How to find you on the Internet

A reminder for those angels who asked questions such as "How can you find out the email address and personal information by nickname?"

The first step to initiation into the Internet paranoia is disabling history of your searches in Google.

\n So, how they can find you on the Internet.

By IP address

IP is a set of numbers that is assigned to the computer when you are online. These numbers say little about you to others, but they know that they are assigned to you, the provider, the provider of Internet services, at whose disposal your name, address, passport details. That is, if someone badly offends you, you can be found by contacting the provider.

What to do
Hide your IP from potential searchers using special services. Probably, the most famous such service in Russian is Hideme.ru (with it the same Sometimes it is possible to use sites that do not officially work on the territory of Russia, that is, block users with Russian IP).

To see what your IP says to other people, here's a new and very simple "anonymity tester" - Whoer. Net. Just open and see some minimal personal data about yourself: from what city you are, what local network, what operating system to computer.

In Universal Search

In "Google", "Yandex", "Rambler". Search for you can not only by name (Cyrillic and Latin, by name and surname-name). Phone number, ICQ, email address, nickname are also keywords.

In a specialized search

There are search engines for special tasks, about the existence of which you and did not guess, but they can know something about you.

1. Closed paid search engines on the media like "Integrum", "Mediology or the mysterious" Who's there ". Let's say an article with information about you disappeared from the Google Index - it's too early to calm down: this article will be permanently stored in the Integrum database.
2. Systems for people searching.
3. Search mentions in blogs, forums and microblogs "Yandex".

What to do
Search engines are not relevant to the content of the pages that are with their help. Refer to the source sites where unwanted personal information is found. (And if the information about you got into the media archive, then, perhaps, there is nothing to be done.)

In social services

Almost 50 million profiles in "In contact" and 40 million in "Classmates". That is, employers, collectors, dubious anonyms and in general anyone has access to information of varying degrees of privacy about 20-30% of the CIS population. Add to this blog hosting and dating sites.

What to do
First of all, be careful when filling out your personal profile. Use the privacy setting. In the end, delete the account.

From the picture

Find a person on the Internet can be even on the picture, say, on his avatar. Using the search engine for copies of images Tineye.com. The chances are, of course, small, but there are.

What to do
Use different avatars, different photos for different sites, so that the related information about you could not be compared. Or do not use images at all.

From the registration data to the site

The ways listed above to find a person and information about him are more or less amenable to neutralization. It's quite another matter what secrets you give to sites when you register with them. Everyone should understand that in addition to the mail address, the employees of these sites are aware of some of your actions on the Internet: correspondence in the mailers, chats and hidden photos to the site of acquaintances, the history of your nightly finds in search engines and so on, and so on. Moreover, the search engines (and more of them) know your IP, from which site you just came, which one then went on to keep a record of your surfing, and if you compare this information with the registration data that you specify, it turns out that what -famous people potentially are able to learn about you very much, even what you yourself have already forgotten.

What to do
In search engines - disable the maintenance of the history (log) or conduct a search without authorization to the site. Secret mails are sent from mailers who do not require registration, for example, with antireg.com - there are also generated one-time E-mail addresses. If the site, for example, an online store, requests some personal information, make an imaginary profile on Fakenamegenerator.com - if possible, use the data from there. Generally, it's very easy to list sites for paranoics, but they will not help you: if someone strongly wants, they will find you. With this thought it is necessary to reconcile. To realize that the service was not a magical country, but a continuation of real life. And behave accordingly.

And be careful in the comments. On many sites, moderators see your email address and IP. Suddenly they will ask for clothes, boots and keys to the motorcycle.