how safe are we on IC?

[vindiesel]

can "they' be watching us, on here, viewing our threads and pics, and somehow track us dow through here if they wanted to...like, if "they" saw 1 of us w/ a big grow w/ pics, can they find us if they wanted too. seems like they can do anything these days w/ technology...just a thought. what do u think?

 

[Rastanfisk]

 

[view2athrill]

Oh now Rastanfisk....

Oh now Rastanfisk....

....be nice, sweetie pie! This isn't a particularly dumb question....even if it was, so what?!?! Don't you remember learning in kindergarten that there are no dumb questions?

Anyway, hey vindiesel, what's up....I've kind of been wondering this same thing myself. Well, almost.

I only grow for myself and friends, not to sell, but if I had to guess, I'd say that if some law enforcement official (LEO) REALLY, REALLY had a hard-on to "get" one of us, s/he could probably do it. I've known enough people in law enforcement to know they do whatever they need/want to to get the results they need/want for various reasons....look good for promotions, get recognition, political backstabbing, financial gain, justify having their job/department, whatever. Our civil rights be damned, if they only serve to "get in the way".

It's our responsibility to minimize our exposure to their ridiculous laws pertaining to personal use of whatever we feel we want to use on ourselves....I know I've seen how-tos here and elsewhere on how to use anonymous proxies and other techno goodies, and I'm certainly not an expert, but if you're concerned, def do a search here and on Google.

Even so, remember, LEO has its own ways, too, and no, Virginia, they don't have to be legal. (of course, if the accused can uncover the fact info has been illegally obtained AND PROVE IT, his/her case can stand a chance of being thrown out on a technicality. And therein lies a good argument for stashing serious cash for excellent legal representation, esp. if you're in the commercial end of things.)

It's all a cat and mouse game as far as I see it, and a truly stupid waste of time, money and resources considering how much really heinous sh*t goes on....murders, human trafficking, gang violence, corporate & political shenaningans, poverty, starvation, public schools.....you get the idea.


But, after all is said and done, this might be a useful question to ask our web site hosts, ie: safety of their servers, network and our own email addresses in general....

 

[Mr.Botanical]

Oh you bet your ace they could, but they couldn't do anything with it because the internet is still part of your right to privacy. If they booked you after violating your privacy in that manner, it would be thrown out of court...and it would be a waste of their time.

They can only successfully use your internet activity against you if they physically book you, then confiscate your computer and find your shit....but they'd already have your grow...so it wouldn't matter.

 

[vindiesel]

i just sometimes think about it when i especially see pics of nice tasty big grows, i sometimes wonder who else is looking at this, and do they look further into it or what...
who knows....

 

[THC•20]

i just sometimes think about it when i especially see pics of nice tasty big grows, i sometimes wonder who else is looking at this, and do they look further into it or what...
who knows....

you're not alone. Sometimes I wonder just exactly who is looking at these threads with these grow logs showing plants yielding like 2 or 3 lbs/grow lol.

 

[zoolander]

Think about it like this how safe are we just walkin out our front doors in this fucked up world livin in fear is also no fun we grow plants we dont kill people booze and hard drugs kill peolpe and plants are so purrty

 

[Bababooey]

Im no law enforcement or computer expert, but I'm pretty sure they can only track your posts back to your grow if they have your ip address (assuming youre not filtering or routing your ip through another server). And since icmag is in the Netherlands, US law enforcement has no subpoena power over icmag, unless the Dutch police cooperate with US LE, which is not inconceivable. And even then they would need to serve a subpoena upon Dutchgrown's IP provider. I don't know if DG hosts her own servers or pays for a company to do so, and whether or not they save everyone's IP address (I'm thinking no, because of the nature of the site, but again I'm no computer expert) but I think there are further hurdles that LE must overcome even if they have a subpoena.

Are there LE officers looking at this board? I'd say almost certainly so, it's ridiculously easy to log on and surf this site, you don't even need to be a member.

Are they really concerned about the smaller grows? Probably not. No drug task force is going to focus on getting the five plants you have in your closet. They want the big guys, the commercial growers who are making 5-6 figures annually or more from their grows. They're not gonna waste their time chasing your two plants.

It's a cost benefit thing. LE knows they're not going to totally stop everyone from growing weed, just as they're not going to stop everyone from smoking it. But they can try to stop the larger scale trafficking in weed. So if you're a commercial grower, and icmag gets busted, and you didn't hide your ip address, then you might have something to worry about, assuming that you posted from a computer at your current grow site (probably another no no).

That's probably why you don't see that many threads on truly large grows. I was never a member of overgrow, but I heard that there were more commercial grow diaries on that site than on icmag. I guess the businessmen learned their lesson from when overgrow was busted.
http://www.hightimes.com/ht/news/content.php?bid=474&aid=5
That's an article on how and why og got busted. Wonder if those guys pled or are still facing charges...

So, I guess, to make a point: we're pretty safe on icmag, but then again people thought they were pretty safe on overgrow also. I don't know if anyone who POSTED on overgrow got busted when that site's admins got busted, but I'm sure MANY posters were scared !@#$-less.

I would say, to be safe, if your grow is more than 2K watts, use an IP filter or route your traffic through another server before you post pics of your grow on icmag. Just my two cents.

 

[vindiesel]

zoolander wtf is that sweet shit ur growing there....?

 

[Bubble Puppy]

If Leo is able to pinpoint people trading child pornography with their computer experts ,then you bet if they really wanted to find you they could .

 

[confused]

a random excerpt from an interview with a razor 1911 member (tech guy) that got caught via computers. http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=311727


question-So shane, how'd you get caught? Was it a slipup in a release? Did they track your IP? or did someone snitch on you?

"The short version, I got comfortable and thus got lazy. The feds busted an ftp site that I used. I connected to it from home without using a shell or a proxy, and they had my IP. I knew better, I'd just done it for so long, it was old hat to me. Isn't that how it always goes though. You get comfortable and start taking shortcuts only to end up screwing yourself. And yes, some of it is hard to talk about, but it's probably therapeutic on some level as well. I haven't really talked about my experiences with anyone. I haven't even talked about my prison experiences to my family that much. It's hard."

 

[libby]

Imagine your a terro,r i.st., that word alone flags up, of course you can be traced, depends on the bigger fish, grow room, 300 plants, or 3.

As said. pedo'es, i do believe what i'm doing, growing the odd plant, to be my buisness, and no harm to anyone else, the chance of me being picked up, are v slim.

How long does a site last, that's aming to kil.l /mai.m people last?

 

[Verite]

No offense Vin but youve been here three years and you havent bumped into one of the couple hundred posts here [ and the couple thousand that are at all the weed forums ] with the exact words in the title " are we safe posting here " ?

And in every single one of those posts its explained, yes they have the capability to catch people, how do you think they catch kiddy porn creeps?

And in every one of those posts its also explained how they have not gone after one single person in a weed forum no matter what pictures they posted.

They never kept any secrets going after anyone on the internet.. pill pushers, prostitutes, or pedophiles they all made the news. If they were popping us from the internet we would all know about it. If it were entirely legal for them to do it I would expect it would have already happened by now.

 

[Dignan]

Booyakasha!! ^^^^

 

[Bismonte]

No offense Vin but youve been here three years and you havent bumped into one of the couple hundred posts here [ and the couple thousand that are at all the weed forums ] with the exact words in the title " are we safe posting here " ?

And in every single one of those posts its explained, yes they have the capability to catch people, how do you think they catch kiddy porn creeps?

And in every one of those posts its also explained how they have not gone after one single person in a weed forum no matter what pictures they posted.

They never kept any secrets going after anyone on the internet.. pill pushers, prostitutes, or pedophiles they all made the news. If they were popping us from the internet we would all know about it. If it were entirely legal for them to do it I would expect it would have already happened by now.

I've only been here three days ( first post ) and this is the first question I had. It's easy to sign up, yes? With 35,000 members what is the likelihood that none of them are LEO.......slim to none. I doubt if they track IP addresses but I'd be willing to bet this site is monitored daily just in case somebody worth looking at f..ks up. I'd be careful of outdoor pictures that could inadvertently have a landmark in them that someone might recognize. A little paranoia never hurt anybody.

 

[tenfeetofganja]

And in every single one of those posts its explained, yes they have the capability to catch people, how do you think they catch kiddy porn creeps?

They use master mind Chris Hansen

 

[blAsia]

If it were entirely legal for them to do it I would expect it would have already happened by now.

Never say Never.. I know you didn't but, in essence.

Peace.

no one knows the power the dark side has my friend, or when/how they will use it.

 

[blAsia]

Yeah, as humans, on a planet floating through some void called space, I think we deserve the right to do as we like during our lifetimes. Our onetime chance to live is has been attacked by politicians, religions, and warmongers..
How can anyone justify prohibition of any sort?

Think about it like this how safe are we just walkin out our front doors in this fucked up world livin in fear is also no fun we grow plants we dont kill people booze and hard drugs kill peolpe and plants are so purrty

 

[OG bub]

They never kept any secrets going after anyone on the internet.. pill pushers, prostitutes, or pedophiles they all made the news. If they were popping us from the internet we would all know about it. If it were entirely legal for them to do it I would expect it would have already happened by now.

amen brother verite!

 

[Guest]

there are tons of free proxies. You are most likley more likley to be robbed if you are not secure with the personal info. Good weed is worth more than gold.