Personal security and identity protection

[Pie Serendipity]

Yes, I know it might seem a surprising topic to raise in an environment where everybody is apparently anonymous.

Nevertheless, it seems relevant to those who do not wish to share their details with Linden Lab, which LL has of course facilitated with their validation-free sign up policy in a desperate attempt to bolster plummeting participation numbers.

I am not talking about the risks taken by those who have voluntarily given their identity details to LL, either so that their credit cards can be drained of funds by inworld purchases of land rights or so that they might acquire inventory-loads of virtual shoes, or in the various ridiculous age-verification schemes that generated mailing-lists for bondage equipment manufacturers who failed to notice that a considerable number of their targets had the surname Presley, or Mouse.

No, I am referring to those who have registered NAIF(My own acronym - clever eh - standing for No Account Information on File) avatars and who would prefer to secure their participatory information against the remote [sic] possibility that renegade staff of LL and their "selected partners" might abuse their employers' trust, or even demonstrate a normal level of incompetence, by releasing even the limited contact information they have regarding NAIF users (ie email, IP and potentially MAC addresses) to third parties who might be less than trustworthy.

As well as LL, Lithium, who run these outsourced forums, and the shadowy organisations who have provided "home-worker" customer disservice staff have access to such information. There may be other organisations; I don't have a German email address, so have no real insight into the recent furore about whether SL user emails in "de" domains had been hacked. It has also been known for the authors of third party viewers to behave in a less than acceptable manner in this respect.

The point of this thread, however, having given a short description of the type of threat that confronts SL users (inworld, on these forums, and in the Profile Feeds) is to identify and publicise the means by which we can obtain some sort of reassurance that our anonymity is maintained, and our identities protected.

To start the ball rolling, I would like to recommend TOR.

Even though the US Spook Services are dual about this "Darknet", schizophrenically perceiving it as a brave online freedom initiative which facilitates uprisings in previously non-USA friendly nations, while also expressing deep paranoia regarding its ability to support what it considers illegal information trafficking relating to crime, terrorism and official government data embarrassing to the current and recent administrations.

Don't believe the nonsense about the Spooks having put a backdoor in TOR; that is a bunch of disinformation intended to deter users - it is still secure and will remain so until, or rather, unless, it is closed down, at which point the non-public version will kick into operation. And you don't have to worry about the technically inept security service operated by LL cracking it; they can't even stop a bunch of Bombay spammers.

So that's my suggestion for securing your continuing anonymity; does anybody else want to offer alternatives, or additional protection?

[JeanneFau]

So you're afraid of LL's renegades but trust mindlessly in TOR. You're very selectively paranoid. 

[Innula Zenovka]

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Pie Serendipity wrote:

Don't believe the nonsense about the Spooks having put a backdoor in TOR; that is a bunch of disinformation intended to deter users - it is still secure and will remain so until, or rather, unless, it is closed down, at which point the non-public version will kick into operation.

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Isn't that exactly the sort of disinformation the Spooks themselves would put out if they wanted people to continue to use TOR for criminal purposes, despite the recent arrests apparently based on information interecepted on TOR?

 

 

[Pie Serendipity]

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

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Pie Serendipity wrote:

Don't believe the nonsense about the Spooks having put a backdoor in TOR; that is a bunch of disinformation intended to deter users - it is still secure and will remain so until, or rather, unless, it is closed down, at which point the non-public version will kick into operation.

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Isn't that exactly the sort of disinformation the Spooks themselves would put out if they wanted people to continue to use TOR for criminal purposes, despite the recent arrests apparently based on information interecepted on TOR?

 

 

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Nah, the NSA assessment goes into detail about how the Spooks made the Silk Road bust and effectively admits that the combined might of the Spooks and GCHQ can't crack TOR itself.

Of course, Tor might even be a US/UK government-sponsored agency hidden in plain sight . . .

. . . but I don't think so.

[Pie Serendipity]

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JeanneFau wrote:

You're very selectively paranoid. 

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Thank you for the compliment.

[Lynda Baran]

Even though the US Spook Services are dual about this "Darknet", schizophrenically perceiving it as a brave online freedom initiative which facilitates uprisings in previously non-USA friendly nations, while also expressing deep paranoia regarding its ability to support what it considers illegal information trafficking relating to crime, terrorism and official government data embarrassing to the current and recent administrations.

At this moment I think they are watching the internet more for an uprising inside the US than outside.

[Coventina Dalgleish]

Well the experience of Second Life will be greatly diminished using the Onion or any other VPN service it is difficult enough to maintain a decent fps with the direct connection. The best way to protect your identity is affected by unplugging that funny looking phone cable from your computer or breaking off your WIFI antenna ))