Sunday, 14th August, 2005

Anonymity

tranny online anonymity

Let's see if I can explain this then . It's a tricky issue, and one that (as Jill reminded me yesterday this morning) is quite relevant to the Online-Trannie™ phenomenon.

(I'm quite prepared to stand corrected on this BTW — I have an interest in stuff like this, but not an in-depth interest. Or an authorative one either.)

The first port of call, as always, is Wikipedia...

Internet privacy is privacy over the mediums of the Internet: being able to control what information about oneself is revealed over the Internet, and to whom that information is available. The term is often used to mean universal Internet privacy: every user of the Internet posessing Internet privacy. It is a subset of computer privacy. The concensus among Internet privacy experts is that Internet privacy is not, in general, a reality. Privacy advocates believe that it should be.

81.168.114.66

The main concern regarding Internet privacy, tend to focus around IP Addresses...

Every device on the Internet (including online computers) has an IP address, an identifying number used to route data. This number is assigned by the device's Internet Service Provider (ISP), and may be semi-permanent (for example, assigned for the duration of an account) or temporary (many dial-up connections, for example, are given new IP addresses each time they connect).

What this means, is that if you (like me) have a static IP address, every time you do something online, you leave (for want of a better analogy) an identifiable fingerprint in the logs of a server.

I think there are two issues here. (1) How useful your IP address is to some wannabe hacker, and (2) whether or not there are wannabe hackers who can be bothered to expose us.

On the first point, it's not really that useful. The vast majority of internet users connect through an ISP — and while a bit of jiggery-pokery on the IP address can tell you what ISP they use, it doesn't get you much farther than that (unless, I guess, you're the FBI or something and you can demand that an ISP gives out data about their users).

I know I mentioned traceroute yesterday, but I was being a little melodramatic. OK, so I can use traceroute (which is a pretty bog-standard UNIX app, included on pretty much all systems, and used mainly for troubleshooting network issues) to plot the connections between my computer and yours — but I can't find out stuff like where you live, or what your real name is or anything.

I don't know if you remember that little episode I had a few months ago with the schoolies that threatened to sue me for using the name "Siobhan Curran" — I managed to find out what school it was that they went to, but not through just using their IP. It took a lot of Googling, and the little eejits had given me their real names

On the second point though (she said, realising that she's straying somewhat from the plot), I honestly don't believe that being "outed by malicious types" is something to get too worked up about. Despite what you see in the movies, the world isn't filled with leather-clad Black-hats who spend their time either trying to overthrow small governments or going to all-night techno-goth nightclubs.

And the people who do have the ability and authority to find out information about internet users are more likely spending their time trying to round up international terrorists, than creating a "Top trannies and where to find them" list.

Some Suggestions

Before I lose the thread, and actually end up increasing everyone's paranoia, I think I should try and sum that up. Basically, the Internet is not anonymous — but not in a way that should really be of concern to transvestites.

However, having said that, I think there are some fairly sensible precautions you can take to to preserve closetedness...

1. Don't surf from work
   This isn't about anonymity, it's just basic sense. Becky has a rather nice way of skirting the problem by connecting to her home machine remotely and then surfing through that.

2. Beware the whois
   whois is another UNIX tool that lets you find out information about a domain name — specifically who owns it. If you have a .uk address, then you're probably OK (but check that your privacy settings as right — I went for about a week with them set to "public" before someone pointed it out to me). But if you have a .com or a .org or something like that, then it's worth checking what information Nominet holds about you. (Nominet responds to privacy concerns — 27 August 2002)

3. Don't feed the trolls
   If, as unlikely as it is, you do actually get picked on by one of those "malicious types", then just ignore them. Engaging one in a flame war only provokes them, and makes it more likely that they'll try and do something nasty.

4. Be vague
   Even though your IP address can't really tell someone too much about you, what you write can. If preserving anonymity is important, then be careful not to give out any details that could be used to trace you. And I think it goes without saying that you should never post your phone number or address

5. Be dynamic
   If I haven't managed to convince you that you shouldn't worry too much about your IP address, then don't get a static one Most dial-up connections are given a different address each time they connect, but because broadband connections are "always on", it's unlikely your IP address will change that much even if you have a dynamic IP rather than a static one. So disconnect every one in a while

(Any other suggestions welcomed BTW )

Relax

I do think though, that t's important not to worry too much about it. As I said, I really don't believe that there's an army of Black-hat teenagers out there whose sole mission is to expose every trannie in the world, and even if there was, they'd need more than just an IP address to do it.

Not wanting to tempt fate or anything, but I've been open about myself online for years — I've even made connections to things that give my real name (and inadvertently my address). And nothing bad has ever happened.

*touch wood*

Aw, Crap

(via flickr.com/people/si08han)

I am my own worst enemy

LOL, I must just point out that this isn't the first time I've come close to destroying a keyboard by spilling wine on it. The one I'm using right now is the one that came with Erin — back in 2001 — and it's been through the warm-water-in-sink process at least 5 times.

You're all right though — that white one needed a wash anyway.

Scary House

(via flickr.com/people/si08han)

Every city has it's weird houses. The guy who used to live here painted all of his windows, leaving a small square patch for him to stare out of. Which he did. All of the time.

I saw him staring at me once — it put the willies up me

Don't drink and drive

(via flickr.com/people/si08han)

Smoke pot and fly

The Alms Houses

(via flickr.com/people/si08han)

1702 I think they were built

Swirly Rock

(via flickr.com/people/si08han)

The whole city is made of this stuff

Bindweed

(via flickr.com/people/si08han)

I just thought it was really cool how it had reached up and grabbed the tree

Oh. I love the stuff In fact, I've just planted some in one of the little planters that I made in the yard.

I've been waiting days for that

I dunno Rachel — I spend days writing a script that spell-checks comments, and you don't use it