Can people tell where I am in-world? Bit nervous...

I see there are gadgets that can tell people when I'm on... are there ones that can tell them where I am, in-world? This is starting to feel intrusive.

As far as I know, the only people that could tell WHERE inworld you are would be any friends that you checked the 'find me on map' box for - and of course anyone that is currently wherever you are.

there's that follower script.

open search, type in ANY word.

then, TP to the first one. then as soon as you can, TP to the next one. then do it again. you'll lose your followers.

you can open map and click ANYWHERE ON A DIFFERENT SIM a bunch of times for the same effect.

A griefer told me that, by using a hacked Viewer, he can track anyone in SL; this does not use in-world objects such as the follower or tracker scripts.

To demonstrate this, both I and the griefer logged out of SL. (He said he needed to relog to get on the hacked Viewer.) Then I logged into a random sim, an obscure one, where I had never been before. I don't think there were any tracker/reporting objects in this sim. The griefer then logged in -- right next to me.

(No of course he was not on my Friends list or anything like that. And no I was not wearing any attachments or anything. He said the hacked Viewer was available for purchase, if you knew who to talk to. He did not elect to tell me who that might be, or give any other information. Except a vauge claim that much more was also possible with this version of the Viewer.)

PS. Beyond "hacked Viewer", I''m not getting into any discussions of technical theories of how they might be doing this, because I don't want to encouarge or help anyone do it. My point is only that there seem to be exploits, they are widely known in griefer circles, and that if you are really hoping for privacy or secrecy, better forget that. As if the advertised and intentional methods of advertising your presence were not enough, just consider that the system can apparently be cracked, and I don't think LL ever said anywhere that you were getting any privacy in the first place anyway.

your exact location is encoded in every single IM you send. You only need to be able to access that layer of data. SLProxy can do it, or a "hacked" viewer (one does not precisely "hack" open source software.. they modify it).

Even if you mute someone, they can find you. When you send an object to someone who has muted you, that person gives a response back, and in that response, is their sim and location within that sim.

Using the available inworld tools, one can do a pretty good job of tracking you.. even without a hacked viewer. If they can convince you to wear something that contains a tracker.. that's probably the easiest way.. (a collar perhaps). but people are generally creatures of habit. They hang out in the same old clubs, the same old sandboxes, etc. If the person can locate the SIM that you're in.. then it's a really simple matter to locate you.

The mini-map provides green "dots" for each avatar in the sim, with convenient "they're higher/lower than you" symbols. Sensors (in scripts) can find you within a 96m radius, so a simple search pattern can eventually let the seeker determine if any of the "dots" on the map, are the person they're looking for... and they don't even have to get close enough to be seen.

Thankfully, stalking someone who has muted you is intensely boring.... and most griefers are adrenaline junkies. Also, thankfully, stalking is Abuse Reportable as "harrassment".

Hmmm... assuming this happened in the last month or so, and was supposed to work anywhere in SL (not just Mainland), then I'm having a hard time coming up with a "sneak path" for the information needed to make it work. Didn't need to have voice enabled, by any chance?

I've abandoned any hope of being able to have any sort of privacy in world. From Lindens own incessant methods of showing your status that are built into the game, and all the ways someone can find you with add ons, even Qie's "Look through someone else's eyes" gadget creeps me out a bit. I've been fortunate not have been stalked or harrassed but I'm at the point where if you want to bring it, let's go. I'm not going to cower or hide from the dickwad basement dwellers

Whew...all this techie stuff about how to hack or modify viewers, scripts, etc. to find someone is exhausting. Anyone who goes to all that trouble just to locate me will be muted and treated to a combination of my "bammer" - throwing knives - and my ultimate favorite - newspaper whapper!! *Beams*

Of course if this is on my land, they will also be frozen, given a verbal tongue-lashing (from a redhead that is way worse than the above "weapons" ejected and banned.

~ ~ ~

As a side note - Right after I was partnered, a few strange things occurred that I don't think were coincidence. One was this chick dropping out of the sky, *into* a very narrow haunted maze, backing my Partner into a corner and saying "Hey Sexy" - then when he didn't respond, she rezzed a yacht (yep...a yacht) in the maze and tp'd out. At that exact moment a former mutual "friend" IM'd me out of the blue to ask "How are you and Storm doing?"

At the time I didn't think her comment at that precise moment had anything to do with yacht-chick....but I now think that yacht-chick was her alt. The only thing that baffled me was how she found us. The "friend" was a computer-techno-geek so she could have used some hack.

thats about where i am with all of this..if they want to track me and show up i'll send them a billion meters downward if they want to play..because most of the time i'm either on my land or land where i am estate manager and access is denied anyways to the public in those spots for now..so if they make it past all that then it's playtime and they are going for a ride..
these stalkers and stuff don't realize that yes some of the stalked can bite just as hard or harder if we have to in many ways when pushed to that limit.

Originally, "hack" meant "create" or "modify", and was not a negative or pejorative. I still use that meaning of the word, and still refer to myself as a "hacker". It's too bad that the popular press equated those words with various kinds of criminals (some idiots, some smart).

I've been hacking on open source since long before the phrase "open source" was coined.

Honestly, I found SL more enjoyable when I stopped worrying and like Brenda, just took the bring it attitude. I used to worry about it, bought things to help with it, etc etc. When I realised that if someone wants to find me or peek at what I am doing bad enough they will, I just kind of took a meh stand on it. There have been great suggestions in the past to help LL find a way to give us privacy but nothing really done.

Don't be nervous, just remember you can log out, TP or mute when and if something gets uncomfortable.

Are you trying to make us pretend we don't see you hanging out in Hard Alley?

P2

When was this? In the sixties, "hack" meant to make a quick change to solve a problem without regard to long term consequences.

The term as I learned it originated in the late 60s or early 70s. (I learned it in the late 70s.)

It sometimes means what you suggest, usually as "quick hack", and sometimes the result is a "kludge" (which would also be used as a verb). But "hack" lost the connotation of "thrown together" somewhere along the line.

What's wrong with being seen in Hard Alley?