Yesterday while browsing the front page of that other site I came across a video of a TikTok user who finds people based on short videos.
Their TikTok page can be viewed here: https://proxitok.privacy.com.de/@the_josemonkey
(and they also have a webpage https://josemonkey.wordpress.com/)
I find it amazing, geeky, fascinating, and creepy that a single person with a computer — not a government organisation — is able to do this.
It all reminds me of that Wired article from 2009 about the man who tried to go off grid and was eventually found by internet sleuths.
TL;DR doxxing has never been easier, don’t say or share anything on the web that you wouldn’t want printed on the front page of a newspaper.
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It honestly reminds me of the time 4chan stole Shia Labeouf’s flag, locating it from a livestream with only the flag and the sky visible.
Here’s a great documentary about it!
https://youtu.be/vw9zyxm860Q
To me this highlights the dangers of sharing information online, especially in an audiovisual format. Or actually, the wider risks created by the current internet-connected way of life.
That wired article was also a nice read, thanks for sharing!
A twitch streamer I follow once showed a bit of his room. Someone from the community was able to identify his window frames, because they were rare, and traced them back to his location.
So yeah… it’s hard to imagine what special knowledge people out there have, that you can’t even comprehend when you share something seemingly uncritical.
IIRC the Wired journalist basically won and was baited into taking stupid risks for a payoff.
Video is a tough nut, because it’s hard to control every variable. In text, though, if you learn how, you can stay anonymous. If you’re on Lemmy already you might even be a good candidate for it. We don’t need to be defeatist yet.
It’s creepy af, but let’s all be careful not to victim-blame please.
Are you referring to “don’t say or share anything on the web that you wouldn’t want printed on the front page of a newspaper.”?
That has been the advice given to people since the early 90s when I started using computers and in the context of this video — a mother explaining to their child how easy it is for a stranger to find where you live — it fits. I suppose it shouldn’t be generalised as someone might take it personally.
I’ll keep this in mind in the future.
That, and also just a preemptive caution from having seen similar discussions go that route in the past. As you implied, it’s virtually impossible to exist in the modern world without being findable and harassable, no matter how careful one is.
Also, I’ll just leave this here. 🙂
Nice that he at least does it for people who ask. The geoguessr guy had a video on instagram recently where he posted some DM’s he got from one guy and then straight up doxxed him without his permission :/
