I am curious how other people balance their concerns about identity theft, online stalking and doxing whilst creating a personal brand and/or being at the helm of a startup.
To quote Tyrion Lannister: "Let me give you some advice, bastard: Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you."
I tend to think that Internet folks have overly exaggerated impressions of the risk profile associated with having basic biographical information available, by the way. This is not a unique cross we have to bear -- every dentist, lawyer, McDonalds franchisee, etc has the same "problem." The vast majority are never targeted by the Internet hate machine.
The most annoying thing to have happen to me from having my identity public in ~8 years, aside from online criticism, was having someone find my cell phone number on WHOIS and ask for advice at 4 AM in the morning. My advice was to send me an email and schedule a call, like a considerate person.
Out of interest, 4am because they didn't consider timezones, or because they were a true crazy?
But, be careful of interpreting that as, "there is no risk." The internet hate machine does find a new victim on a regular basis and toy with their lives for its own amusement, it's just that probability is on your side thanks to the really large number of people on the internet.
Small town politics can be a little nasty too, especially if you're a local business owner that makes the mistake of getting involved in it. But, your business probably doesn't depend very much on your reputation in town. (Mine does.)
Lightning strikes people on regular basis too.
That does not mean you should not go outside.
Simple measures will possibly save your butt if a serious attempt was made: Do not to answer security question fields truthfully, instead use long, random, high-entropy strings. Do not use text based 2FA, when app 2FA is available. Do not use text based 2FA as a backup to app based 2FA (e.g. Google). Etc.
And if you are in a business, you are likely to want the opposite of anonymity.
If your state of well-being depends upon absolute and total privacy, you will need to take rather extreme measures. Probably starting back in 1992.
So I think I'm just going to keep these accounts anonymous and just use my blog, GitHub, and Stack Overflow as my professional public persona. I don't have a problem putting my name out there as long as I know what I'm writing can be directly tied back to me (not that anything on the other sites are particularly bad – I just wouldn't want employers and such having direct access).
I think this can be a real stumbling block to success these days. Increasingly ones accomplishments are likely to be more visible online than anywhere, so trying to keep them divorced just shoots ones own foot in the process. If I had published my books under the name most people new me by rather than my real name, then what do I do when its time to apply for work or pitch myself further in real life?
Far easier to just wear my own face, for all its sins, but then I'm not usually a prime target anyway. When I have been, I just go dark for a while.
I have helped a lot of small businesses with their technology, positioning and marketing and this is one of the most common issues owners bring up. Typically they will say they don't want to be "known" or be out if front because they worry about their identity and the issues around it. Sometimes they say they want their brand to be known not them, but in the early days their brand and themselves are the same which people don't understand a lot of times.
However, it is the #1 mistake I think people make if they want their business, or personal brand to grow. You cannot hide, you cannot turn down press, you must be out there and be genuine. I do advise clients though, that if you are posting what you know to be controversial content on a forum, blog etc and you feel it would be damaging to your brand then first, don't; but if you must, do it anonymously. The problem I see is that rarely is anything ever anonymous, even when you think you are, so its easier just to be you. On the controversial comments, I don't mean that you simply disagree with another view point i.e. you think Ruby rocks and node sucks. I mean when someone has a view that is anti-pattern to common polite society, e.g. racist comments, sexist comments etc.
It is very hard to become a public person even if you want to. People have very limited attention span.