YSK: On the internet you can just freely say what you really think even if you know it's unpopular.
YSK: On the internet you can just freely say what you really think even if you know it's unpopular.
This isn't your college or work place break room. If people are saying something you disagree with you can just say it and you won't be fired or ostracized for it. Yeah, people will probably get angry and say mean things to you but those are just words which can be ignored. Offence is taken, not given.
This is mostly for the lurkers who upvote unpopular opinions but don't comment. You can speak up - you're not alone.
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Of course you can. You're not free from consequences of what you said though. The internet remembers EVERYTHING. Especially on federated platforms like lemmy. Some of my first messages on newsgroups in the 1990's are still floating around the internet.
Although, what are the odds someone goes to the length to match writing style and personal details that you let slip while using a pseudonymous account against an online presence where you are identifiable?
I’m sure it’s possible, especially if there’s a reason you might be targeted, but I imagine it’s still pretty challenging and time consuming
That's old style thinking. If that type of matching isn't already automated and running, it will be soon. They'll click a button and find you everywhere if you've left enough breadcrumbs, so there won't be any lengths to go to. And as someone who has gone through the cybersec exercises of hardening browsers against fingerprinting, knows what VPN can do and more importantly what it CAN'T do, etc, I can say there are precious few people in the world going to the lengths required to stay truly anonymous. It basically has to become your top priority and constant focus if you want to be successful.
I guess a better question then - when is the juice worth the squeeze?
Like, I’m sure that government agencies have an interest in tracking who is making what comments pseudonymously online, but it would take a lot of effort, computers, money, energy, etc to constantly scan and store information for everyone, right?
Which is where we get into different levels of security - I’m going to try harder to hide my identity if I were to pirate a movie vs browsing Wikipedia.
I guess the question is: who is motivated to collect what information, and what needs to be done to make that identifying information useless for them to connect the dots?
but it would take a lot of effort, computers, money, energy, etc to constantly scan and store information for everyone, right?
You are describing PRISM and it's been running since 2007.
When they realized how much storage it was going to take the US Government built the UDC at Camp Williams in Utah.
Well shit.
For the government, it's always worth it as long as the funding is flowing. After all, it's not like they are footing the bill. You and I are paying for them to spy on us.
As is what you up voted.