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A comment on Going dark: online privacy and anonymity for normal people.

Re:Going dark: online privacy and anonymity for normal people by ChefDenominator on Thursday May 19, 2016 @12:45PM (#11731516)
The article recommends going to Fake Name Generator (tm) to get a random online identity. The page is not encrypted and looks very, very fishy.

That page recommends going to Social Security Number Registry. Again, an unencrypted totally scammy looking page. If you enter a random name and select a random state, it will 'verify' that your identity has been stolen. Then, if you click on 'Validate', you can enter your SSN (unencrypted, of course).

I don't even know how to code, and this is a news site for hackers? This tripe makes it to the top of the front page?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Going dark: online privacy and anonymity for normal people by huehehue on Thursday May 19, 2016 @12:58PM (#11731635)
FWIW, there is a "secure" version of the fake name generator, but you have to pay $1.99/year and sign in with Google, which is hilarious.[1]

Also, as explained by the creator[2], the SSN registry site is worthless and apparently a joke (although I'm not going to poke around on the site to verify).

[1] https://www.fakenamegenerator.com/premium.php

[2] http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2014/02/03/the-mormon...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Going dark: online privacy and anonymity for normal people by ChefDenominator on Thursday May 19, 2016 @02:02PM (#11732218)
That really just makes everything worse, because this site, HN, presents the blog post as if it is a legitimate guide. The Fake Name Generator(tm) page states: "You should click here to find out if your SSN is online." Making no mention that the site is intended to be a joke.

Apparently, HN is a joke.

(Note that the only way to view the Forbes article you linked is through the cached version.)

[ Parent | on HN ]