Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username across 400 social networks

Re:Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username acr... by nurettin on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @01:25PM (#42510258)

This is why I try to use the same name across websites. I want to be identified as the same person. Just resist the urge to post information you don't want others to have.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username acr... by prophesi on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @02:31PM (#42510639)

We often don't know what is or isn't information we don't want others to have, and it will be a lot harder, if not impossible, to delete it after-the-fact. Especially when you consider how it only takes a few innocuous data points to derive what might be information you'd rather not disclose.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username acr... by betaby on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @01:39PM (#42510339)

> Just resist the urge to post information you don't want others to have.

Self-censor you mean?

I personally like that information anonymous account `William Shakespeare` posted around 1585–1613.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username acr... by derektank on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @09:37PM (#42512763)

I don't understand what point you're trying to draw here. William Shakespeare was by no means anonymous in his day and age and he almost certainly had to consider the views of the aristocracy and other elite figures that might watch his plays i.e. self censor. Ben Johnson, a contemporary playwright, was imprisoned for writing "The Isle of Dogs".

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username acr... by eks391 on Thursday December 26, 2024 @12:55AM (#42513408)

I think parent is saying that by self-censoring, expression others enjoy is lost, with the example of Shakespear as an expresser whose impact would have been lost if he'd decided to be anonymous instead.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username acr... by cruffle_duffle on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @01:40PM (#42510344)

The secret is multiple accounts. I too have a Brand Name Account(tm) I like to float around but it sure as heck isn’t this one.

Doing the multiple account thing isn’t as easy as it sounds though. Some sites like Reddit make switching between accounts incredibly easy while others aren’t so much. Plus laziness kicks in and soon enough your Brand Name Account gets tainted and you have to consider taking it out back to the dumpster.

Such is life I guess.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username acr... by moehm on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @05:43PM (#42511695)

> Doing the multiple account thing isn’t as easy as it sounds though. Some sites like Reddit make switching between accounts incredibly easy

And it's as easy to dox yourself by responding with the wrong account, as I have seen multiple times on Reddit.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username acr... by idontlikeirc on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @10:15PM (#42512885)

This happens a lot with viral-bait accounts. One of the top posts on the UFO board just got caught sockpuppeting this week.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username acr... by john_the_writer on Thursday December 26, 2024 @09:08PM (#42519406)

trick here.. create different chrome profiles, with different color schemes. Peach is my "nice person" account. Red is for accounts that I want to be a little more argumentative.

I do this at work too.. where I have to have different user profiles to emulate working as an admin, staff, client, sub-client. Blue seems adminny :)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username acr... by CRConrad on Tuesday December 31, 2024 @04:58AM (#42557687)

I do a similar thing with my terminal emulator: Different background colours in PuTTY depending on which server it's connected to. Green for Dev, red for Prod...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username acr... by sangnoir on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @07:02PM (#42512093)

> The secret is multiple accounts.

There was a "show hn" many months ago that did stylometry on HN commenters to show which accounts were most stylistically similar; I ran a throwaway account of mine through it, and it showed my account in the top 3 - which was impressive.

Having multiple accounts won't save you when your own word choice, grammar and style can uniquely identify you to anyone sufficiently motivated to link your disparate identities at any point in the future. The author even said their tool was rather basic; IIRC the basis was all pairs similarity on n-grams

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username acr... by malfist on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @07:49PM (#42512335)

You wouldn't happen to have a link to that would you? I'd really like to check that out

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username acr... by sangnoir on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @07:57PM (#42512366)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33755016

I can't get the site to load

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username acr... by 01HNNWZ0MV43FF on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @08:48PM (#42512574)

Then I wouldn't be able to talk about my kinks anywhere

[ Parent | on HN ]