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chapotraphouse @hexbear.net keepcarrot [she/her] @hexbear.net

OpSec and Hexbear

Hexbear started during the 2020 BLM protests, where cops were using social media and internet presence to track down activists. They are still doing this, but with less vigor than when police stations were burning down.

This included things like using tattoos on naked bodies, etsy store receipts etc.

Just before the r/cth ban, there was also a problem with chasers and leering objectification, and steps were taken to reduce thirst-posting and the like.

These things combined means that people don't post selfies or direct identifying information. People post their pets and artwork, but I know I have to make a decision about where and when I post things to make things non-trivial for cops or random chuds. I feel like a unique pet name, breed, and rough region could be enough to track someone down.

Even so, I think I'm bad at it. I feel like if someone knew me and read everything on hexbear they could ID me pretty easily (and I know multiple people in person on hexbear, but we've never exchanged usernames).

Idk if there are any hard and fast rules beyond the selfies and direct ID though. I should burn this account.

Edit: removed reference to masculinity

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  • The thing i personally think people should be focused on is compartmentalizing their internet activity. Cross-site tracking is pretty much everywhere these days. So if you have a twitter, instagram, lemmy, reddit, pintrest, whatever it is you do online. If you do not want your activity on lemmy to be linked back to those accounts you should be using a different browser for lemmy, preferably something like Librewolf. Privacy focused. If your really feeling paranoid go ahead and use TOR browser to login to lemmy. Assuming they dont block TOR connections here I've never tried.

    Burning your accounts not a bad idea either. Back when i used reddit id make new accounts regularly and never use the old ones again. With lemmy i dont bother tho. Even if you make a new account regularly on a site as small as this its pretty easy to see if an account showed up around the time your old one went inactive and then followed all the same communities your old one did. Not a big assumption that is your new one then. the way you type, and words you use can also be fingerprinted and used to ID you across accounts. Of course you can take steps to prevent this type of tracking too if you want.

    If what you want tho is to not get some chud sending you death threats thats pretty easy to accomplish. Make yourself a new account, dont post any personal photos, and only give very vague information about yourself. For example, How old are you? I'm in my 30s, 20s, etc. Dont say the exact number. Whats your name? Its Xiisadaddy as far as your concerned. Whats your gender? Irrelevant need to know only. Chuds arent that smart. They can only find you if you hand it to them on a silver platter.

    Now let me see if i can find out some info about you from this account: Based on your profile just a quick glance tells me, your a woman, live in australia, seems like maybe you or someone you know was in the military, you live in an area with public transport that isnt good, a food desert, your landlord has a meth test cause in your lease, probably live in an apartment building, you have a niece, and siblings, and are autistic. I'm guessing late 20s, early 30s? Took me maybe 10mins to get all that. Don't feel like putting in more effort, but yeah id say you need a new account. Thats some pretty specific stuff an internet stranger just found out about you in 10 minutes. (reply to this and let me know if you want me to delete this comment btw so its gone too if you decide to get rid of your account)

    Funnily enough ive been considering making a new one too this might be what pushes me to do it.

    • Even if you make a new account regularly on a site as small as this its pretty easy to see if an account showed up around the time your old one went inactive and then followed all the same communities your old one did.

      Fortuntely, I only follow the defaults and the last time I burned my account Hexbear closed down new accounts for three days >.>

      I think my main cross-account doxxing would come from artwork I personally have been created and I think both communities would enjoy. Reverse image search would out me pretty fast, especially if the post gets no traction (if a post goes viral, then its more likely it would be posted by a rando).

      (I think being on hexbear and autistic doesn't actually change anything)

    • I think your overall answer on the social side of it was good. Compartmentalizing etc is a good way to think of it. But I feel compelled to challenge any specific technical advise. In general because it's impossible to give advice like this without knowing more details about the recipient. There are ways it could easily backfire by someone just blindly following it.

      If you do not want your activity on lemmy to be linked back to those accounts you should be using a different browser for lemmy, preferably something like Librewolf. Privacy focused.

      This plan doesn't really make any sense. The idea of breaking things up by browser doesn't scale like hardly at all. You can only have so many browsers installed on your computer. And they tend to be extremely resource-intensive so you can't be running many instances. A more reasonable way obtaining every benefit possible from this concept would be the use of profiles.

      Even ignoring all that, I am still skeptical. Basically the benefit of the dedicated browser/profile concept is that it somewhat compartmentalizes system data which is exchanged with the remote host, ya? Is hexbear.net sharing a lot of cookies with gmail or facebook or cnn or whatever other websites you are going to? Does it make sense to pick 1 special website that will get the special secure treatment while all other browsing is done in.... an insecure environment? Are you opening external links in this special browser or are you copy/pasting them into your general purpose browser? And what about the large amount of fingerprinting that would remain consistent between browsers/profiles, such as IP address and other network infos, system environment, browser settings, session times etc? It doesn't really have much of a hope to accomplish the goal of keeping the accounts discreet.

      It also doesn't consider use of mobile devices, apps etc.

      Overall this kind of strategy could only even possibly be appropriate if you are considering a very specific adversary, namely one who has insider access to server logs, network traffic etc, of other computers you interact with on the internet. I guess multiple different remote systems in order to triangulate the information. So the owners/operators of servers, or someone who is able to obtain access (like by hacking or a warrant). If you have such an enemy this would hardly be sufficient and it'd be better advice to go straight to TOR. On the other hand, OP seems specifically concerned with "pervy men" who almost certainly do not have such access. It would be better to focus on the social compartmentalization to avoid divulging so much information that some creep can easily compile a dossier on you and track you down.

      Setting and maintaining boundaries like that is not easy especially in a comradely social situation. I would avoid adding a bunch of dubiously-useful technically complexities. On the other hand it could possibly help to self-enforce. I like to use browser profiles to segregate off certain tasks. Like I have one for school work. It has a different color theme than my usual one and it reminds me not to wander off into other stuff getting distracted. I am not logged in to anything fun in that browser and I keep all the bookmarks on topic to school. The session can be opened and closed when I decide to start and stop working. It probably has a very minimal benefit in preventing my school-work online ID from getting mixed up with other online activities but I wouldn't rely on it at all. It's mostly just a mental thing.

    • If your really feeling paranoid go ahead and use TOR browser to login to lemmy. Assuming they dont block TOR connections here I’ve never tried.

      .w*rld blocks Tor a lot of times, .ml hexbear lemmygrad.ml do not

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