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It's frustrating that I frequently get comments on my site from people who are mad about the use of "they" instead of he or she to describe unknown individuals.

The reason I use "they" in these cases has everything to do with the fact that I've been wrong on gender assumptions previously, and that attempting to divine someone's orientations from what they say or post is a fool's errand.

More to the point, a surprising (to me, anyway) number of English-speaking cybercriminals are born with one gender but identify with another. Some are transitioning to another gender, and some have already taken that step.

Also, for the kind of investigations I do, someone's gender is usually the least useful or interesting aspect of who they are in real life, because they are often involved in some crazy illegal stuff.

Matt Hall

@briankrebs

I remember 20 or 30 years ago reading any number of written materials that would choose at the beginning of the material which pronoun they would use to refer to the reader or use in examples.

I also remember it being a big deal that someone would choose to use they in lieu of he or she.

They has never bothered me and always seemed like an acceptable solution to the problem.