Privacy and security issues.

[Illiana Melody]

Can a parcel owner see IM's that are sent in his parcel, or the destinations/sources of inventory exchanges that take place there?  And is anyone other than a Linden able to see account details that would enable them to connect an alt to a main av?  I ask because a friend has had trouble with a stalker who seems to know things it should not be possible to know about her, and who also appears to have discovered the identity of an alt created for the express purpose of avoiding him.

[BlckCobra Shikami]

No, a parcel owner is not able to see IMs between other persons - only public chat.

You should anyway be aware that there is no thing like "privacy" on the net.

Regarding main account and alt ... usually people tell on themself by a lot of things: typos, typical grammar, selection of words, things they have in their profile etc.

[Jessika Rang]

Is your friend's landlord the stalker?  If so then he may be monitoring what avs are on the land (there are also script huds that can monitor online status of any avatar) and its easy to infer that when av#1 logs off and av#2 logs in shortly after that they are probably related as the other reply said there are subtle clues in the way an av types, interacts, what they wear etc that would also give it away.

Your friend should move away from their parcel, the alt should have its own little rental away from the main's home.  Also the alt should have a different circle of friends, places to shop and hang out - otherwise this person will assume that any new av in your circle of friends is actually your alt.  Your friend should also mute this stalker, ban them from their (new) home and ignore any attempts the stalker makes to contact her or her alts.

[Illiana Melody]

No, the very strange thing is that the alt never went to that parcel or spoke to the stalker.  It was just heavily implied to the main that the alt was known, even to the extent of dropping the first name.  I don't really understand how the alt could have been discovered unless someone had access to information deep in the system.  It all seems really freaky.

[Pamela Galli]

If your friend is using certain 3rd party viewers, it is quite possible that account information is being sent somewhere besides LL.

[Irene Muni]

Fill an Abuse Report.

[Theia Magic]

Alts are usually pretty easy to spot.  Why?  People are creatures of habit. 

The most common way alts are 'outed':

• joining the same groups as their main
• typing style.  Personality does show through in the manner one types.
• similar profiles, including pictures
• visiting the same sims/clubs/location
• hair/skin/clothes made by the same creator the main wears
• using the same home as the main
• having friends who are aware of the alt

 

The last one, revealing the identity of the alt to a friend, is the biggest.  People talk, even people we trust.  Your friend obviously revealed the alt to you, so chances are she did to others as well.  There's also the chance of chat spies in the area.  For instance, say you and your friend are discussing the alt in local chat and making reference to her main (or vice versa), if there's a chat spy it's relayed back to the listener and you're outed.

The only 100% fool-proof way to have an alt?  Completely different EVERYTHING- shape/hair/skin/home/friends/hang outs.  Otherwise you will more likely than not be discovered.

[Unklebob Hotaling]

IMs cannot be intercepted, but local chat can be monitored... for example if the av was at their house, had a visitor and told the visitor in local chat of the alt... if the landlord has a local chat monitoring device they could have eavesdropped.  There are detectors that can relay commands and such also, say for example the av was inputting the alts name in the home's security that could be relayed to the landlord.  If the av placed the alt into their 'family' group as another example it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to put 2+2 together; or knew where the av worked and noticed that workplace recently got a new employee and noticed similarities.

There are all sorts of ways a person can trip themselves up while creating an alt - without even being aware of it (as you don't have a stalkers/abusers mindset) and without anything overly sinister going on, ie 'deep within the system'.

[Illiana Melody]

My friend uses the regular Linden viewer, and I honestly think she didn't fall into any of the alt 'traps' mentioned. I can only think of one 'friend of a friend' type connection that might be suspect.  The message I'm getting here is that there's no 'system' way she could have been found out, so, sadly, I conclude that there was deceit and subterfuge somewhere along the line.  Thank you for your help.

[Unklebob Hotaling]

A caution, as annoying and as mysterious as this may be... don't ruin your day with wonderments of something wrong deep within the system or subterfuge within friends.  Then ultimately, the victim loses.  This thread might help give some insight:

https://blogs.secondlife.com/message/30563#30563

[Eternus Soulstar]

i cant say if this is typical of stalkers in general,  but a couple of guys i have encountered in my time here don't wait until a friendship or other relationship goes south and then suddenly turn into creepy stalker guy.  they already have a few alts they run routinely, and every friend they make becomes the center of a little web of lies and trickery by two or more of those alts, either directly or indirectly. the unsuspecting future victim is then all but surrounded in a sense by the future stalker, so when things finally do start falling apart he already knows way more than the victim has any way to realize.

[Illiana Melody]

How awful to think people actually plan from the start to be stalkers.

I have one more question if I may, that has arisen in the past couple of hours.  I know there are avatar detectors that can tell the owner when a number of avatars are online, but is there such a device that also tells what sim those avatars are in (thereby making it possible to see who they are with without actually being there)?

[Jessika Rang]

As far as I know there is no HUD that will tell you where an avatar is if they are not in the same region (sim) as you are. However, there are scripted objects that can do that and more if the avatar is wearing them.  For instance lets say your friend was given a piece of jewelry (or even a pair of shoes) by the stalker (or an alt of the stalker).  If she is wearing the item and the item is scripted the stalker could not only know where she is but sho she is with and can also listen in on her chat and the chat of others around her.  It happened to a friend of mine.

[Braden Tedeschi]

Even though it seems that your questions have been answered, I'd like to interject.

Firstly and foremostly, NO - there is no SL-based means by which another avatar may intercept IM-based chat.  I say SL-based because there is always the possibility that one's id/password at the computer, itself, could be obtained.

If the person is reasonably (or totally) sure that their id/password has not been compromised, that isn't the issue. (standard PC security practices including anti-virus, using a firewall package or internet gateway, and actually using passwords that aren't easy to figure out usually are good to start with)

In many ways it is relatively easy to figure out 'things' about avatars.  For example, just watch the land in which the first avatar resides and look for others.  It wouldn't be hard at all if the land right next door was public, since all the 'stalker' has to do is sit there in an unknown alt, themselves, and watch for new avatars to pop in.

In addition, once one has the suspicion that there is a "this alt belongs to so-and-so" going on, there are plenty of tools (and some viewers with the ability) which shows online status and that, often, is a giveaway for people with lower-end PCs.  They cannot sign both avatars in, at once, so the 'stalker' watches the logins/logouts.

After all this, once the 'stalker' knows the alt's identity and wants confirmation, they can (which, it seems, many people forget) simply look at the profile.  For example, many people will create their Picks all in one, common place, and forget to hide their group visibility.  Suddenly, that 'stalker' realizes "Hey, that person is in all the same groups" or "Hey, they got their profile set up at the same places" and viola.. confirmation.

Then again, with some people's profiles, I also find it rather easy to just read the text they type in to the main page or the picks.  Some people with-attitude make their identity pretty darned clear because of the way it's worded or by use of special characters.

As another example, I can think of several roleplay identities of people - using alts - that are so incredibly obvious that it should embarass the individual doing so.  They talk nealry exactly the same, they wear the same clothing, they patronize the same places, but the alts are varieties of both male and females in very different roles.  Sometimes, they show up at the same places at the same time, but they cannot both talk at once or they can never interact, quickly and directly.  In these cases, you can also, often tell the alt-association because they refuse to associate themselves with any person but the 'main'.

It can be humorous in some ways - until you're the subject of their (sometimes abusive) attention.  I wish 'her' luck.

[Illiana Melody]

Hmm... thank you Jessika, that's helpful.  Beware of gifts from strangers, eh?...or at least recent acquaintances.  And thank you Braden for your confirmation of things.

You've all been very helpful... thanks.