Live Stoner Chat how safe is this site?

[aperson]

Dude I asked my self the same questions but I cane to one conclusion, if you grow for yourself and keep it to you, not show the grow to friends or, should I say "friends" you can have all the fkin police watching your grow. I doubt if you are not in the making money bussiness they will have any beef with you.
Busting your ass for 1-2 plants will cost them to much and if you don't have a criminal record or some s**t they can pin on you (if you were caught dealing, like dealing to an undercover cop and taken pic. of you) I bet you will be out the next day that is if you don't live in China or such.

 

[tobylazlo]

correct

 

[medic grower]

Browse with Tor and stay Anonymous wouldnt go on any Canna orum without a crypted Browser

 

[9bear]

My landlady drives me insane with this same paranoia . My response " fuck em " The law enforcement agency's are far to busy to concern themselves with some individual that's probably growing a half a dozen plants in bumfuck Canada .The police in this country already know that there's an underground of growing going on . I know because I asked them . Know your law when it comes to growing and keep yourself below they're radar . Don't try to grow a half an acre in your house and no problems . Here prosecution doesn't start unless you grow more than 7 plants even though it's illegal to grow canna period .If you stop and think about it it's very obvious that seeds are being sold all over the world and openly I might add . What do the authority's think we're doing with them ?? Putting them in a salad . I wouldn't worry about this site I'm sure the management here has everything under control and if not and the law want's to throw my sorry 75 year old ass in jail let's have at it , been there done that . :dance2:

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Haven't heard anyone mention "common sense."

Some great ideas in here and definitely recommend looking into some of the options suggested; but ultimately it is FAR easier to hack a human being than it is to try to tackle their nearly impenetrable software.

This is an international community where everyone in the world can read your public posts on here. As far as I know, the public forum on AFN is completely searchable by GOOGLE (also probably why we are the top link (next to the wiki) on Google when you search "autoflowers.") It's a double edged thing, but a good thing.

Use common sense. Don't post your personal details on here. If you're in an illegal area; don't tell us your city, street, age, school you went to growing up, your daily schedule and a list of your childhood fears.

Before posting pictures, check to make sure the GPS/Location settings on your phone are turned off. If you're on a computer, strip the EXIF data from ALL of your pictures before uploading? Don't know how? Here's a great guide right here. (looks like the pictures on the guide aren't showing up, but it's pretty self explanatory. I will personally help you if you have trouble with it.)

When TAKING pictures, make sure you don't have boxes with addresses on them, invoices, or anything that can be linked back to you.

Be careful of reflections in your pictures; guys have unknowingly taken detailed pictures of their FACES in mylar, metal from the light hood/reflector, mirrors, etc.

If you have tattoos or distinguishing marks; possibly cover them in your pictures. If you wear rings or are married; may not be a bad idea to take the rings off.

If you make videos of your grow, don't include your voice or pictures of yourself. Wearing a mask might fool a little girl, but anyone with an eyeball can pick out distinguishing features on a human body.

Private Messaging is safer than posting out on the open forum; but it is still not a safe place to be posting all of your private details unless you are absolutely comfortable and trusting enough with the person you are PM'ing (and even then, that's on you.) AFN staff does NOT read private PM's nor do we have any software installed to do so.

For those of you that believe law enforcement is too busy for AFN; think again. This isn't meant to scare you or make you paranoid, but you NEED to do your due diligence and protect yourselves.

Also, law enforcement isn't the only person to watch out for on here. Rippers and thieves are a real thing too. You never know when that super friendly member that suddenly is asking you weird, personal questions is secretly Mr. Ringo down the street, who saw your "show the world everything about me" pictures on a canna site and suddenly knows when you're going to harvest, etc etc.)

This site can be VERY safe if you use common sense. We (the staff) do everything in our power to make sure things are safe and secure on the back end. Information is not shared. Our staff knows to actively have an eye out for pictures or posts that are letting out too many details and we either PM the members or make the edits ourselves (with notes to the members.)
Just my two cents brothers! Think before you post and you'll be alright

 

[Dr Fluff]

Nice info & common sense SoH

 

[epenguin]

1939Bear,

Don't ever think age will protect you. Which I am sure you are not that naive. Far from it.
When I was assisting our Majesty with a bit of my "spare time" one of the most memorable days was when the screws bought up a birthday cake with candles etc for Swedish R***, who was doing a five stretch for cultivation.

But then again, it was rather a lot. A duff carbon scrubber let him down. Mr postman got curious !

eP.

 

[Corgy]

Haven't heard anyone mention "common sense."

Some great ideas in here and definitely recommend looking into some of the options suggested.......

Absolutely, well said. If the advise from SoH is followed and you use a VPN, it will be very difficult for anyone with an interest to hunt a prey(forum member) down. The hoops and loops would go something like this:

Step 1: The hunter needs access to forum to get the IP address the prey has entered the forum with, either by hacking in or through a court order. If I understand correctly, the server is in the Netherlands, a legal request will be very difficult to meet any success......

Step 2: If step 1 is cleared and you use a VPN, the VPN provider will need to be persuade to hand over any information they may have(hence the advise to only use providers that keep NO LOGS, and is not US or EU based with a few exceptions.

Step 3: Now the encryption has to broken, hence the good advise to use OPENVPN which is believed safe unless the hunter has some REALLY serious computing power at his disposal and the knowledge how to put it to use.
If no VPN, or proxy, is used, and the hunter is successful with step 1,the prey is now gardening or visiting granny with a big Bulls eye painted on his/her rear end.....

If the hunter successfully negotiates step 1 - 3, the prey has made some serious enemies for reasons beyond being a botanist. The time, resources and cost required to overcome step 1- 3 is not trivial, and it would take a botanist of some magnitude to garner that kind of attention.

HOWEVER, IF THE PREY HAS USED AN EMAIL ADDRESS WHEN REGISTERING ON THE FORUM, THAT IS USED FOR NORMAL CORRESPONDANCE, AND/OR IS LINKED TO ANOTHER EMAIL ADDRESS USED FOR NORMAL CORRESPONDANCE THROUGH A MAIL CLIENT, STEP 1 IS ALL IT TAKES FOR THE HUNTER TO HAVE THE PREY QUIVERING UNDER HIS FOOT.....

Then there is the EMEI number that is broadcast with every press of the ENTER button...... There is ways to change this, but doing so is more illegal than being a botanist, at least in the UK.......

To summarize, always use a one-time email address when signing up to anything that could lead to legal queries, and always use a VPN/proxy....... If you are really keen on your privacy, use a VPN to access a proxy(hidemyass had a free proxy that works sort of so-so OK and there is many others) and the hunter now has another step to overcome........ I recall Edward Snowden mentioned that he was behind 7 proxies, i.e a chain of IP addresses, awhile back when he was speaking with the German Parliament or some such, from his Russian hideaway.......

Corgy

 

[pop22]

To break 256 AES encryption you need massive amount of resources (btw they say AES is not breakable but its a public secret that NSA can do it with their supercomputers) so if you're not Pablo Escobar or some terrorist then no worries my friends

Actually, the NSA has tried breaking the AES protocol. they have as yet been unsuccessful. quantum encryption is not far off and governments are scrambling to prevent it from being in anyone's hands but the government's. Why? there are no computers, super or otherwise, that could crack it if they ran non stop for 100 years. But AES and a couple other have NOT been cracked and won't be for some time yet, thus we have people trying to ban private access to encryption.

As to whether or not you'd be spied on here, if you've been targeted for investigation for any reason, cops could very well scan a site such as this one, its not a far fetched idea. They do it every day on facebook, etc to catch all manners of "criminals".

Use common sense. Well yes that's a start. But there are a lot of people out there smarter than we are when it comes to computer security and getting past it. Using a VPN is not paranoia, its sensible to use the most effective security protocol you can. If I were running windows (pick your version... ) I'd do without anti-spyware software before I'd stop using a VPN.

 

[The Elvis]

check this out !!

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-attorney-general-bans-asset-seizure-by-local-police-2015-1