Guide Marcus guide to staying anonymous on the web.

[SimpCity]

Here is Maarcus guide to stay anonymous on the world wide web.
I took his explanation from another post and inserting it here so more people find it.

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"There's a few things to note about my article though:

Doesn't cover how to deal with file metadata.

Doesn't cover how to deal with storage and encrypting media.

Is heavily biased on my personal experiences (at least the providers of various services that I've linked).
I still think it's a good starting ground for people to read through, but I highly recommend searching for other sources and make your own opinion based on multiple articles."
//Marcus

 

[fang]

Please note that becoming fully anonymous on the internet is a really difficult task and is not achieved without any compromise on your end.

Also, it always depends on "From who do i want to hide?", for example:

If you try to hide from the government then it's not a good idea to buy a SIM card online. They could easily track your purchase via the bank and link the SIM card to you. If the Website who sells SIM cards is not that privacy focused then the information could also easily leak into the hands of whoever asks for it. Not to mention that phone location triangulation (locating your phone via signal strength of nearby telephone poles) and usage habits could even link phone numbers to you without your knowledge.​

Source: anonymousplanet's

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(links to cryptpad with the pdf)

What i recommend if you are paranoid to leak something and want to stay anonymous (for example a video):

- Resize it, compress it, change the codec and name of the video
- Remove metadata with mat2
- Use a VPN and a different browser or even a different OS with a VPN
- Be sure to not link yourself to the leak (e.g. buy it from a small, not-so-active shop and leak it right after the purchase)
- Upload it without regret


-Fang



Extra for tech nerds:

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The best tool for removing metadata, which even the privacy-focused Tails operating system uses, is currently mat2. (

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)
I have seen .jpg images with 4+ MB of metadata (!), which, if removed, not only saves storage but also removes traces from you and previous owners.

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The simplest tool and answer would be to use VeraCrypt (

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). You can create containers as files or even encrypt your whole hard drive / USB. It is not recommended to encrypt your whole PC with this as the encryption could be slowing down Windows' performance (according to online users).
But: If you just want to hide files from your roommate then creating an encrypted .zip archive or setting a PC password is also more than enough.

 

[bruizeh]

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I have a few expensive PPV'S I am willing to share, will these steps suffice? I've never really leaked anything before and just worried about my ass getting handed to me if I do share. Any good filehost recommendations and/or VPNs?

 

[fang]

Im not an expert on this ofcourse, so don't blame me if something unexpected happens.

I think the steps above should be enough. A few extra hints:

• Don't leak something that you bought via a "comission" (= dont leak something only you can have)
• Don't use the same username here as on the platform of purchase. (Also, don't use a username that can easily be linked back to your other accounts or social media)
• For anonymity i would now recommend "Tor browser" instead of a VPN. (Source:
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  )
• I would, ofcourse, not recommend to login anywhere for uploading your file.
• If i saw it correctly gofile offers uploads without login.
• Use a "freshly cleaned" browser, for example incognito mode or a reset Tor Browser. (Cookies and browser-fingerprints, for example by being logged in to your google account, could give away your identity)

If you are using linux: I use the following 2 commands to re-encode the video and remove it's metadata:

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[hrhrhrhr]

Another website with information on this subject is

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, it has many subpages about different topics related to security/anonymity in one way or another, after all there can be data mining in many different contexts, but for a start more aligned with OP's request you might want to check the page about browsers (and other websites linked from it), it's the first one in the article list. Another related website is

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Do you know whether there's a way to use that command in bulk? Something such as re-encoding all files in a folder.

 

[fang]

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You can use the following to remove metadata of every file in every folder of your current directory:

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(If that doesn't work correctly try to execute "shopt -s globstar" beforehand to enable the **/* syntax)

To recursively encode videos in your current folder and subfolders (the encoded name will be ending with .mp4.mp4):

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Or if you only want to do it for the current folder you are in you can also use (names the encoded files _xxx.mp4):

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If you want to read about privacy and security I also recommend the following websites:

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For testing privacy:

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(browser fingerprinting, scroll down and check if you are unique, if yes its bad)

 

[hrhrhrhr]

A

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Awesome, thanks :D
The last command didn't work as expected but I'll have a look at the manpages and see if I find something.
Also thanks for the links.

 

[Deleted member 648895]

Guys, I'm new to the forum and would like to ask some questions. do you recommend which VPN and browser to access the forum?

The second question is: is there any danger to enter the forum with a regular browser and without vpn? What are the dangers? Can I suffer something other than a hacker attack, can the police come to my house? 😂

Thank you!!

 

[recoveringcoomer]

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I personally use mullvad, it's recommended a lot for these

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. The only "danger" is the website seeing your ip which can be traced back to your location. Absolute worst case scenario you leak a girl's onlyfans and she really doesn't like and and gets lawyers to specifically to try to sue you along with the site but that's very improbable to say the least lol. I still would recommend one to pirate anything you want without getting copyright notices from your isp like I did with movies and a extra barrier between you and a site seeing who you are. It doesn't necessarily provide

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however.

 

[recoveringcoomer]

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And sorry for not answering the browser question, I would recommend ungoogled chromium, firefox or librewolf. Firefox has the best settings out of the box for casual usage though so I suggest you use that and disable telemetry in the settings. A lot of people recommend brave but I wouldn't use it for reasons listed

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, and I especially wouldn't recommend google chrome since it sells everything you do to advertisers. Some sites support chromium based browsers better and ungoogled chromium does that best. Checking out that website I linked has info on other good browsers I mentioned if you're into that

 

[Deleted member 648895]

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I saw what you sent me and it is very helpful, thanks for that!!! Last month I used chrome and I think it was not a good choice, even using a vpn, the worst part is that I was logged in with my gmail account. I cleaned up the browser completely, but I still have doubts about privacy, even though I only use the forum to download some content from the models and save it in the cloud and a porn torrent site. I don't know if there is any danger of something other than being hacked.

 

[recoveringcoomer]

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No you're not going to get hacked either as long as you make sure what you download is safe. You got nothing else to worry about. If you want to learn more about privacy watch

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his channel is amazing with that kind of stuff

 

[AnonmiseR]

So, I'm dumb and i've been wondering about metadata. How does it work exactly because i'm having dyslexia while trying to understand it.
i'm assuming it's only used if a content was found being distributed and used to track back the user IP?
does it matter if it was not redistributed and just stored? I guess lastly does the site notify the CC if it was taken from their site?

 

[fang]

Metadata is always present on a file.

The minimum metadata you have is the file creation date, the file name and the filesize.

Metadata is basically "data describing the data", so everything about a file that is NOT the file itself.

As an example a .mp4 video:

Filename = Metadata​

Creation date of the file = Metadata​

Video = Data​

Sound = Data​

Content Creators could, for example, write YOUR name into the metadata. If they see it somewhere on the internet publicly uploaded and the metadata wasn't changed then they could know that you uploaded it.

There are also other ways to manage "anti-distribution".
For example the hash of a file. A hash is an ID of your file. If you have exactly the same video as i have then the hash of our 2 files will be the same. This means a content creator could create "different files" for everyone who buys it and then track them that way.
Another example: Hiding an ID in the video's data. You can hide for example a password inside an image. This is quite a big topic, so read the Wikipedia instead:

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They probably don't track back the IP but the user instead. This way, for example with onlyfans, it's quite easy to make out the person because a user who bought something has his bank (and thus his real name) linked. Im even unsure if people actively use metadata to track people, because if it would work it would be very effective and most people would've been banned already.

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The metadata is on the file itself. If you buy it and upload it to your private filehoster (where only you can see it) then it's legal in my opinion. It is only not allowed to redistribute content you bought on these sites, but not to back them up in a "cloud" for only yourself.

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A video / image file can't and won't notify anyone. As far as i know some content creators have automated google searches or even employees who scan the internet for leaks and dmca's them.

 

[AnonmiseR]

Thank you Fang, that made a lot more sense.

 

[rasengandx]

What VPN would you recommend? Is Norton any good?

 

[fang]

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Depends on what you want. Do you want to be anonymous?

If yes then use the Tor Browser instead of a VPN. A VPN does not provide anonymity.

I would only recommend a VPN if you want extra privacy from your ISP (Internet Service Provider), public wifi or while Torrenting.
The recommendations shifted a bit, right now in june 2022 they are (according to privacy sites and my own testing):

1. Mullvad
2. IVPN
3. ProtonVPN

Mullvad and IVPN accept cash via mail, which means even they do not know who you are if you simply pay per postal.

 

[rasengandx]

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How much faith/ trust do you have in these more fringe companies? A Norton etc. has the advantage of reputation and is well known in the industry which gives greater assurances that their systems, controls etc. (i.e. that they don't abuse the data you disclose to them- however minimal that is) are of a certain level because they can be sued and reputational risk is greater... etc.?

 

[fang]

As far as i know, some arguments:

1. Mullvad

You send them the money per mail. They have no information about you except maybe user name and password. They don't know your name, your email, your adress, they know nothing about you. If they get hacked or have to disclose information to the police they can give them nothing. (if the police even know that username belongs to you, the person)
Mullvad is also in Sweden, which means the data privacy laws are different and more relaxed.
It also has a "no logging" policy, which means they could not give anyone logs of what you did online.

2. Norton

You have an account, email, maybe even more details about you. If they get asked by the police to hand over information they do it immediately without even thinking twice. All the logs of your online adventures, when you accessed what website etc., gets handed over to anyone who asks. This is also because Norton sits in the United States, which is a red flag for privacy and anonymity.
You can google "5 eyes" for more information on america and it's data privacy. (Spoiler: There is none. The state is probably already getting everything from Norton with a gag order like Microsoft, Lookup "lavabit" on Wikipedia for a story about this exact scenario)

That's why Tor Browser gets recommended. The Tor network makes you more anonymous than a VPN can and it's also free.


EDIT: Norton may have better reputation, but it also depends on "from who do you want to hide?". If you live in the USA then Norton is a bad choice, the state can get any information about you at any time. (Same if you do illegal stuff) If you just want to hide your browsing habits from your dad or some script kiddies who hacked the public wifi then Norton is enough.

 

[rasengandx]

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thanks a lot and for the time to write this. very insightful