I think it's entirely possible to identify SR forum users this way. If you have a database large enough (IBMs Watson "knowledge" would probably do it), and enough computing power tied to each other (again, Watson would probably do it)... I have no doubt you could identify half the people here. Frankly half of my "protection," is that I'm not worth finding. I'm not even a vendor, why would they give a fuck about finding me -- if I was a big fish though, I'd definitely post a whole, WHOLE lot less...