Good-bye, Facebook

[erronis]

59. Sorry - won't work.

There are too many ways to link your alias with your real name. Once you've gone down that cesspool of data mining it is VERY hard to get out. Don't forget, YOU are THEIR product. They need to OWN YOUR information to make a profit.

Unless you're tech-savvy in a big way, you can be identified through at least the following datapoint intersections:
- your ISP and IP
- your browser information (USER-AGENT, etc.)
- cookies (and the Adobe-style storage cookies); third-party cookies
- your geographic location
- the sites you visit
- the friends' sites you visit, especially if you interact with them
- same++ if your friends interact with your pseudonym.
- A bit spooky, but your personal keyboard and mouse interaction patterns with on-screen widgets (do you hover over certain things? How long does it take you to click on buttons?)

There are many ways to fool some of these like going to a "private" browser mode, or using an anonymizing proxy. But the ones that sniff you out by looking at what you are looking at are the hardest.