re privacy concerns on saidit

submitted by panel30 from self.SaidIt

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[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (27 children)

The same concerns I'd have anywhere else on the internet. With respect to IP address, if you aren't taking measures to hide it, you are certainly being tracked by something. Just how concerned this would make me would depend on upon what I was saying here and what my other trackable internet activity was, and whether or not law enforcement might be interested in these things

[–]panel30[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (26 children)

If I don't do anything illegal am I ok? Other than advertising profiling?

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (16 children)

Yeah if your open-to-the-internet activities are not illegal, or associated with illegal activities, I would not be particularly worried. I don't care who wants to track me looking up reference tables, or posting news links, so I don't bother concealing anything for that

[–]panel30[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (15 children)

Is there a good way to hide your IP? Depending on who you're trying to hide it from? I had heard of TOR but somebody said that's not working anymore.

[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

TOR is a pretty good way to hide your IP address. Whether its good enough or not depends on the threat. Now, if you are making yourself a high priority military threat by frequenting terrorist sites, you are talking about a different threat model, and I would expect that you might be subject to techniques where TOR is not going to be foolproof. Someone with impressive capabilities would likely have to be significantly motivated to track you while using Tor. If you are pirating media or buying drugs on the darkweb or something for personal use, TOR is probably good enough for that threat. If you are doing terrorism or trafficking in illegal goods, I'd be far less confident in TOR alone

As far as other options to protect privacy. TailsOS is a very privacy focused linux distro, and running it off a bootable drive or virtual machine can protect you from some attacks that might break your anonymity when using Tor. A VPN also adds another layer of indirection, preferably one located in a very non-friendly place like Russia, as I don't much care if they know I'm breaking the law. Using public wifi is another option, though I would take care to spoof my MAC address in that case

[–]pandorasbox 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Tor sucks ass. It's glitchy.. it loses its connection... And, it is not secure... Who owns the relay computers..

I promise that if you host a site on for and start selling dope, the authorities will know who you are within about ten minutes.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I promise that if you host a site on for and start selling dope, the authorities will know who you are within about ten minutes.

Thats pretty much what I said dude, can you not read?

If you are doing terrorism or trafficking in illegal goods, I'd be far less confident in TOR alone

[–]pandorasbox 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Do you ever wonder why every site on the net requires an email to register, but saidit does not?

[–]panel30[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I thought saidit was just removing an annoyance from reddit. Since you can just make a new email address anyway. I don't like it when those sites try to make you give them an email and phone number.

[–]pandorasbox 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I have tracked clicks on this site a couple of times.. as soon as I post a link that is able to log accesses, aa Russian server hits it immediately

[–]panel30[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

that means it's indexing links on this site?

[–]pandorasbox 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

109% correct. The Russian server accesses my tracker links within a few minutes or moments of my posting it.

It could be cloudflare that is sending them to search here, I don't know what causes them to know about my posts here as quickly as they do.

[–]Vulptex 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Reddit didn't do this until after the last open-source commit, which is why saidit doesn't have it. You actually don't have to give your email to reddit either, they just make it look like you do. If you leave it blank it'll still work.

[–]Vulptex 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

That's the FBI. They're able to access private information via subpoena. Usually they can't with TOR, but in a limited number of cases they pulled it off, when they got lucky. This has always been the case and should not come as a surprise.

[–]panel30[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I didn't realize they'd compromised it before. It sounded like this poster knew about something recent and new, though, something more than has happened before.

[–]Vulptex 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The FBI probably operates their own TOR circuits. If you happen to get one of theirs, they have your real information.

There's other clever tricks besides just getting client information. Investigators have filled suspects' content with zero-width spaces, which are normally invisible. The FBI even runs illegal websites themselves to catch criminals.

[–]Alphix 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I use TOR-on-VPN.

[–]binaryblob 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes, use a VPN from a private citizen from a different country.

[–]Vulptex 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

It's impossible not to do anything illegal with technology.

[–]panel30[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

impossible?

[–]Vulptex 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

And if someone hacks your device and does anything of these things, you are just as guilty as them simply because it is your device. It's impossible to avoid breaking the law a lot of times, even if you could somehow keep track of all of them.

[–]Vulptex 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

There's so many laws for the digital world that practically everything is illegal in some way. It seems the government decided the Bill of Rights doesn't apply to technology.

Did you use the internet in any way before you were 13? You broke the law. Did you view an image or video containing copyrighted material, even unintentionally because it just showed up online? You're a filthy criminal. Have you ever used anything in a way that isn't exactly as the creators intended? You violated DRM laws. Ever ban evaded? You're a hacker in the eyes of the law. Did your web browser download anything illegal in its temp files or caches? The government is now allowed to destroy all your data. Ever come across an illegal website by accident? You're guilty of all its crimes. We use anonymous usernames on saidit and other sites. For that we're frauds, because technically you are required by law to use your real name (don't do that though). Of course in most cases these things are never enforced, but they are technicalities. Even just breaking the rules on a website is usually illegal. And pretty much anything you say can be labeled misinformation or libel or something of that sort. There's just so many laws it would be shorter to list the things you are allowed to do than the things you're not allowed to do.

On a really technical level you can barely turn a gadget on without breaking some ridiculous law. And you definitely can't get online without breaking the law.

[–]Alphix 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

WHAT? Where's the law that says you have to use your real name?

[–]Vulptex 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

IIRC it's geared at frauds and impersonators on websites like Facebook where everyone uses their real name, but they forgot about anonymous sites. I've never heard of anyone getting in trouble for having an anonymous username.

[–]Vulptex 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Oh, and using public wifi is as serious a crime as first degree murder, and "cyberbullying" and "hate speech" is illegal too. Or even anything "disturbing" or unpopular. Seems the first amendment doesn't apply to the digital world.

[–]Vulptex 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

By the way, some of these technicalities were used to justify killing Aaron Swartz.