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martin-ttoday at 3:08 AM1 replyview on HN

I assure you they cannot pierce that veil if one has a modicum of competence.

One uni in my country has been getting bomb threats during the exam period every year for multiple years (a random article says 20 times at least). The whole place gets evacuated each time, nothing is found and nobody is caught.

But people who think they're anonymous because they used a different nick? Yeah, those are idiots, their ISP and the platform knows who they are and anybody can deanonymize them through stylometry.

I don't think surveillance is the solution though. I'd much rather see a network of trust or (second best) anonymous proof of identity.

Any place selling alcohol or cigarettes is able to check if you're 18. They could just as easily check your nationality by looking at your ID and give you a crypto key which can be used to prove that to online platforms without revealing who you are.

But there's no money for big corps in that and most people are not even smart enough to think of it.


Replies

lovichtoday at 3:32 AM

Every single packet of information sent on the internet flows through NSA servers at some point. We've known this since Snowden. When I say the government has this information I do not mean that every single bureaucrat at any level of government can access this, but that the government as a whole has access to the information if they feel its worth using. We have limitations on how the government uses such powers but those are currently worth the paper they are written on and being ripped up left and right.

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