Fair warning to my fellow goats - Account anonymity in anon subs is a fallacy and what you write can and will get used against you. (whatever)

submitted ago by NeedleStack

This post is an advisory to users that your username is connected to whatever you write in anon subs.

What you write can be seen by one or more devs who’ve been given that special access. But what you may not know is that they can and do use it against you as they’ve done with me in the past and as recently as yesterday. And one or more of those users who have this ability are part of SBBH.

Some history: One of the SBBH members had a hissy fit with me over a year ago and is probably the same user who would “miraculously” happen to know it was me when I would write certain things in anon subs in the past. I’d write something and they’d make a snarky remark revealing that they knew were talking to my account. It wasn’t a huge deal but it made me aware that my username could be seen by one or more users with this special access.

Back to present day: I’d never bothered to get caught up in SBBH drama until about a week ago when I started needling them in anon subs with a comment here or there regarding their questionable activities on voat.

It didn’t take long for one of them to take the bait and clearly refer to me when making this remark about my recent comments:

http://archive.is/eBPYZ

My account is exactly 2.7 years old. Whoever wrote that comment was a fool; for so obviously ‘giving away’ that they could see it was me writing those comments (showing their hand), and to give such a sensitive shit over what I wrote (notice it took anti-SBBH comments for them to get fresh and reveal themselves).

Let this story be a warning to any of you that this ‘special access’ to see which user is writing “anon” comments creates an unfair advantage and in the wrong hands can be used against you. At the same time, these privileged few are able to enjoy the ability to hide in anon subs themselves.

@PuttItOut, users will never be free to “have their say” in anon subs until everyone but you is stripped of the ability to see who’s posting what in so-called anon subs.

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Edit: Hey, cool! My post got a "Speculation" flair. Perhaps the first in voat's history in v/Whatever.

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BB-3 ago

@PuttitOut this is serious. If anon subs aren't anonymous for everybody, they're not anonymous.

WhiteSurvivalist ago

The idea that you can't post there without being logged in should be the first dead give away.

BB-3 ago

I didn't expect to be completely anonymous from the website's owners. With all of the anti-spam and DDOS protections, logging in to post anonymously is understandable, even if it's not a perfect solution. The owners giving that same access to their friends and cohorts without being open about it, is what's concerning. If there was a list of users with these admin privileges, we could at least hold the group accountable. As it stands it looks like putt himself is making these comments, because we don't know who else could. At the very least he is responsible for the violations of anonymity because he allowed it to happen.

recon_johnny ago

Was going to ask if you had an idea who was making the comments. You think it was Putt? What was so egregious for your comments that folks had to call you out?

BB-3 ago

I actually suspect another user, but not strongly enough to name. My point was more that Putt is the only one who we can be sure has that access, and anyone else with that access must necessarily have received it from him.

What was so egregious for your comments that folks had to call you out?

I don't know which "you" that you're referring to here, other than to say it's probably not me.

recon_johnny ago

Someone listed your account. Why? What did you say so that this other person listed your account.

BB-3 ago

I have no idea what list you're talking about.