Going from public figure to being anonymous?

Hello Lain, basically I was relatively well-known person until recently. For privacy reasons, I want to delete all of my presence online, and I mean all of it. I don't want my name to be known. I've already deleted all my social media accounts and also removed my accounts from the cache of the biggest search engines. Is there any way to complete erase search results (websites and images) related to your name in all big search engines, somehow? Like spamming something random so that real results are buried? Like I said, I've contacted the search engines to remove some stuff but some things couldn't be removed. Also, I'm worried about data brokers and such. Are services like DeleteMe snake oil? I'd prefer a DIY approach if possible.

First of all, if you were well-known, it's already too late to delete everything about you. Now, you can try: - Before deleting your accounts you should replace your username, description, posts, comments, etc with fake data. - Contact websites, data, etc. And request that your data be deleted in accordance with GDPR regulations (even if you aren't in the EU). - Data Poisoning (create accounts with your username? first name? last name? with fake information).

One time a photo of me was caught in a Google cache and i got rid of it due to how it was hosted on Photobucket which takes on the file name as part of the URL and no unique identifier numbers so I was able to just delete the photo and upload a blank image that got cached a few weeks later to replace the other image due to having same URL.

Since a large database already exists of your habits, tendencies, phraseology, typos, interests, typing style, click patterns, etc etc, the best you can do is try to develop an entirely new personalty as generic and inlike your real personality as possible. And of course, keep the new personality anonymous, with as small an internet foor print as possible.

Your best chance is to get people to lose interest in you. Hype up other peoples issues that distract from your own, divert attention to other issues that will make your life seem irrelevant. Just remember how quick people are these days to forget, do people even know anything pre covid anyhow? I dont think its possible to "delete yourself from the internet" especially if you are know, but you can overlay that info and make it hard to find and additionaly connect it to false information.

If you live in EU there are some rights and regulations you have, like "right to be forgotten" which will force Google to delete any search results, GDPR can be used to force individual companies to delete your personal data. You will have issues with archive websites, but that is a small minority of people who are nostalgia driven you will be forgotten within 6 months up to a 4 years (depending on how popular you are)

>Also, I'm worried about data brokers and such. Are services like DeleteMe snake oil? I'd prefer a DIY approach if possible. About DeleteMe: Yes, they are. They just send automated emails to different companies, you can basically do it yourself for free if you have enough time. Databrokers: You will not be able to do anything even with GDPR/Right to be forgotten. Most databrokers are shady businesses. Some will delete your data, some will tell you they will and never actually do it, some will not answer your emails. You will not be able to delete yourself from leaked databases too. They are being shared on forums. Best you can do is lay low and people will forget eventually. Never reuse any old username, try to use multiple ones and never keep them for too long. That's it. Good luck anon. As for search engine, threatening them with right to be forgotten/GDPR usually works.

>>24916 You've made a good start with your socials. But you need to separate your physical self from your online self. When I was going online in the 90s, we were told not to share personal information online and not believe everything you read. Then the very same people who were telling us that are now wrinkly old coffin dodgers unable to tell the difference between real images and AI slop on Facebook. In terms of separating my physical self from my digital, much like a network and VLANs, I have aliases for everything. For example, I have my email address with Mailbox.org. Through them I use an alias for anything I sign up for. I have an alias for Amazon, an alias for eBay, an alias for my bank. AN. ALIAS. FOR. EVERYTHING. You are much easier to pin point on the internet with a singular identity, as appealing as that might be to attention whores and ignorant children. My aliases consist of randomly generated 16 character strings and passwords. So for example my Amazon account details might be... email: Zc2SNz8GX3jmDsKP@mailbox.org username: [something-like-john-doe-common-millions-of-examples-with-some-numbers] password: eEVqHu9j8t7CUZTk While my eBay details might be... email: RUMDPgCmp3F8tA7c@mailbox.org username: [something-like-john-doe-common-millions-of-examples-with-some-numbers] password: mBLaPD6HJgFW7ewG And I do that for every single account I have online, but with the focus on having as few accounts as possible. Mailbox also provides temporary email should I need something throw away that'll delete after X number of hours (I think it's 48 hours). Then there's posting on social media. I don't. I don't have Reddit, I don't have Facebook, I don't have Twitter/X, I don't have Instagram. I do have XMPP and a mobile phone. I don't really care if people I know text me or use XMPP. I also have two sim cards. Because the people I know inevitably have social media and like morons they sign up to soykaf and give soykaf full access to their contact lists. So even if you never sign up to Facebook, it'll have your number because Aunt Judy the technoinept signed up to Facebook and gave it complete access to her contacts. EVERYONE (including family members) gets that one phone number. The only people who get my other phone number are the government agency websites that need it, my doctors office, my dentist office and my bank. The best thing to erase all history of yourself online is to cut back on your use of it, do not use the same ID across services, and time and especially don't use your real fuarrrking name. Absolutely nothing exists online from my internet days in the 90s. The forums I used as a kid are long gone, the services I used have been bought out and absorbed into something else. And during that time I never used my real name online because it was personal information. It will be harder to purge your real name from social media if you just delete the account. Especially if the site doesn't adhere to data protection laws. You would need to login and change the details manually, or contact an admin / help support to get them to delete the data. If you're in Europe, you are protected by the GDPR and if you ask, they are legally obligated to remove your personal information from their website.

See attached book for actionable schizo privacy advice. Consider that privacy is a useless pursuit. I don't suggest you hand over your data willingly to Facebook, Google, Apple and other PRISM program members, but accept that even if you don't, all your retard friends and acquaintances will do it for you. There's no escaping the dragnet if you don't want to live alone off the grid in the woods. https://www.tastyfish.cz/lrs/privacy.html >Privacy obsessed NPCs also do it completely wrong, they are usually nothing more than 105 IQ victims of the bullshit business, they consume privacy YouTube videos like a grandma consumes ads on Facebook. They think that updating to the latest (i.e. yet more bloated and fuarrrked up) version of web browser, paying for 7 proxies and VPNs and installing a password manager on their iPhone will allow them to use all the glorious "modern" tech safely. Some VPN providers are actively collecting data: https://geopolitics.co/2024/10/02/exposed-how-israeli-spies-control-your-vpn/ (e.g. ExpressVPN, Private Internet Access) Privacy enthusiasts are also not fully aware of all the little privacy leaks sprinkled all over the place, like browser/device fingerprinting, phone notifications sent in plain text through APNs and GCM, "telemetry", "secure, encrypted" cloud sync/backup. Modern proprietary software is hopelessly treacherous. Getting old data deleted is dubious, see Apple's recent incident where old deleted pictures were accidentally restored to people's iCloud accounts ("it's how filesystems work bro", yeah right). Look at the Snowden leak, all of that mass surveillance is still going on, except it's legalized now. Every large company forwards their user data to the NSA while selling a copy to data brokers. There's no deleting any of that. In conclusion, fuarrrk all of it. Unless you're a celebrity being harassed, it's pointless to worry about it. Live your short temporary life, be happy and based. Choose libre software and encryption where you comfortably can. Maybe try using modern tech as little as possible as an experiment, see if you're happier. Like this anon: >>>/Ω/80094 >I switched from CS to IT in college. I'd rather just fix things instead. I also embraced a more minimal lifestyle and filled it up with reading more books, passively browsing things in my rss reader, adding to my website, and showing up to more social spaces in real life. What use to be the time where I would massively consume social media and new soy technology has been instead just writing, having conversations, thinking up projects, and contributing to open source. I think it's way healthier.

>>24939 >Some VPN providers are actively collecting data: https://geopolitics.co/2024/10/02/exposed-how-israeli-spies-control-your-vpn/ (e.g. ExpressVPN, Private Internet Access) Just assume every one of them do it. Only trust what you setup yourself. >Privacy enthusiasts are also not fully aware of all the little privacy leaks sprinkled all over the place, like browser/device fingerprinting, phone notifications sent in plain text through APNs and GCM, "telemetry", "secure, encrypted" cloud sync/backup. Modern proprietary software is hopelessly treacherous. I'm pretty sure most privacy enthusiasts already know that now, it's 2024 not 2012. Or they are not really "privacy enthusiasts" >Look at the Snowden leak, all of that mass surveillance is still going on, except it's legalized now. Every large company forwards their user data to the NSA while selling a copy to data brokers. There's no deleting any of that. I don't think OP is looking to become invisible to intelligence agencies, just the public accessible content and content that can eventually/already leak(ed). >In conclusion, fuarrrk all of it. Unless you're a celebrity being harassed, it's pointless to worry about it. Live your short temporary life, be happy and based. Choose libre software and encryption where you comfortably can. It's not "pointless", nothing wrong in wanting to reduce your chances of being harassed in the future. Also, in my opinion, choosing libre software isn't compatible with fully enjoying your "short temporary life" lol. Use (end to end) encryption when possible, sure, but soykafty half baked software with the most fuarrrked up UI on earth? Nah fam, fuarrrk this, just don't be dumb online, try to not use your true identity when registering to anything, that's enough for most people. I don't get why "bearded linux schizos" keep wasting their whole life around libre software.. it's the most miserable way to enjoy our technology, a big waste of time for most people, and keeping fearing intelligence agency as if all of you are big enough to be a menace to society is really unhealthy. (I used to be like that, for the record. So no need to tell me how Libre is necessary and how bad mass surveillance is. I know. But let's face it; it's over and will make your life miserable if you create every single habits around that. I lost years of enjoying life to this soykaf. Now I see text from a friend not send from an encrypted platform? I just reply and go on with my day with a smile on my face.) >Maybe try using modern tech as little as possible as an experiment, see if you're happier. This is a good advice. Better enjoy real life than being totally schizoid about wanting to control everything surveillance-related. As I said, it's a miserable life that I experienced firsthand. Just because I was young and dumb enough to listen to anti-surveillance extremists only (who will, most likely, never be truly impacted by mass surveillance as they just LARP being Wikileaks-level targets lol). (After re-reading my post, it sounds a bit aggressive but don't worry it's not, it's just impossible to transcribe my tone by writing, it's just my honest opinion. If you do can enjoy your life with free software, good for you and keep using it !)

I would give some info but I'm not trying help pedos or trannies protect themself to be honest.

>>24941 Trans people are genetically gifted about Internet Privacy, I don't think they need your help.

OP why did you put your real name out there to begin with? >>24941 You're just like any Twitter and Facebook poster.

>>24944 >You're just like any Twitter and Facebook poster. What does this even mean I'm posting from my phone rn wtf?

>>24916 There is literally a service for this deleteme.com

>>24921 >just kill your soul, turn yourself into a normal person

speaking as security professional. there was a thread with slightly more decent opsec advice on the last page. https://lainchan.org/sec/res/21412.html tl;dr no you don't need schizo level security and no its not impossible to hide yourself either. basically what you need to do is threat model. picrel is one of the better posts in that thread about threat modeling. unfortunately as its reply stated it seems to be a little confused about the most likely threat model you as a semi-famous person will have to deal with, which is a stalker. overview of some ideas ITT / other thoughts: >data poisoning is a good idea. don't worry about poisoning data before account deletion, you're not wiping a hard drive. I data poison my old profiles since I have a relatively sophisticated stalker myself, what ive found is that linkedin is one of the most pernicious in terms of exposing user data so definitely make sure to create fake accounts on there. facebook also used to have a serious vulnerability of leaking accounts associated with phone number, not sure if they still do. there's even browser addons that send fake tracking information to sites to make your footprint look different. I would recommend reverse-doxxing yourself and if you can afford it potentially hiring a professional stalker (a PI) to do one for you as well. Unfortunatey, I don't remember the services used to stalk people / new ones come up all the time. i remember at different times spokeo, myfamilytree, personfinders, there was also an even more malicious repository called doxbin that fortunately has gone down. you can look yourself up on kiwifarms / lolcow.farm too of course but they rarely are informative or truthful as I understand it. >contact websites and threaten GDPR this. even if you aren't in the EU + hosted photos without your consent is also illegal in many US states. I believe dox is now illegal, too. sometimes a cease and desist that doesn't necessarily have legal backing can get the job done. >develop entirely new posting persona this is schizo level security that basically only applies to very specific cases of ban evasion on forums. not something you should worry about. >use aliases and separate physical from online self good advice here >>24929 although a bit paranoid. you don't need a 16-character password as username but just use a different username for every site. personally I use the random article page on wiktionary until i find one i like. though i know others who do the random characters thing too. >social media good idea not to use it. or to create default / blank profiles with minimal information on them you never log in to. be mindful about what does and doesn't go into them. do not upload photos to facebook, even private or friends-only photos as this will be used to train their facial recognition AI and there used to be a way to track people down using the facebook auto-tagging feature. change your settings such that your permission must be asked to tag you if you have any accounts on them, though i should reiterate not having accounts at all is a good idea. personally i poisoned facebook's model of my face by uploading hundreds of AI generated images at once and then mass tagging them with myself. https://imgops.com/ has a number of tools for reverse image search that can be used for doxxing / deanonymization. >phone number you can use burner numbers too. I give out burner app and google voice numbers to people i meet. its hard to use these for social media accounts sometimes but you can also just buy cheap prepaid sims too. >use tech as little as possible good idea, use a dumbphone if you can, don't sweat it if you can't (having multiple phones a plus, actually) and be mindful of apps like snapchat or google products which enable location sharing to your friends. don't location share with others. be mindful of email as many of the smaller email services might include your IP address in the header. do also be mindful of visiting friends' personal websites or video game servers as those will give your IP too. IP doesn't necessarily trace location but it can be used to do so. also be mindful of connecting to friends' wifi networks, it is unlikely that your friends will use this to stalk you but a technically capable stalker could do this if you connect to their network. disable geoip in your browser about:config if using firefox, i highly recommend you do use firefox, and make sure to disable location on your smartphone too. >VPN the best VPN is mullvad for now, there's a resource called thatoneprivacysite that tries to be updated on what the other good VPNs are. VPNs are about hiding your IP from sites and hiding your web traffic from routers you connect to. >make your own service with privacy not necessary, this is basically just an exercise for security developers not people who don't want to be stalked. There's a few other resources out there I've found over the years about privacy and security. best to keep in mind threat model for these things as some are for people who want to reduce footprint of sellable information vs people who want to commit crimes undetected, activists who don't want to be surveilled by police vs people trying to evade a known stalker. for sanity's sake, stick to what you know they're capable of / have done in the past. https://www.privacyguides.org/en/ is an example of one privacy guide repository. riseup.net, another invaluable resource over the years, has some guides such as https://riseup.net/en/security . I also looked into to see what the EFF might have about avoiding stalkers and while they're mostly concerned with "stalkerware" (Software downloaded to your computer that spies on you) I did come across this collective that put out some resources https://github.com/CyPurr-Collective/Cypurr-Prezes/blob/master/Presentations/PDF/Social%20and%20Safe-Social%20Media%20and%20Harm%20Reduction.pdf https://github.com/CyPurr-Collective/Cypurr-Prezes/tree/master/Presentations/PDF . there is also the BADASS organization that is specifically concerned with fighting revenge porn, their website is unfortunately down now but they have an archive here: https://web.archive.org/web/20200324054519/https://badassarmy.org/ and their creator is Katelyn Bowden who isn't hard to get in touch with. overall there is no one size fits all solution or necessarily correct way to do it. for future reference use the simple security questions general instead of making a whole new thread about it, or check the catalog for other opsec threads of quality to ask the questions. >>24941 you are a retard

I'm thinking of doing the opposite. I always used a pseudonym for my website, now I want to use my real name. Is it a bad idea?

>>25893 It doesn't matter. Nobody cares about you. The only reason to bother with privacy is on principle, to upset feds so to say.

>>25893 It's again a matter of threat modeling. I personally own a few sites that I've stamped my name on since they're good for my CV, but making a site with your name just to talk about how all X should die because Y is of course stupid.