I would be surprised if we had ANY rights left that the constitution gives us. you know tolls on highways? unconstitutional. Income tax? unconstitutional. The shit that goes on behind closed doors of people with the power to do anything would make you vomit, and yet nobody does anything because nobody knows any better because they're trying to keep the common public dumb.

tl;dr, we haven't had any "rights" ever, and now they have new ways to take more rights away.

>>507
>Anyway, to the point. I've been hearing many rumours that the soon to come Windows 8 will have forced "Live integration"
The lesson to be learned here is don't use M$ Windows. GNU/Linux or other open source software is what all the cool kids use.

Here in Canada both the Liberals and Conservatives are supporting the tabling of bills that would require ISPs to surrender customer information to the federal or municipal police without the need for a warrant. I've taken steps to ensure that I have privacy once these laws are introduced. I've invested in a Alfa AWUS036H, a couple of RP-SMA 9dbi antennas, and a Linksys WRT54GL. If this bill goes through I'm going dark. There are enough wireless access points being broadcasted that I can readily establish pirate connections after cracking the wireless encryption (if there is any). Lucky for me WPA-Radius is an enterprise solution, and most people are content with WEP, WPA-PSK, or completely unsecured connections. From here all I need to do is utilize encryption and spoof a MAC address (and obviously not have an identifying host name) and I'll have a decent expectation of privacy online. The ALFA will be my primary wireless device, however the Linksys WRT54GL can serve as a nice Kismet drone for collecting information on nearby wireless networks and B.A.T.M.A.N. networking. I've also got the option of using a VPN, but that costs money.

The Internet is my fucking home. I dealt with it being swarmed with cancerous masses of newfags after the scientology bullshit, and I tolerated the countless notices of copyright infringement. But I am sure as fucking hell not rolling over and taking the seizing of my home lightly. Besides, Yuki would probably be disappointed if I did.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/04/13/harpers-promise-a-warrantless-online-surveillance-state/

I've already planned to kill myself once the internet is over.

If that day arrives I'll abandon all technology and become a retro expertise for the rest of my life.

I've always been kind of interested in open source software, this just gives me a much better reason to use it already.

I've always said that within 5 years all that will be left of the internet is facebook and youtube. The internet is the only thing keeping me alive thanks to games, anime, manga, hentai, etc... and once I can no longer access those things I'm going to eat a bullet.

Welp, good thing I was planning on going with Linux when the time to install an OS on my computer comes around again.

And of course shit like this makes me wish people would wake up and realize what's going on, but that will never happen.

>I've been hearing many rumours that the soon to come Windows 8 will have forced "Live integration", which means (you guessed it), forcing you to register on Live before being able to use the OS

Do you have a source that this is going to happen?

When I told my sister about the iphone tracking thing she just said "not like i have anything to hide" and then went back to texting updates to facebook

>>517
Like I said, it's only rumours. But looking at Microsoft's track record, I would not be surprised if they actually do that.

I've thought about switching to linux but I'm a complete retard when it comes to computers so that probably wouldn't work out too well.

>>520
The biggest hurdle for individuals migrating from Windows to a Linux distro is getting comfortable with the command line interface. I recommend starting with Ubuntu, and then moving to Archlinux once you've got the hang of things. After a while you'll find that typing a line into your terminal is pretty simple. Lucky for you there are always extremely helpful users bases for almost every linux distro. So long as you ask questions, research, and experiment you should be fine.

>>518
I fucking hate that mentality.

>>520
I am also (relatively) technically impaired and I switched to Ubuntu successfully a few days ago. The installation is actually really quick and easy. Getting used to the way Ubuntu worked (how to install programs, manage packages, use the terminal etc etc) took a few days, but I'm starting to get the hang of it now. Though if you are anything like me, you ARE going to spend a day or two on the ubuntu forums at first. Oh and apparently the two latest versions of Ubuntu (10.10 and 11.04) are pretty buggy so getting 10.04 is recommended, but you should probably get a second opinion on the subject.

>>511
I wish I could understand half of that. Could you rephrase this for us mere mortals? Here in France we have some pretty retarded internet laws, so I'm really interested about learning more about how to bypass all this. Redirecting me to a tutorial or something is fine too.
>On March 1, the French government published a new regulation that mandates Web companies keep identifying user data — including username and passwords — for a year in case authorities need access to it."

>>522

Is the good version 10.04 or 10.04.2?

>>522
Use Aircrack-ng and a wireless adapter capable of rfmon or moniter mode (e.g. Alfa AWUS036H) to crack wireless encryption. Use macchanger to spoof your MAC address, otherwise your intrusion will have your computers serial number on it, which can be traced back to you.

http://www.aircrack-ng.org/doku.php?id=tutorial&DokuWiki=7353cb5e8f340fb8f3daf66b6ccba547
http://www.alobbs.com/macchanger

>>509
>Income tax? unconstitutional.
16th Amendment. Try reading the constitution sometime instead of just believing what Ron Paul tells you.

>>522
>>521
You all might like Mint more. It's less hassleworthy than Ubuntu in ways

>>525
Well, that amendment was passed in a questionable manner.

>>525
Surprise! You have no rights other than what the state and corporations permit you to have, or the rights that you guarantee yourself.

>>527
Doesn't matter. Every time that argument's come up in the courts it's been struck down.

I propose we turn this thread into sharing tips on keeping our freedoms in the coming foreclosures on
privacy.

>>542
paranoia general?

>>542
That is a good idea. Here are some tips, which I think will be of some help (hopefully my suggestions aren't painfully obvious already)

1. Avoid social networking websites at all costs. If having an account there is a must (like for contacting co-workers, employers, etc.) put in as little personal information in it as possible.
2. Avoid all proprietary software as much as you can. There are many open-source alternatives to many of the programs we use in our day-to-day lives.
3. Install browser extensions such as NoScript to avoid potentially malicious/intrusive scripts on websites, and AdBlock Plus to prevent tracking.
4. If you are skilled enough with computers, switch to GNU/Linux or FreeBSD as your main operating system. They aren't as difficult to use as they appear. Often times it's a lot simpler than Windows, given package managers and such. If you're tied to gaming, partition your hard drive to accommodate dual-booting.
5. Avoid shopping online, especially at Microsoft, Sony and Amazon. The recent incident with PSN (the compromising of millions of credit card numbers) proves that such corporations don't care about their customers' data.
6. Always read the privacy statement before installing a video game to your console or computer. Often times it'll make you reconsider installing it. Trust me on that.
7. Jailbreak your smartphone if you have one. If you can't do it yourself, find someone who can do it for you. If there's no one to help you with that, sell your smartphone.
8. Avoid web browsers like Google Chrome, which have numerous backdoors to Google information theft. If you're used to the features, switch to Chromium (the open source version of Chrome). Having access to the source code can allow you to remove those backdoors if they're present in it. Or just switch to Firefox.
9. Avoid mainstream antivirus programs. They're closed source so for all you know, they could actually be responsible for the malware you're getting.

>>543
In short, yes. ACTA's coming up soon, we'd best get our acts together.

>>544
These are all good tips. I have a few more:
1. Keep two computers if at all possible, one running a normalfag Windows/Mac and one running a more secure Linux setup. Have some normal porn and sites on that PC to make it look normal, use the Linux for everything else.
2. Keep any questionable/pirated/otherwise illegal things on a physically hidden and encrypted external HD. Use it primarily with the opensource PC.
3. Don't use your own internet connection for illicit activity, if at all possible. Many wireless connections are left open, and many more are easily cracked. Buy some antennas and start thieving.
A word about darknets: Although they may help you be more secure, they aren't foolproof; many governments have found ways through them, and most of the software is experimental/in beta. They are also slow, but if the time comes they could become much faster with more users. Remember, at one point pirated anime and vidya had to be downloaded in chunks on Usenet. We can get through these draconian internet laws with minimal damage.

If it gets to the point where I have to do any of that shit I'd rather just die, to be honest. I can barely scrape together enough will to get myself out of bed as it is, and if I'm going to have to live the rest of my life as some sort of paranoid criminal just so I can watch a few anime shows or fap to some hentai then fuck it, I'm done.

>>548
Then you might as well have killed yourself at the beginning of the PC era and internet communication, because the second you create data using a programme which keeps its source code hidden from you, you're leaving yourself vulnerable to data theft on many different levels.

>>548
Try not to look at it like that. After a while it would feel commonplace, and in all likelihood anti-censorship technology would advance. You could contribute to a great thing: Fighting a large plot to enslave free information.

Let me just put it this way: I'm glad I could find a few reliable suicide methods before various laws ban such things from the internet.

Thoughts on TrueCrypt, anyone? Assuming you use strong passwords, hidden volumes, etc., is it really as secure as they claim?

>>552
The source code is extremely difficult to compile and (to the best of my knowledge) it hasn't been studied in depth by a team of programmers skilled in C, C++, and Assembly. Additionally, it's based off of the Rubberhose program, designed by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The moderation and administration of the Truecrypt website are also fascists, in the sense they ban you over asking for the source code.

There is the possibility it's a CIA program, however it's likely that the CIA wouldn't share this information with the FBI for use in their investigations otherwise it would blow their cover. There are also news articles showing the FBI's inability to crack a good password, cipher, and hash combination in Truecrypt however this could be disinformation.

Keep in mind Truecrypt is for disk encryption and not encrypting traffic. If you're worried about people having access to your hard drive, I recommend using LUKS/dmcrypt, a fifty character password, a 256-bit Serpent cipher, and a whirlpool hash algorithm (STAY AWAY FROM SHA-1 hashes. They were cracked a few years back.). I would speculate this would be very difficult to crack, although admittedly I'm not too knowledgeable about cracking encryption or hash algorithms.

If the government seized your computer, you would be better off detonating a thermite pack placed above your HDD (for awesomeness), or wiping your HDD with dd or bad blocks (eraser for M$ Windows users) before the partyvan comes to your door.

I'm not completely confident in my knowledge of encryption though, so if anyone sees a mistake please correct me.

546 here, just wanted to also recommend that everyone have an emergency deletion program. If shit hits the fan or you know it will you'll wanna destroy anything incriminating. Also, if you can help it, back up all the encrypted external HDs and hide the backups in another area.

And needless to say, never write down your "real" name on the internet, or anything that could identify you.

>>555
An exception to this rule is if you would like to have some dummy social network accounts to seed misinformation. Doing that would be costly in time and effort, though, so you probably won't need to do that, especially if you're a shut-in or live a mostly solitary life.

>>554
I have dban CDs and USB sticks lying a bit everywhere, so if anything ever happens it will be gone in minutes.

>>553
Assange worked on Truecrypt?

>An exception to this rule is if you would like to have some dummy social network accounts to seed misinformation.
You guys are so silly sometimes.

>>553
>If the government seized your computer, you would be better off detonating a thermite pack placed above your HDD (for awesomeness), or wiping your HDD with dd or bad blocks (eraser for M$ Windows users) before the partyvan comes to your door.
What about rubbing a strong magnet? Will it clear everything?

If the government seizes your computer over loli cartoons or whatever you'd be better off killing yourself, since that seems preferable to rotting in a state prison for a month before you get beaten and tortured to death by the other inmates because a guard "accidentally" let it slip that you were a "pedophile"

>>563
So true...

>>563
It'd be best to fight the charge first. I posted some of the advice here, but if it came down to me being charged I'd end my life right off. By the way, I advise everyone to know whatever legal rights they have under their government.

>>572
>legal rights

Hahahaha. The government ceasing to give a shit about rights (freedom of speech in this case) is the whole reason this shit is happening in the first place

Post edited on 4th May 2011, 1:18pm

>>573
Like the guy who almost went to prison for writing that pedo book (it got knocked down to 6 months probation). Unless the book featured actual pictures of himself fucking children there's nothing illegal about it, but because "THINK OF THE CHILDREN" the guy gets punished by law for writing a book.

>>573
The government hasn't given a shit about legal rights for those with less then 5 million in their bank accounts to bribe them with for over a century. They're just starting to attack the basic rights now because everybody is engrossed with facebook and celebrity worship and american idol and is too stupid to know they're loosing their rights. This kind of manipulation of the common public has been happening for millennia.

Shit, this has to be the largest gathering of people with working eyes, we should start the revolution.

>>576
Haha "the revolution". Revolutions only work if the people are behind it, and the American people are dumb as fucking bricks. They will cheer on the government destroying society as long as they can still access their facebook pages, and any rational arguments or actions will get spun by the media so much that they will seem like pure evil.

>>572
I have more or less none in my country. The mafia oligarchs decides that I should live - I live. The next day they can decide I shouldn't, so I die when the day comes. At least I don't have to read a long book of "rights" like you people in the "free world" do.

>>573
>>574
It's still best to fight, just to be an asshole; it'll raise their bills, especially if you drag it out, and you just might get off free.
>>578
I feel for you. Why would they cut you off, might I ask?

>>578
where do you live at

>>560
http://iq.org/~proff/rubberhose.org/

I'll just leave this here.

>>516
>>520
>>521
>>546

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.

>>625
Fuck you Richard Stallman. You and I both know I was talking about the OS in its entirety and not just vmlinuz.

>>626
It's well-known kopipe.

Corporations like Microsoft, Apple and Google can only give you crap because you let them. At any time you could simply stop using their stuff, then their choice is to either give you more privacy or not to make money with you. The only ones you actually can't do much about as an individual are governments, but even those have their limits.

Even today you could use your transparently developed OpenMoko phone to pay in decentralized and anonymized Bitcoin currency for your new Linux PC. Hopefully soon you can even hook that PC up to an unregulated Netsukuku-style distributed WiFi/cable hybrid network that spans the continent. It's just that most of us simply choose not to do any of these things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netsukuku
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openmoko

>>628
Nice example on how you can roll with your phone. How about email? Hotmail, gmail and yahoo mail seem to be some of the more populare services available for free, each covered by major corporations. What do you propose would be a more sensible choice for someone secureity minded? Input from anyone else would be nice too.

>>631
The best way would likely be buying a domain, re-purposing an old computer and running a mail server such as sendmail from your home. While you're at it, you might want to set up web, irc, ssh servers and whatnot. Maybe even a public ftp server for our community or something like that. There's lots of cool things to do with a so-called home server.

If you're asking for public services, how about hushmail? Sure it's not the best choice but it's far more safe than the ones you mentioned. http://www.hushmail.com/

as for alternatives to corporate search engines like Google, there's YaCy, a p2p search engine:
http://yacy.net/en/
>YaCy is a free search engine that anyone can use to build a search portal for their intranet or to help search the public internet. When contributing to the world-wide peer network, the scale of YaCy is limited only by the number of users in the world and can index billions of web pages. It is fully decentralized, all users of the search engine network are equal, the network does not store user search requests and it is not possible for anyone to censor the content of the shared index. We want to achieve freedom of information through a free, distributed web search which is powered by the world's users.

I don't want my internet activity to be tracked, so I installed: Beef Taco, BetterPrivacy, Ghostery and HTTPS Everywhere in Firefox. I also switched from google to duckduckgo. Any other addons I should look into?

A nice website with lots of tests to see if your ISP is throttling your connection.

http://www.measurementlab.net/measurement-lab-tools

There's also this tool here:

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~partha/diffprobe/shaperprobe.html

Encrypted Google:

https://encrypted.google.com/

Use freeware software whenever possible.

>>653
Upload speed
2.7 mb/s


Download speed
11 mb/s

Network latency: 63 msec round trip time

Jitter: 1.1e+2 msec


I don't know if that's good or not

Finally put Linux on an old box of mine. It's Xubuntu (Ubuntu with Xfce), but I ended up botching Xfce somehow; a terminal window comes up instead of the desktop, taskbar, etc. Thankfully, I figured out how to install Fluxbox, and now I'm using it in the meantime while I try to see how I can fix Xfce.

I'm not sure what all I can do with this computer since it's very old, but I'll learn how to use it in the meantime in case the need for it arises.

>>544

>avoid shopping online

But then, how would I fuel my otaku hobbies?

>>655
In terminal type "startxfce4".

Today's main topic of discussion on the internet is the same as this old one's.

I'm planning on downloading everything I can and storing it on a hard drive as fast as I can before the Internet turns to shit. Best to be prepared.

>>1157
any good usenet for my anime? Also I have been thinking would anyone be interested if we could organize a Tohno-Oneswarm group to share files with eachother? tips on other oneswarm groups would be appreciated.

>How long will internet freedom last?

As long as there is a country that doesn't give a fuck what other countries think, mainly Rushka and Rushka minors. Child Porn distrubution and Botnet managment is a major source of income for them, if they started playing by anglosphere rules they'd go from 3rd to 4th world country status.

as for privacy, such a thing has never and will never exist.

>>1169
from my understanding what happens in Russia they just "polute" political oppositions blogs,articles and forums with pro-goverment opinions,am I right?

I don't know how relevant this is to this thread, but I just found a Linux distro that was made for the paranoid: Tinfoil Hat Linux. It's used for encryption, offering GPG and PGP. The creators went all out to make a secure environment, and the IMG is so small it can be burned onto a floppy.

If SOPA or ACTA goes through, or SOPA is porked into other bills, I have a few people with me and we're going to make a nation on an island in the Caribbean, with a long term goal of being a censorship-free data haven.

If and when that happens, everyone here is welcome to join in.

>>1198
>SOPA - Stop Online Privacy Act
You're kidding me. This is even being considered? Streaming would be considered a crime? You don't even come into possession of anything! It's like watching TV!
> "To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes."
And what's with this mission statement to back such a name? It's... it's... I can't think of the word. I'm going to get a nice big external hard drive and start downloading everything I enjoy and burning disks like you guys. When privacy becomes only a myth, we should set up a filesharing site in the hidden web, or set up an invisible, private network between ourselves so we can share what files we have.

>>1201
My bad, my bad. It's Stop Online Piracy Act, not privacy. I misread.

>>1201
You mean like what people already do with stuff such as anime that gets licensed in the west?

>>1201
The Stop Online Privacy Act bill is coming soon enough, only it will be called something else. Like the "Protect Our Freedom Act". In fact, this bill itself could serve that purpose well enough. With the power to take down or cut off access to any site with a minimum of legal process involved, the government or interested corporations will be able (legally at least) to take down sites for any reason whatsoever with "piracy" as the excuse. Fortunately, there are still people in Congress who don't seem to be whores to the entertainment industry who are opposing this bill, and even if it passes, the hope is that the president will veto it. Obama desperately needs the young vote for next year's election, so this seems likely.

Still, the trend is obvious. George Orwell told us we were headed this way, but nobody's listening, and they won't until it's too fucking late.

I can't help but wonder if we are overreacting to all this. Do we really need to get into cryptography and controlling every little packet we send out like Interpol is after us? The worst we occasionally come across (assuming we aren't visiting shady sites) is a script kiddy or an opportunist who will probably give up if we have some strong basic security. Unless we are trafficking CP, why become frightened at finally realizing we have no privacy online? Why bother with all this trouble? I don't agree at all with the way our information is traded like cards, but that's just how it is. Most companies aren't going to use the information for blatantly malicious purposes against us. The occasional proxy, a secure search browser, and common sense should be more than enough for the humble nobodies who aren't carrying government secrets, right?

>>1205
>Unless we are trafficking CP,

2d loli is already considered CP in some places, so we kind of are

>>1205
Most of us like loli and are insane by certain definitions. If the FBI is reading this im not into loli okay

>>1206
>>1207
I've only heard of a handful of cases where someone was arrested for just lolicon.

>>1208
A handful is more than enough. Under US law, it only takes one case of a successful prosecution to create a precedent.

More tips, I guess.

I use Arch Linux as my primary OS on all my computers, and only boot into Windows on my desktop to play games that don't work to my satisiaction in WINE or a VM (which is most of them, unfortunately). Arch expects you to be prepared to learn, so for those looking for a more gentle introduction Debian or Xubuntu isn't bad. For search engines, I primarily use DuckDuckGo, and someimtes Ixquick or Scroogle. I run all the major browser plugins (noscript, adblock plus, ghostery, beef taco, https everywhere, etc). I also do adopt the policy of turning adblock off on sites that use ads that respect my privacy (DDG being the foremost). Even though most of us don't have much money, it's important to support what you care about before nobody does.

Until an open source phone is out, I've taken to pulling the batteries out of mine whenever I go outside. I like to have it just in case I need to make or take a call for sure, but every minute your phone is on it is being used as a tracking device. Needless to say, I don't use a smartphone.

Those are just changes I've made in the last few months, so it isn't that hard.

>>1208
There probably are more than you have heard of. I only recently found out that people have been prosecuted for the possession of 'virtual child porn' here in the Netherlands. One successful, one unsuccessful (the unsuccessful one was manga I believe). It's only a few cases in just the Netherlands in the past three years, but the government has been making the definitions of child porn more and more vague in the hope to prosecute more people for this. Right now it totally depends on how disturbed the judge is by the material, but they are working on making it easier, so I don't think they shouldn't worry a little.

>>1224
>it's important to support what you care about before nobody does.

truth words

Lavabit.com are taking new members now

Hey, guys. I need some advice. I just found out this address yw-in-f138.1e100.net (74.125.47.138) has been connecting to my computer in some manner for some time when I sniffed my network (the destination was my IP address and the source was the aforementioned one). I looked it up, and it turned out to be owned by Google. Going to the .net address took me to Google encrypted. I searched the address and didn't find an exact match (the first two letters were switched): http://www.robtex.com/dns/wy-in-f138.1e100.net.html#records. Should I be worried or is my ignorance causing me unnecessary worry? If I should be worried, what should I do?

>>1224
Regarding security purpose extensions in firefox/iceweasel, I personally run ABP, NoScript, https-Everywhere, BetterPrivacy and Ghostery. Aside from the obvious first 3, I gather that BP handles super-cookies and ghostery web-bugs. The trouble is collecting what extensions trumph which threat and not, and of course at what extent. Super-cookies sounds scary when I read about it, so I'd be reluctant with replacing or removing BP before researching it properly. I have no idea what web bugs do, so I don't really know about ghostery being redundant or not. Upon considering additional or purely differential extensions, Beef Taco comes to mind. What makes this one different from the other anti-ad extensions, and doesn't it somewhat conflict with ghostery to begin with? I must admit I have trouble figuring out the purpose of this extension. Any other initiatives I should consider in a purely browser oriented context (aside from proxies)?

In ABP I run with EasyList and EasyPrivacy, vanilla. Come to think of it, is ABP a purely cosmetic enhancement of your browser experience, or will it actually help cut off data collection?

Well, I mentioned proxies earlier, and I must admit I don't find the concept to be as bulletproof as some make believe. You are entirely reliant on the trust of your proxy provider, right? I hate saying it, but using free web proxies for anonymizing purposes comes off as a free lunch to me, and the free lunch is a lie as it goes. Ny all means, free web proxies are great for evading various filters, be it regional or intranet specific, and whatnot. Kind of the same deal with ssl-ish encryption, I believe. Then there's relays... What I find more interesting is the I2P - the concept of dynamically randomizing network traffic among a number of peers. Kind of resembles P2P, but with an entirely different application. Though I have yet to research the cons, so I'm obviously not deciding on anything yet. Being on the fence is oh so much more comfortable in its own peculiar way.

I don't know, I don't know. Being paranoid is tough.

>>1251
Aww, I imagine sniffing your own connection must be like viewing one of those pedo/rapist maps in your own area, as a slightly worried parent or girl; you'll wish you never knew unless you feel confident enough to do something about it. All I can say is block all the things. All the things block. Things block the all.

>>1238
I read some user reviews from both free users and paying customers, and I thought to myself: nope. I actually was in the market for a new email domain, but I went for zoho. It's not perfect, but it won't ever be unless you're your own provider.

>>628
Is Netsukuku even functional? The last update was two years ago and all that can be downloaded is the "obsolete" C version.

>>1253
Shit, what's wrong with Lavabit? I just signed up...

Internet freedom and anonymity will always exist. It just shifts around to different places. These days you've got overlay and onion networks like I2P and Tor, in the 90s you had pseudonymous remailers.

Of course, using your regular internet will always be open to anyone to exploit, no matter how many little software firewall programs you run or whatever. And on top of that, LEA or your ISP can always watch whatever you do.

Post edited on 12th Dec 2011, 3:31pm

>>1254
http://email.about.com/u/r/od/freeemailreviews/gr/lavabit.htm
Take it for what it is: a handful of user reviews. Some are new, most are old, so it might be doing better now. Either way, I didn't feel like taking the risk. I was just about to sign up too, but then I thought about the wording of >>1238, and figured something wasn't right about an email provider - several years in the business - closing registrations.

I don't know, email is not my thing.

>>1251
That's really creepy and I have no idea. Do you have Google Chrome or Toolbar installed, or any Google products?

>>1252
>I gather that BP handles super-cookies and ghostery web-bugs.
Right.

>The trouble is collecting what extensions trumph which threat and not, and of course at what extent. Super-cookies sounds scary when I read about it, so I'd be reluctant with replacing or removing BP before researching it properly. I have no idea what web bugs do, so I don't really know about ghostery being redundant or not.
There is a lot of overlap among the privacy extensions. Web bugs are cookies or javascript placed into web pages to report back to some sort (like Google analytics, Quantcast, etc). ``Super-cookies" are objects placed on your hard drive by the flash plugin, and what's worse, browsers typically do not clean these in the same way that normal cookies are cleaned, meaning they could be on your computer and uniquely identify you for months or years. BetterPrivacy takes care of these. Ghostery has an option to delete flash cookies on browser exit, but I prefer using BetterPrivacy to integrate them into the ``Clear Private History" dialog. Flash cookies are occasionally useful too, like save files for single-player flash games.

>Beef Taco comes to mind. What makes this one different from the other anti-ad extensions, and doesn't it somewhat conflict with ghostery to begin with?
Beef Taco is pretty neat. It doesn't block anything at all. What it does is place somewhere around a hundred cookies in your browser profile. Reputable ad networks allow you to ``opt out" of tracking by placing specially formatted cookies on your computer. Typically you do this by visiting a website and clicking a button, but it would be a real hassle to manually opt out of said hundred-plus ad networks, not to mention the fact that your browser would clear the opt-out cookies if you weren't careful. Beef Taco automatically places these cookies on your drive and restores them should they get cleared (as a result of you wiping all your cookies, for instance). It works similarly to Ghostery, but in a different way.

>In ABP I run with EasyList and EasyPrivacy, vanilla. Come to think of it, is ABP a purely cosmetic enhancement of your browser experience, or will it actually help cut off data collection?
EasyList might not cut off data collection, but EasyPrivacy will. Ghostery is essentially a specialized version of ABP with the added feature of cookie protection, so there's overlap here too.

>Well, I mentioned proxies earlier, and I must admit I don't find the concept to be as bulletproof as some make believe. You are entirely reliant on the trust of your proxy provider, right?
I agree. I'd rather pay for a VPN than trust a free web proxy for anything confidential. They are decent for hiding traffic or evading censors, though.

I'm >>1260, I wasn't sure how long a post I would be permitted to make.

Regarding privacy add-ons, I probably run an excessive amount, but I don't really see the value in running less for areas in which there is overlap.

Adblock Plus with EasyList and EasyPrivacy - Blocks tracking JS and generally makes the internet less painful
Beef Taco - sets opt-out cookies for all major tracking services
BetterPrivacy - deletes flash cookies whenever I delete normal cookies
Cookie Monster - I use this to manage the whitelisting of cookies on a per-site basis, similar to what NoScript does with scripts. Very few sites truly need to set any cookies, but nearly every site wants to set at least a couple, sometimes dozens. I block all cookies I haven't whitelisted.
Ghostery - Blocks trackers and known tracking cookies. The former is also done by EasyPrivacy, and the latter isn't needed as I use Cookie Monster
HTTPS Everywhere - forces HTTPS on sites that don't request it by default
NoScript - More oriented towards security, although I suppose it may also block tracking js as well.
RefControl - Manages which sites are sent the HTTP referer header. This is a header in the HTTP protocol that sends the current site the address of the last site you were on (when clicking links and such). Few sites actually need this, and I'm not comfortable with all sites having access to this information.
UAControl - RefControl for the User Agent header, which is essentially the version of browser that is being used to access the page. This has some legitimate uses for webpages, but can also be used to uniquely identify users, particularly those running unusual setups.

Looking back on this list, I probably don't need all of these, and there is overlap. I don't notice any slowdown of my browsing though, and once I have whitelisted the sites I most frequently visit, it isn't a great inconvenience to me. The downside is that for sites that do make heavy legitimate use of tracking, such as online stores, I sometimes end up using a mostly vanilla Chromium install, but that isn't a great hassle either.

As a minimum for those mostly just concerned about tracking that don't want to work around occasional site breakage, I would suggest ABP with EasyList and EasyPrivacy, Beef Taco, BetterPrivacy, Ghostery, and HTTPS Everywhere. I've never seen any of these add-ons break a site, and you don't need to manage whitelists if you don't want to.

>>1238
>>1254
>>1256
I was actually waiting for Lavabit to open, because I want to stop using Gmail, but I agree there's something a little creepy about them. There is something that made me decide not to use the service for now.

In their privacy policy:
>On a final note, the Lavabit e-mail servers do record the IP address used to send an outgoing message in the header of an outgoing e-mail. Because of this, it is possible for the recipient of a message to identify what IP was used to send a message.
I can understand why they do this, but this ruins the anonymity I'd be using the service for. Likewise I can't trust Hushmail ever since the incident where they handed out cleartext copies of supposedly encrypted emails to US government officials. It can't be helped.

>>1260
I uninstalled Chrome a few days back. That address was showing up when I had switched to Firefox. I don't have anything else from Google. Created a hosts.deny file and set it to ALL: ALL and that seems to have solved the problem.

Concerning Lavabit, they seem to record the least amount of information. ZOHO, for example, records your OS and can access your contacts (you create on their service). With Lavabit, using a paid account prevents their own employees from being able to get into your email. My main concern involving email is the provider snooping around in it.

Anyone know of effective methods to prevent fingerprints from being given away? Those scare me a lot.

>>1263
I do not seem to fully understand your question but to my knowledge only criminals have registered fingerprints. Maybe you should use anti-DNA gloves or burn your fingertips ......♪(´ε｀ )

Or a VPN and dedicated privacy options tools

>>1260
>>1261
First off: you're brilliant, thank you for your comprehensive reply.

I've now added Taco, Ref- and UAControl, and most importantly - cookie monster. I'm a big fan of NoScript's controls, and I always found firefox' built-in cookie control to be lacking, but somehow it never dawned on me that there ought to be a NoScript-ish kind of cookie filter - so Cookie Monster should be perfect. I kind of knew about the user agent function in html, as with the referrer, but again, it never dawned on me that this shit could and ought to be blocked - which it rightfully should, no matter its functions. This is reason why hold this thread - and its contributors - in so high esteem.

Thank you for your input, and I agree that it's better to play it safe with your security extensions, when you can. I have actually tested the memory impact a few of my go-to extensions have, and very few of the security oriented ones are noteworthy in that respect. The convenience focused extensions are the ones to be vary off, in my experience; especially stuff like pagers, image viewers, download managers, etc. I admit I'm a bit anal about my memory usage, even if I have an exsessive ammount of it - relative to my workflow.

Hell, I'll just toss out the rest of the extensions I use on Firefox/Iceweasel:
- DL Statusbar
- Greasemonkey
- Image Search Options
- Menu Editor
- Session Manager

One thing I love more than installing software is uninstalling software, so let's talk about that. I've recently disabled Speed Dial (I'd remove it altogether if it wasn't for my moderately comprehensive setup of it), SkipScreen and 'Save Image in Folder'. Speed Dial is actually quite meaty, and it only saves me a few button presses, and I've moved on from relying on its GUI functions. I've come to dislike fetching junk via file hosters, otherwise SkipScreen is a must. The savimginfldr thing is useful if you like saving images effectively without cluttering your default dl folder(s); otherwise it's just another spot in your context menu. Extensions I might remove, aside from those disabled, are DL Statusbar, Ghostery, Greasemonkey and Menu Editor (that leaves me with imgsrchopt and Session Manager + the rest of the security extensions on the whitelist, if you're keeping score). Again, with DL Statusbar I've somewhat moved on from relying on its GUI functions, and keep it mostly for its option to keep downloading even if you close the browser; that might change as I (hopefully) move on from downloading big files via DDL altogether. Greasemonkey hasn't been of much use to me lately. Instead of relying on scripts to make certain sites bearable to browse, I have rather just quit browsing them. Feels good. Some scripts will terrorize your RAM, and other create security holes, not to mention site breakage and invalidation. Ghostery because of overlap with other extensions, as have already been established, and Menu Editor because of the punity of the convenience it yields. I'll refrain from talking about extensions I've already removed - they are unworthy (relative to my current workflow)! I'll leave with a final reccommendation - Session Manager. Its comprehensiveness and sophistication makes my blood flow ever so more intensively in certain places. It helps me keep web pages in seperate sessions rather than bookmarking everything or keeping all of it in the current session. The bonus is kickass history management, encryption and backup.

>>1263
No one will rightfully store your fingerprints unless you're a criminal, as >>1264 states. No one will use information on where you leave your fingerprints to any effect unless you're a suspect of criminal injustice. "Digital fingerprints" on the other hand, not so happy-go-lucky. Domain owners will store information on where you leave your sorry trace on the internet. Domain owners may use the information of your digital traces no matter who you are for whatever purpose, of which may very well be malicious to your privacy - no matter how irresponsible beliefs you may advocate.

Unlike the real-world, most of us are not content with browsing local intranet alone, so we ought to think and act accordingly; but you can very well disregard it - that's the beauty of free choice. The ugly of free choice is your intention to shit up this thread, as is my intention to shit on your post. Deal with it, and maybe I'll do too.

>>1263
If real fingerprints I have heard of situations where you have to request that they dispose of your finger print records if it turns out you were innocent. If I recall it was in Britian.

If Digital use this https://panopticlick.eff.org/

>>1264
>>1266
>>1267
Sorry, I assumed people would know I meant digital because this thread was about internet privacy. Thanks for the advice.

>>1269
Well fuck me, I thought you were being satirical. Just to let you know, I'd delete my reply (>>1266) had I allowed cookies from this site at the time of posting it, but I didn't - so I can't. I'm kind of frustrated that I had to come off as an aggressive idiot for no good reason. I'm sorry.

But really, you wouldn't have to hazard such a diffuse question had you just read the thread. Luckily, the rest seem to be way more sympathetic than I am. I'm still sorry, so please forgive my rudeness.

>>1270
Is there a mention of digital fingerprints amongst this useful pool of esoteric information? I didn't see anything and that's why I asked.

It was ultimately my fault, I suppose, for still not learning to not assume things. You're good.

>>1271
What you refer to as "digital fingerprints" is more correctly described as data packets your computer sends upon requesting access to various domains on the internet. Such packets can contain trackable data. Certain Firefox extensions offer simple tools to help mask certain properties of said data, as described in post >>1261, among others. If you're dead serious about anonymity on the web, you'd be well served by researching "VPN", "I2P", "anonymizer", "onion routing" + +