[HN Gopher] Find a person's profile across 350 social media sites
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Find a person's profile across 350 social media sites
        
       Author : hunvreus
       Score  : 339 points
       Date   : 2021-02-21 14:13 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | jimbob45 wrote:
       | For anyone curious, I found the Python (first) method to be the
       | easiest way to get this up and running. Also it hit a few false
       | positives for my (not the one you see me using now) username.
       | 
       | Edit: Also you can't Ctrl-C to kill it midway through running so
       | don't fat-finger it if you don't want to waste 30 seconds waiting
       | for it to finish.
        
       | vmception wrote:
       | Cycling usernames is one thing
       | 
       | But remember to break your social graph on occasion with a new
       | phone number and email address, and never sharing your number or
       | stored contacts with the social media network. not that hard just
       | something to be conscious of.
        
         | pruski wrote:
         | Storing contact list by any service should be illegal. You
         | might try to not share your data, but if anyone has you on
         | their contact list, it's out of your hands
        
           | vmception wrote:
           | Which is why you also dont tell the service your phone number
           | or reuse an email address
        
             | laurent92 wrote:
             | I wonder if Google has a backdoor API which lets group
             | people by backup email. If one always creates an account
             | with the previous email as a backup, the link is east to
             | make.
             | 
             | That would be especially useful for censorship services
             | across competitors: Although Google Facebook and Twitter
             | compete, sharing the flagged accounts would allow
             | recognizing the same user coming back with a different
             | email address.
        
               | vmception wrote:
               | who said anything about backup email
               | 
               | but sure? probably if you just alternate between a backup
               | email tied to an email you use everywhere
        
             | pruski wrote:
             | New email per every service you want to use? It shouldn't
             | be this complicated
        
               | vmception wrote:
               | no. new email for the same service to make a new account,
               | even after deleting your old account.
               | 
               | a lot of people dont know how or why they get the same
               | suggestions of people and dont want that.
        
               | reaperducer wrote:
               | Sign In With Apple does exactly this -- generates a fake
               | e-mail address for each account, so the data harvesters
               | never get your real one.
        
         | lmeyerov wrote:
         | We help companies in areas like payments/account fraud where
         | there are constant bots / rings / account takeover attacks, and
         | this is both good advice... and _really_ hard.
         | 
         | To cycle against entity resolution tools for a regular company,
         | that'd mean things like full simultaneous reset of:
         | 
         | * cookies
         | 
         | * browser user agent
         | 
         | * potentially sequence of sites/services you use
         | 
         | * IP address/location
         | 
         | * linked accounts
         | 
         | * contact info
         | 
         | Even one miss/overlap can void your efforts.
         | 
         | The big sites have much more to work with than that, making it
         | especially hard. Likewise, if a team takes a specific interest,
         | there are even more correlations that can be done, e.g.,
         | behavioral analytics.
        
           | vmception wrote:
           | Yes absolutely, fingerprinting an individual is easy and
           | avoiding that as a user is hard.
           | 
           | Social media sites (Facebook products) might drive ads based
           | on fingerprinting but they aren't re-linking social graphs
           | this way. Sticking with the reliability of shared phone
           | numbers and emails (and people friending/inviting the same
           | people and having the same name theyve seen before)
        
         | ape4 wrote:
         | Don't use the Facebook app
        
       | fireattack wrote:
       | Ok, since we're on this topic.. why can't we delete our old
       | submissions/comments or the account itself on HN?
       | 
       | HN probably is the only "social media" sites I use that you can't
       | do that. This can't be good for users' privacy or "right to be
       | forgotten".
        
         | 19h wrote:
         | IIRC you can just email the admins (check the FAQ) and they'll
         | help you out.
        
           | BlueGh0st wrote:
           | >just email the admins
           | 
           | If this were any other website, it'd be decried as a dark
           | pattern
        
       | alex_young wrote:
       | > This project is "currently used by some law enforcement
       | agencies in countries where resources are limited".
       | 
       | Pretty troubling statement.
       | 
       | Does this tool help repressive governments track people across
       | accounts? That's sure what it looks like.
        
         | narak wrote:
         | Any openly available tool can be used by anyone for any
         | purpose. The idea that we can pick and choose is ridiculous,
         | and with the exception of rare cases, avoidance of building
         | generally useful tools for the chance that bad actors will also
         | use them is a losing proposition.
        
           | reaperducer wrote:
           | _Any openly available tool can be used by anyone for any
           | purpose. The idea that we can pick and choose is ridiculous_
           | 
           | And yet there are hundreds of laws, conventions, and treaties
           | regulating all kinds of weapons. The idea that humans can
           | pick and choose what exists in their society is ridiculous.
        
           | orasis wrote:
           | Building a tool is an ethical choice. Technology has no
           | inherent right to exist. This is a bad project.
        
             | ClumsyPilot wrote:
             | Anyone who has capacity to harm you, luke governments,
             | alreafy has tools and a fat budget.
        
             | majkinetor wrote:
             | This is invalid thinking.
             | 
             | Bad actors can make such tool themselves (if they can't,
             | they are not really that good) and have incentive to do
             | that, so non existence will only slow them down. I don't
             | care about analyzing other people for any purpose so I
             | don't. Having this tool readily available lets me analyze
             | myself and people I care about to protect them from bad
             | actors and educate them in the process.
        
               | reaperducer wrote:
               | _This is invalid thinking._
               | 
               | I'm not familiar with the phrase "invalid thinking." Can
               | you elaborate on how a person's thoughts can be invalid?
        
               | majkinetor wrote:
               | You are being overly literal I guess, there is nothing to
               | explain.
               | 
               | Invalid line of thought sounds good ?
               | 
               | Try DDG next time.
        
               | Ensorceled wrote:
               | The sentence was unnecessary to both your point and any
               | argument in general. Why did you include it? Why are you
               | defending it's inclusion? Why are you now saying "google
               | it"?
        
               | arkitaip wrote:
               | Please keep in mind that some HNers are modeling their
               | behavior after buggy machines and bad code and that this
               | influences their thinking and language.
        
               | narak wrote:
               | logical coherence and fallacies far pre-date computers
               | and code
        
               | spoonjim wrote:
               | It's a hamfisted attempt to assert the correctness of
               | one's argument by fiat. It's the grown-up "are not / am
               | too!"
        
             | dleslie wrote:
             | Technology has no rights; it is a logical abstraction
             | describing the works of humans.
             | 
             | I like to think that humans have an inherint right to
             | engage in creative work that pleases them.
        
               | 4eor0 wrote:
               | Police sure seem pleased thumping skulls.
               | 
               | Anything we can do to make it easier for them.
        
               | dleslie wrote:
               | Maybe your country should worry less about the technology
               | and more about the people using it. You clearly have a
               | personelle problem.
        
               | 4eor0 wrote:
               | Maybe we should police each other more, and technology
               | less?
               | 
               | But who is making the technology?
               | 
               | Circles. Circles everywhere.
               | 
               | Perhaps you should not anthropomorphize technology.
        
               | dleslie wrote:
               | I am explicitly _not_ anthropromorphizing technology; I
               | argued it is a logical abstraction with no rights.
        
         | williesleg wrote:
         | Progressives worldwide use this tool.
        
         | pca006132 wrote:
         | But this is not a problem with the tool, this is a problem with
         | those platforms. Even if this tool is not published, bad actors
         | can still make their own tools.
         | 
         | I think we should rather demand the platforms to enforce better
         | measures against this kind of usage, rather than blaming this
         | tool.
        
           | PartiallyTyped wrote:
           | While I don't disagree with the latter statement, perhaps we
           | shouldn't be giving tools to bad actors in a silver plate or
           | perhaps a git repo.
        
           | reaperducer wrote:
           | _this is not a problem with the tool, this is a problem with
           | those platforms._
           | 
           | It's not the missile that's the problem, it's the guy who
           | launches the missile.
           | 
           | Why not both?
        
             | harryf wrote:
             | Perfect example was the youtube-dl. Making an app to
             | download videos from YouTube is relatively trivial for most
             | semi-experienced developers but that doesn't mean I want to
             | invest the time doing it, plus the effort of keeping it up
             | to date every time YouTube changes something. So youtube-dl
             | is enabling me and less technical people to download
             | content from YouTube, and it's "going away" for a short
             | time caused an outcry.
             | 
             | So there's a difference between "this is possible" and
             | "this is a tool that makes it really easy"
        
             | dleslie wrote:
             | Depends on what you mean by missile. One worth dozens of
             | millions of USD and produced largely to prop-up a state
             | economy tends to have different ethical considerations
             | versus an adhoc assemblage of propane tanks and plumbing
             | pipes produced to fight over the neighbourhood in which it
             | was made.
        
           | samstave wrote:
           | You know what would be a great addition to this tool: A
           | transparency panel/dashboard that shows any state
           | organizations or LEO systems that are using it.
           | 
           | List out all the IPs and countries that are state IPs using
           | it.
        
             | badsectoracula wrote:
             | The tool is running locally, how are you going to collect
             | the IPs?
        
               | samstave wrote:
               | I was thinking a modification such that the system will
               | report where its run from and if the reported IP is
               | recognized as a government agency, display it - else drop
               | it.
        
               | SahAssar wrote:
               | So you want to add phone home functionality? And why
               | wouldn't those agencies just fork it and remove the phone
               | home bits or firewall them?
        
           | lmz wrote:
           | Yup. Not sure how this is different from any of the security
           | tools / exploits used to break into networks.
        
           | uh_uh wrote:
           | Maybe we should do both.
           | 
           | I take an issue with the argument that bad actors can make
           | their own tools. Bad actors can also build their own nuclear
           | weapons, genetically engineer their own deadly diseases but
           | there's certainly value in not making this any easier. If you
           | take the time, money and effort away from bad actors by
           | forcing them to reinvent the wheel, that's a good thing.
           | 
           | Granted, this logic can't be viably applied to most things,
           | but there are projects where you can assume that most of the
           | use-cases will be shady.
        
             | ttt0 wrote:
             | Tools like this are trivial to make and it's trivial to do
             | it manually using Google. I don't see any point in getting
             | angry about the existence of tools like that, as it's
             | beyond anyone's power to stop people from doxxing each
             | other.
        
               | MattGaiser wrote:
               | I did something similar to this for a hackathon in
               | university. Obviously not as sophisticated as this, but
               | the concept is trivial. If you know enough about the
               | command line to install it, you can build it.
        
             | cgriswald wrote:
             | > Granted, this logic can't be viably applied to most
             | things,...
             | 
             | This specific thing, for example.
             | 
             | > ... but there are projects where you can assume that most
             | of the use-cases will be shady.
             | 
             | An assumption is a poor basis for an argument. Even in the
             | case where the assumption turns out to be correct, I don't
             | buy this line of reasoning, because it would apply
             | generally to security tools. Such reasoning also makes it
             | far easier to attack things even where the assumption is
             | known to be wrong ( _e.g._ bittorrent).
        
             | VRay wrote:
             | Bad actors can't make nuclear or biological weapons unless
             | they have incredible amounts of resources
             | 
             | Bad actors with a $150 laptop out of a dumpster and a free
             | wifi connection CAN make cyberstalking tools in their spare
             | time
        
               | violetgarden wrote:
               | Exactly! There's a totally different bar to entry. Look
               | at North Korea. I don't think they rank highly as a
               | concern with traditional kinetic warfare, but they have
               | made themselves a major security concern even with scant
               | resources because the bar to entry with cyber warfare is
               | just that much lower.
        
             | Spooky23 wrote:
             | That's silly. Cops are allowed to use their eyes. These
             | platforms are the billboards they look at.
        
       | runawaybottle wrote:
       | You know how sometimes people ask on HN 'how can I use software
       | to make world better?', well, you just asked the opposite
       | question.
       | 
       | Don't make shit like this. I could do it too, but I'm not gonna.
        
         | postalrat wrote:
         | I'm sure politely asking people not to do something that
         | benefits them will surely work.
        
           | runawaybottle wrote:
           | Shame has its own way.
        
       | violetgarden wrote:
       | I'm surprised by the backlash regarding this tool. Well, I guess
       | surprised is the wrong word. I get that it is creepy. There are
       | lots of websites that do this very thing like whatsmyname.app.
       | 
       | I personally like running my username through tools like this and
       | aggregating my digital presence. When I was younger, I signed up
       | for lots of sites that were the cool, new thing. Checking myself
       | years later, I am shocked by the wide berth I left. Fitness
       | accounts. Accounts from that time I was getting into studying
       | chess. I'm the type of person who is always on to the next hobby.
       | I go 100% in on something, then pop to the next thing. It was a
       | big wake up call to me looking back seeing how much presence I
       | left. Many accounts are so old I can't even get into them anymore
       | to clean up what's out there. Tools like this can be used for
       | good.
       | 
       | That said, I totally understand the cyber stalking/bullying
       | concerns. I am also astounded by the cyber sleuth types. In the
       | documentary, Don't F* with Cats, people spent 100s of hours
       | carefully walking through streets in Google Maps to match a
       | location to a photo they had of a guy who killed a cat on
       | YouTube. It seems to me where there's a will, there's a way. It's
       | scary, and unfortunately a lot of tools we can use to protect
       | ourselves are the same tools that can be used against us. Look at
       | cyber security in general. A black hat and a white hat are people
       | with the same skills, but ethics draw a line between them.
        
         | hammock wrote:
         | Forgive me for being so dumb despite being on this website for
         | so long. How do I download and install this program from github
         | (macbook, no dev tools or terminal or anything on my computer)?
        
           | anonu wrote:
           | You're going to need to get comfortable in the terminal if
           | you want to run this code. You'll need python, git, and
           | nodejs for starters
        
         | smusamashah wrote:
         | whatsmyname.app is a nice tool. I didn't even remember most of
         | these accounts. Can get rid of them if I want now.
        
         | Debug_Overload wrote:
         | Tools like this also make me uncomfortable and I said as much
         | last time an issue like this was discussed [1].
         | 
         | But I don't think the "it can be abused" argument is
         | compelling. Most of the tools we have today can _and_ have been
         | abused. As you point out, we know bad actors use infosec tools
         | and run the same POCs that researchers produce when they find
         | new exploits and vulnerabilities (after disclosure); they check
         | the same CVEs and read the same papers. But this information
         | has to be released and these tools have to be out in the open.
         | Security through obscurity is a disaster.
         | 
         | Besides the other intended goals of these tools, I am hoping
         | they will raise awareness and get many people to realize how
         | easy it is to identify and deanonymize them online.
         | 
         | [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26082504
        
           | riedel wrote:
           | I somehow agree that there is no good strategy against "dual
           | use" . However, why not simply put usage terms in the
           | licence. The copyright owner chooses actively what uses they
           | allow. IMHO it would be an ethically good thing to at least
           | try to at least legally disallow "abuse": Authors of software
           | need to claim more responsibilty and at least actively
           | reflect on potential uses of their software.
        
       | cwwc wrote:
       | Also... helps find where you're visible, then eliminate it.
        
       | sweetheart wrote:
       | Just because you _can_ do something, doesn't mean you should.
        
       | offtop5 wrote:
       | Another reason to stop using social media.
       | 
       | Everything you've ever posted can be used against you. Plus your
       | more likely to make friends / meet partners in this place called
       | real life.
        
       | ehwhyreally wrote:
       | so a ripoff of sherlock?
        
       | peter_d_sherman wrote:
       | Hmmm...
       | 
       | I like this idea!
       | 
       | It's sort of like a "social media site" (if the broadest possible
       | definition of one is permitted!) that "aggregates all other
       | social media sites"... (how meta!)...
       | 
       | But, I like this idea a lot!
       | 
       | If I were creating such a thing -- I'd add the ability for a
       | person (once their identity is verified) to remove their results
       | from one or more social media sites.
       | 
       | That is, standard opt-in and opt-out.
       | 
       | This would permit the shown functionalities for people that
       | desire such functionalities, while also preserving opt-out, aka,
       | "the right to be forgotten" -- for other people that desired
       | that, specifically...
        
       | MauroIksem wrote:
       | I'm so sick of morons open sourcing abuse tools under the guise
       | of "helping". This tool will be misused to abuse and harass more
       | than anything else. Making these tools available to masses is
       | dangerous.
        
         | draw_down wrote:
         | Huh, thought you guys loved open source
        
         | zodiakzz wrote:
         | How would it be any better if it was a paid product? A
         | determined bully can still buy it.
        
           | fireattack wrote:
           | To prevent non-determined ones.
        
         | syoc wrote:
         | What are "abuse tools"? Trying to suppress knowledge is never
         | the answer. That would mean that only those in the know can
         | either protect themselves or exploit others.
         | 
         | The "never put information about yourself on the internet"
         | mantra from before social media needs a comeback and it will
         | not happen if no one shines a light on how easy it is to track
         | people online.
        
           | picardythird wrote:
           | > Trying to suppress knowledge is never the answer
           | 
           | Right, if only cutting edge nuclear/bio/chemical/cyber
           | technology was a github repo away.
        
           | sweetheart wrote:
           | Okay, but assuming thats true, there are ways to make it
           | clear to someone how easy it is to track them online without
           | enabling people to actually do that tracking themselves so
           | easily.
        
           | mdoms wrote:
           | So if I put up a website at doxsyoc.com with your email
           | address, phone numbers, home address, credit card details,
           | social security number, daily schedule, bank statements and
           | employment information you would presumably not try to have
           | it removed because "Trying to suppress knowledge is never the
           | answer".
        
             | 40four wrote:
             | I think you chose a weak interpretation of what they said
             | to make your point. I don't think that's what they meant.
             | 
             | We're talking about a tool here that attempts to aggregate
             | all of a particular person's social medial accounts. Social
             | media is public. Everyone knows this, your are saying
             | things and posting things with the expectation that
             | everyone will be able to see them.
             | 
             | What you said is something totally different. Doxing
             | someone's private information is heinous. Nobody is arguing
             | _that_ is okay. I think the parent comment made a good
             | point.
             | 
             | If tech can allow a tool like this to be possible, I think
             | it is arguably better that everyone have access to it,
             | instead of just bad actors keeping it to themselves.
        
           | itronitron wrote:
           | There are other technological fields in which capable tech
           | has been kept out of commonly available products in order to
           | prevent people from abusing it.
           | 
           | For whatever reason, techies that are in the information
           | discovery space can't help themselves from showing off how
           | clever they are despite there being very real security risks
           | to random bystanders.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | f38zf5vdt wrote:
       | I think that anyone developing a social media app for the 2020s
       | will need to make a conscious decision to not let users pick
       | their own unique identifiers. You can't expect users to protect
       | themselves, because you don't know what dangers might exist in
       | the future for them that do not exist today.
       | 
       | The other thing you can do is not allow your API to iterate over
       | the set of all users by user-set identifier. It's an extreme flaw
       | of the telephone numbering system. You would think by the 2020s
       | we'd have learned to use a unique UUID designation for every user
       | for any public facing APIs. If users want to link to it on their
       | public pages, that would be on them.
        
         | codetrotter wrote:
         | I think that the idea of not allowing users to pick their own
         | identifiers is not compatible with how a lot of people use
         | social media.
         | 
         | It's a heck of a lot easier for me to tell my GitHub username
         | to someone, than it would be to tell them a random UUID like
         | 3ffdf0d2-b9a5-4fff-9f38-75afae67dbea.
         | 
         | Even a shorter random-looking username like the one that you
         | have chosen as your HN username, is difficult to relate to for
         | me and I suspect for a lot of people.
         | 
         | And even if you made a human readable version that would hand
         | out usernames like "magnificentwalrus", it would be generating
         | usernames that most users weren't identifying with. As much as
         | I like walruses I don't have a personal connection to them, and
         | any other random name is likely to fare the same. Sure you
         | could let users generate names until they come across one that
         | they do like, but mostly I think that would be a lot of hassle.
         | And there is no guarantee for how long it takes before you find
         | a good name that way. Perhaps even never, as adjective + noun
         | or whatever else the site uses as rule for generating names
         | might not be a rule that the user likes.
         | 
         | Names matter a lot to a lot of people.
         | 
         | Aside from this I think it's also only a matter of time before
         | similar services to the one in the OP show up but where instead
         | of trying to cross-reference usernames it would work similar to
         | Google Reverse Image Search, and would be able to link accounts
         | across different social media platforms based on the facial
         | features in the photos and/or videos that people post, even
         | when the images and videos are not the same ones but are
         | depicting the same person.
        
           | jiofih wrote:
           | You're assuming that 1) the value of a username or URL is
           | higher than the value of privacy 2) people use those for
           | discovery. I'm sure 99% of social media connections happen
           | via recommendation algorithms, friends-of-friends or search
           | by name (not username), never directly typing a username or
           | profile url.
        
             | bt1a wrote:
             | You're sure about that? I don't think so. There's tons of
             | connections made from people transferring short, human-
             | readable handles. Think business cards, word of mouth. e.g.
             | I'm at (@) handle. That's much easier to lookup as opposed
             | to searching for someone's name. It may even be a business
             | that's not tied to the individual's name.
        
         | kibwen wrote:
         | _> I think that anyone developing a social media app for the
         | 2020s will need to make a conscious decision to not let users
         | pick their own unique identifiers._
         | 
         | Completely agreed. If I were to ever set up a forum, I'd find
         | whatever "adjective-adjective-noun" generator that Gfycat uses
         | to generate their URLs and present new users with a list of 100
         | of these to choose from.
        
         | laurent92 wrote:
         | All photos of the same mobile phone certainly have a unique
         | fingerprint. Not only the EXIF, also the dead pixels and the
         | unique pattern of low intensity pixels.
         | 
         | If you want to protect user privacy, a unique identifier is not
         | enough. If they posted a gay profile somewhere, a professional
         | profile somewhere else, they will be forever linked.
        
         | tonymet wrote:
         | Userids are only one of thousands of signals that can identify
         | accounts
        
       | hammock wrote:
       | Forgive me for being so dumb despite being on this website for so
       | long. How do I download and install this program from github
       | (macbook, no dev tools or terminal or anything on my computer)?
        
         | rahimnathwani wrote:
         | 1. Install docker desktop
         | 
         | 2. Download the zip file from the repo and unzip
         | 
         | 3. Open a terminal windows and cd to the folder containing the
         | README
         | 
         | 4. Type docker-compose up
         | 
         | (Not tested. Just based on what's in the repo.)
        
           | hammock wrote:
           | Thank you
        
       | A12-B wrote:
       | I am really glad i don't have public social media
        
         | woutr_be wrote:
         | Ironically, this tool also includes HN.
         | "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id={username}",
        
           | volume wrote:
           | wait, that would be coincidence. It would be ironic if it
           | were a social media site for privacy experts.
        
         | f38zf5vdt wrote:
         | There is no 21st century option to refuse public social media.
         | As observed with Clearview AI, if you end up in someone's photo
         | on a social media website you will be inadvertently added to a
         | social and location-based graph. I believe Facebook does this
         | internally, so if you have any friends or relatives using
         | Facebook who uploads a picture of you, no matter how old, your
         | social graph is present there.
         | 
         | And try as you may, so long as you have a phone number you will
         | end up in someone's harvested contacts list.
        
           | bredren wrote:
           | This is called a "shadow" profile, I think.
        
           | bigodbiel wrote:
           | the infamous shadow profiles that Zuckerberg tried to "deny"
           | during congressional hearing
           | 
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16813659
        
         | fortran77 wrote:
         | And yet, here you are.
        
           | volume wrote:
           | ...because any site with a discussion thread is social media.
           | IRC and usenet are social media.
           | 
           | maybe email is social media?
        
             | postalrat wrote:
             | Yea. Some mailing lists are a form of social media. Many of
             | them are public.
             | 
             | IRC and twitch would be too.
        
           | A12-B wrote:
           | When I said public i meant with my face and name.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | Dirlewanger wrote:
       | I wonder how this compares to FullContact, a company built on
       | doing this very thing.
        
         | anticensor wrote:
         | The difference is social-analyzer is free and open source.
        
       | alangibson wrote:
       | There are 350 social media sites?
        
         | bombcar wrote:
         | It looks like "anything with a username where you can do
         | something" is counted as a social media site.
        
       | Wxc2jjJmST9XWWL wrote:
       | Regarding the criticism: How is it different from any pentesting
       | tool, portscanner, meta search engine, shodan.io (which you could
       | use to try to find unprotected babycams and whatnot), et cetera,
       | on principle? I know it's creepy, but obviously this is
       | portraying a serious and widespread flaw in how we treat privacy
       | on the net, and for that flaw to be fixed, proclaiming the tool
       | as evil doesn't do it, and actually is counter productive?
        
       | sriram_sun wrote:
       | I want one like this, but one that goes out and deletes my
       | account from the sites I specify.
        
       | naringas wrote:
       | this is the kind of tool that I assumen every intelligence agency
       | in the world already has implemented as a service for their
       | 'agents'
        
       | williesleg wrote:
       | Brilliant! I'm gonna find me a girlfriend for sure now!
        
       | 0df8dkdf wrote:
       | It is projects like this makes people dont' want to be on any
       | public social media. It is creepy.
        
         | postalrat wrote:
         | Creepy like watching open heart surgery?
        
           | itronitron wrote:
           | no, it's creepy like finding people that are scheduled for
           | open heart surgery
        
       | samstave wrote:
       | It would be wonderful if this could be used to DELETE my account
       | across any of these sites
        
       | jsilence wrote:
       | Would love to have a tool that monitors hashtags over 300+ SM
       | sites.
       | 
       | Any recommendation?
        
       | cirno wrote:
       | > API, CLI & Web App for analyzing & finding a person's profile
       | across +300 social media websites
       | 
       | > could help in investigating profiles related to suspicious or
       | malicious activities such as cyberbullying, cybergrooming,
       | cyberstalking, and spreading misinformation.
       | 
       | It will _much_ more likely be used to _aid_ cyberbullying and
       | cyberstalking. Those types love digging for more information by
       | finding their targets ' profiles on other social media sites.
       | 
       | Those types of trolls are much more adept at using randomized
       | usernames, disposable e-mail addresses, and VPN clients because
       | they know what they're doing is potentially illegal.
        
         | majkinetor wrote:
         | Exactly.
         | 
         | BUT, this may bring awareness to regular folks. You can also
         | use it to remove your own stuff from said networks because
         | people do not catalogue their online activity and it can be
         | hard to remove your digital footprint.
        
           | tantalor wrote:
           | I'd pay for a service that would do this,
           | 
           | 1. Find my digital footprints on social media
           | 
           | 2. Compare that to my desired level of public activity, e.g.,
           | do not share photos of me
           | 
           | 3. Provide tools to delete, scrub, send takedowns, etc.
        
             | fossuser wrote:
             | There's privacy duck and delete me, but they're mostly
             | focused on the scammier public data collection sites where
             | it's harder to remove your information.
        
             | rolph wrote:
             | 4. template an online persona, and cede it across the web,
             | create footprints use SEO type methods to promote a desired
             | public image.
        
             | badsectoracula wrote:
             | 4. Hope they don't keep their own backup copies for later
             | use :-P
        
           | ImprovedSilence wrote:
           | Yup, I'm more curious to find out what I can find out about
           | myself more than anything else.
        
         | ttt0 wrote:
         | Lol, exactly. This is a doxxing tool, who do you think is going
         | to use that?
        
           | koolba wrote:
           | Targeted enterprise sales^W^Wspam?
        
           | 1337shadow wrote:
           | You can use it to find your own forgotten stuff, or on third
           | parties for which you have approval (ie. security gig).
           | 
           | It is not the first tool in that spirit, there's a lot more
           | available in Kali Linux for example, including Maltego.
        
           | kube-system wrote:
           | People who dox are doing to do it anyway. This tool will make
           | it really easy for people to find holes in their own (or
           | their organizations) presence.
        
             | behnamoh wrote:
             | Surely you don't expect ordinary people to "find holes in
             | their [online] presence" using this tool...
             | 
             | This tool is recipe for stalking.
        
               | EduardoBautista wrote:
               | Honestly, searching for myself was the first thing that
               | came to mind when I saw this. Although I might not be an
               | "ordinary" person.
        
               | kortilla wrote:
               | People who have something to be ostracized over do this
               | all of the time. This tool is great for someone trying to
               | hide something about their identity (e.g. being gay).
        
               | jh86 wrote:
               | Would you also consider Google search a recipe for
               | stalking? It provides a larger set of results, but you
               | can easily narrow down your results to social media
               | sites...
               | 
               | It's a tool, much like a knife is a tool. They can be
               | used for good or bad. The tool is indifferent.
        
       | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
       | Cool.
       | 
       | Won't need it for me, though. Just Google "ChrisMarshallNY."
       | 
       | Most of them are placeholders, though. This is really where I
       | participate. I do little bit on Facebook, and almost nothing on
       | Twitter.
        
       | Vosporos wrote:
       | What the fuck
        
       | mtnGoat wrote:
       | I'm not a fan. Kinda creepy.
        
         | BannedQuick wrote:
         | Wait until you find out how HackerNews harvests your data, uses
         | services that use data lakes of bulk collection to confirm your
         | identity, and sell what you generate without your permission.
        
           | aww_dang wrote:
           | I'm still waiting to find out about that. Maybe you'd be kind
           | enough to elaborate.
        
             | BannedQuick wrote:
             | > Online Tracking and Do Not Track Signals: We and our
             | third party service providers may use cookies or other
             | tracking technologies to collect information about your
             | browsing activities over time and across different websites
             | following your use of the Site. Our Site currently does not
             | respond to "Do Not Track" ("DNT") signals and operates as
             | described in this Privacy Policy whether or not a DNT
             | signal is received. If we do respond to DNT signals in the
             | future, we will update this Privacy Policy to describe how
             | we do so.
             | 
             | https://www.ycombinator.com/legal/
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | babooska wrote:
         | Why is it creepy?
        
           | loveistheanswer wrote:
           | Some people find stalking, and tools which could enable
           | stalking to be undesireable.
        
           | mtnGoat wrote:
           | If you don't know at this point, I can't explain it to you.
        
         | c7DJTLrn wrote:
         | It can get much creepier. It's possible to reverse image search
         | a person's profile picture from one site to find out where else
         | they have profiles - given that they reuse their profile
         | picture - which many do.
        
           | psyc wrote:
           | I've been wondering when we'll see a service that lets you
           | upload a headshot from the company directory or Facebook, and
           | returns every nude of that person that ever found its way
           | onto the internet.
        
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