this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/10899106

AI Can Now Easily Unmask Your Secret Online Life for $4

A new research paper from ETH Zurich, Anthropic, and MATS demonstrates that Large Language Models can automatically de-anonymize users across platforms like Reddit and Hacker News.​

The AI acts like a digital detective using a method called ESRC (Extract, Search, Reason, Calibrate). It scans a user's post history for subtle clues (hobbies, writing style, locations), searches the wider internet (LinkedIn, other forums) for matches, and uses complex reasoning to confirm the identity.​

The terrifying results:

  • It correctly linked secret Hacker News usernames to real people 67% of the time (with 90% accuracy when it made a firm guess).​
  • It successfully matched a person's separate Reddit accounts from different years 68% of the time.​
  • The entire automated process costs only $4 per target.​

"Practical obscurity"-the idea that you're safe online because it takes too much human effort to connect your digital breadcrumbs-is dead. Anyone with a few dollars and an LLM API can now mass-dox thousands of pseudonymous accounts in minutes.

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[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 16 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Once again, the early Internet opsec of "Assume that everyone on the internet wants to track you down, and don't ever post your name, specific age, employer, or city in a publicly accessible online place" gives you an ample amount of protection.

[–] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

post your name, specific age, employer, or city in a publicly accessible online place

Okay if you say so

Name: Kurox Ppi
Specific age: 23 years, 7 months and 9 days
Employer: Mars Inc
City: New York, USA

Specifically, I work in the product design team which was responsible for putting the dick vein on the Snickers, a popular peanut and chocolate bar

This information is all true and current to the best of my knowledge. Please do not use it to triangulate my identity based on other online and offline activity.

Edit: peanut, caramel and chocolate bar

Edit edit: peanut, caramel, nougat and chocolate bar

[–] oliveoil@hexbear.net 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Mmm I love the Snickers dick vein.

[–] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago

We did extensive customer research and found out that the dick vein is where the flavor is

[–] LadyCajAsca@hexbear.net 3 points 1 month ago

My full name is actually

Lady Caj Asca, so I'm using my middle name as my nickname because being called Lady is.. well, actually who cares? You know what, call me anything, as long as I know it's connected to this account on a leftist forum. My parents at birth named me Lady and Caj Asca is actually from a long line of Caj Ascas in Manila of the Filipinos with the sole purpose of shitposting since the arrival of humans in the islands.

My age is permanently 21 years, 6 months and 9 days because I'm stuck in an unknown purgatory of sorts where I only know the current date and time through the computer, and I don't seem to age, starve or get thirsty, though I find random bottles of suspicious pink liquid on the ground and drink them, I don't know what it does, but it does taste sweet..

My employer? Oh of course the great CPC, and MSS, they transfer me Xi bucks to my bank account that I exchange for internet connection, as somehow that's still not free.

I hope this isn't used to track wherever I am, I'm perfectly content here in this room that only has a PC to post in the internet... Though, sometimes I do hope I find a way out.. because the internet's still bad here still and I find myself with nothing to do in these gray floors.. And I've got nothing to do whenever Hexbear goes down..

[–] Vingst@hexbear.net 1 points 3 weeks ago

My name is Yoshikage Kira. I'm 33 years old. My house is in the northeast section of Morioh, where all the villas are, and I am not married. I work as an employee for the Kame Yu department stores, and I get home every day by 8 PM at the latest. I don't smoke, but I occasionally drink. I'm in bed by 11 PM, and make sure I get eight hours of sleep, no matter what. After having a glass of warm milk and doing about twenty minutes of stretches before going to bed, I usually have no problems sleeping until morning. Just like a baby, I wake up without any fatigue or stress in the morning. I was told there were no issues at my last check-up. I'm trying to explain that I'm a person who wishes to live a very quiet life. I take care not to trouble myself with any enemies, like winning and losing, that would cause me to lose sleep at night. That is how I deal with society, and I know that is what brings me happiness. Although, if I were to fight I wouldn't lose to anyone.