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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lol good luck identifying me, Adam Friedland, host of the Adam Friedland show podcast show, from my online posting - or my wife Nicole Mullen- former abortion addiction advocate

[–] Богданова@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 9 hours ago

How can it easily unmask my secrets if I have nothing to hide? Take the mask away and there's nothing there.

[–] into_highest_invite@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 11 hours ago
[–] tactical_trans_karen@hexbear.net 4 points 12 hours ago

This is pretty much the only place I post anymore, but there's other ways to comb through metadata and figure it out. If there's the will and the resources, then nobody is completely anonymous online.

[–] TheSpectreOfGay@hexbear.net 24 points 19 hours ago

there's no shot this doesn't give a fuck ton of false positives. especially for anyone who just occasionally sneaks a lie into their posts

[–] Tabitha@hexbear.net 22 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

This is why I make a new account for every comment I post.

[–] SexUnderSocialism@hexbear.net 18 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Those 200 accounts that keep getting created on a daily basis starts to look a little suspicious. I think we got her. fedposting

[–] trabpukcip@hexbear.net 18 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Feel like the "writing style" one is pretty hard to nail down when every redditor anne frankly did nazi that coming

[–] TheVelvetGentleman@hexbear.net 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Tabitha@hexbear.net 3 points 2 hours ago

le bacon barhops bat bidnight

[–] PointyFluff@lemmy.ml 6 points 15 hours ago

This isn't even a little bit new. Companies have been identifying users via their "hand" for a couple of decades now.

[–] kristina@hexbear.net 18 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

i live on liberal mountain and i am an ardent lover of neoliberalism, hillary clinton, bill clinton, and obama

[–] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 8 points 17 hours ago

Omg me too!

[–] MarxMadness@hexbear.net 19 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

Among other good advice in this thread: lie and be inconsistent about personal interests and anything else identifiable.

[–] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 14 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

My hobbies include stealing from hobby stores and setting canisters of LPG on fire

[–] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 5 points 17 hours ago
[–] LadyCajAsca@hexbear.net 3 points 16 hours ago

I will stay a nebulous person of dubious identity and any one else saying anything else are lying. I'm from everywhere all at once.

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[–] oliveoil@hexbear.net 15 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Woah so they can know that I live in Berlin, Germany because I wrote equations like this:

$50 / $1.500 = 3,33%

Crazy. They infer based on my cues like a champ. Heckin awesome bro.

Genial !

[–] Chana@hexbear.net 6 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Just like how I personally, myself, Chana, count on my hands starting with my thumb. As all Deutsche would.

[–] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 7 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

I can't count using fingers on my hands because I don't have fingers, or hands. My hands got blown off by an IED serving in my first tour of Iraq.

[–] oliveoil@hexbear.net 5 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Damn, my hands got blown off in my third tour of Iraq. I am posting with my mouth rn.

[–] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 3 points 16 hours ago

I got blown off with a mouth during my fourth tour.

[–] Chana@hexbear.net 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

As a staunch conservative I thank you for your service.

[–] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 4 points 16 hours ago

Thank you for thanking me for my service rat-salute-2

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 3 points 17 hours ago

I toured in Afghanistan and the same thing happened to me, except I was left with one finger that I now use for peck typing. I guess I should count my blessings, which luckily is 1.

[–] oliveoil@hexbear.net 7 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Yes of course, I hold up my thumb, my index finger, and my middle finger to say "3".

[–] Chana@hexbear.net 4 points 17 hours ago

Drei is such a good number, same as the number of world wars we won't start!

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 17 points 20 hours ago

This is why your "secret online name" should be a meme that literally millions of people use and absolutely not something unique that can be identified across multiple services.

[–] Chana@hexbear.net 9 points 18 hours ago

This could already be done with basic language models and standard statistics.

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 16 points 20 hours 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 14 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours 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 17 hours ago (1 children)

Mmm I love the Snickers dick vein.

[–] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 6 points 17 hours ago

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

[–] LadyCajAsca@hexbear.net 2 points 16 hours 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..

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[–] Thordros@hexbear.net 11 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

This is gonna be really unfortunate for the federal agent that unmasks my real identity, and unearths hundreds of pics of me going hog out all over the place in sex clubs 30 years ago.

[–] BeanisBrain@hexbear.net 16 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

This is going to empower all the worst Kiwifarms types.

[–] refolde@hexbear.net 10 points 21 hours ago

I would make a joke that it's going to put them out of business, AI's come to take their jobs too.

[–] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 4 points 16 hours ago

Good luck to the AI trying to IDentify me via stylometry, but I don't like it's chances because Oppa Gangnam Style screm-cool

[–] Tabitha@hexbear.net 6 points 18 hours ago

As a community, we should investigate more into adversarial stylometry.

[–] Mindfury@hexbear.net 5 points 18 hours ago

eh, just lie until this is functionally useless

cascading garbage-in garbage-out

[–] JustSo@hexbear.net 8 points 20 hours ago

I bet it can't find me outside of what I've intentionally constructed.

Compartmentalise!

[–] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 10 points 21 hours ago

It's a good thing I've invested heavily in canned food and shotguns

[–] CrookedSerpent@hexbear.net 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

This is an elaborate bit account, everything I say and have said has been in jest

[–] Rey_McSriff@hexbear.net 3 points 17 hours ago

I, on the other hand, always tell the truth about being a semi professional conservative baseball player (let's go Iron Pigs!)

[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 2 points 15 hours ago

Certainly caution is warranted, but I would take this claim with a grain of salt.

[–] PaulSmackage@hexbear.net 3 points 17 hours ago

This is why I exclusively post here from Grapevine, Texas, USA.

[–] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 7 points 20 hours ago

Remember: you are ALWAYS trolling online.

All my old reddit accounts? I was just trolling. Everything I said on Twitter? Trolling.

[–] Abracadaniel@hexbear.net 5 points 20 hours ago

So uhh, how can we delete all of our hexbear comments?

[–] Evilsandwichman@hexbear.net 5 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

I am so glad I don't use my real identity ANYWHERE on the internet; I got that boomer brainworms that thinks saying key words by accident near my phone will get me arrested

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