Are we anonymous over the net ?

[atakor]

Salaam/Hello,

Some people have virtual lives on the net, not virtual in the sense untruthful but in the sense of immaterial..
so they have accounts in forums here and there, mail box(es), react about articles in newspapers, have blogs...

my question is: can an individual or a state entity collect all these information and reconstruct the (virtual) life of the person in question ?
How far should we be cautious about this ?

[Al-khiyal]

my question is: can an individual or a state entity collect all these information and reconstruct the (virtual) life of the person in question ?

How far should we be cautious about this ?

w/salam, ya atakor,

Good questions, and the answers are not comforting. Apart from state entities, others collect information about people from the Internet, and it is quite dangerous the amount of personal information that some people reveal. Some intelligence agencies have software programmes that can work out 'speech patterns' - patterns of writing - which can help them to identify specific individuals, no matter how many IDs they use. And people leave a trail on the Internet that lasts for years and years. It is quite possible to obtain names, photographs, locations, telephone numbers etc with relative ease. And with the right equipment, it is possible to fix an exact address.

We have had 'stalkers' here, we have had others using IP sniffing tools to try to get a fix on people's locations (usually males, hunting females), we have had individuals who worked hard to collect personal information to attempt to invade someone's real life. And that is just obsessive individuals. Imagine what state intelligence agencies can - and do - do.

I think people are unwise to post too much personal information. And in terms of giving opinions, if that is done it should only be done in the full knowledge that many invisible eyes are watching. We have U.S. military characters crawling over this site like a rash, and doubtless others agencies too. You can find lots of threads in here about risks to privacy, including this one.

[atakor]

Salaam Al-khiyal,

Good questions, and the answers are not comforting. Apart from state entities, others collect information about people from the Internet, and it is quite dangerous the amount of personal information that some people reveal. Some intelligence agencies have software programmes that can work out 'speech patterns' - patterns of writing - which can help them to identify specific individuals, no matter how many IDs they use. And people leave a trail on the Internet that lasts for years and years. It is quite possible to obtain names, photographs, locations, telephone numbers etc with relative ease. And with the right equipment, it is possible to fix an exact address.

Waaa... pretty scarring !
never heard about those speech patterns softs.. but I doubt on their efficiency, especially (and not only) for polyglots.

We have had 'stalkers' here, we have had others using IP sniffing tools to try to get a fix on people's locations (usually males, hunting females), we have had individuals who worked hard to collect personal information to attempt to invade someone's real life. And that is just obsessive individuals. Imagine what state intelligence agencies can - and do - do.

That was a similar post of you that gave me the idea of this thread.. I was wondering how you did manage to find them and how you do to have the 'profile' of new members (like me ).. in fact, what can you know exactly
I just ask you that to see what a professional _can_ know.

I think people are unwise to post too much personal information. And in terms of giving opinions, if that is done it should only be done in the full knowledge that many invisible eyes are watching. We have U.S. military characters crawling over this site like a rash, and doubtless others agencies too.

So you spy them you too ?! how do you know who are they ?
for the lack of wiseness I will fix this now... I'll close my account.


.. well, that's not a good idea. indeed the best care is to avoid letting informations on the net.. not having an internet connexion is the best way , but forums can be enriching and the love of privacy doenst have to become a paranoia .. so I'll stay actually

[Al-khiyal]

w/salam, ya atakor,

The 'speech recognition' stuff 'they' use is fairly sophisticated, and it covers polyglots too. Years ago Israeli intelligence officers were giving lessons to trainee U.S. military interrogators and other U.S. military / other agency intelligence officers at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, so you may be sure that they have Arabic covered.

I can 'see' the IP addresses of everyone on the site. And all the moderators who cover various sections here can 'see' the IP of anyone who posts. Invisible to people's eyes is a daily war where various spammers and scammers try to get in using proxy IPs or, in the case of a recent wave, Senegal IPs used by 'romance scammers' and Nigerian IPs used by 'My father the Oil Minister died and left me $987 billion dollars in a secret account and I need your help to get the money' scammers. Many of those IPs are blacklisted on the Internet, on various sites where webmasters have become sick of the spam/scams.

From knowing an IP it can be possible to see where someone is, and even what their work is. We get diplomats here, journalists, oil and gas companies, mining companies, hospitals, clinics, travel companies etc etc. The U.S. military/intelligence site snoops are easy to spot - doubtless they have other IPs that do not reveal the 'type' of visitor behind it. And there are spammers who trawl the Internet looking for email addresses to target. The 'romance scammers' try to get in and then work their way through the entire membership of the site sending 'I am really interested in you' private messages (yeah - 'really interested' in all 4,000+ of you ). Their game is to make some guy think he has an admirer, then comes the requests for money.

There are scores of attempts to get in made each day, but we try to keep this site as clean as we can. So of course you'll stay It is possible to have fun, to share thoughts, to learn, to give good information etc. - without having to give away any 'revealing' personal information.

[atakor]

Khyal,

thanks for the details
I was amazed by the thread about the IP of DOD... lol.

for the softs of speech, I wasent doubting on the arabic implementation of course but on the linking of posts in different languages to the same person, I still think it is pretty hard !

[Al-khiyal]

They could recognize 'repeats', if someone was saying the same thing using different IDs on different sites.

yalla don't worry about it - 'they' aren't the only ones who can do tricks like that

[atakor]

They could recognize 'repeats', if someone was saying the same thing using different IDs on different sites.

yes, in the _same_ language !
I mean, if I'm a memeber of a french and arabic (and spanish in a couple of months insha' Allah) forums can someone know if it is the same person ?

yalla don't worry about it - 'they' aren't the only ones who can do tricks like that

Well done !
this site seems safe now, isnt ?

strange but algerian frech speeking forums, in spite of having thousands of members.. dont seem to have troubles. why does the english one have such a long history with such problems ?