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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PuttItOut ago
Your post is misleading and filled with incorrect statements.
No one has access to any area of voat but me, there is no such thing as special access.
NeedleStack ago
Well shit, like I said in this earlier comment, if I was mistaken so be it - and that it would take only word from you for me to believe I was mistaken.
But your comment is coming off as accusing me of making something up intentionally. You know, A LIE. Which is not what I did or would do.
Everything I said I experienced was what I perceived it to be. I didn't post from a place of misleading or implying. And I'm not going to correct my wording because it was what I thought to be true.
I'm seriously put off by the way you responded. I'm not just some shithead. I actually care a lot about this place and have done a lot of work in subs and with other members across voat for nearly 3 years but whatever, I guess my bringing up a valid concern boils me down to being an asshole huh.
If it's happening as a bug and it will get fixed, great!
This post blew up larger than I thought it would but good came out of it; commenters bringing up a lot of important stuff we need to square away as a community anyway (brigading, witch-hunts, vote manipulation, site security, etc.). Those issues are way more important than any bug I brought up so kudos to you if you can get this house in order.
PuttItOut ago
This statement is purposely inflammatory, incorrect, lacks tact, and is intended to create a false narrative, regardless of what you think is true. I'm actually surprised you could say such at thing, being that you are such an important part of Voat. It's something I'd expect from sane or grifter, but not you.
The proper way to report a potential security issue is to report it to v/voatdev or PM.
If we have a bug in anon subs then we need to reproduce it so it can be fixed. We've had a bug before that we patched but there may be another one. So if anyone wants to PM me with the technique that is being used, we will patch it ASAP.
This is assuming there is even a bug in the first place, as this post has no concrete evidence that an anon account has been compromised.
Zinnsee ago
I'm very glad you responded. But guys please don't start a fight over this, that's exactly what they try to do. Maybe @NeedleStack is wrong and it all was a cohencidence, but maybe it was not. Let's focus on the facts. @PuttitOut are you the only one who can see the users behind anon posts or are there other mods with this privilege?
And since I'm already here, an update to the canary wouldn't hurt :)
WhiteRonin ago
If anon uses your Ip then you can cross check against users with the same iP. It’s all in the database.
Mytempacct20171001 ago
I can see replies to my 'anon' posts so that means the db has them.
If I REALLY had something sensitive to say, I would create an alt using a proxy.
Yep, I'm late to the party.
WhiteRonin ago
Where else would store comments and replies. All anon could just be a random number tied to your username or IP. Only way to tell is grab the code and look in the dB structure.
Mytempacct20171001 ago
I need to look at it actually. Thanks for the reminder.