The FBI Identified a Tor User
Not related to Tor, but food for thought regarding anonymity...<p>Quite a few people online wear multiple masks. You're that wonderful professional on linkedin with your full name on display, the ideal grandson on Facebook, but also a Twitter shitposter and toxic gamer under the disguise of anonymity.<p>Its worthwhile to consider the anonymous version of you. I'm imagining that it won't take long before a few dots can be connected. Not by the FBI, surely they already can, but as a public service. AI reverse engineering your clicks, writing style, whatever other input.<p>Meaning, if there's a "socially less accepted" version of you, do worry. It seems inevitable to me that they ultimately get linked back to your true identity.<p>And to be clear, this isn't just about a burner account to let off some steam. Anonymity is also used to freely criticize employers, political ideas, the establishment in authoritarian regimes, and it's an essential defense for people/groups that are often the target of harassment.<p>To illustrate how easily this can go wrong, recently a giant Twitter dump resurfaced. It turned out to be a cleaned up 2 year old file, but it did send a lot of people into a moral panic. Specifically, some made the mistake to link their real identifiable email address to their burner account.<p>The bottom line is that anonymity is fragile and unlikely to last.