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ghost01
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Protect your online activity [Tutorial] 7
#23946230 - 12/21/16 02:14 PM (7 years, 4 months ago) |
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So, there are a couple of threads about online safety, but none that really go into depth on the subject, and provide easy to follow instructions, etc. So I've decided to do a small write-up to help the community be more secure.
Use a VPN for all online activity, especially when browsing 'questionable' websites. There are many great VPN's, but for simplicity's sake I will provide a secure one, they do not keep logs of any kind.
https://nordvpn.com
Once you have your VPN Setup, browse the web using Tor Browser
https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en
Disable Javascript, Flash, and any other addon in your browser. All of these make tracking you, and your activity very very easy. This addon will automate the process of turning these things off/on. It just saves time, so you can disable them for privacy, and enable them for watching videos, or playing online games, etc.
https://noscript.net/
Once you are browsing the web on TOR Browser, and connected to your VPN, Register a new email address with NO ties to any old accounts. Do not use your real name, do not use a backup email that's known.. This is the most secure email service out there currently, It is based in Switzerland, and they encrypt everything. They also do not let themselves be bullied by large governments. They have some of the best privacy laws in the world.
https://mail.protonmail.com
Invest in Bitcoin, and register your accounts using your new secure email, while also using TOR, and the VPN. When purchasing questionable things using bitcoin.. use a bitcoin tumbeling service. It is possible to track bitcoin purchases, a tumbler makes this very difficult, to nearly impossible. You can do a bit of research on bitcoin wallets. The most secure is keeping a local wallet, but for simplicity, and to prevent losing money.. you can use an online wallet. Just make sure to not use your real name for it, and also never access it without going through your VPN, and Tor.
https://bitmixer.io/
Browser Privacy Addons (Privacy Badget has very high marks, and is well respected in the community. Privacy badger is a very good browser plugin that blocks websites from tracking you. It does so in an intelligent way while still allowing you to load your desired content. They have versions for Firefox, Chrome, and Opera I believe.
https://www.eff.org/privacybadger/
Use a good anti-virus, and firewall. This will help prevent software from giving up information on you. You can use the firewall to block traffic from unknown applications, etc.
https://www.glasswire.com/ -- A very good Firewall, they have a free version. https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/ - A pretty decent anti-malware program with a free version.
System Utility Software This software suite is created by a company called IO-BIT. There is a free, and paid version. The free version is still quite good. It's a software suite with tons of features. It has nearly everything you will need to secure your computer, as well as keep it up to date. Keeping your software, and drivers current and up to date helps keep your system secure because old software usually (always) contain well known security bugs which hackers can exploit to gain access to your system, and/or network.
http://www.iobit.com/en/index.php
OK, That should cover most of the software parts.. now a little knowledge!
How do governments, and companies track me?
They use automated software that scans the web, collects data and then this data is ran through sophisticated data sorting software. It can take information from thousands of websites, and piece it all together, and in doing so they can build a very accurate profile on you. For example.. if you have a facebook account, that's linked to a specific email address.. This software can scan the web, and find any websites where you used that email.. then they simply gather all that information, and add it to your profile.. The same goes for usernames, nicknames.
They also use many vulnerabilities in web browsers, and other software to track you. Mainly they use browser cookies, flash cookies, and javascript programs which will activate once you visit a website. After being activated, all websites you visit afterwards are then tracked by these things. There are many ways for them to collect these cookies, but mainly it's by simply visiting a website. It will read the cookie data, which now contains every website you've been to, and everything you've done online up to that point.
I'm sure you've all had at least once experience after looking at things like bulk substrates/syringes/seeds online, then later you visit Facebook.. and you get an advertisement for these questionable things on the side of the page. This is due to tracking. Mainly it's used for marketing, and advertisement.. however this is just the business side of the tracking. These organizations also regularly share this data with law enforcement, and other government agencies. They can also simply request/demand that a company hand over all this aggregated data to them.
People who think this stuff is harmless, and call people tin-foil hat wearers are very ignorant of the extent of the tracking going on. Using the internet unsecured for only a few months will lead to a bunch of companies, and governments having a very accurate profile of you. Not just your activities.. but also psychological profiles. They can build up enough data to literally predict your daily emotional states. I'm not even joking. While most of the time this information will not be used, if you get into trouble.. this is when this data will be used, and when it is.. you are FUCKED.
Your cell phone is your worst enemy. Not only does it track all the things I listed above, but it also tracks your location non-stop. They can build up a map of everywhere you go, how long you stay in certain places, they can link you to other people, and build a web of all your known associates, friends, family, etc.. then using data gathered on THOSE people.. they can ascertain what sort of relationship you have with them, and likely what you are doing with these people. (they can tell if your selling something, buying something, partying. Whatever.) It's all very easy to put together.
You can disable this automated tracking through your google preferences, however that only stops google from building a profile.. this information is still available to other agencies, etc.
More than this, the government uses worms, backdoors, etc to monitor you. They can with the push of a button (And no warrant) turn on your cell phones GPS, camera, and audio-recording, and this data just goes right into your profile.
If you think this is scary, I can assure you it's only the tip of the iceberg.. I am a software developer, and I began noticing this tracking trend many many years ago.. and have myself written code for tracking people. (Mostly benign stuff for businesses). All of this data is considered a hot commodity, and the market for selling/buying tracking data is HUGE. It's a multi-billion dollar industry.
So do not underestimate this privacy mess we currently find ourselves in, take steps to protect yourself. If you are not paranoid about security, then you are ignorant, and you really need to educate yourself.
I will likely continue adding to this article, and add more links to useful privacy software when I have time.
If this was helpful to you, give me rating. This is a new account, so I'm sorely in need of some points!
Thanks, and may the force be with you!
Edited by ghost01 (01/30/17 11:22 AM)
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Le_Canard
The Duk Abides


Registered: 05/16/03
Posts: 94,392
Loc: Earthfarm 1
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Re: Protect your online activity [Tutorial] [Re: ghost01] 1
#23950035 - 12/22/16 08:00 PM (7 years, 4 months ago) |
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Very helpful. Thanks.
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5150
phantom

Registered: 09/01/06
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Re: Protect your online activity [Tutorial] [Re: ghost01]
#23952079 - 12/23/16 04:20 PM (7 years, 4 months ago) |
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Thanks for the email link from swiss land,never Heard of em,yes u have to put some effort into Buying things online ,the gov, has the house Advantage for sure,cell phones r the worst
-------------------- "the way of the warrior is the resolute acceptance of death" Miyamoto Musashi
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Hekate
Probiotic

Registered: 12/23/12
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Re: Protect your online activity [Tutorial] [Re: 5150]
#23958205 - 12/26/16 12:18 PM (7 years, 4 months ago) |
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Thank you
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emosavagerabbit
Troll of Caerbannog


Registered: 12/09/16
Posts: 116
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Re: Protect your online activity [Tutorial] [Re: Hekate]
#23969847 - 12/31/16 02:29 AM (7 years, 4 months ago) |
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The more I read about internet security, the more I feel like breaking out the tin foil. I guess I just wish it was a bad dream instead of this scary reality.
It's time to adapt.
Would following those steps be worth going through if my anonymity has already been compromised? Or is creating a new account my best option? I've been browsing / participating unsecured for a while.
edit:
I feel like I was being a bit paranoid. I'll be sure to use these steps moving forward though.
Edited by emosavagerabbit (01/02/17 03:07 AM)
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ghost01
Stranger
Registered: 12/10/16
Posts: 33
Last seen: 3 years, 8 months
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Yes it would help. What you want to do is follow this tutorial or create a new series of accounts that have no relation to your old accounts. This way any information they have on you ends at this point. So long as you are careful.. and keep strict security in mind when browsing the internet, anything you do from now on will be mostly secure.
Just make sure to follow these directions carefully.. Do not leave any traces that link your new accounts to your old ones. Do not use any old nicknames, emails, do not use your real name, and try your best to distance your new accounts from old ones. Do not post in threads that you did with your old account etc.
You may also want to look into changing your computers MAC address.
Edited by ghost01 (01/02/17 05:28 AM)
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ghost01
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Re: Protect your online activity [Tutorial] [Re: 5150]
#24019234 - 01/18/17 07:04 AM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
5150 said: Thanks for the email link from swiss land,never Heard of em,yes u have to put some effort into Buying things online ,the gov, has the house Advantage for sure,cell phones r the worst
Yep, no problem bud. 
Proton mail is a collaboration between the scientists who created/work at CERN (World's largest particle accelerator), and MIT (College). It's ran by very intelligent, and ethical people.
Update: I also have some new software for everyone. It is created by a company called IOBIT. There is a free, and paid version. The free version is still quite good. It's a software suite with tons and tons of features. It has nearly everything you need to secure your computer, as well as keep it up to date. Keeping your software, and drivers current help with security, because old software usually (Almost always) contain well-known security bugs which hackers can exploit to gain access to your system, and/or network.
Here is the link: http://www.iobit.com/en/index.php
I am also adding it to the OP.
That's all for today, have a good one all.

Jan, 18, 2017
- Added Io-Bit Computer Optimizer, and Security Suite.
Edited by ghost01 (01/29/17 07:54 AM)
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Anonymous #1
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Re: Protect your online activity [Tutorial] [Re: ghost01]
#24040586 - 01/26/17 07:50 AM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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[test post]
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ghost01
Stranger
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Last seen: 3 years, 8 months
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Re: Protect your online activity [Tutorial] [Re: Anonymous #1]
#24048222 - 01/29/17 07:51 AM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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Jan 29th, 2017
- Added Privacy Badger browser plugin to the list.
Privacy Badger is an excellent privacy plugin for your web browser.
Quote:
Privacy Badger was born out of our desire to be able to recommend a single extension that would automatically analyze and block any tracker or ad that violated the principle of user consent; which could function well without any settings, knowledge, or configuration by the user; which is produced by an organization that is unambiguously working for its users rather than for advertisers; and which uses algorithmic methods to decide what is and isn't tracking. Although we like Disconnect, Adblock Plus, Ghostery and similar products (in fact Privacy Badger is based on the ABP code!), none of them are exactly what we were looking for. In our testing, all of them required some custom configuration to block non-consensual trackers. Several of these extensions have business models that we weren't entirely comfortable with. And EFF hopes that by developing rigorous algorithmic and policy methods for detecting and preventing non-consensual tracking, we'll produce a codebase that could in fact be adopted by those other extensions, or by mainstream browsers, to give users maximal control over who does and doesn't get to know what they do online.
Privacy Badger
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tdubz



Registered: 02/26/12
Posts: 5,586
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Re: Protect your online activity [Tutorial] [Re: ghost01]
#24059190 - 02/02/17 01:43 AM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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Good post.
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Crave
Stranger

Registered: 12/04/16
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Re: Protect your online activity [Tutorial] [Re: tdubz]
#24093023 - 02/15/17 02:10 PM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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By the way, a VPN is not enough of itself. There are two things that can identify you online, one is your IP, which the VPN will mask provided that it has no leaks. Make sure the VPN has a kills witch function (cuts all Internet traffic instantly if VPN disconnects, usually options for auto-reconnection). Prioritise servers and locations and places like China, Ukraine, etc that generally don't share info with other main western nations.
The other thing is your browser print. So not only can one see your IP, they can see your browser plugins, various versions of things on your PC. And this forms a finger print of sorts. So two seperate IPs (vpn and not) with the same browser print are linkable.
So to get around this there are plugins such as 'UA Control' and I think 'j query' or 'j fixer' that create a browser spoof. The aim here is to essentially hide in plain sight, by researching the most common browser prints on the Internet and emulating Those, so you appear in a pool of millions of similar users.
One can also maintain different browsers as different profiles.
There's actually a heap of customisation that can be done to improve your privacy. But it's more complicated then just using a vpn or connecting to tor. You need to research it and learn about it
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DeadPhan



Registered: 05/05/04
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Re: Protect your online activity [Tutorial] [Re: Crave]
#24096652 - 02/16/17 09:56 PM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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Do all VPNS cost money
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Big Gulps! Alright! Well, See ya later! And if i claim to be a wise man, well, it surely means that i dont know!
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Crave
Stranger

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Re: Protect your online activity [Tutorial] [Re: DeadPhan]
#24096736 - 02/16/17 10:50 PM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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No , but you have to know what you're doing with free VPNs , paid VPNs normally do everything already for you automatically
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Crave
Stranger

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Re: Protect your online activity [Tutorial] [Re: Crave]
#24096740 - 02/16/17 10:51 PM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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OpenVPN is a good public option
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