How safe is it to post pictures here?? Any stories or opinion?

[Matanuskan Flo]

Hello,

I am hesitant to post any of my, cough-cough, neighbors pictures on this or any forum. Obviously, 1000s of you are not as paranoid. I still read on many threads here how some people just delete their account or go thru the efforts to black out thumb prints etc etc. I have always wondered if any moderator or someone who knows some factual evidence or info to appease some of our minds, especially mine!! Any advice or opinions would be great. Thanks

(I hope this is the right place to ask this question. I apologize if it is not.)

 

[Dislexus]

FBI has your IP now, its just a matter of time.




















Just delete all your temp internet files every time you log off. Don't keep the pics on your PC... etc.. basic stuff.

 

[!!!]

The actual pictures being up on this forum is pretty safe. The problem is getting the pictures uploaded might leave a trail. Here are some common issues that may become a problem, for example:

Taking pictures and then leaving them on the camera's memory card, especially if it's not your camera.

Leaving pics on your camera phone

Leaving pics in your recycle bin, on your desktop, etc.

Logging in here and uploading the pics on an insecure network, such as being at a LAN cafe, on campus, on a neighbor's wifi etc.

Taking care not to include your reflection, license plate, home address, and other details in the pics (rare but might happen).

Making sure the image does not have any GPS information embedded in it. Some camera phones might do this. If it's an option in your phone, it's easy to disable (find the option somewhere, or if you're REALLY paranoid, you can take a pic of the pic open on your dekstop, and save that overwriting the original pic taken using the phone.)

Also make sure the files are hosted somewhere safe. Try to host them on these forums (go to your account -> My Pics -> upload)

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

With Firefox, you can activate private browsing on demand or every time you open it.

You can set Internet Explorer to dump cookies on exit.

 

[Matanuskan Flo]

so, a cell fone pic uploaded to your computer would leave a trail of possibly your cell & IP info?? the cell has no gps, not worried about that. I am worried about the computer, moreso. i have 2 roommates, but it is my computer. it is hooked up to a cable modem, no wireless.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

MF, with a cable modem, you probably have a static (doesn't change with each login) IP address. It's probably registered to the internet account owner. You might want to consider a proxy.

 

[!!!]

People can get your IP address on this forum by posting a picture that is hosted on an external server. Meaning I can upload an image to my server, and then post it in a thread here, or in my signature, or send it in a PM (if pics are allowed), and then when you load the thread, your PC (IP) requests the image from my server and your IP is logged.

I wouldn't be able to tell exactly which username is mapped to what IP, though, unless I know for the fact that you're the only person who viewed the thread.

Gmail specifically tells you that loading external images may reveal your IP address. It's the same concept but applies to forums instead of email. One way to view this is to disallow external images from loading. In Gmail it asks you if you want to load the images by having you press a button to do so.

 

[Helis]

Use Tor... Or a proxy.
Tor installs into Firefox now and makes the experience super easy.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Hello,

I am hesitant to post any of my, cough-cough, neighbors pictures on this or any forum.

If you look at all of the 'BIG' grows that aren't legal.... they're usually posted by a username that's no longer in existence.

Unless you're leaving an evidence trail like previously mentioned... you probably won't have problems from posting pics of a couple plants. Asking for assistance with a 30x30 room and posting a pic of one or two nice plants... probably won't cut it either.

Take care and think things through. I'm sure you'll make the right decision.

Stay Safe!

 

[Matanuskan Flo]

I am very computer illiterate in some senses, & not so much in others. I am clueless as to how to set a proxy IP up. could someone help explain this process or what a TOR is & how I install it into Firefox. I do use Firefox currently & would like to set this up asap. Just posting on the forum & not posting pictures at all, still leaves a trail that I would like to eradicate or cover up. Thank you guys sooooo much for your help & advice. I appreciate this info more than anything I have inquired about thus far. Mata Flo

 

[Strainhunter]

If you look at all of the 'BIG' grows that aren't legal.... they're usually posted by a username that's no longer in existence.

.....

Thing is what does deleting a user name (associated with posts made) accomplish?

Nothing.

The user name is not visible anymore...but everything else is.

That's kinda like sitting in front of the original posters data but having a paper bag over the head.
All one would have to do is take off that bag and voila: Security compromised (to those who really would be interested).

Just look at what happened after OG "died".

 

[HansHanf]

little help on tor

little help on tor

hi mataflo,

second your feelings about upload some stuff to the web

what a TOR is . Mata Flo

check the links below, maybe they can answer some of your questions

https://www.torproject.org/index.html.en


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)

stay safe

greeetz

 

[psycho pirate]

deleting files does not help... you have to destroy the HD completely if you want to keep totally safe... use thermite

 

[BurmeseDragon]

If you are like me you are more paranoid that they are actually good at investigations. Unless you have a major commercial grow, it's more about what the locals know about you...basically what friends you told your IC info too!

 

[SOTF420]

Post pictures of what? Imaginary plants? hmmmmmm interesting!

 

[Hammerhead]

I have been posting for years way back when OG first started. I have never had problems. I'm a small time legal grower that may or may not be relevant. All of my grows have never been more then 10 plants.


There are programs that will delete your files like this
Something called Secure Erase, a set of commands embedded in most ATA drives built since 2001. If this is so wonderful, why haven’t you heard of it before? Because it’s been disabled by most motherboard BIOSes.
Secure Erase is a loaded gun aimed right at your data. And Murphy’s Law is still in force. But hey, if you’re smart enough to read Storage Bits, you’re smart enough to not play with Secure Erase until you need to.Secure Erase overwrites every single track on the hard drive. That includes the data on “bad blocks”, the data left at the end of partly overwritten blocks, directories, everything. There is no data recovery from Secure Erase. This web site also has a program that will destroy your data http://www.dban.org/

 

[THC_Decapitator]

uh yeah judge , this is all imaginary . Don't think that will work nor disclaimers . ICMAG is safe and I upload my pics from a card directly to ic mag photo album . I never use tiny pic ,photo bucket etc . they have watching eyes and have your ip etc .

 

[habeeb]

I think oldpink has covered this

all history gets erased when uploaded


and don't worry, if there gonna get some people, there getting the warehouse grows before you

 

[Jellyfish]

HERE is a link to a free downloadable software that do this- "A tool for stripping/cleaning/removing uncessary metadata (junk) from JPG/JPEG/JFIF & PNG files. The image quality IS NOT AFFECTED. Includes command line support. Just specify a folder or file on the commandline (wildcards allowed)"

 

[Matanuskan Flo]

thanks everyone for the information. i am looking into TORproject right now. but, i am like most people here, always under 4 plants at any time. no big deal, but i still worry. thank you Moderator, for moving this here. I just discovered this forum.