Browsing History Can Out You

[Crusader Rabbit]

I don't have "History" turned off in my browsing options because I find it to be a very useful tool. But it also records that I visit cannabis related sites a lot. Well if someone's going through my house and possessions that wouldn't be any surprise to find. Still, even though it's not illegal to browse IC, I really wouldn't want LEOs to know that I'm Crusader Rabbit and be able to then view everything I've posted.

This morning I uploaded and posted a JPG to a thread. Looking at the history record I see a series of visits to Crusader Rabbit's photo albums. Well anyone could have visited an album of mine so it's not a definitive ID. But right in the middle of that Crusader Rabbit sequence is a visit labeled "Upload Pictures". Ain't nobody going to be doing that except the rabbit. Busted. Now everything posted under Crusader Rabbit is identifiable as originating from the user of this computer.

Just visiting "My IC" places a "User Control" visit in the history files which can be clicked to identify the visitor. If I have any photos posted here which can match details at my grow/home scene then it's a positive ID, and I'm now accountable for everything I've ever posted to this site.

As I said, I find the history feature to be a very useful tool. I've turned it off before and found working on the web to be a pain without it. But if you have anything incriminating here and want to maximize security, it might be a feature to do without.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Good call.


I have my firefox setup to clear all history and cookies everytime I close the browser down completely. Yea it sucks, but much safer if anyone ever has access to your machine.

What I worry about is my internet provider being able to link my user ID here to my real life account. While I realize this is not normally a concern, but who knows what the future holds and what type of Big Brother actions that may bring.

If I click My Posts, which is normally my go to move when logging into ICmag, it clearly shows in the URL what my user number is (searchid=7-digit number here). I'm sure my internet provider can see that I hit that URL repetitively all the time and I'm assuming that this ID is unique to me and never changes. Thus linking my user name, id #, and customer info altogether.


I would be concerned that if ever busted I could be linked to pictures online.. further incriminating myself based on a history of grows as opposed to just the grow caught with.


I like to change names every now and again, and hate to delete my account only to take away what I've shared with the community, but worry this might be a bad move if everything I ever have done here can be all linked together.

In the past when I deleted my account my pictures would remain, but my user name and all my posts would then be under "Guest" and not as easily searchable. Oddly now when you delete an account all of your pictures are gone, yet your user name remains. I'm sure this is a bit safer because incriminating pics are removed.

I'd like to know the best way to leave an account while still allowing the community access to my posts and pics. It'd be nice if the posts and pictures remained, but the user name is changed to guest AND if possible the unique id number assigned to said user name be changed to something else. That way if the ISP acknowledges that I user ID 1234567 that number is no longer relevant to my posts after I'm gone.


I realize I'm paranoid, but eh what can you do.. I'm not sure if its best to delete my account and everything gets lost for the community, or merely walk away from the account and abandon it.


Any further thoughts on this?

 

[Crusader Rabbit]

The points you brought up have been on my mind also. If for security reasons you walk away from your account without deleting it, and then start up another from the same computer, would the IC computers decide that you're trying to use a sock puppet and lock you out?

I had my firefox browser set up as you describe. It was a royal pain but twas good to know that if I punch the shut down button it would then look very different when restarted.

 

[MelloYello]

Click TOOLS, Then SAFETY, then "inPrivate browsing" work?

 

[Sat X RB]

Guys, I have a Canon that lets me work directly from my camera. that is, I don't need to save pics to my PC before I upload them.

when I do this Icmag can see my details but I have confidence my details remain secure there.

what is important about uploading pics via yr PC ... is that even tho you delete the pics file after upload ... the file does not disappear from yr harddrive ... and if you're worth the time Leo can remove yr hard drive and read it.

whereas working directly from yr camera ... and then deleting the images from yr camera after upload ... makes the image files disappear forever.

cheers!

 

[NedFlanders]

Full drive encryption with TrueCrypt!!!!

And you can recover information from memory cards just like hard drives....

 

[yerboyblue]

Damn browsing history. It does get you busted too. I used to hate when I forget to delete 'youporn' from my Google search list, then my GF would come over and want to watch youtube videos.

 

[UneeK]

Tor ?

 

[Skip]

Good points here. Yes your browser does keep your history if you don't tell it not to.

Keep these points in mind.
You can delete your history anytime, or have it not recorded.

Of course your browser is just one of many places that record where you've been on the Web.

There's your ISP, who has a record of every page request you've made, every download, every proxy you've used, etc.

There's the search engines, esp. Google who monitors just about everything going on, and not just on the Internet anymore. If you use them, even if you don't they know what you've been doing, almost as much as your ISP. (just visiting a page with a google ad will let them record your IP#).

Use Android? That's a Google company now. They can see it all.

The major telecoms, like your ISP, records everything flowing thru their lines.

The US government is now recording all Internet, cellphone, email traffic.

So as you can see, ultimately you can't hide. I believe even the Blackberry has been forced to provide decryption keys to gov'ts all around the world.

If you're uploading images straight from your camera (not resized), ICmag will resize them and strip out your exif info. But we recommend you resize them yourselves then upload them. Then you can be sure they're safe.

 

[Greyskull]

If you're uploading images straight from your camera (not resized), ICmag will resize them and strip out your exif info.

thank you for this information

 

[UneeK]

If you're uploading images straight from your camera (not resized), ICmag will resize them and strip out your exif info. But we recommend you resize them yourselves then upload them. Then you can be sure they're safe.

I know this must be a dumb question but what does resizing images have to do with security ?

 

[dddaver]

I think resizing deletes the xif data from the newly resized picture. The new picture's in a different file. The software I normally use does it like that anyway.

I've been using this Hotspot Shield proxy. It advertizes even your ISP can't see your browsing. I don't know if that's really true so I just do the same security measures I always did anyway.

 

[Tony Aroma]

I use Safari, and whenever I visit a site I don't want to leave a record of (history, cookies), I turn on Private Browsing first. When I'm done, I turn it off again. No big deal. If I forget to turn it off again, I find out soon enough when some site says it doesn't recognize me.

I'm not sure if FF or Chrome or other browsers have such a feature. I think your only option might be to delete the history when you quit, and I don't know about cookies. Which is why I stick with Safari, it's easy to use and does just what I want.

Unfortunately, Mobile Safari doesn't have this option. I have to manually delete the history on my iPad.

 

[Bobbles]

I stopped caring... WAY easier.

 

[rasputin]

If you're uploading images straight from your camera (not resized), ICmag will resize them and strip out your exif info.

Is it only stripped when the images need to be resized?

 

[Crusader Rabbit]

Glad I posted. I'm learning a lot here.

One thing that I've realized is how vulnerable I am on the road. It's not so simple for them to collect the evidence to obtain a warrant to enter my home. But once I get in my car and go out on the highway all it takes is a bad tail light. Driving to work one morning with my laptop and camera in the car, in addition to a bag of grow room trash for the dumpster, it hit me how close I was skirting the edge which could bring my whole world to an end.

Maybe I should configure and use my desktop computer for secure browsing, while my laptop remains optimized for getting work done. I now have a separate camera that lives in the grow room with a designated cannabis memory card. After the plant count on that card gets up in numbers I should probably hide it away and insert a new one.


"I stopped caring... WAY easier."

I hear ya. Friends tell me that times have changed and that I'm paranoid. Maybe so. Who gives a fuck about a broken old man? But the idea of potentially placing my life in the hands of a district attorney is simply unacceptable. You're just another point on their score card.

 

[Crusader Rabbit]

The posting feature at IC today is all screwed up.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Is it only stripped when the images need to be resized?

That is my understanding. If ICMAG isnt resizing your images for you when you upload they still contain their original EXIF data. This can store lots of info, like camera model, etc.. but it is possible that they sometimes contain GPS coordinates of where the picture was taken from.

I personally wouldn't recommend relying on IC servers to do the work for you. Get yourself a free EXIF removing program or learn how to do it some way or another. Strip your images on your PC and then upload to IC.


As far as browsing history, do what you can to keep you safe locally (clearing history, cookies, logging out, etc), but ultimately..
I'm with Bobbles.. I just stopped caring. Anyways you slice it everything that is done online is traceable if they want you bad enough.

Lets just hope local ISP's dont start handing over customers whom have questionable internet usage. It is bad enough we've got electrical providers willing to cooperate with law enforcement.. having an ISP lead them directly to an ICmag user ID # with all of your history is fucked..


Lets just hope Cannabis get legalized before they really go full blown George Orwell on our asses.. (if you don't already consider us already being there).

 

[mwz]

I use the 'TOR browser bundle' for cannabis related activity. For everything else I use a regular browser. Most people wouldn't even know what TOR is, and if they happened to jump on your computer they'd probably go for a regular browser and not touch TOR. And if they did open TOR, apart from bookmarks (which you shouldn't do!) there'd be no trace of ICmag.

TOR doesn't keep any settings (incl history) at all. I know I have to re-sign into everything every time I use it. The other plus is it gives you a new IP address, located anywhere in the world.

As for images, they are still recoverable from any disk space (your hard drive, a usb or a cameras memory stick). The only real way to get rid of images, or any data for that matter, is to physically destroy it by smashing it to bits and lighting it on fire. So, don't keep anything incriminating, such as images, on your hard drive (your C:\ or my documents etc). It's a lot easier to replace an 8gig USB than it is a 2TB hard drive (with your OS on it).

So yeah, use TOR and don't keep anything incriminating on your computers hard drive, keep it on thumb drives instead.

P.S. - If it hasn't been done before I'm happy to do a 'how to install and safely use TOR thread'?

 

[Crusader Rabbit]

Something else ...

In my Firefox browser, in the bar at the top of the page between the bookmark star and the refresh circle/arrow is an inverted triangle I can click for a drop-down window that has links to sites that the computer has noticed that I visit a lot or have directly typed the url to access. It's an automatic bookmark feature. Is there a way I can remove the page links on there that I don't want? Like the four IC links on there labeled cloning and growers forum?