Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2000 16:57:48 -0500 (EST) From: "Mr. K." <bsd@inbox.org> To: Chuck Robey <chuckr@picnic.mat.net> Cc: Leif Neland <leif@neland.dk>, FreeBSD <freebsd@gtonet.net>, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Anonymity, was: load spike strangeness Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.1000110162559.22861A-100000@inbox.org> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0001101358210.319-100000@picnic.mat.net>
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On Mon, 10 Jan 2000, Chuck Robey wrote: > [Redirected to -chat] > > On Mon, 10 Jan 2000, Mr. K. wrote: > > > On Sun, 9 Jan 2000, Leif Neland wrote: > > > > > While I do not agree with your idea of need of anonymity, I respect > > your need for it. > > > > > > Could you not, instead of using the handle "FreeBSD", which sortof > > already is taken :-), just assume a human name? The use of an obviously > > not human name makes it uncomfortable to communicate with you. > > > > > > If you would call you John Smith, or Thomas Jefferson if you want, you > > could much more easily hide your (hideous?) precence in the lists. Please? > > > > > Yeah, like Mr. K. :) > > You know, I can understand (even if I disagree with) the need for > anonymity in political or industrial discussions. I just can't get close > to understanding that need on the FreeBSD lists. There is no chance of > serious reprisals or subterfuge, so anonymity seems to be either a > juvenile prank or just someone unable to stand up for their own opinions. > > I was wondering if you can give me a justification for anonymity (and keep > your discussion about these lists, don't try to bring in political or > industrial topics, that would be cheating, as I already conceded that > possibility above). > Same reason I don't run ftp on my server. I don't need to. Some other reasons: I post about a problem I'm having with my server. It turns out that this is a security hole. Someone looks up my name and finds the services I am running, and exploits that security hole. Databases can easily be aggregated nowadays. While you may not consider individual data about you sensitive, you likely would consider all of that data combined to be sensitive. Your name, your phone number, your employer, your email address, your stance on political issues, the stocks you own, the stocks you're thinking of buying, your favorite book, your favorite type of music, the fact that you're looking for a job, the fact that you have a cable modem, your ip address, the web servers that you run, your state, the number of different isps you log into, the states of those isps, the fact that you usually log into an isp in one state and now log into one in another (and are likely out of town), the times that you are usually logged on, your home address, your picture, your pets names, your spouses name. The easiest key to use to aggregate this data is, well, SSN. But full name is up there in easiness. If I post something negative about my company of employment, I don't want anyone to know what that company of employment is, including my bosses. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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