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Show HN: EpsteIn – Search the Epstein files for your LinkedIn connections (github.com)
guessmyname 1 days ago [-]
The tool works by querying your contacts’ names against https://analytics.dugganusa.com/api/v1/search?q={NAME}&index...

I’d hope anyone using this tool understands that names aren’t unique. So if your mother’s or father’s name shows up in that API, it only means someone else out there has the same name. People who are into conspiracy theories tend to love software like this because it helps them force a preexisting narrative to fit their conclusions.

Search for “John Smith” → https://analytics.dugganusa.com/api/v1/search?q=John+Smith&i...

Now search for “LoremIpsumDolor” (no spaces) → https://analytics.dugganusa.com/api/v1/search?q=LoremIpsumDo...

And, amusingly, “••• •••” (the author’s name) appears 164 times → https://analytics.dugganusa.com/api/v1/search?q=Christopher+...

edit: I removed the author’s name from this post, because the search results don’t really prove anything. Their first name is extremely common in the United States and returns 166 matches on its own, and their last name returns around 1,000. That’s exactly the point here: this API is doing basic name lookups, not confirming identities. Without additional identifiers (like location, email, phone number, or some kind of unique ID), these hits are essentially just name collisions and shouldn’t be treated as meaningful evidence.

ben0x539 1 days ago [-]
> edit: I removed the author’s name from this post

well, you didn't from the search query.

cfinke 1 days ago [-]
The script searches using quoted names, while these examples all search with unquoted names, which will match either the first or last name.

Searching for my name in quotes (https://analytics.dugganusa.com/api/v1/search?q=%22Christoph...) unsurprisingly results in zero hits.

saaaaaam 1 days ago [-]
Are we giving all our LinkedIn data to some random person? Nice try, Cambridge Analytica.
kachapopopow 1 days ago [-]
you run it locally, the endpoint seems to just be a search engine
saaaaaam 1 days ago [-]
Right, yes. I now realise I should probably have continued reading after “1. Go to linkedin.com and log in”. But when I saw that I noped away.

Which shows the power of words. If it said “1. You will need a copy of your LinkedIn contacts to run this locally - here’s how…” I would have had a very different opinion.

You can vibe code almost anything, but you’re unlikely be able to vibe code your way out of scaring people.

layer8 24 hours ago [-]
Let the witch hunt begin!
cosmicgadget 20 hours ago [-]
The thing about a witch hunt is that witches don't exist.
layer8 12 hours ago [-]
Let the lynch law begin, then.
cosmicgadget 7 hours ago [-]
Is that what unfriending people on LinkedIn is? You're clutching your pearls pretty hard for people who have innocently crossed paths with a sex trafficker.
1 days ago [-]
stevefan1999 21 hours ago [-]
I have no idea why do we need to have a witch hunt like this. Many people have Epstein anyway and not all of them is able to approach his inner ring (ahem circle), but you are attacking all the people that approached or interacted with him.
sosomoxie 36 minutes ago [-]
I’m actually fine knowing which of my contacts interacted with a pedophile foreign asset.
singular_atomic 21 hours ago [-]
Interesting reply
FatherOfCurses 1 days ago [-]
Is your repo private?
cfinke 1 days ago [-]
Weird, I set it to public an hour ago and it was private again. Fixed now.
_345 18 hours ago [-]
what are we even doing anymore
nh23423fefe 4 hours ago [-]
moral panics are fun!! clearly you are on the wrong side of history
vrn21 1 days ago [-]
link not found btw
kittikitti 24 hours ago [-]
It seems as if LinkedIn removed the ability to request connections specifically. I had to request my entire archive.

Also, minor thing, there is no requirements.txt file based on the setup in README.md but I understand that it's only `requests` and it looks like even this is handled in the Python script.

In the README.md, the flag for the Connections.csv is actually `--connections`.

I'm also getting a `429 Client Error: Too Many Requests for url:` which sometimes resolves itself after a few requests for some reason. Not sure if `delay` needs to be increased.

For the sake of privacy of my own connections, I think it would be better to have an option to download all Epstein files locally (a great feature in and of itself) and then do a search.

Last edit: I got the results and it's all false positives from people who have common names. Most of the results in the search engine are based on badly done OCR from PDF's. I would have done the OCR with an vLLM, it would be much more accurate. I would highly recommend changing the search engine.

Thank you for this.

cfinke 23 hours ago [-]
Thanks, I've fixed the connections arg name and the missing requirements file.
wslh 1 days ago [-]
It seems like Epstein was connected to a lot of people around the world but not only on "layer 1" but many power layers. The Epstein case is an unique story with a lot of ramifications.
cosmicgadget 20 hours ago [-]
It searches for your contacts in the files. Not the LinkedIn network.
sho_hn 1 days ago [-]
I would assume there are other Epsteins, I doubt it's unique.
somalihoaxes 22 hours ago [-]
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