Danger of saying outrageous things in forums? really?

[StunnedMonkey]

Simply put, you are not anonymous on the Internet. Especially not to any government entity (Law Enforcement or otherwise).

Exactly. The "government" could, if they desired to spend the time and money, track down virtually anything someone has posted, done, or visited on the Internet. Whether any particular individual or case is worth that level of effort, well who knows. But there's nothing that would remain anonymous if they wanted it badly enough. Nothing.

 

[jwh20]

Seize computers as evidence, find INGO search history and login info, read through past posts. No way to prove you meant what you said in your posts, but it would be up to the judge to decide if they were admissible as evidence. At least that's my understanding of it.

This is the way they find out this stuff for the most part. Listening-in, before-the-fact, is something that only the NSA has the resources to pull off. Your local PD is usually not much better off than Mayberry's PD with respect to technology. But if you were to go "postal" today, your computer, phone, tablet, and anything else tech-wise would be in the hands of a forensics specialist before tomorrow morning.

If you're worried about this, use a full-disk encryption system. That will keep them out for the most part. TrueCrypt is free and you can configure it to use military-grade encryption. So the NSA might (in fact probably) be able to decrypt it, but it would take a lot of time and effort. It might not be worth it for them to divert resources to that vs. spying on your grandmother's phone calls and such.

 

[Mark 1911]

As for the immediate consequences of speaking your mind on INGO, there is probably not much danger that any of us are going to end up in court unless we actually confess to an action in violation of the law. That's not unheard of around here, but still rare in proportion to the total number of members and posts.

On the other hand, there is more likelihood that somebody on INGO will take offense to your expression of free speech. You might even end up on someone's ignore list. I don't ignore any body over internet remarks, seems a little extreme to me. But you're more likely around here to experience the wrath of INGO (i.e. the brushoff of the butthurt), than the wrath of any court.

 

[Bunnykid68]

Be back in a few hours, got a few bodies err I mean chores to take care of

 

[printcraft]

Be back in a few hours, got a few bodies err I mean chores to take care of

Remember: 36" is the frost line so you want to be below that.

 

[Bunnykid68]

Remember: 36" is the frost line so you want to be below that.

Thanks buddy. Now about that backhoe we talked about the other day....

 

[printcraft]

Thanks buddy. Now about that backhoe we talked about the other day....

It's like I said, if you rent the wood chipper at the same time I can get you a group discount.

..........What I care about is the random whacko who takes offense at something I post and decides(s)he wants to try to mess with me in real life because of some perceived online slight. .......

Well, yeah..... but what if the random whacko shows up and finds a bigger whacko waiting for them?

 

[churchmouse]

Thanks buddy. Now about that backhoe we talked about the other day....

I can get you a back-hoe for the beer I owe you.........

A friend will listen to your problems and maybe steal your girl....A true friend will help you hide the body's.....Er, I mean help with the chores.

 

[gungirl65]

I can get you a back-hoe for the beer I owe you.........

A friend will listen to your problems and maybe steal your girl....A true friend will help you hide the body's.....Er, I mean help with the chores.

I could use a true friend or two. I have a couple chores the need taken care of.

 

[TTravis]

It happened to me a couple years ago. I was defending myself against a infraction in a courtroom and the prosecutor pulled out several pages from an INGO thread where I was talking about the incident. I don't know how she got to INGO. I suspect someone from here on INGO sent it to the prosecutor but sure enough, she tried to have me read a paragraph or two from my thread. The judge did not allow it as evidence after I objected. I don't know exactly why she did not allow it, probably because it was hearsay. I lost the case even without that evidence used against me. Don't ever admit to anything like pointing a gun at someone, or speeding or anything that could be used against you on the Internet. My biggest problem was I discussed my strategy for fighting the ticket and the prosecutor was well prepared for me. The thread is still there. You can go read it for yourself.

For one thing, a good Google search will turn up INGO posts. For all I know, the prosecutor or police officer who gave the the ticket are regulars on INGO.

In an ongoing thread soon to become epic, and many other threads on INGO there are warnings about ones posts being used against them in court. Now suppose that tonight I have just had enough and go postal. I commit all kinds of terroristic commotion, jay-walking, peeing in public, getting naked, whatever. Just how will the prosecutor locate and utilize my posts without my giving them to him? How does he, out of the MILLIONS of forums available pick one that I use and then legally tie me to a cartoon avatar? Then, if he can do this, how does he indicate that I was under oath while I made those posts and that they are not all puffed up lies?

The task seems impossible to me, or at least I have no possible idea how it is to be done. can one of you super-sleuths walk me through the process?

 

[ajeandy]

I'm going to school for Computer Science, and I can tell you right now, if they know where you live, and that's where you get online, and they take your computer, they are going to be able to find out what you have been looking at. Whether its by going through your ISP (Internet Service Provider) or going through your hard drive. Your computer stores information that you don't realize it does.

You have to know what you're doing (at least somewhat...script kitties :s) to clear your tracks. You could use TOR browser. Which lets you browse the web anonymously...for the most part...look into it if you want to know more, its free. You could also download some "shredding" software to permanently delete or get rid of stuff you don't want found on your computer.

When you "delete" something, its not really gone. You can recover it with several free programs out there for example: photorec.

 

[ajeandy]

A tub of Thermite above the hard-drive section, can really set those Forensic Investigators back a bit.... although it does render the computer hard to use later.

BBBBBREAKING BAAAAD

 

[ajeandy]

Or do all of your posting from a live linux disc. Or a flash drive if you must save your passwords and whatnot. A live CD/DVD would be best though, because anything you do will only be stored in RAM and will cease to exist after a reboot.

True ubuntu live, load it on a usb drive

 

[ajeandy]

I guess I should have prefaced by saying, it's possible and not that local agencies have the abilities to do so, but it's possible, especially with a higher "government" power.

 

[TheSpark]

If you want to be anonymous online, and even fool the police/investigators who later come for your computer, you must use some form of anonymity server and encryption, or a live operating system.

For example: If you make all your traffic to an INGO account using a live operating system, like Knoppix, and at the same time use a VPN service that does not keep logs or something like tor you will be okay.

If you use a normal operating system you need to use system encryption software like Truecrypt. If done right, and your password is secure, they would have to get your computer while it is on to retrieve anything.

It is possible to be pretty much 100% anonymous but the fact is we are all humans and it only takes one little mistake to blow it.

 

[drillsgt]

It happened to me a couple years ago. I was defending myself against a infraction in a courtroom and the prosecutor pulled out several pages from an INGO thread where I was talking about the incident. I don't know how she got to INGO. I suspect someone from here on INGO sent it to the prosecutor but sure enough, she tried to have me read a paragraph or two from my thread. The judge did not allow it as evidence after I objected. I don't know exactly why she did not allow it, probably because it was hearsay. I lost the case even without that evidence used against me. Don't ever admit to anything like pointing a gun at someone, or speeding or anything that could be used against you on the Internet. My biggest problem was I discussed my strategy for fighting the ticket and the prosecutor was well prepared for me. The thread is still there. You can go read it for yourself.

For one thing, a good Google search will turn up INGO posts. For all I know, the prosecutor or police officer who gave the the ticket are regulars on INGO.

Your computer wasn't seized so this is interesting. I know I have googled things before and INGO posts have come up but usually after I have seen something on INGO I want to learn more about so my search is worded similarly to the INGO thread title etc. Are prosecutors really sitting around an doing internet searches on every case they are reviewing? Even then how do they know it's you with enough confidence to present it in court? I tend to think it might be your second theory that it was a case of professional courtesy. Liberty Sanders was probably in the same boat if I remember correctly.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Your computer wasn't seized so this is interesting. I know I have googled things before and INGO posts have come up but usually after I have seen something on INGO I want to learn more about so my search is worded similarly to the INGO thread title etc. Are prosecutors really sitting around an doing internet searches on every case they are reviewing? Even then how do they know it's you with enough confidence to present it in court? I tend to think it might be your second theory that it was a case of professional courtesy. Liberty Sanders was probably in the same boat if I remember correctly.

There are lots of people who lurk here regularly or who are only very occasional posters who are LEOs, in the prosecutor's office (in a larger city there may be a hundred people or more there) and all it takes is some office gossip of "hey, X has a case about a guy who was ..." and SOMEONE in the office or who passes through the office going "I think that's the same as something I just read on INGO!"

When my GF's gun was stolen I posted about it here and the next day when I was installing some motion detector lights on her house, a local LEO was driving by and stopped and we chatted and he said he'd read about it here then saw the report. In this case it was a positive thing (and I enjoyed chatting with him, nice guy), but it could have just as easily been me posting about whatever minor crime I committed that got reported (except I try not to commit crimes as a general life policy). I looked at his username later and saw that he's a very occasional poster here, but my guess would be that he reads regularly. MOST people do that. It's only us loudmouths with no lives or really boring jobs that post a lot.

You can bet that it doesn't take special surveillance to track down most of the stuff that goes on here. It's a small state with lots of gossip.

 

[TTravis]

Every prosecutor has several peons that go digging for information about cases. I did not know she had that information until I glanced over at her file she had on me. The first thing I thought was that it was a pretty thick file folder she had. Next I recognized the avitar I had at the time, which was a picture of my English Setter bird dog and what I immediate recognized as probably 50 or 60 pages of printout from INGO. It was like it was her secret weapon and she was not happy when the judge told her she could not use it. One thing for sure, the time and effort she put into researching that crap was worth way more than the $300 fine I paid.

As far as your computer is concerned. It is not just your computer that contains information about your surfing habits. You have a router with log files. Your provider also has a router with log files. There is a DNS server somewhere that has a log file of every site name it resolved for you. Google gets requests all the time from LE wanting to know who searched for what. There is no such thing as privacy on the Internet. You might throw up some challenges for them but that will only slow them down monumentally.

Your computer wasn't seized so this is interesting. I know I have googled things before and INGO posts have come up but usually after I have seen something on INGO I want to learn more about so my search is worded similarly to the INGO thread title etc. Are prosecutors really sitting around an doing internet searches on every case they are reviewing? Even then how do they know it's you with enough confidence to present it in court? I tend to think it might be your second theory that it was a case of professional courtesy. Liberty Sanders was probably in the same boat if I remember correctly.

 

[JettaKnight]

I have a family member who is high up in Microsoft in their security division. I'm going to ask him to put me in touch with a qualified forensic computer whiz to settle some of these questions once and for all.

Now there's a oxymoron!

 

[ashby koss]

Easier to use a hard drive caddy. Just remove hard drive when done with computer and leave a decoy "operable" hard drive in its place.

Sorry I don't see how that is easier... safer yes, but the evidence is still existing in usable form.