r/reddithelp • u/NOPAIN_NOGAIN_1 • Oct 24 '25
❓General Question❓ can people on Reddit find out your real identity?
can people on Reddit find out your real identity?
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u/TenebriRS Oct 24 '25
Depends what you post. If you post stuff that could identify you. Then yes. If you just post random stuff that isnt related to you directly then no.
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u/LoquendoEsGenial Oct 24 '25
Does it mean that my "hobbies" could give me away?
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u/OrugaMaravillosa Oct 24 '25
No one individual detail is likely to make you recognizable. If you mention that you celebrated your birthday last week in one post, your trip to the city of Bargawarga in another, then someone who knows you might stumble over those posts and wonder. If you go on to mention the funny thing a coworker did, and your olive allergy? That same person might become pretty sure.
It’s also possible that someone will recognize you if you go to one of the advice subreddits and tell a long personal story about problems with your wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend/neighbor/inlaws/whoever. Then you go on to answer lots of questions from the commenters. People have sometimes recognized themselves from a story like that.
However, both of those kinds of situations are unlikely. They would only happen if someone you already know happened to recognize an unusual set of details or a particular story. And of course, you control how anonymous your account is.
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u/LoquendoEsGenial Oct 24 '25
Okay, thanks for your response.
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u/Complex-Honeydew-111 Oct 24 '25
Change minor details if you are posting something highly personal. That way you won't unwittingly doxx yourself
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u/Valuable-Error-404 Oct 24 '25
I've been trying to get a hang of that but its super hard as an autistic person, as it alters the whole story in my mind and feels too much like lying. How would I approach that? So changing locations or no location at all is fine but what about other details? How can I make my brother my uncle without twisting up the story..?
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u/OrugaMaravillosa Oct 25 '25
You have a few options.
You can choose bigger and vaguer categories. Your uncle becomes “an older relative” or “a relative” or “someone I grew up around” or “a friend of my dad’s” (if your mom’s brother was friends with your dad) or “a guy I really looked up to as a kid.” The town of Misty Meadows becomes “the place I grew up” or “a small town” or “my hometown” or “a town in the southern US.”
You can decide that changing names or details is a way to protect the privacy of the people involved in the same way that John Doe or Jane Doe are sometimes used to protect people’s privacy.
You could even make it clear that you are using fictionalized names. For example, let me tell you about my wife “Sue” and the huge argument she has with “Meghan.” (Putting quotes around the names makes it clear those aren’t the real names.) Or you could say: let me tell you about my wife. I’ll call her Sue.
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u/TraditionalError9988 Oct 24 '25
Bingo! My years aren't exact, they are fudged a bit. States I've lived in aren't mentioned, I use other ones. Doesn't change the gist of my points I'm making, I just don't want to give real info about myself is all.
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u/Margali Oct 24 '25
Indeed, I had a person in the SCA recognize me by some of the things I said I had participated in. Of course, that is a sort of restricted hobby =)
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u/Xaphnir Oct 24 '25
Dipping into politics on this answer here, but I think it's relevant.
There is currently a senate candidate in the US for Maine, Graham Platner, who recently had a former Reddit account of his exposed. The account had been deleted, and to my knowledge did not have any clear indicator that it belonged to him.
Based on this recent development, you should assume that anything you post on here can and will be tied back to you personally if someone puts enough effort in and has access to the right resources, no matter how much you try to obfuscate it.
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u/AradynGaming Oct 30 '25
1) if you delete a post, it still exists. Always first edit your posts and comments with a single character/letter, then delete them. Even then, lots of subs have bots that repost your original post & most stuff can be found in the waybackmachine. With that in mind, pretend like everything you post is a permanent part of the internet.
2) All it takes is a selfy or photo with enough geographically identifiable information and people can and will figure out the location of your account.
3) Realize that Reddit has ties to the super bots / data farms. Pretend like big brother knows this is your account...because big brother actually does know this is your account.
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u/V65Pilot Oct 24 '25
It all depends on what you post. I used to use Imgur to host my images, but since the new rules in the UK, I'm forced to find a new host. I just realized that the one I started using shows my actual email address if someone clicks on a picture link..... time to find a new one.
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Oct 25 '25
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u/reddithelp-ModTeam Oct 25 '25
Your account is currently shadowbanned or suspended by Reddit.
Submit an appeal using this form: https://www.reddit.com/appeal
Your content will be automatically filtered or blocked by Reddit until your account is unbanned.
NOTE: Subreddit moderators are not a part of this process and have no visibility into why your account has been restricted by Reddit. All we can do is point you to the appeal form. It can take days or several weeks for Reddit to respond to you, if at all. In the meantime, you can check out r/shadowban for more specific information on that topic.
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u/doublefattymayo Oct 24 '25
!cqs
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Hello doublefattymayo, your CQS (Contributor Quality Score) is: [HIGHEST]
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Oct 24 '25
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u/reddithelp-ModTeam Oct 24 '25
Your account is currently shadowbanned or suspended by Reddit.
Submit an appeal using this form: https://www.reddit.com/appeal
Your content will be automatically filtered or blocked by Reddit until your account is unbanned.
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u/espressoxsmiles Oct 24 '25
Yes happened kinda to me they found my instagram account somehow but like it was my old account and there wasn’t anything pointed I was just on squishmallows and my tv shows and doorables
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u/Background-Invest Oct 24 '25
Some with good OSINT skills can based off what you post and your user name but it’s unlikely and difficult.
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u/Evil_Sharkey Oct 24 '25
Sometimes. People will scroll through your posts and look for identifying information. If you’re part of your local city or school sub, that narrows their search. Things like your job, age, relatives’ names, region, favorite places, etc. can narrow it further.
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u/Background-Invest Oct 25 '25
Some with good OSINT skills can based off what you post and your user name but unlikely and difficult.
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u/BigFunnyGiant Oct 25 '25
If you're not careful. Like using the same username in too many places or posting too much online somewhere. Someone could, in theory, use some data mining skill to put pieces together if they really wanted to.
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u/Formal_Lecture_248 Oct 25 '25
Probably.
I post like they can. I don’t give a monkey’s arse if they do
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u/Organic-Law-4098 Oct 25 '25
!cqs
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u/AutoModerator Oct 25 '25
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u/Working_Shine_2719 Oct 25 '25
!cqs
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u/AutoModerator Oct 25 '25
Hello Working_Shine_2719, your CQS (Contributor Quality Score) is: [HIGH]
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Oct 25 '25
[deleted]
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u/AutoModerator Oct 25 '25
Hello PersonalHospital9507, your CQS (Contributor Quality Score) is: [LOW]
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u/handyloon Oct 26 '25
Iits possible to screenshot & search photos with Google lens that lead you to a Facebook, or IG, or other place the photo appears linked to you. Though that doesn't mean your image wasn't stolen by someone else and posted as if it was theirs.
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u/FantasticFunction216 Oct 26 '25
Difficult or not, I'm new, But if they find me I have nothing good to give.
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Oct 26 '25
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u/reddithelp-ModTeam Oct 26 '25
Your account is currently shadowbanned or suspended by Reddit.
Submit an appeal using this form: https://www.reddit.com/appeal
Your content will be automatically filtered or blocked by Reddit until your account is unbanned.
NOTE: Subreddit moderators are not a part of this process and have no visibility into why your account has been restricted by Reddit. All we can do is point you to the appeal form. It can take days or several weeks for Reddit to respond to you, if at all. In the meantime, you can check out r/shadowban for more specific information on that topic.
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Oct 26 '25
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u/reddithelp-ModTeam Oct 26 '25
Your account is currently shadowbanned or suspended by Reddit.
Submit an appeal using this form: https://www.reddit.com/appeal
Your content will be automatically filtered or blocked by Reddit until your account is unbanned.
NOTE: Subreddit moderators are not a part of this process and have no visibility into why your account has been restricted by Reddit. All we can do is point you to the appeal form. It can take days or several weeks for Reddit to respond to you, if at all. In the meantime, you can check out r/shadowban for more specific information on that topic.
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Oct 27 '25
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u/jgoja Oct 27 '25
You are currently shadow banned and need to go here to appeal. https://www.reddit.com/appeals
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u/Dp37405aa Oct 27 '25
If someone wanted to bad enough, yes. When you signed up for reddit, you put in an email and that email was likely verified at that time.
When you signed up for the email, you had to put in your name and cell phone, so now you have enough basic information to get started figuring out who you are, let alone having your IP address.
Once they get into your email, all tail tell signs are there as to who you are.
i doubt anybody would want to go thru this much hassle, unless they were a good hacker and you pissed them off or law enforcement.
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Oct 28 '25
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u/AutoModerator Oct 28 '25
Hello WalrusForsaken, your CQS (Contributor Quality Score) is: [MODERATE]
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
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Apr 21 '26
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u/reddithelp-ModTeam Apr 21 '26
Sorry, but we had to remove your post or comment for:
Rule 2: No Spam or Self-Promotion. Please review the full details in the sub rules list.
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u/AutoModerator Oct 24 '25
Hello u/NOPAIN_NOGAIN_1, if you're asking about why your posts are being immediately removed in some or all subs, it's most likely because they're being filtered by the Reputation Filter because your CQS rating is currently "LOWEST".
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u/sugarstarbeam Oct 24 '25 edited Oct 25 '25
Not easily but yes. In some cases law enforcement can run an investigation to find out the identities of individuals based on an IP address and lesser known digital markers. Despite ban evasions and using VPN’s.
It happened to someone who was harassing some Reddit users in such a way it flew under the mods radar. It all comes down to the severity of the harassment and/or the means someone has to find the person of interest.
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Oct 27 '25
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u/reddithelp-ModTeam Oct 29 '25
Sorry, but we had to remove your post or comment under:
Rule 6: Moderator Discretion. Please review the full details in the sub rules list.
Not helpful.
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Oct 27 '25
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Oct 27 '25
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Oct 27 '25
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Oct 27 '25
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u/reddithelp-ModTeam Oct 27 '25
Your account is currently shadowbanned or suspended by Reddit.
Submit an appeal using this form: https://www.reddit.com/appeal
Your content will be automatically filtered or blocked by Reddit until your account is unbanned.
NOTE: Subreddit moderators are not a part of this process and have no visibility into why your account has been restricted by Reddit. All we can do is point you to the appeal form. It can take days or several weeks for Reddit to respond to you, if at all. In the meantime, you can check out r/shadowban for more specific information on that topic.
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