Hypothetically, if someone wore a mask and ordinary clothes, bought a laptop with cash far from home, avoided carrying other devices, used public Wi-Fi, and tried not to appear clearly on cameras, would they be effectively untraceable while browsing? They would disconnect the laptop afterward and hide or destroy it. Is this enough to make someone invisible online, or could their activity still be connected to them?
1 Answer
The disposable-hardware approach is much more elaborate than most privacy situations require, but it still does not make someone invisible. The laptop, operating system, browser, websites, and Wi-Fi network can all produce identifying or linkable information. Depending on what is being done, accounts, writing style, browsing habits, or mistakes could also reveal connections.
It would remove some straightforward clues, but “harder to identify” is very different from “impossible to identify.” The result depends heavily on the activity and the records available to whoever is investigating it.
That makes sense. I was mainly wondering whether removing the usual identifiers would eliminate enough evidence to make attribution impossible.