Computer experts? Can people on Youtube really track me down?

Factual Questions
1

This may sound like a cowardly question, so it may help if I explain the context.

I have been pissing off a number of rather burly and violent racist skinheads on YouTube by posting comments that rile them, under their videos.

For example, there is one one video of a bunch of Brit skins singing “Goodbye Ian Stuart, you were a white man to the end.” (He was a skin racist rocker who died).

I took one look at this bunch of skins with their tatoos, naked torsos and tight T-shits, dancing around and hugging one another and posted the comment that it looked like a gay bar.

Some skins replied that I was an “internet warrior” but that they would “kick the shit out of me” if I said that to their face. I replied that I had no doubt they would, since racists tend to be violent, sociopathic losers who make up for their own lack of achievement by being proud of their skin colour and hating those who are different.

In other exchanges, I have calmly explained that it is a known fact that racist groups attract low-income, working-class losers who need to feel good about themselves by considering others inferior.

Apparently, my comments seem to really hit a sore point with thse orangutans, because some are now warning me that they can find out who I am and where I live.

My YouTube coments (strictly text, no video) are just signed “Valteron8”. Mind you, YouTube knows who I am, because I get notices on my email (which is in my full name) saying that people have replied to my comments.

Is there any way these lunks can really trace who I am, or is this just an empty threat?

2

Well, I’m no Youtube expert, but since you’ve registered there with your real email, and it’s emailing you, it is possible.

Can other Youtube users send you messages? If so, it’s possible. Not likely, and the skins I’ve known over the years are a bunch of lazy bastards who would happily kick your ass if they could get from their computer to your house before their buzz wore off. I’m guessing that’s unlikely to be the case.

The smartest thing you can do, if you’re really worried, is to change your Youtube profile so that said messages don’t go to johnsmith@aol.com but instead Valteron@gmail.com.

-Joe

3

YouTube sends the messages. I don’t believe an individual can reach me on that email. But your suggestion is a good one. I have a Valteron hotmail address.

By the way, most of these creeps appear to be in Britain and I live in North America. So they would have to get National Assistance (is that what Brits call welfare :smiley: ?) to pay their air far to come over and kick the shit out of me. Of course we have skinhead racists this side of the Pond.

4

Being what they are they will no doubt assuage their frustrations on some dark-skinned bystander and leave you alone.
Wouldn’t hurt to change your YouTube profile and contact details just to be on the safe side though.

5

You may want to have several different email addresses where none of them can be connected to each other for the various places you subscribe and post.

It’s not difficult to run a Google search on the email address you provided to find out how much your email address pops up. Using that information, a bit of skill and chutzpah might be able to track you down in order to obtain a name. From there, it’s a matter of time before one can come up with a complete name, address, phone number, yadda, yadda.

Of course, it all depends upon whether anyone on the other side of the pond wants to find you, and how badly they do.

:smiley:

6

Well I know if I run a google search under that name I get a link to a planetout profile.

7

Right, there is probably* no way to directly find out who you are in YouTube, but it is the other places on the internet that you show up that can give you away. If they look hard enough, they might find you here on the Dope. It looks like you have several hundred posts here. Have you said anything that will narrow down your identity in those posts? On any other sites? Is your real email address available on your PlanetOut profile?

If you want to rile up violent skin heads, and please be my guest, what you want to do is create a username and email address that are completely separate from any other identity you have. Then only use that identity for activities where you want to remain anonymous.

*I am not an expert on YouTube.

8

duplicate - oops

9

As far as an e-mail address goes, if you send an e-mail (even with your incorrect name), your IP address can be tracked from that. However, I don’t know if people can use an IP address to find someone’s real identity. Anyone have any idea about IP tracking?

10

I guess a person’s ISP would be able to identify someone based on an IP address, but it would be tough for a layperson. Can you imagine the call to the ISP:

Staff: Hello! This is Superduper Internet, how can I help you?
Thug: Yes, I’d like to know who was assigned the IP address 1.2.3.4 on 19th July
Staff: And why do you need that information?
Thug: Well, that user called me nasty names, and I want to find them and kick the shit out of them.

It could only go downhill from there.

11

Things I may or may not know** about you after poking around the internet for five minutes:[ul][li]Age[]Gender[]Orientation[]Appearance (assuming you told the truth :wink: )[]Country[]The basic concept of a book you may or may not have eventually written[]Hobbies[]Vague details about your living arrangement[]Potential info on your day job (I hope this one is wrong)[/ul][/li]There’s not enough to get your real name and street address right off the bat, but there’s enough out there to get an idea of who you are. If I really wanted to get to you, I’d probably use some form of pretexting on a personal site or community in which you participate to fill in the blanks rather than chasing down your ip.

That’s not to say that some jerk from youtube is going to be willing or imaginative enough to do all the legwork necessary to find you-- or even that he’d succeed if he tried.
One thing I would recommend: if you’re worried about it, I’d advise you to not use the same screen name and email handle all over the internet. A search for users employing variations of your name turns-up numerous hits for data mining. Personally, I never use the same name twice.

Also, if you ever choose to register a domain on the web, make a point of anonymizing your whois data. You wouldn’t believe how many people just leave that stuff laying around.

**I don’t actually know any of this information is accurate. If I were actually looking for you, I’d try find multiple references that agreed on specific points.