GM. I just learned how surveilled Reddit is.

I regularly use a VPN, and Librewolf, but I still had a bit of a senior moment.

I wanted to ask /r/Bitcoin an innocent question but didn't want that question associated with my main account for privacy reasons, giving personal-ish info about myself, so I logged out and created a throwaway account.

I didn't go incognito or clear cookies, and I don't know how well that would protect me or not.

After creating my post, I saw my account get permabanned. Not sure why, it wasn't anything against the rules AFAIK, but they said it was.

A few days later, my main account is temporarily banned for circumventing a ban on reddit. I asked why I was banned, what other account and the mods told me that Reddit doesn't tell them which account, but that if I told them, they'd un-ban it so that I wouldn't be banned on my main account. Also that without the temp ban, I was already shadow banned for circumventing a ban on another account.

Before I could reply again, Reddit did a 7 day site ban, so I can't even DM anymore.

I found an appeal form and told them I use VPN and a privacy Brpwser and that it must be a mistake, and got a message that my appeal was denied. I tried to play the plausible deniability card.

Do thet really know? Damn.

I mostly used Reddit on /r/bitcoin exclusively to answer noob questions, esp. About how things worked, what Lightning is, that sort of thing.

I think they lost a good account and I have had my eyes open a little bit more. I don't know exactly what data they linking two accounts, but if they have conclusive evidence despite my setup, it must be through cookies, maybe timing analysis, but then I should have been given the benefit of the doubt.

Either way, anon accounts are not safe on Reddit. They have a surveillance tool behind it looking for links between accounts. Be warned that Reddit ACTIVELY monitors your activity and good bye Reddit. 👋

GM #NOSTR.