Thanks for your investigation.
Yes, I've seen defcon presos on this topic. It wouldn't take great lengths to do so for specific users, if desired. Doing so would be relatively trivial.
Proving a negative (i.e. disproving the claim) here is essentially impossible. Yet, without evidence there's simply no reason to make such an assertion.
Personally, I trust HN and doubt they have any such functionality in place. Even so, can @dang or anyone confirm/deny?
