Comment by elric 4 days ago
I started writing a reply about my childhood. But then I realized I would be sharing more than I'm comfortable sharing in public, I don't even feel comfortable creating a throwaway account to discuss this stuff.
Not the person you’re responding to, but I’m careful with what I share with people.
I once had someone share something rather personal, followed up with a comment that they suspected I’ve had similar experiences.
The reason? The language and phrases I use when referencing parents. Nothing negative per se, but the way in which I refer to them (example: my mother) and others. I was giving away more than I realized.
Which wasn’t so much of a concern in this context, but I’m more away of it now around people I don’t know especially.
(This comment actually puts me a little outside of my normal personal opsec, but I’m going to let it stand here)
Even something as simple as a single word can give away absurd amounts of information about us.
I used to be ashamed of my nationality and actively tried to hide it. I was very successful at it too, never had a single person identify me... Until I tried playing an MMORPG I used to play when I was a kid and was still learning English. Long story short, I misspelled the name of an item because of my childhood memories. Turns out that mistake was very specific to people of my country.
Yeah I think about this a lot. How much unspoken personal trauma lurks beneath anger online. When someone is angry at something anything could be a root cause but it isnt appropriate for onlookers to speculate or authors to be too open about, so it passes unnoticed. I feel all that tends to be absorbed in a two-steps-removed way through sensationalist headlines and related screeds and we don't think about the origins. Of course I can only speculate if this is true so it is no wonder we don't. The old adage is "their anger is about them not you" but although I lean towards this explanation it sounds like a necessary assumption sometimes.
I saw a comment from a foster parent that said we would find a cure for cancer before we find a cure for childhood trauma.
just because the internet datamining bots don't care doesn't mean they won't create hyper-accurate portraits of your personal life, that can and likely will be sold, hacked, or leaked.
you have 0 reason to think they'll respect your life, and less reason to help them make money off of your misery. at least with a throwaway and some marginal protections like a VPN and browser fingerprint obfuscation you can feel mostly secure.
Maybe for you, or others: But I have some past stuff that applies to the ACE score, and absolutely no-one knows about it. Not my spouse, family, previous partners, friends, psychiatrist, counselors, and my children certainly never will. I'll very likely take it to my grave.
Opsec awareness is brutal on public socialization.