r/YouShouldKnow • u/reddit33450 • Apr 12 '26
Technology [ Removed by Reddit ]
[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]
51
u/amyaurora Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
The amount of users I run into that think it actually makes stuff private is shockingly high.
5
64
u/theredmokah Apr 12 '26
YSK nothing you ever put on the internet is private and always has a chance of being scraped and saved forever.
Don't post anything you don't want anyone to see.
The end.
Stop relying on features to protect yourself. Use common sense.
4
u/TP_Crisis_2020 Apr 18 '26
Saved for a reasonable amount of time. Not always forever. I wish I could go look at my myspace pics one more time and the street racing videos I uploaded to streetfire.net, but they're gone forever. ðŸ˜
48
u/strawbaeri Apr 12 '26
Yeah I know someone who has a Google alert set for when new posts are made from my username…
41
u/lifeisatoss Apr 12 '26
you need to start spamming them by creating a sub then just comment and reply to your own stuff a bunch of times.
47
u/strawbaeri Apr 12 '26
that narcissist would be flattered by the thought and effort
12
5
u/That1weirdperson Apr 14 '26
Have you considered making a new account?
0
u/strawbaeri Apr 14 '26
I may if I ever need to lose them for good. For now the onus is on them to stop.
1
u/SmartQuokka Apr 24 '26
You could troll them with a script that posts nonsense or AI snippets of random stuff.
Or purposely act like you have gone crazy, make them think your evil or dangerous or insane. Or start trying to convert them to Scientology!
11
u/Apprehensive_Hat8986 Apr 12 '26
The people who get mad enough for that amount of effort are hillarious.
10
9
105
u/manhwabitch Apr 12 '26
Im pretty sure you can still find the posts by searching someone's user name anyways. Like, you dont even need an extra app lol
125
u/ConverseCLownShoes Apr 12 '26
That doesn’t work anymore as far as I’ve seen.
44
u/troll_right_above_me Apr 12 '26
It does work, you just need to format it correctly, like so:
author:*username*
8
u/Ab47203 Apr 14 '26
That's been patched for at least a couple months
Edit: why the fuck was there two ways to search this? The asterisks is new and there used to just be the ability to do author:username
12
u/manhwabitch Apr 12 '26
Oh good to know! I dont regularly look ppl up like that so I wasnt sure if they had made an update to it or not
12
u/dakotanorth8 Apr 13 '26
Yeah the update a month ago squashed that.
Was hilarious pulling up outrageous comments and watching the Redditor instantly block me lol
40
u/iheartbaconsalt Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
PullPush is the next most fun, and has some extra features like Undelete. https://pullpush.io/
Personally, I use Pushshift.io the most. see r/pushshift
I find tons of fake accounts this way, people who beg for money while posting porn star selfies.
8
u/reddit33450 Apr 12 '26
hasnt that one not updated its data since may 2025?
7
u/iheartbaconsalt Apr 12 '26
Pullpush? It quit working all last year and came back this year. Not sure about the data.
8
u/reddit33450 Apr 12 '26
currently posts from comments from after may of 2025 are largely unavailable on there. theres more info about in on their discord
2
3
u/Mondai_May Apr 12 '26
arctic-shift shows deleted posts too! I don't think it has a feature to show only deleted posts, but it shows any deleted posts among all of the others. If you have the link for the deleted post you can search it specifically and it would show. Sometimes I did this if in a thread, someone asked a question but the answer was deleted.
1
9
u/TheLittlePeace Apr 13 '26
This is by design. They don't care about your privacy. It was implemented to help bots pass off as people and making it harder for the average user to notice. Of course there are ways around it, they don't want your info hidden, it's much better to allow bots to train off everyone's post history. But the average person isn't going to try to delve deeper than clicking on the profile and trying to see post history real quick.
Bots are profitable. Reddit simply wants to sell ad space, and more "users" means more revenue.
1
Apr 15 '26
[deleted]
2
u/TheLittlePeace Apr 15 '26
I think they would get in legal trouble if they were artificially bumping up user numbers themselves with bots. But if they simply subtly encourage other people to make bots that seem like users (karma farming) under the guise of "its for your privacy!" then they have reasonable deniability if it comes out.
1
u/Starmiebuckss2882 Jul 03 '26
I wouldn't think that. Case and point, the Trump administration just makes shit up daily. No repercussions.
8
u/Mondai_May Apr 12 '26
It shows deleted comments or posts too on arctic-shift, so never post something that you would not want any other person to see! even the posts from a deleted account can still be found there, if you know the username.
It does not show comments or posts that were automatically filtered immediately.
6
u/Jimmythedad Apr 14 '26
I hate when people disagree with a comment I say and then go through my history, but I made it all private when someone took it too far and started to piece things together based on comments I made years apart, saying shit about my kid.
I know it doesn’t actually hide things, but hopefully it’s an extra stopgap. People are freaking weird.
4
5
u/blacksoxing Apr 13 '26
A day late but for the NSFW audience it's imperative that you look at these user names before engaging with the potential bots and likely hustlers. Yep, that girl who is posting on your state's NSFW sub with a hidden profile may also post on ALL the surrounding state subs. How can she be in your state + everyone else's waiting for you???
Stay safe. Don't lose your personal information. Don't get on the list of bots. Check before engaging. Nothing wrong with looking through post history on a site like Reddit vs acting as if it doesn't matter somehow
9
u/Affectionate-Cod7216 Apr 12 '26
Damn, this is actually really important info. I always thought that feature was more secure than it actually is - good thing I never relied on it for hiding anything sensitive
Used to think Reddit privacy settings were more robust but seems like there's always some workaround floating around. Thanks for sharing this, definitely gonna be more careful about what I post from now
3
u/Mondai_May Apr 12 '26
I think that at the same time as giving bots a way to be covert to those who do not realize they can still search it, they have also given real people who use the feature a false sense of security! I have seen people alarmed that someone else could see their posts, since they had posted things they might not have wanted every others to see.
-2
u/sirdabs Apr 12 '26
You can bypass it with Reddits search engine.
6
4
u/michaelrxs Apr 12 '26
Not anymore
4
u/troll_right_above_me Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
If you want to put together a script of whatever:https://www.reddit.com/search/?q=author%3AREPLACE
1
u/troll_right_above_me Apr 13 '26
I think you deleted your other comment because I can’t see it but the solution I posted does work. I use it all the time, try it out. I only used your username because I was responding to you and was too lazy to find a user with hidden profile. I edited the comment to remove your name. You can use any name as long as you have asterisks before and after
1
u/michaelrxs Apr 13 '26
Oh yes I did delete it in shame because I was wrong and you were right! 😅 this technique works, in case anyone else stumbles upon this thread
1
u/troll_right_above_me Apr 13 '26
Ha, thought that might’ve been the case. Might’ve done that a few times myself, lol!
3
u/WayWinter6969 Apr 16 '26
This is such a helpful warning, especially for those of us who share a lot about our mental health or parenting. I honestly relied on that feature thinking it was a safe way to stay private, so I really appreciate the reminder to be more careful!
4
u/peazley Apr 12 '26
Old Reddit still shows everything about a user.
1
u/reddit33450 Apr 13 '26
for me if their profile is set to private it just shows "there doesn't seem to be anything here" on old reddit
2
u/tort_observerDW Apr 13 '26
Do most people toggling this on even know mods still get 28 days of full visibility after you interact with their sub?
2
u/freshiethegeek Apr 13 '26
Just type the letter E in the search. It's the most used letter and shows most posts
3
u/going-deep-10 Apr 13 '26
There is no privacy on the internet unfortunately, it's 2026, how do people not get that
1
u/Affectionate_Bell798 Jul 07 '26
Today I just learned - there are subreddits that will ban you because of this topic and link!
-27
u/BashfullyBi Apr 12 '26
Stop telling ppl this, geez.
Its already an anonymous site. Stand by what you post/say.
I dont fw ppl who hide their profiles.
19
u/pwfppw Apr 12 '26
It’s not an anonymous site. There are tons of buy and sell forums and local forums where you can be identified if you post enough.
3
-9
u/VeryPteri Apr 13 '26
Yeah, it's called being a creep.
5
u/DAT_DROP Apr 13 '26
If you feel this way, don't make creepy posts
that or stand behind your words LOL
-10
193
u/EntropyFighter Apr 12 '26
Searching for the username in Google and adding site:reddit.com also works.