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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alan Smithee who wrote (277389)	10/31/2008 12:08:46 PM
From: SI Bob	4 Recommendations Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793955

As I suspected, the trick they're using is almost like if you provide a link to the My Account screen and someone clicks it, they see their own account info. I was worried it might dig deeper into the machine, which typically does have your name in the registry as entered when you install or first enable the OS, but that's not the case. If you mess around with the querystring (everything past "nid="), you get different results, typically the name changing to "undefined". There's a "Customize This Video For Your Friends" link. I haven't tried it but I'd bet any amount of money that it prompts you to enter a name and creates a link to the video with a different querystring that, when viewed, makes it include that person's name. So if someone sends it to you and it shows your real name, they had to have known your real name and customized the URL so it'd put your name in the "news report". I was initially reluctant to open it as the site name is an obvious attempt to trick the inattentive into thinking it's a CNBC site. To confirm the workings, I went ahead and hit the Customize button and, sure enough, it tells how it's doing it. I entered some info but haven't gotten the email yet. So, that's how a person's real name gets into the video. If the underlying question is how they knew your real name, I don't have an answer for that one. Nobody can get it from us.