[Novalug] IRC chat and IP address privacy

Peter Larsen peter@peterlarsen.org
Fri Dec 16 21:23:29 EST 2016


On 12/16/2016 08:01 PM, James Ewing Cottrell III via Novalug wrote:
> Why? Can't you even be Comfortable with Your Own Kind?!?
>
> I could see this kind of Obfuscation in e Political Forum perhaps, but
> among Linux Geeks?
>
> Once again I ask WHY?!?

Jim - I get the feeling you're not hanging out on IRC that often? I wear
a cloak - I've done that pretty much constantly since I started with
Relay Chat in the late 80ies (yes, before the WWW). I would not be able
to use IRC if it wasn't for the cloak. We meet all kind of people on
IRC, and I have no interest having anyone showing up at my doorstep one
day because they looked up an IP address/trace of my connection
information. Also, part of the security on IRC is tied to your location
and ID - keeping the easy identifiable information hidden. That's
regardless of the topic - from sillyness, IRC management to FOSS groups.
If you enter FOSS channel on Freenode for instance, you'll find all OPS
and frequent volunteers are all cloaked.

Other reasons for cloaking is to show association with the group. It
shows you have a history with them, have a certain level of "cloud". It
shows you sponsor and support the group (or service). And some cloaks
have been given out honorary. Remember, this is from before we had
"badges" and cloaks have worked much in the same way.

For instance, on Freenode this is my "whois":
plarsen[~plarsen@redhat/jboss/pdpc.professional.plarsen]
realname : Peter Larsen
server: niven.freenode.net [London, UK, EU]
          : is using a secure connection

Some even hide their names - or use the name field for "statements" -
political, humor what-ever.  My cloak explains to people who I am so
there's no hidden agenda. But it also hides identifying information
about where I'm connecting from which is also important.  The Cloak in
my case proves my association with Red Hat, Fedora and JBoss. You don't
have to trust that someone is why they say they are that way.

Quite frankly I cannot recall seeing FOSS members without a cloak in a
long time. Once people become active on IRC they usually get a cloak
very fast.

-- 

Regards
  Peter Larsen




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