hit that could plausibly have been him. It had all the hallmarks of being him. But it most certainly wasn't him. He may have an internet twin! Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
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Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
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written Monday, June 12 2006 16:20
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Another fun experiment is searching for "[real name]" OR "[online name]". For me this search returns one result related to my real name, followed by Spidweb and a bunch of other "Zeviz" results, with most of other real name-related results starting on page 3. Which means that it's probably good that I don't use my real name online, because, while there is nothing wrong with spending a lot of time on forums like this one, things that show up when looking for my real name alone are a lot more impressive. This obviously wouldn't work for lucky people whose real name is so common that searching for it turns up no relevant results. -------------------- Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword, For it too has the power to kill. However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword, Can also have the power to heal. Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00 |
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Agent
Member # 1934
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written Monday, June 12 2006 17:28
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My search turned up 10700 hits and most of the first two pages were obituaries and poems to the deceased. Spooky. -------------------- You acquire an item: Radio Free Foil Posts: 1169 | Registered: Monday, September 23 2002 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 6785
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written Monday, June 12 2006 18:44
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I've kept my real name off this forum just because some people think fanatasy RPGing is evil in itself. You can never tell what will set some one off. Google has made what was once a time consuming research task so simple almost anyone can do it. They have a contest to see who can get the most secret personal information (social security numbers, accounts, etc.) using google in under an hour. Even the company officers don't like to acknowledge what they have done. Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Monday, June 12 2006 19:39
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I don't doubt you can find out my info with no difficulty. I don't mind people from here finding it - I trust you. :P What I'm trying to avoid is people breaking through the other way; ie, looking for my real name and finding this. While Google keeps whois records out of their index, that may not be hopeless. -------------------- Encyclopaedia Ermariana • Forum Archives • Forum Statistics • RSS [Topic / Forum] My Blog • Polaris • I eat novels for breakfast. Polaris is dead, long live Polaris. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 5450
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written Monday, June 12 2006 21:20
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Googling my real name brings up nothing of me on the first page. I consider myself lucky. -------------------- I'll put a Spring in your step. :ph34r: Posts: 2396 | Registered: Saturday, January 29 2005 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Monday, June 12 2006 21:28
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quote:It's not the first page that counts, it's the thirtieth one. Some people like to dig deep... :P (Actually, most pages that bring me up are past page 10 or so...) -------------------- Encyclopaedia Ermariana • Forum Archives • Forum Statistics • RSS [Topic / Forum] My Blog • Polaris • I eat novels for breakfast. Polaris is dead, long live Polaris. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Agent
Member # 6581
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written Monday, June 12 2006 23:28
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quote:Curious... A space can change everything. :o EDIT: Matteo Pezzotta is a common name, huh. MagmaDragoon have some match with me. Magma Dragoon have a few match with me. [ Tuesday, June 13, 2006 01:01: Message edited by: MagmaDragoon ] -------------------- Download Geneforge 4: Rebellion You have 6 posts. Nobody cares what you think. - Thuryl Wikipedia may be your friend, but UBB is not. - Dikiyoba Posts: 1310 | Registered: Tuesday, December 20 2005 08:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 6666
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written Monday, June 12 2006 23:58
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Googling my name - with or without quotation marks - will yield exactly two results that refer to myself. A forum where I used to post using my real name, and a homepage I did as a school project in '98. I actually googled my name some time last year, and noticed that the homepage was still up, in spite of the fact that I left the school in '99, and that it was hosted on a city-maintained server. Well, I was quite embarrassed by the whole page, and emailed upkeep with a request to bring it down - now even google cache hasn't got the page anymore. Posts: 353 | Registered: Monday, January 9 2006 08:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 6908
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written Tuesday, June 13 2006 01:00
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Seems like Google advertisers have earned a couple of bucks after this thread appeared :) As for the big brother, who knows everything about you since you've stepped on any forum - that is a bit exagerrated, I think. From my point it looks like some exceptional cycle: employer hires a person to do some work, which bring money to employer and to employee. Employer is advanced to the level, when he uses internet to learn more on employee. But when he finds something like "I wish I had a gun and two bullets when I meet Bill Gates" his sence of humor fails to see something funny in that? This way I better agree with Alo: is it worth working for such an employer? The thing that really troubles me, though, is some software, which communicates with some satelites on Earth's orbit and can scan it's surface with a very high resolution. Also, if one can find a way to get your IP, he shall know at least your city, if you have an external IP of your internet provider. And it is possible to find an exact address, if your IP is yours only, fixed IP. ---------------------------------------------------- The voices are anxiously excited: vying to assure me from now on use online id number (OIN) everywhere I appear online. I start to think which number to take. 19875 doesn't mean anything for me, so it is done! -------------------- 9 masks sing in a choir: Gnome Dwarf Slith Giant Troll Troglo Human Nephil Vahnatai "If the mask under mask to SE of mask to the left of mask and to the right of me is the mask below the mask to the right of mask to the right of mask below me is the same, then who am I?" radix: +2 nicothodes: +1 salmon:+1 Posts: 203 | Registered: Tuesday, March 14 2006 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Tuesday, June 13 2006 02:06
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However, the problem is not so much with employers checking up on their employees, but on job applicants about to have an interview. The shoot-Bill-Gates joke is funny when you know the person who makes it, but if you haven't met them yet you can't know how to take such things. It's like with the "blunt smoking" thing. His friends know he's kidding, the interviewer doesn't... -------------------- Encyclopaedia Ermariana • Forum Archives • Forum Statistics • RSS [Topic / Forum] My Blog • Polaris • I eat novels for breakfast. Polaris is dead, long live Polaris. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 5450
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written Tuesday, June 13 2006 03:07
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quote:I don't think the manager of McDonalds would look that far into a prospective workers internet life. :P EDIT: Just to be sure, I checked the thirtieth page. Nothing. :P [ Tuesday, June 13, 2006 21:29: Message edited by: Sprang ] -------------------- I'll put a Spring in your step. :ph34r: Posts: 2396 | Registered: Saturday, January 29 2005 08:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 1249
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written Tuesday, June 13 2006 03:13
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Every time I google my name, I stop wondering once again why I never get a summer job. Unfortunately, my name is not very common. I'm the only person mentioned when I search and I still get 4 pages of results. However, when I search with "Milu", I get 1 340 000 results. Looks like MILU = Multifunctional Intensive Land Use. [ Tuesday, June 13, 2006 03:20: Message edited by: Milu ] Posts: 259 | Registered: Saturday, June 1 2002 07:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 7002
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written Tuesday, June 13 2006 03:18
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Lucky. I have 540000 results on my name. It's interesting to see that a lot of them are on one of my ancestors. When I search for Mr.Bookworm, I get some very... interesting results. [ Tuesday, June 13, 2006 03:30: Message edited by: Mr.Bookworm ] -------------------- Polaris Posts: 193 | Registered: Thursday, April 6 2006 07:00 |
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La Canaliste
Member # 5563
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written Tuesday, June 13 2006 04:36
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My real name is unusual. Fortunately "Saunders" is far from unique. And I am not really dangerous at all. -------------------- I am a mater of time and how . Deep down, you know you should have voted for Alcritas! Posts: 387 | Registered: Tuesday, March 1 2005 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 4153
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written Tuesday, June 13 2006 04:46
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Wow, even when I search "Ephesos", nothing but the Turkish city of the same name turns up until #30 and #36, which are Spidweb, and then #60, which is the Sanctuary. I think this name is safe. -------------------- Gamble with Gaea, and she eats your dice. I hate undead. I really, really, really, really hate undead. With a passion. Posts: 4130 | Registered: Friday, March 26 2004 08:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 5483
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written Tuesday, June 13 2006 04:50
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I tried a google search on my full real name, not a single result. Plus most people spell my last name wrong and when they see it as it should be spelled they assume it's a typo. Also, informally people call me by a few different names. :D Good luck finding me. lol -------------------- Ignorance Is bliss -Cypher (Matrix) Don't think you can; know you can -Morpheus (Matrix) sanity is overrated :) Posts: 130 | Registered: Monday, February 7 2005 08:00 |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Tuesday, June 13 2006 05:39
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I tend to use my own name, and not try too hard to hide it, because I'm more than willing to fess up to what I write, should it come up. I'm not a big fan of anonymity generally, because I think it reduces credibility. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Tuesday, June 13 2006 06:58
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quote:You'd be surprised. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
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Cartographer
Member # 1851
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written Tuesday, June 13 2006 08:21
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Well, I'll be. My real name gets me at page 15. :\ Google must've caught up with that change I made at Elfwood, say, perhaps a year or so ago. I changed my name there to show my first name as a letter only. Google keeps shoving some other Riibu's sites at me. Don't be fooled, I'm well above such shameful garbage as ... fanfiction. How dare she befoul my good name like that? I really ought to... *shakes fist* At least it kind of shows I have a lot to do with writing, which I do claim to have anyway in real life. But searchign my real name doesn't really tell much, unless you think I could be a teacher. [ Tuesday, June 13, 2006 08:23: Message edited by: A Smallish Bang ] -------------------- "I'm not crazy!" "Well, whatever. Maybe you just ate something really questionable, or perhaps someone hit you on the head with something large, blunt and heavy just now. By the way..." Gil nudged Grul pointedly. Ooh! Homepage - Blog - Geneforge, +2, +3 - My Elfwood Gallery and DevArt page So many strange ones around. Don't you think? Posts: 1308 | Registered: Sunday, September 8 2002 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 6489
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written Tuesday, June 13 2006 08:54
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The advantage of going by my middle name is that anyone who Googles my first and last name (as a prospective employer would) will not get any results that are actually about me. :P -------------------- "You're drinking liquor because you're thirsty? How nasty is your freaking water?" —Lazarus Spiderweb Chat Room Avernum RP • Summaries • OoC • Roster Shadow Vale - My site, home of the Spiderweb Chat Database, BoA Scenario Database, & the A1 Quest List, among other things. Posts: 1556 | Registered: Sunday, November 20 2005 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Tuesday, June 13 2006 09:55
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So that's why I got confused about whether your initials where TH or JH (abbreviated to ward off search spiders...)? -------------------- Encyclopaedia Ermariana • Forum Archives • Forum Statistics • RSS [Topic / Forum] My Blog • Polaris • I eat novels for breakfast. Polaris is dead, long live Polaris. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 3441
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written Tuesday, June 13 2006 11:24
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There are 1,490,000 hits on google when I search for my name on google. I have never had the patience to dig past the first 30 pages. Curiosly enough, when my middle name is included, it yields a whopping 0 hits. My name also includes a sizable disambiguation page on Wikipedia. None of them are me. -------------------- "As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it." --Albert Einstein -------------------- Posts: 536 | Registered: Sunday, September 7 2003 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 6489
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written Tuesday, June 13 2006 17:01
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quote:If I use initials, it's usually JTH, and when I sign things, I use John T H---. (I don't care who knows my name as long as Google does not). Incidentally, I get mail address to all sorts of different names. My mother never changed her name when she got married, which seems to confuse some advertisers. I've gotten things for John Poe, Thad Poe, Thaddeus Poe, John Thad Poe, Thad H---, John H---, John T H---, Thaddeus H---, and once, John Thaddeus Poe H---. I guess they wanted to cover all the bases. :P [ Tuesday, June 13, 2006 17:33: Message edited by: Tyranicelt ] -------------------- "You're drinking liquor because you're thirsty? How nasty is your freaking water?" —Lazarus Spiderweb Chat Room Avernum RP • Summaries • OoC • Roster Shadow Vale - My site, home of the Spiderweb Chat Database, BoA Scenario Database, & the A1 Quest List, among other things. Posts: 1556 | Registered: Sunday, November 20 2005 08:00 |