

Ask HN: Identifying The Anonymous User  - krainboltgreene

Hello Hacker News, it's been a long time since I've asked you guys something and I figured this place was the best place to ask this question:<p><i>What are the best or most efficient method to identifying a user without the use of accounts, destroying privacy, or demolishing anonymity?</i><p>If the question is too hard, how about if you're just limited to no accounts?<p>EDIT: I should have specified "Anonymous in the way that 4chan users are anonymous to each other."<p>EDIT2: The thing that got me thinking about it was this https://panopticlick.eff.org/
======
rth5yh
I tinkered once with hash of a user's passphrase, salted, and then using 4
digits from the middle of the resulting hash as a username. I then used a
different 4 digits as a cookie token so they only had to enter it once per
sesssion. It's not terribly secure, it's not collision-proof, etc, but you may
find some use from the basic principle - it's quick and easy and was useful on
the scale I needed it for :)

Edit: Point of note: The same people who wouldn't type 16 characters of
username and password would happily type 30 or 40 character passphrases...
There's some novelty to it, apparently :)

------
pbhjpbhj
I gather that UA info is surprisingly close to unique - mix in installed fonts
and I think you're there.

------
mooism2
What's the context? When they use your website?

What do you mean by "identifying a user"? Simply knowing that they're the same
person who performed a specific action earlier?

~~~
krainboltgreene
I edited to clarify: I should have specified "Anonymous in the way that 4chan
users are anonymous to each other."

And yes, as in "same person who performed a specific action earlier".

