zlacker

>>wut42+(OP)
Im increasingly coming to the opinion that anonymity isnt guaranteed so you should assume everyone knows what you do.m and who you are. So you should probably just use your real name and do way less online.

Havent fully swallowed this pill but its feeling inevitable.

>>noneth+M6
I think it's all about how many clues you leave behind. If you make a HN account that you only access via Tor through a browser with Javascript turned off and stick your writing through some AI editing service, it's probably pretty difficult to trace anything back to you. If you stream yourself 16 hours a day every day, your nickname probably isn't saving you from much, as it only takes one person to go "oh I know them" and then your secret's out. So like everything, it's about a striking a balance. Who is out to get you, and how much do you like doing things online? Just a question you can ask yourself before you move into a cabin in the woods and work on your novel 24/7 or whatever. (Publish it under a pen name, though, obviously.)

>>jrockw+S8
Consider: if your adversary is the NSA, CIA, or (maybe) FBI, you’ve already lost the game you’re playing.

>>bas+v9
You would be surprised at how easily they can be thwarted by simple technical maneuvers.

YMMV, but ime a lot of people have this bogeyman caricature of who the feds really are. The reality is that these are government agencies that pay significantly below market rate for really intense, highly demanding work shrouded with multiple layers of government grade red tape.

>>no-dr-+ka
I think it's not a bad idea to overestimate the power of the government to track you; the common wisdom on the internet to make this assumption is probably a good thing so people are motivated to be as safe as possible.

On the other hand, it seems like the Tor users who get caught make clear, glaring mistakes in their opsec. And I always remember how long it took to catch the Unabomber, and how they apparently only managed to catch him because of his brother.