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Assuming I have created an email in hushmail through of tor, and if I use it as my official email in a site such as Github. Will it throw my anonymity away as I use github from a regular browser?

Wellington PF
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    Anonymity from who about what? Anonymity about "who owns this email?" – cpast Feb 18 '15 at 21:49
  • Once I put my anonymous email as my official email in Github and considering I dont use tor to access github, would not it be possible to track my IP and relate it with my anonymous email? – Wellington PF Feb 18 '15 at 21:55
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    There are similarities between what you're asking and a particular incident that occurred regarding Silk Road - DPR posted something on the Stack Exchange network with his actual email address and that's part of how he ended up getting caught. Worth keeping in mind... – kalina Feb 18 '15 at 21:59
  • @Flyk, *Part* of how he got caught. Another part was that his clearnet identity was one of the very first people who knew about Silk Road. – Mark Feb 18 '15 at 22:03
  • Closely related and probably duplicate: [Best practices for Tor use, in light of released NSA slides](http://security.stackexchange.com/q/43369/11291) – Michael Hampton Mar 21 '15 at 08:03

2 Answers2

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To a large extent, yes, you will lose your anonymity. Github (and anyone monitoring Github) will be able to connect your email address to your IP address.

A key element of anonymity (or more technically, pseudonymity) is keeping your separate identities separate. Your Hushmail account accessed over Tor is one identity, while everything you do through direct Internet connections constitutes a second identity. By using your Hushmail account for a direct-connection service, you've tied those two identities together.

Mark
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Yes. If you use an account on Tor and also use the same account not on Tor, your ownership of the account can be traced via the use not on Tor. If you link two accounts (e.g. by listing an email from Tor on a non-Tor account), someone could potentially find that link and then trace the non-Tor account. This is one of many reasons "use Tor" isn't enough to maintain anonymity; you need to be very careful about what information you're leaving about yourself and where.

cpast
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  • If I use an alias account-email, (using a normal email-account as official account, and using it to redirect the messages sent to my anonymous account), do I still have problems wuth my anonymity? – Wellington PF Feb 18 '15 at 22:03
  • Yes - because somewhere there is record of the redirect. Not to mention MX records are public... – kalina Feb 18 '15 at 22:04
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    @Bit-Wiser The rule of thumb is that there should be no links between your accounts that you don't want to be associated with and the accounts you can be associated with. An automatic redirect is a clear link; manually forwarding stuff can also be a link. Depending on the attacker, even talking about the same kinds of stuff can be a link (that's one way the FBI linked Ross Ulbricht to Silk Road: he talked about his vacations on Facebook and DPR talked about vacations at the same time). – cpast Feb 18 '15 at 22:09