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Urb
Last Man Standing



Registered: 03/20/03
Posts: 42,780
Loc: WhoDat Nation
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The Growery?
#10053313 - 03/27/09 12:35 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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Privacy statement Due to the subject matter of The Growery, many visitors are concerned about maintaining their privacy and anonymity while browsing the site. This document explains when and why we might store information about you without your explicit consent, and how you can prevent such information from being recorded.
IP Logging: Your IP address is like your telephone number on the internet. It may change from time to time, but while you have it, it's unique to your computer. IP addresses can be used to determine the identity of your ISP (internet service provider), and to discover its general geographic location. Your ISP keeps log files which can be used to match your IP address with your account information.
Like most websites, The Growery maintains an access log which includes IP address information. This is done for our security and yours. These logs are deleted from the server periodically, but we make no specific guarantees about their longevity. We reserve the right to log IPs at any time. To prevent your IP address from being logged you must access the site through a proxy server. The site's functionality may be impaired when using a proxy.
Technical Information: Our access logs also contain technical information about our users' computers, including (but not limited to) their browsers, operating systems, and what sites referred them to the Growery. Technical information is retained and used by the Growery to improve site compatibility and guide development. It may be shared in aggregate with third parties, but no personally identifiable information will be made available. To prevent technical information about your computer from being logged you must access the site using a proxy server or a third party web anonymizer. The site's functionality may be impaired when technical information about the user's computer is not available.
Cookies: Cookies are small pieces of data which the Growery stores on your hard drive. The cookies we set can only be read by the Growery - your web browser will not allow any other site to access the data. Cookies have an expiration date, so that they don't stay on your hard drive indefinitely. Your browser automatically deletes cookies which have expired.
The Growery sets many cookies to enhance the browsing experience. They are used to store user preferences, technical data, and for statistical tracking. You can prevent the Growery from setting cookies on your hard drive by configuring your web browser to reject cookies, to prompt you before accepting them, or by installing a third party cookie utility. The site's functionality may be impaired when cookies are disabled.
Third Parties: Like many websites, The Growery may display ads which are provided by third parties and hosted on domains we do not control. In such a situation, the third party would be capable of logging your IP and technical information when the ad is displayed. We will only accept hosted ads from established, responsible third parties who themselves have a published privacy policy. To prevent third party advertisers from receiving your information, you must access the site through a proxy server.
Usage: The Growery will never sell, give, share or transfer any information we collect about our users, except as outlined below:
* The Growery is incorporated and hosted in the United States. In the event that we are served with a legal subpoena, we may provide the information as required by law. * If a user is engaged in activities which may cause serious harm to our servers or community, we reserve the right to file a report with the user's ISP and any applicable authorities. * If we have reason to believe that a user may be in imminent danger of harming him or herself, or others, we reserve the right to share any identifying information with police, emergency services, and anyone else in a position to render assistance. * We may provide aggregate user information to third parties such as advertisers, but no personally identifiable information will be made available.
Makes me wonder , particularly : * The Growery is incorporated and hosted in the United States. In the event that we are served with a legal subpoena, we may provide the information as required by law. * If a user is engaged in activities which may cause serious harm to our servers or community, we reserve the right to file a report with the user's ISP and any applicable authorities. * If we have reason to believe that a user may be in imminent danger of harming him or herself, or others, we reserve the right to share any identifying information with police, emergency services, and anyone else in a position to render assistance. * We may provide aggregate user information to third parties such as advertisers, but no personally identifiable information will be made available.
How safe can it be ?
Hypothetically , wouldn't it be an ideal way for the DEA to bust people? Set up a website & make it look cool & get everyone to tell on themselves through bragging about how good the weed is that they grow.
Am I the only person that thinks about shit like this?
There is a fine line between being paranoid & being cautious . Sometimes I can't discern the difference.
-------------------- Texas Honey Badger said: I went to boys town in Nuevo Laredo when I was in my early ‘30s There was a bunch of trannys even way back then I paid probably $20 but I was so drunk I couldn’t get a hard on -Whenever you hear 5 blasts from the emergency horn that’s the signal for a 30 minute buttfucking break- Fiery said: I wish I was a young sexy woman so I could have awesome sexy adventures all the time[/quote] split_by_nine said: i did the man bun.[/quote] 1234go said: I don't have a dog. I can't stand em...They're needy animals for needy people.
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist


Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 48,392
Last seen: 2 days, 23 hours
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Re: The Growery? [Re: Urb]
#10054474 - 03/27/09 03:29 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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I haven't heard of any busts associated with that web site so its probably ok.
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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What was the point of posting the privacy policy? Given the administration, I think its about as good as can be.
What do you mean "tell on themselves". Why would you do that?
Never state what you are doing and never state where and you're reasonably safe.
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Urb
Last Man Standing



Registered: 03/20/03
Posts: 42,780
Loc: WhoDat Nation
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Re: The Growery? [Re: johnm214]
#10055423 - 03/27/09 05:30 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
johnm214 said: What was the point of posting the privacy policy? Given the administration, I think its about as good as can be.
What do you mean "tell on themselves". Why would you do that?
Never state what you are doing and never state where and you're reasonably safe.
So it can be read.
-------------------- Texas Honey Badger said: I went to boys town in Nuevo Laredo when I was in my early ‘30s There was a bunch of trannys even way back then I paid probably $20 but I was so drunk I couldn’t get a hard on -Whenever you hear 5 blasts from the emergency horn that’s the signal for a 30 minute buttfucking break- Fiery said: I wish I was a young sexy woman so I could have awesome sexy adventures all the time[/quote] split_by_nine said: i did the man bun.[/quote] 1234go said: I don't have a dog. I can't stand em...They're needy animals for needy people.
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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Re: The Growery? [Re: Urb]
#10056445 - 03/27/09 07:56 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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Ok, just saying if you get in trouble the privacy policy will probably become meaningless. You can't usually sue for damages caused by illegal acts, so you just have to trust that they follow it.
I do think the best thing to do is just never put yourself in a position where someone reading your posts can see you plainly admit to any activity or location.
Even if someone knows it is your stuff in the picture thye still have to prove the location, and that is why you want to obscure that or not admit to it.
I think charges or warrants on the basis of posts, or relying substantially thereon, are much less likely to be issued if no post can be pointed to where you said you did anything or did it at a certain location.
I often see people use nonperson subjects (my cat) and I don't think that is good policy as that is plainly a lie. A believable post would be "my friend gave me these pics" where both the location, owner, and producer of the pictured or written items cannot be taken from the post.
Accordingly, SWIM is also a bad policy, I think. In the warrant they will surely list what you said and say "Your affiant is familiar with the internet drug culture and can affirm that SWIM is a common term used to refer to attempt to avoid personal responsiblity for the posted infromation. It is regularly encouraged to be used by both websites and the users when they wish to not refer to themselves"
Anything that is as associated with illegal acts as SWIM, and that is used almost reflexivly and even required to be used by some websites, is not as good as the believable and innocent "my friend".
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fastfred
Old Hand



Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 6,899
Loc: Dark side of the moon
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Re: The Growery? [Re: johnm214]
#10117087 - 04/06/09 02:10 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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> How safe can it be ?
Not very. Shroomery admins haven't done much at all to protect their users privacy.
> Hypothetically , wouldn't it be an ideal way for the DEA to bust people?
Of course. I'm sure they love this site. It saves them the work of making a decoy site like they did with the research chems awhile back.
They just let us do all the work for them. Then, since the admins seem to think it's a good idea to log all sorts of personal info for long periods of time, they'll just come in and get decades worth of user information.
> Am I the only person that thinks about shit like this?
I've bitched before and they basically don't give a shit. They were selling all kinds of personal user data to google for targeted advertising awhile back. And I think they are still doing it with Amazon.com.
That's pretty shitty and unsafe when google and amazon.com start hitting you with "mushroom growing" ads.
With their attitude I'm surprised that they don't just sell it directly to the DEA for "targeted advertising" (such as court summons, etc.)
There is no legitimate reason for logging IPs. They could just as easily log an encrypted hash of your IP or assign a unique identifier to the hash of your IP.
At the very least they should be removing IPs from the logs every week or so.
By being so shitty about privacy concerns they are leaving themselves open to be overtaken by another site which cares more about user privacy.
If I grew anymore I sure as hell wouldn't be posting here.
-FF
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Prof. Astro
acirebma

Registered: 04/15/08
Posts: 4,084
Last seen: 6 months, 24 days
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Re: The Growery? [Re: fastfred]
#10117110 - 04/06/09 02:14 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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IP logs are done on all sites for security reasons, unless you like random DDoS. The site is fairly secure as far as I can tell, people post all sorts of plants, I have nothing illegal and I use nothing illegal so it doesn't matter to me anyway. Ythan removed Exif data that is a step in the right direction as far as I am concerned.
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fastfred
Old Hand



Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 6,899
Loc: Dark side of the moon
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All sites have IP logs, but there's no reason to maintain them for more than an hour if all you're worried about is DOS attacks.
I've never gotten a straight answer about how long they are maintained, so for all I know they keep all of them as long as space permits.
They also have engaged in a lot of other questionable policies, like selling personal user data to third parties like google and amazon.
They are just behind the curve because they put profit before user privacy. Most other sites that cater to individuals with privacy interests do a LOT better. Many have privacy agreements that are a LOT stronger. And most mention that they do not log IPs or that server logs are cleared weekly or daily.
-FF
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Prof. Astro
acirebma

Registered: 04/15/08
Posts: 4,084
Last seen: 6 months, 24 days
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Re: The Growery? [Re: fastfred]
#10117270 - 04/06/09 02:42 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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They can say they clear them, it doesn't mean that they do. If you are really concerned with the legality of your practices, as general advice to anyone I would say use a proxy, there are several how-to's on the site.
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fastfred
Old Hand



Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 6,899
Loc: Dark side of the moon
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Using a wireless connection at a local hot spot or the like is also a good method.
Otherwise use XBbrowser or some other TOR system.
-FF
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derx
who run it



Registered: 05/29/03
Posts: 2,459
Loc: dx/dt
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Re: The Growery? [Re: fastfred]
#10122759 - 04/07/09 11:41 AM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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I think Ythan is a Why else would he run the largest mushroom growing community in the world and try to do the same with marijuana. Also, How is it that overgrow was shutdown but the growery lives on?
-------------------- better living through chemistry OVERGROW the government!! it's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedom, ok, thats what it is.
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist


Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 48,392
Last seen: 2 days, 23 hours
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Re: The Growery? [Re: derx]
#10122990 - 04/07/09 12:23 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
I think Ythan is a
I doubt it, Ythan was 15 when he started the shroomery, sounds a bit young to be a cop.
Quote:
Why else would he run the largest mushroom growing community in the world and try to do the same with marijuana.
He probably does it for the endless supply of stoner chicks the sites provide.
Quote:
Also, How is it that overgrow was shutdown but the growery lives on?
They were selling marijuana seeds to people in the US. Growery does not sell any seeds. There are many marijuana themed sites, only the ones that are tied to illegal activity have had problems. Just talking about drugs is protected speech under the first ammendment.
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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The signifigant problem for these sites, however; is the manner in which they couple information and products that can be used to commit illegal acts- then derive money from them.
I think these sites should require sponsors be more disrete and that their users not mention the sponsors' in posts detailing illegal acts in the united states (as far as I know its only prohibited to do this in the sponsors forum).
Its not like there is some bright line or law saying its different if you sell the products yourself or get another entity to. I mean I guess there is for possesion/sales laws but that isn't really an issue so much for the shroomery especially. The bigger issue is the argument that shroomery is inducing and intending to induce illegal acts (for profit). I think the site could be more defensive in that regard without hurting the user experience and hopefully without harming suppliers' buisness (i.e. stop accepting sponsors that describe uses of their products that are illegal in the US and try and persuade the existing ones to change).
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