Cautious Online

I would have liked to have commented on the thread CB started here and not start a new topic but it is not in the octagon

http://lakechapalainfo.forumotion.net/t2042-mexican-cartels-using-facebook-and-twitter#19471


I was alarmed to notice this poster on TOB this afternoon, who appears to run the blog they link to:

http://www.chapala.com/webboard/index.php?showtopic=30685&view=findpost&p=239090

Someone on TOB posted a similar thread on this topic this evening, including that information regarding that same blog:

http://www.chapala.com/webboard/index.php?showtopic=30726

Let me point out to you these two posts on TOB & CB's regarding online safety. It makes me sick but it is enough reason to sign off as much as I enjoy posting. Online security is not something to take lightly. We're not talking about id theft or trying to avoid the online bully. Anonymity on an open forum such as this, is best for me. I did have some formal training before moving SOB. Let's just say for humanitarian purposes. Part of that was the awareness of having my emails read, phone tapped, being followed and threatened were all part of this training. It's not pleasant to think about and ignore if you like but I've grown over the years to be very fond of several of you. I'm guilty as the next guy that gets comfortable and lets their guard down. This is a good time not to let the guard down but be extra careful. Please, please, please be safe. les quiero mucho! and you know it! I'm just asking that you be aware and careful. Some of you we don't have a clue who you are but there are others that we do and those are the one's I'm talking to.

I told one friend I wouldn't post anything unless it was in a forum that had to be logged into. They looked at me and said, "You don't think a narco could sign in and read it?"

While I use Facebook, I don't use any apps, 'like' businesses etc., have all my picture settings secured, and am unsearchable so as not to 'leak' personal information about me and my whereabouts. It's also best to post about where I've been, after I've been there rather than while I'm there. I'm thinking, are people not using the security settings and that's how innocent people are victimized? Where as these articles state that the criminals don't even care but blatantly flaunt their crime. I'm just not sure how that works. If it matters whether sites are secure or not, I don't know?

I don't know that much about twitter but when I was asked to join several years ago, I never used it because there was no way to secure the sight.

The night and day following this week's incident in Chapala, I read some of the twitter's and some of them where quite frankly strange. Honestly, if you click a site, can that be traced back to you? Can a link be traced back to you because you clicked on it? I have to think yes.

How sophisticated is the online world? If security settings are set to private and VPN address is blocked or changed to another location, can all of that be broken into to bring it back to your computer? I have to somewhat believe that it can but you'd have to give someone good reason to need to take that measure, no? I would think.

You may be jumping to an incorrect conclusion about the poster on TOB running the mentioned blog? Blog Narco has been around for quite some time and appears to be a semi-reliable source for current news: http://www.blogdelnarco.com/
It can be very shocking since they don't hesitate to include very graphic fotos!

Chapalagringa et al:

Pixels are forever. Privacy is a long gone dream. Assume that anything you post is available to anyone who wants to know, from the government to the bad guys. Just imagine it's on a billboard on a major highway. With "cloud" computing, a true "delete" in not possible. It's all out there. If you want a private conversation, find a loud fountain and shout in each others ears.

Call me paranoid or a Luddite, but I don't belong to any online social networks, nor do I feel the need to twitter or tweet. I use Prodigy, since the material remains on my machine, not in the "cloud". Or so far, anyway.

But: do what you're comfortable with. Since Interpol isn't looking for me anyway, I'm just being a silly fool about this and am well aware of it. However, I have a very dim view of what the future is going to look like.

Chapalagringa in particular: You've been very open about your life, and if I were you, I'd do an end run around about now and change your online presence. Get some help from a geek if you need to.
That way, you won't have to abandon the joys of posting.

Although the story and especially the pictures are very disturbing to say the least, I have my doubts as to how, or more likely if, the cartels were able to trace these people through an anonymous site. I know it is possible but highly unlikely. IMO it is a very effective attempt to keep the public from using these sites to denounce their activities. I don't blame people for being afraid and staying away from sites of this nature. Their is really very little if anything to gain so why risk such a horrible fate.

@gringal, I appreciate your advice but I don't think Chapalagringa has said anything threatening that would flag potential problems at this time. If I post a picture, I never use the option of locating where it's taken, and I tried to secure up the flicker site. Also, try to remember to use a VPN. How long does the VPN work? If one day I post with it and another I don't? I don't know how that works. Judging by how many views the pictures have gotten, I'd say there's a very small audience interested in my fireplace :) On the other hand, I'm really grateful that I loaded pics on FB of the construction of our home. My laptop was stolen and so were all my pictures. The FB pics are all I have of that time. Boy was I nervous about that laptop having been stolen w/the location of our soon to be home. It wasn't until months later did I also recognize that our binoculars were stolen as well. One afternoon the cops parked outside our home and one was looking through binoculars. Do the cops normally have them? Pretty nervy if those were mine! Probably every cop in town on duty had gone through our place when it'd been robbed. It creeped me out for a while but that's been over a year now. In fact, in light of gunfire and narco wars, getting robbed is really low on the totem pole. I love being home!!!!!

Anonymity by name is what is important to me. Those who pop in and out of this forum will note that I like to cook, tease and get excited at firecrackers at this point. Yes, I did invite anyone to come down to the coffee shop but it was in public and I watch my back. Another reason to be spontaneous. Guess how many showed up from the forum??? zero. There were very few people downtown Tues or Wed. and I'm still looking forward to meeting up next week. It's important after events like this week, that we don't hole up but get out there and live! Go with your gut. A woman's intuition some may call it. If you don't have one, get one!

That last article posted on TOB said no one has come forward to claim the bodies. How sad is that? They don't even know if those people ever posted anything about narco activity but threatening those who may have.

@Solo, I glanced at the pics on one of those posted links and don't think I'll ever go there again. Incomprehensible.

Lastly, I was discussing this w/my husband this a.m. and he's not concerned about it. I'm more overly cautious. He said yes, things can be traced back to a computer but with a VPN, you don't know where it is. Regarding the narcoblog, he thinks it's just someone reporting what's happening. I wish them well. Odd they'd already included Intercasa's pics in his blog but my husband said there's allot of our pictures that have been used by other people. Obviously, I was feeling more nervous last night than I am this afternoon.

Well I for one certainly plan to come for coffee next week. I'm a newbie and I don't know many people yet. I depend on this board and TOB to give me some clue as to what's going on around here. I look forward to meeting those of you who are able to make it.

No, the poster on TOB definitely doesn't run Blog del Narco. He was just giving the blog as a reference for information. The Blog del Narco founders are very careful about hiding their identity. If you follow www.borderlandbeat.com , you can get some of the same info in English with a slight reduction in the in-your-face gore.

Another source of information that I often refer to is: http://www.lapoliciaca.com/

Well I for one certainly plan to come for coffee next week. I'm a newbie and I don't know many people yet. I depend on this board and TOB to give me some clue as to what's going on around here. I look forward to meeting those of you who are able to make it.

Look forward to meeting you traveller! :)

Look if you are posting to these forums, only the Admin can ever see the IP addresses and even those only show where your ISP is located, not your home address. That can only be found by presenting a subpoena or court order to the ISP to have them supply the name and address of the account holder who was using that exact IP address at the time of the post. If you are still paranoid then use a proxy server to mask your IP address to anywhere in the world or better yet don't post anything that anyone would want to find you for.......

But you're writing about normal laws...what about hackers? At this point, I'm not worried about myself, just sayin. so don't get hacked CanuckleheadBob :)

Doubtful a "hacker" with the skill it would take to get in here would waste such talents on such an "unlucrative" task...........

However that being said, I don't recommend that any member here start posting "ill tidings" about any specific "group" because you do never know who is watching and lets face it, it is a small community around the lake.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/222069/20110929/facebook-tracking-investigation-cookies.htm

Another reason to think tracking isn't that uncommon or difficult to do. :-/

Chapalagringa, first of all, we have roaming IP addresses. If you're worried just pull the plug every so often and your IP will change. None of us know the slightest thing about the groups who might want to do anything untoward, so why worry.
As for facebook and twitter, probably nobody wants to hear my opinion on that, let's just say I'd rather swallow ground glass than belong to a social networking site such as those.

I've expressed my opinion of the "privacy" that non-exists online before. That article about Facebook is not at all surprising. I suspect it will only get worse.

I've seen people become as addicted to the social networking scene as to drugs.
But.........it's a choice, and some people don't mind having Big Brother living with them.

raqueteer wrote:Chapalagringa, first of all, we have roaming IP addresses. If you're worried just pull the plug every so often and your IP will change. None of us know the slightest thing about the groups who might want to do anything untoward, so why worry.
As for facebook and twitter, probably nobody wants to hear my opinion on that, let's just say I'd rather swallow ground glass than belong to a social networking site such as those.

I got a question about the VPN. If you posted with one day and posted without it the next, does the IP address stay with each post? Or stay with each log in? anyone know?

Not sure about this forum but another one that I am familiar with had a log for each member that kept track of each address used and the number of posts from each address.

CheenaGringo wrote:Not sure about this forum but another one that I am familiar with had a log for each member that kept track of each address used and the number of posts from each address.

Which one was that?

Your ole pal Pedro per chance?

Never have made that much of a secret. As a matter of fact, that party is obsessed or I should say was obsessed with each new address. Not much to look at these days!

"An Australian technologist discovered that Facebook is collecting information about your internet visits even after you've logged out of their site, and U.S. lawmakers want to investigate.

When you log out of Facebook and visit any of nearly a million sites with a "like" button that site sends a message to Facebook that you've been there.

"It’s the equivalent of you closing your door or hanging up your phone but a person is still there in your home following you room to room but you can't see them." Lillie Coney, Electronic Privacy Information Center, said.

It's called "frictionless sharing." .............................................................................

Full Article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44736830/ns/local_news-albuquerque_nm/#.TocV9VtvEqE

For those hung up on social media - are you sure about continuing?

Yeah but at the end of the day what does it really matter. They have satellites up there that can read the name on a golf ball so unless your living in a cave high in the Afghan mountains "big brother" can see what your doing anyways...........I suppose if one has something to hide they should stay off the grid entirely.

Walmart was pushing RFID technology which is a little transmitter inside the packaging of every item they sell. The benefits and cost savings to Walmart are enormous however it was quickly pointed out that someone could drive past your house with the right type of receiver and tell what you had in there. I say so what.

RE: Facebook, I was getting more and more facebook "pop-ups" on pages I was visiting asking if I wanted to share (the site) with my friends. When it happened the third or fourth time I immediately withdrew from FB erased as much info as I could and cancelled my "membership". They are becoming too intrusive. CB, if I drive by your home with a rfid scanner, I can determine if you are worth robbing or burglarizing. Personally I would just as soon that what I own is my business.

Maybe but it is what you can't see before coming through my front door that will really mess you up................LOL.