So? A bunch of script kiddies and weirdos get your real name. You get your 15 minutes of online fame while they try to track you down so they can harass you. Most of the time they fail. No actually most of the time they don't even bother looking for you.

My name ended up there once, you know what happened? NOTHING




and how would they get that information? It's not like there would be a central database with logs of everything you do. Your name is only stored on the server of the website in question.


Like I said above, no one is going to log your every move on the internet. :rolleyes:



I don't mean to offend anyone, but I think this is being a bit overdramatic. People always expect the worst.

Wouldn't there? Maybe not at first, I agree.



And the owner of the website getting paid to share that information with someone wanting to create the database is how it would come to be.

There are much, much worse people out there who would love to get their hands on your data. Most of them work for governments and corporations.

Then don't use questionable websites.

Even if an admin on a site would sell the list of users on the site to someone, they wouldn't really have any information on you. They would only have your name. Even if they hacked hundreds of websites and got userlists from all of them they still wouldn't be able to put together a log of the sites you visit because so many people have the same name. They would maybe see 10 guys named Exorince visiting 10 sites and they have no way of knowing if it's the same Exorince on all those sites.

Some of them are Time person of the year I hear.



That's a laugh right there. Continuing from what I said above, Facebook is one of the websites which are generally considered not questionable and it's already doing this (selling personal information) today. Am I supposed to wildly guess whether the owner of the web-page which I want to visit has succumbed and decided to take the money and share the information his/her server stores about people every time I want to visit a web-page?

and what has happened since Facebook started selling user information?

uhm...

better ads on Facebook?

and...

no wait, that's it. That's all that happened.

To me, nothing.



So far.

So you're saying that we should just assume that no one can be trusted with our information? Because everyone might go to the dark side one day? comon man.. even I have more faith in people than that, and I'm the most anti-social person I've met.


That probably didn't make much sense but I'm ok with that. I'm also very tired and slightly intoxicated. So I'll read this thread again tomorrow.

But you have a problem with talking to someone on-line without knowing his/her name?

I think your sorting algorithm is b0rked.

The only way to be 100% anonymous and safe on the internet is to get the [censored] off the internet :shrug: Remember, also, that most identity theft and stuff happens offline.

Civilization is ruled by greed. That's just how it is.

Just because the internet isn't completely safe doesn't mean I should be forced to be completely exposed.

I'm not saying you should be. All I'm saying is that despite whatever measures you take someone out there in the internet is going to know who you are, and could theoretically sell that information to people, or steal your identity or what ever it is Veeno is worried about. The only way to completely avoid the possibility is to not use the internet. Even then, if you have a credit card, bank account, or some sort of rewards card somewhere that info is stored in someone's database, which could just as easily be hacked or sold. The possibility of someone mining your data is always there, thats just part of living in the 21st century.

I feel special falling within that very small "other" category.

There are actually whole companies whose sole buisness practice is to have massive computer databases devoted to storing and datamining information obtained about consumers which include internet activity, purchases, your residence, race, phone number, and they might even have a picture of you. In fact, these companies pretty much use your phone number like the government uses SSN's.

If only I could customize Chromes.... http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/C/chrome.html (:P) to not svck. If I could it would easily replace Firefox as my secondary browser

The menu system is far too cumbersome in Chrome, and it's something I use quite often, and the bookmarks system in it is just horrid IMO. The few pixels I give up for a toolbar is faaaaaaar worth it for me.

So what you're saying is just because no matter what you do it is possible that someone will be able to gather valuable personal information about you, we shouldn't do anything to reduce the possibility of that happening?

No, where do I say that? We should take reasonable precautions - not telling random people personal info, not using shady sites, etc. I just don't see the point in being completely paranoid.

I love my firefox thank you very much. Tried the others, and FF still brought me back after my betrayal.

Sorry, I got the wrong impression.

Out of curiousity, what could theoretically happen? That is, what could for example Facebook do with my personal data if they went bad? Or what could other hosts do if a system like the one Exo described was introduced?

I see this debate creep up on other forums quite often and it's hard for me to take a stand since people rarely elaborate on WHAT could happen.

The only thing I care for in a browser is speed, and looking good. Firefox isn't that fast for me, but it looks good..so I won't switch.

Also, privacy shmivacy.

I'm not sure what all the botnet stuff is supposed to be in Chrome, but getting Chromium should solve that, no?

[edit] It seems I've mistaken Chromium for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRWare_Iron.

Wouldn't Ghostery and UnChrome provide just as much anti-tracking support as Firefox?

I don't even know what they are so you'd have to tell me whether they would or wouldn't.