hachiya

That may be possible, but no source had made that claim as far as I know, in this case or any other. Also, Github uses SSL. It would be interesting how they distinguish one user's Github connection from all the others originating in China.

Again, how the Github user was actually located by Chinese police was not disclosed or even discussed here. It's interesting that mentioning this has resulted in two comments by new accounts, solely to blame Chinese authorities as discovering the user on their own, with no evidence for it.

Do you have a reference for clowwindy revealing his employer? I didn't see anything about that.

Cops can do a lot of things, but they don't pull information from thin air. Github would be one source of information.

It's odd that this entire, and very popular, discussion on HN doesn't delve into how this individual was found.

It's also interesting that your reply is from a new account with only this comment.

So how did the Chinese police find clowwindy?

His contact information doesn't look readily available online.

Did Chinese authorities contact Github, which readily complied with information that led to him being located?