Sockpuppet & OPSEC

Protect yourself first

• Separate environment — a dedicated browser profile or VM for research; never mix with personal accounts. Containers/multi-account browsers isolate cookies.
• Network — a VPN or the Tor Browser hides your IP and rough location from sites that log visitors. Assume every page you load records you.
• No live interaction from real accounts — viewing a LinkedIn profile logged in tips off the target; viewing a Story marks you as a viewer. Observe from a research account or logged out.
• Disable link previews in the tools you paste target URLs into — they fetch the URL and can leak to the target.

Research personas (sockpuppets)

• Build a plausible, consistent persona (name, photo, history) that fits the platform. AI-generated faces avoid reverse-image hits — verify they don't.
• Age it: a brand-new empty account is a red flag and gets banned. Establish normal activity before use.
• Compartmentalize — a unique email and phone per persona; never cross-link personas or touch them from your real identity.
• Match the persona's apparent locale (language, timezone) to its backstory.

Rules

• Sockpuppets are for observation, not for deceiving people into private info, entrapment, or accessing systems — that crosses legal and ethical lines.
• Many platforms' ToS forbid fake accounts; weigh that against your mandate.