How safe is your identity on this site???

[rover]

An IP address identifies a connection to the internet. If you are sitting at home in a house with one computer and a broadband connection then it identifies your computer. Your IP address may change from day to day, some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) do that while others leave you with the same one as long as you are a customer.

Like any website, E-I can see your address. They will be able to know with certainty, which ISP it is from and that will tell them the country that you are in. Like many website, E-I think that that they can tell more than that. There are commercial services that will tell a website which city or even city district a certain IP address comes from. These services are unreliable and they will often give wrong results.

Your ISP knows a lot more than that. They know which customer goes with each IP address - they are required by EU law to log that information and to retain it for between 6 and 24 months. They also retain logs of the websites that you visit. A court can order them to hand over that data to the police or even to private bodies such as music publishers.

There have been cases of staff selling the content of these logs to private investigators and the like.

What can you do to hide things?

It is possible to use a proxy service. With a proxy, you only have one communication link out of your computer. This will be a heavily encrypted connection to a server in some other part of the world. My ISP knows that one such link is currently emerging from my residence and that it is connected to a server located in another country. There is not enough computing power available in Ireland to decrypt that traffic so I feel pretty secure from their prying eyes. To get a service like that which is good enough to use all the time, you have to be prepared to pay. There are free sevices around but they perform poorly and limit how much you can use them.

Thanks Sharkskin, you went to a lot of trouble.

[Franken996]

Get a proxy service to mask your IP
Always assume PMs may be read by a third party- be discrete &/or use a punter email addy

[El Gordo]

It is possible to use a proxy service. With a proxy, you only have one communication link out of your computer. This will be a heavily encrypted connection to a server in some other part of the world. My ISP knows that one such link is currently emerging from my residence and that it is connected to a server located in another country. There is not enough computing power available in Ireland to decrypt that traffic so I feel pretty secure from their prying eyes. To get a service like that which is good enough to use all the time, you have to be prepared to pay. There are free sevices around but they perform poorly and limit how much you can use them.

You need a threat model. Who is spying on you, why and with what resources? That's what I was getting at with the list above. A proxy setup like the one you are using is effective against threats from some of the people or institutions I mentioned, and useless against others. It also adds one more item to the list. Do you trust your proxy?

[mellors]

How romantic, I wonder one day will I be able to do that and make my dreams comes true.

Sorry Rover, come the revolution you'll be the first in line to have the electrodes crocodile clipped to your balls.....oh hang on you might actually like that judging from your pic......Ps: You're avitar cracks me up each time it comes up !

[googleplex]

I sometimes find it a harrowing thought on just how safe your identity is on this site. Not knowing much about the art of computer science, ie - what exactly is an IP address, does the management of this site know who you are, or at least what your address is, I think they can narrow it down to the street where you live. If the shit ever hits the fan, perhaps a different government might want to sort these sites out and do a bit of naming and shaming or something on those lines. You can have a different sim card for your phone, but what can you do about an IP address, an escort once told me to can hide your IP address by tampering with the settings on your computer. What do the Garda know, it's not out of the question for the management of this site to have an arrangement with them, although doubt if that's the case.

Private messages is another issue, I'm pretty certain that the people on the top level of this can quite easily access all the private messages you have ever sent. That would make me want to bow my head down in shame, I've sent some pretty weird ones in my time, the mods mightn't be able able to access them, but I'm the top brass can.

So just how safe are we, what information has been collated about us all, some members mightn't give a toss, but one day in the future it could be your downfall.

Anybody got any answers that might put me at ease.

ask your service provider if they give you a unique ip number to you or if they give the same ip number to every customer, its a safe bet they give everyone with them the same ip, just type in whats my ip in google and you'll see hundread of sites and all of them will tell you the number as its getting it direct from your laptop or type wheres my ip the location of your service providers nearest node or its office address, not yours, if you do that and its pointing on the other side of the country from you your fine. You'd have to hack into norad or something for the guards to order your ip from them.

[Mousey]

Listen up, Rover.

I know who you are, where you live, and I know what supermarket your missus shops at. If you don't leave a six-pack of Cadbury's Creme Eggs in the little red plastic Tupperware box that will make a discreet appearance at the end of your driveway, I'll tell your missus that you pay young wans to take off their panties, sit their arses down on your face and wiggle, for an hour at a time.

I won't mention anything about the whole pee and poo thing. I'm saving that for when you can afford it

[bhoywonder]

I sometimes find it a harrowing thought on just how safe your identity is on this site. Not knowing much about the art of computer science, ie - what exactly is an IP address, does the management of this site know who you are, or at least what your address is, I think they can narrow it down to the street where you live. If the shit ever hits the fan, perhaps a different government might want to sort these sites out and do a bit of naming and shaming or something on those lines. You can have a different sim card for your phone, but what can you do about an IP address, an escort once told me to can hide your IP address by tampering with the settings on your computer. What do the Garda know, it's not out of the question for the management of this site to have an arrangement with them, although doubt if that's the case.

Private messages is another issue, I'm pretty certain that the people on the top level of this can quite easily access all the private messages you have ever sent. That would make me want to bow my head down in shame, I've sent some pretty weird ones in my time, the mods mightn't be able able to access them, but I'm the top brass can.

So just how safe are we, what information has been collated about us all, some members mightn't give a toss, but one day in the future it could be your downfall.

Anybody got any answers that might put me at ease.

everyphone has an imei number that can be traced. so even if you are using a different sim card it can be still linked back to your other sim, meaning you can be traced. this is unlikely to happen unless you did something very very bad. i dont know why im telling you this. your message sounds paranoid enough as it is. still more chance of your wife walking in and catching you with your trousers round your ankles while having some naughty chat here than the garda catching you out. why would they bother?

[kryss]

Given that govt probably isnt that interested in this to the extent that they will monitor via gcqh etc, your biggest chance of getting caught is probably via information lefton your home pc , ie if your wife finds it! Cookies etc, all depends how computer literate she is.

[googleplex]

Relax. Most of the people or institutions on that list don't care about you or me. For example, are you Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness? No? Then you can probably cross GCHQ off the list. The server hosting company is in Atlanta, I think. Unlikely to be interested in you. To be honest, I think you can probably cross off all but the first line of that list.

This site makes $78.91 daily from its hits that we all make, should we be payed ?

[rover]

Sorry Rover, come the revolution you'll be the first in line to have the electrodes crocodile clipped to your balls.....oh hang on you might actually like that judging from your pic......Ps: You're avitar cracks me up each time it comes up !

Don't you like my avatar? It's the image of me.