How privacy/anonymity conscious are your real world companions?

I am extremely privacy and anonymity conscious Offline and online.

I am a proud follower of the "don't talk to strangers rule". When I do talk to strangers or meet up with anyone, I initially disclose false personal information i.e. giving false names, work history, education credentials, and city of residence. Not out of disrespect but for privacy/anonymity sake. Better safe than sorry. Only when I know somebody well enough will I carefully disclose tiny amounts of non-identifying personal info. At least 99% of my peers and acquaintances don't even know my real name or any real info. Literally only a handful of closest friends know my real name.

I disclose very discrete and limited personal to my closest non-family "friends" . Had a rough life. I grew up in highly dangerous, crime-infested neighborhoods so I am very untrusting of anyone. All my so-called "friends" have back-stabbed me at some point so I cannot trust anyone. I only feel safe disclosing personal info to my closest family members.

In my experience, most people carelessly disclose personal info offline and online. They carelessly expose identifying personal info to strangers offline. Some even causally use their first or last names online i.e. John1984 (for John Smith born in 1984) for screen names. I think this extremely unsafe.

 

Sounds good. I try to do my posting etc. with handles and don't willingly divulge info. On the other hand, I keep my opinions more to myself now because I figure the vast fields of servers owned by Google et al. are now busy cross-referencing every photo, every post, every cookie, every Google Earth zoom, etc. and when they can get their hands on it, hard confirmed data e.g. credit card purchases.

While listening to the CBC Radio One, I heard an FBI guy go on about how next year they will set a system in place which will be able to do facial recognition on anyone they have a criminal record for .. that's on their own with their own FBI computers. He said they won't be doing it on everyone, not because they couldn't, but because they do not have the mandate (as yet).

As it is, one wonders what they really could do if they wanted to through any backdoor agreement(s) they have with Google and/or Facebook etc.

Have you ever read "Googling Security: How Much Does Google Know About You?" by Greg Conti -- very interesting.

As for my real world companions? LOL Much too late. And, no, I don't think any of them pay very much attention to hiding identities. Most use an initial and their last name as their email address (if not their full name)!

'Have a nice one,

LS

 

Wow. Hats off to you. That's the 1st time I've ever heard of anything like it. I don't know much about your background but looking at your words, it does seem like you had a bad time. I'm curious though...why the detailed steps to keep your personal info even when offline? I'm trying to understand the risks/implications in the real world (not the virtual word where we're communicating right now). What's the harm in letting your real name known to your peers/acquaintances?

I'm conscious of my privacy (at least more than my peers) but I don't reach the stage where most privacy-oriented folks are at on this forum. Almost all of the people I know in the real word knows my real name and some even more. It's just part of who I am...I don't mind telling/sharing things which I consider minor. That being said, I respect that different folks have different needs and risk exposure levels.

 

I don't hide my identity in any way "in real life", except that there's a total disconnect with my online identities. I do use VPNs with some of my corporate clients, and also (obviously) for mirimir etc.

Nobody that I know "in real life" is at all conscious about privacy and/or anonymity. And I don't talk with them about such matters, because that would compromise my online anonymity.

 

Here we go again. It is all about, what do you consider to be private. I consider to be private info, that can be used for an identity theft like a birthdate, not hobbies, like if I like to drink milk or to watch Star Trek. Anyone can use your real name, address and create an email with that name, just by looking at your doorbell or into the phonebook. I actually changed all my online accounts to my real name recently. To a stranger, it does not really matter, if I call myself John Smith or Michal Ostrihon. It is all the same.

 

Being so security conscious, why disclose that here? just curious.

 

Maybe he's lying

 

Doubt this is a compromise to my anonymity.