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Comment by 3pt14159 | Hacker News Reader

I was an NOC Agent for Canada then I got married. There's so much data out there, nothing is easy with creating a false persona. Your eyes, walk, fingerprints, etc.

It's possible in the short run, but you're leaking a lot of data doing it. My MO when I really didn't want to end up Googleable was to just give my real first name and leave it at that even if people pressed.

Edit: The reason is simple. If someone gives a false name and you know their real one then you're much more certain that they're trying to conceal their identity. So the downside is real, even if it is practical in some circumstances.

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Fascinating. How long were you a NOC for? I guess your spouse did not know of it while she was your GF. Did it impact your life negatively, having to maintain secrecy? You must have been for quite a while, I understand a long time passes before agents are fully functional.

Well, I'm allowed to talk about it publicly but I still would like to default to undersharing. It was a little over five years. Long enough.

My spouse and I got married very quickly after meeting and yes the impact on one's life is real, but so is the upside and I find few online that talk about it. The upside is real. You see the extremes of humanity and it clarifies the importance of ethics in life.

Perfectly understandable, I did not want to pry but found it fascinating and could not help myself.

No problem at all. If we were at a bar I'd say more, but with online stuff the safety margins are tighter because every word is picked over by everyone. It's not just states. There are a lot of mentally ill people out there.

That said, I think others should consider working in this field. The impact is real and I think many HNers would make good agents and officers. So I'm starting to talk about it online and I'm reworking my website and other things. Think of it as continued public service. We (Nato and friends) need good people doing this work.

One thing I should have mentioned is that I'm still working in this area, just not directly for the Canadian government any longer.

Don't forget stylometry; though AI actually looks like a promising tool to help with it.

What is a NOC agent?

National occupation classification? Network operations centre?

I believe that is Non Official Cover Agent. Basically, a intelligence agent that, well, they do a lot of stuff, but from my understanding, not having worked in the system, they mostly handle informants and turn sources and handle intelligence gathering. A spy. It's non-official cover in the sense that they don't come as a diplomat attache or anything of the sorts but go there and present themselves as a private individual. Some countries, not sure of the case of Canada, you can't share your real job with your friends or family but have a cover story instead. They mostly present their real name as well, since it's hard to produce fake personas, hence... his original post.

Much less glamourous than James Bond, but I believe it's an.. interesting job.

This is a good summary. Most people I knew didn't know and if they knew anything it was only a hint here or there and most assumed I was doing sigint work.

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