Sure, but you can create multiple personas, and compartmentalize online activities. I mean, I have an Amazon account using my real name, email, address and credit card. So I can buy stuff. But there's no link to Mirimir. And there are no links between either and other more-anonymous personas, who only do stuff via Tor. I did delete my real-name Facebook account, on general principles. And I don't use smartphones, so I don't need a Google account.
Once on the net, forever on the net, there is no escape. You can hide but you can't erase your traces. Trying to be truly anonymous is out of reach of normal people, you need tons of cash, just to use a new devices each time you connect on the net. Hardware can be traced, software can be traced, you will be traced. Don't fight, resistance is futile, surrender to live an happy and safe life.
I pretty much agree. And perhaps I'm rather a special case. For one thing, I'm old. So my life before the early 90s was totally offline. I was active during the late 90s, mainly on Usenet and some mail lists. But I quickly transitioned to pseudonyms via remailer chains. I did banking, Amazon, etc online, using my real name, and still do. Also some personal email, and even Facebook, for a few years. Then, during the 00s and 01s, I did litigation consulting, and couldn't say much about it, even in meatspace. And throughout, I was still using personas for private stuff, but via VPNs and Tor. Although I did play with remailer chains too. So sure, there is some old real-name stuff on Usenet. But linking it to any of my current online identities would be very difficult, because I no longer care about what interested me then. And everything except mundane stuff is compartmentalized using numerous personas. That'd be harder for someone who had created a huge online presence. You'd basically need to close all your old email accounts, and stop using all your old forums and social media. And forget about all your old interests. Also all your old online friends. Just disappear. As if you had died. You'd get a new email account for banking, Amazon, etc. And you'd learn how to use nested VPN chains, Tor and anonymized Bitcoin or whatever. You'd build multiple online personas, at least one for each major area of interest, using new email accounts. You'd compartmentalize them at levels of hardware, VMs, LAN, and Internet connectivity (using different combinations of nested VPN chains and Tor). Your old stuff would still be there. But largely, you'd effectively had died. If anyone hits you through a new email, nuke it and create another. If any of your new personas get linked, nuke them and create others.
Do you have any Bank accounts? Credit cards? All of them require your emails (phone numbers) for this/that verification. Google or Yahoo emails are very suitable for that purpose.
Can you imagine being born and your parents never telling the government? That's the only way you cannot be traced. It really reminds me daily how much we have been tagged like cattle from birth. Being given a social security number is no different than a prison number upon entering prison.
Sure, I have those things. And an email address and phone numbers that I use for them. But none of that stuff is linkable to Mirimir and my other personas.
But of course. N.B. My comment is not(!) to jeopardize anything about "mirimir's" privacy - a truly advanced and highly skillful IT Security specialist that provides so much information about the Internet Privacy. Maybe, my comment is more about "helping" mirimir to remove any unnecessary pieces of information about him from the Internet. Here is a long story about mirimir written by mirimir. "My name is Vladimir (Dimi) Arseniev. I stand for freedom and privacy. Indeed, for Aleister Crowley style anarchy: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." I focus on persona management, technology and methods for privacy and anonymity, and associated OPSEC. I write for IVPN's website, and post mainly to Wilders Security Forums and Hacker News. My public GnuPG key is on Keybase. I'm the product of my history. My parents were low-level Soviet diplomatic staff. They were needed for their technical expertise, but weren't fully trusted. I grew up mainly in Copenhagen, Mexico City and New York City, and attended the United Nations International School..." https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@mirimir/hi-i-m-mirimir
