"I hit one or two sites a couple of years ago that were so foul that I actually called the FBI in on them rather than take the however-astronomically-remote chance that my linkage to these sites would have been somehow recorded on those sites and turn up in what I felt would be inevitable police raids on their computers. A panicked and paranoid defensive maneuver, and probably silly in hindsight."

Possibly not, to be honest with you.

Years ago in a different era I picked up a couple of hitchhikers late at night. I was dead tired, had a couple of hours to drive, thought it might help. I was leaving a college town for the big city.

I started to suspect I was being followed. That bothered me, frankly. When I left the freeway I became sure. My strength was as the strength of ten because my heart was pure, and I made sure they didn't lose me until I figured out who it was.

I dropped my passengers off and spun around and got the plate from my single-car tail. He didn't follow me after that, and I suspected he was following the hitchhikers rather than me.

Took a longer rather than shorter way home, and the next morning nosed around. Turns out there was an undercover investigation into drug dealing at a school, and my hitchhikers were heavily involved. I was now a "person of interest", the powers that be not sure if I was picking up hitchhikers or involved.

I found out who the fellow was that followed me, called him. He was horrified I was able to find him, listened to my explanation, and told me he had no notes with anything about me on them.

That saved me a lot of grief. I didn't need to be identified as a possible drug dealer.

That's a problem for us paranoids. Sometimes, occasionally, they ARE following us.

Arf