← Back to context

Comment by port3000

14 hours ago

My name in Claude is Silly Bean. I did it at first because it made me chuckle every time I opened Claude and it said 'Back again, Silly Bean?'

But turns out I was playing 4D cybersecurity chess

33 comments

port3000

Reply
inopinatus  13 hours ago

I’ve been recommending the use of consistent lies about name and date of birth to online systems since Eternal September began. Very few sites and systems justify accurate PII, and even for those I often still maintain dual accounts/profiles as necessary.

  • tmikaeld  12 hours ago

    That never works on Facebook though, because as soon as a ”friend” reports that ”I’m not me” then the account will be permanently banned. That also triggers for photos that’s not genuinely me, like a pet or drawing as portrait.

    • brk  10 hours ago

      Never? Facebook is pretty overrun with what are basically fake profiles. Hell, I've been curating an alter ego on Facebook for over a decade. Built up a profile with several dozen "friends" that are all kind of interconnected and regional, but of course none of them have ever met "me" IRL, and the profile picture is a funny-ish celeb pic. Facebook has millions of legit users that are "friend collector" types, and won't think twice about engaging with an account that gently strokes their online ego with likes, "Happy Birthdays", etc.

  • rlpb  13 hours ago

    I like using a date of birth of 1 January. It's plausible but also hopefully suspicious how many people seem to be born that day if others do the same.

    • cheschire  13 hours ago

      But if an attacker gets your fake birthday and uses that to successfully reset credentials on another site that uses the same fake birthday?

      At some point it becomes your birthday of record as far as the internet is concerned. Doesn’t matter what the actual record says.

      4 replies →

    • brk  10 hours ago

      I use the 1st of my birth month. Slightly less suspicious? It's at least a little easier to remember. Generate fake profiles and identities usually is easier when you have bits that are rooted in your actual reality. Like, you have the same zodiac sign either way in this case, so you don't have to remember two of everything. Or if you're talking about a birthday trip, or related birthday thing from the past, details about the weather would be consistent, etc.

    • toilet  11 hours ago

      I heard from a number of Syrian refugees that this is actually very common in countries like theirs, where births may not be recorded, records are lost or destroyed. Some people don't even know their exact date of birth and they would typically enter January 1st on forms like this too.

      1 reply →

  • greengreengrass  13 hours ago

    Completely agree. I use randomness for all of these now – plausible randomness if it’s possible I’ll have to give it over a phone.

greengreengrass  13 hours ago

My first name can be shortened, and I go by either. When I first signed up to Claude, I thought we were entering the world of artificial “intelligence”, so I told it my name was “<long form> or <short form>”.

Well, it hardcodes that field rather than running it through the model, but I’ve kept it so I get an evil chuckle to myself (or perhaps pyrrhic reassurance) at its lack of smarts and a reminder that it’s still a somewhat subservient product experience that isn’t all that smart after all.

nickcw  13 hours ago

I set my name as Sir and I enjoy the obsequious responses this generates :-)

It worked well in my banking app too which greets me with " Good morning, Sir" which is the level of relationship I want with my bank!

novia  4 hours ago

Claude & ChatGPT can still see your name on your payment information I bet.

dizhn  9 hours ago

I must have made a claude.ai account when they first launched and forgot about it. Last week I logged in (through google) to get a subscription and it greeted me as "Hello, Master". I thought it was quite edgy at this day and age. :)