I came here via a member who also posts on TF. How do you guys feel about privacy?
It seems that many of you are very open about where you are, what you do, and maybe even who you really are. If that’s the case, do you fear repercussions? Do you think that complete anonymity that I use is wasteful?
If not, what ways do you anonymize your self?
If you ride the line, what parts do anonymize and which don’t you.
I’m actually really curious.
@penguin makes privacy computers and routers and such. However, he’s publicly known for that.
You’ll find a range from very private to very open here.
I’m a public persona, and yes repercussions are very real. We’re trying to end the state. That’s not going to be pretty for a lot of people involved.
Regarding privacy, in Keene we have channels that allow us to communicate outside platforms like facebook. That increases the chance that convos aren’t logged, but an infiltrator can easily get into most of the groups, so people should act like convos are being logged, even if they think they know everyone in the group.
Once you start getting involved with people in real life action, you can’t have privacy if your group is larger than two or three, and even then you’re at risk. Being private still has some value, but obsessing over it is a waste of time, if you’re already infiltrated.
@mornaner
Tails + a spun up instance on a flash drive on raw hardware, a vpn and a trusted proxy. I trust tails as I know a contributor, the vpn is a trust one although I still use a proxy that a group of us share and only us share it. That server logs nothing, is physically hidden, and ignores just about every other request besides the proxy. If we need to do anything to it, someone has to console in. That’s for posting in public forums.
Also, the Government isn’t really any more advanced that black hats are tbh. The snowden leak showed that. During the same time period that they had their hacks, the ones back hats had were much more advanced. I think what they have the advantage of is forcing back doors into things, their massive data collection hive (which is pointless no matter what algorithms you use to search through it), and social media. People put out so much about themselves it’s easy pickings for them. You are giving them everything for free.
I’ve done pen testing and the crap that companies do amazes me. Remember, support is a negative RoI so they put as little into it as possible, hence the Equifax hack.
Now, the reason I’m asking is I have been to NH before, more than once. A lot actually. I like to travel and NH is a nice, peaceful spot. I would probably move there but work everywhere is nil and I’m pretty comfortable where I am.
@FTL_Ian
Infiltration is almost a given at a certain size. When I was a wee lad we had someone who flipped and started logging what was going on on our private irc server. Two people got arrested all because his netsec was trash tier. Since then I’ve pretty much hid everything.
A poster on TF by the name of Joe J pointed me here. We seem to have similar views on things although you guys are a tad extreme for me. I’ve always been wary of governments and corporations but never really thought past protecting myself. I started to read some of the articles and it’s no where near as extreme as I thought. I was thinking doom days preservers but it’s not that at all. I have to say I’m happy that he sent me here and have been enjoying my time digging around.
they do have a ton of money and resources but they are more likely to make an actual virus or a penetration tool for very specific things than wide range tools which all hackers use. Again, the snowden dump showed some of that they were using.
Yes, Tails, like any os, is a collection of packages. You do have multiple layers from grep all the way down to the metal. You have to trust it all the way down. At some point, you kind of have to give something that is generally trusted in the community trust or you will always be paranoid.
For me, it’s not tedious though. It’s kind of a relaxing. Like sorting my data hoard, keeping my stick updated, my instances clean, seed boxes running, etc… It’s almost like a zen thing. I just take some sativa if I really need to drill through a lot of data or some oil if I just want to listen to some music and check on my network, sticks, laptops, phones, NAS’s, servers, etc…
It’s only “wasteful” if you also have a profile where you say who you are and associate yourself with these ideas.
There are pros and cons to both methods. Anonymity allows you to maintain a traditional career, interact with normies in your neighborhood, avoid some State encounters, no vandalism, etc. But people always act as if there are costs to being public and no costs to living closeted.
I can speak openly. I don’t have to pretend things are other than they are. I am able to find others who are like me more easily because they don’t have to figure out what I am. There is a certain credibility, justified or not, that comes with putting a name to a statement that I can give to my views by being open. I don’t have to constantly worry about being found out. That’s worth more to me than having to take extra security precautions and any career I might lose.
Some people have more to lose than others by being open, and I really feel that I fall on the lower end of that spectrum. And I don’t hold anything against people who are closeted- they can accomplish things I can’t. It’s just about what role you want to play, and ther is a deficiency in all roles.
By nature I’ve never been private which has always annoyed my loved ones but over time, I’ve learned to appreciate and try to keep certain things private, whereas other things, again, not caring so much whether its known or unknown.
No one can say how much private you can really be on public forums controlled by systems that require single login ID’s and under eyes of the State whose one goal is to keep an eye on you at all times.
I like and use OpenBSD as well as Linux, connect using multiple VPN’s, sometimes using TOR, emailing w/ PGP/GPG, encrypted HDD’s.
I don’t keep my persona secret on here because 1. I want to meet and be productive with like-minded people and 2. If I get outed my workplace wouldn’t care. If they did I could get a new job in a heartbeat that was more appreciative. My family and friends are all well aware of my political views. The government has little on me because everything I’m posting is public knowledge anyways.
I’m so private that I’m not going to share my privacy practices with you 
I pretty much limit it to not posting my name or identifying information on social media. People who’ve seen me around for a long time know a few things, and may be able to track me down. I just try to keep it moderately difficult, knowing that bureaucrats tend to be lazy, but if the wrong people get pissed, they’re coming to get me anyway. I stick to being a small fry and not trying ultra-hard to stay anonymous, as the worst enemies could find me if they really wanted to.