-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Jim wrote:
> Modify your text style; review favorite words or phrases and > avoid them completely. If possible run your text through a > translation service (eg source -> Spanish -> source) and then > edit the resultant. If you do use an online translation service > use an anonymizing service for this access as well. This is a great point, but it's worth remembering that even your opinions themselves can be used to find you. Real example (details changed for privacy): I have a friend who used to write for a financial magazine whom I wanted to get in touch with again. I had no idea which aliases he was using, so the first thing I did was look up a few keywords related to a current subject that, if he were still posting, he was unlikely to resist: dollarization and the financial crisis in Argentina. I knew his opinions on other subjects well enough to pick him out of a crowd, but chose Argentina first, since not many people posting online are well-informed and passionate enough to get a first-class tirade going about it. Hear somebody rant about something a couple of times and you know what to look for. Sure enough, I found him on the very first search, railing away and breathing fire as anticipated, almost as if on cue. All I had to do was jump right in the conversation and trot out my own crotchety old hobbyhorses in my own style...that afternoon, I got a "hey Faustine, is that really you?" message. He was quite pleased with himself to have found me! Harmeless enough, but I'm sure you can think of more sinister applications. Anyone who is really passionate about specialist subjects is at a distinct disadvantage to Joe and Jane Sixpack, whose opinions are largely interchangable and indistinguishable within various broad parameters. (How else could marketing turn this sickening conformity and predictability into a science?) Take an inventory of all the unusual things that push your buttons--the opinions that make you unique--and you'll be a step ahead. ~Faustine. *** He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. - --Thomas Paine -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPsdk version 1.7.1 (C) 1997-1999 Network Associates, Inc. and its affiliated companies. (Diffie-Helman/DSS-only version) iQA/AwUBPDDZXPg5Tuca7bfvEQLpzgCgjs3DdbAyVjc+PD3iuD7R05naS/0AoKA3 ycqyfa7L9uPDUqqC5epGmOo1 =eNIe -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
