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Topic: Paranoid about anonymity - page 2. (Read 751 times)

full member
Activity: 236
Merit: 117
April 15, 2020, 05:23:20 AM
#40
I've been finding ways to reduced identifiable or traceable data back to my identity. My question is: Is it worth taking care of anonymity too much, even if I won't be using cryptos for any illegal matters?

Yes, you need to take care of your anonymity especially when you are doing KYC with some third-party services. Some exchanges ask for KYC and verify it through some third-party services which you do not know how safe it is! No problem if you share your information with the genuine organization that secures your data safely.

I would recommend trading on the exchange where KYC is not required. Some of the exchanges like Binance(up to 2 BTC), Bitfinex, Coinswitch, etc do not ask for KYC and you can trade anonymously on these exchanges.
newbie
Activity: 9
Merit: 0
April 15, 2020, 04:02:53 AM
#39
I'd like to bring up one extra point in favour of as much anonimity as you can get:

What if someone bad knows you hold x BTC (or any altcoin). He knows crypto seedphrases are seldomly kept in a bankvault at the bank, but usually reside somewhere in your home. I wouldn't want somebody with a big baseball bat waking me up demanding the seedphrase of my wallet and threatening to hurt my daughter or my wife if i don't comply.

This woke me up since I never thought this might actually be possible even though I don't hold that much crypto yet.


KYC-exchange's databases get hacked on a weekly basis. If you don't cover your tracks, it's only a matter of time before some criminal close to you gets his hands on your address AND is able to track that you've withdrawn all your funds from the hacked exchange to the same wallet, and the funds never moved again... So he'll be able to conclude you hold x amount of euro's or dollars worth of crypto coins... Nothing is stopping him from using this info to rob you (violently if needs to be... He needs to find a piece of paper with some words scrabbled onto them, or he needs a password or pin to unlock your wallet... You need to be awake and afraid to give this info to him).

If you try to give your KYC info to as little actors as humanly possible, and always use a mixer/coinjoin/anon coin to hide your tracks, it'll be a lot harder for a criminal to get your address... And if he has your address he won't know how much crypto you hold, so he has no clue if it's beneficial to rob you, or if it's a waste of time...

Also, I never thought of the negative implications of KYC before also.
legendary
Activity: 3052
Merit: 1273
April 14, 2020, 06:41:28 PM
#38
I've been finding ways to reduced identifiable or traceable data back to my identity. My question is: Is it worth taking care of anonymity too much, even if I won't be using cryptos for any illegal matters?

If anybody is worried about their identity leaks, data leaks, etc. and are thinking on how to save themselves from these issues, I bet they'd go for anonymity first. That's because keeping your data online or in the hands of these untrustworthy companies makes you vulnerable towards the fact that these companies will just use it to be sold to other companies for some USD (even cents). Now, if you believe that your information and data should remain transparent and you don't need anything to hide from anyone, then you may also choose not to go anonymous but that's something I'd never prefer to do.
legendary
Activity: 1584
Merit: 1280
Heisenberg Design Services
April 14, 2020, 03:52:40 PM
#37
Been reading through all the posts on anonymity and privacy. If you are involved in crypto or bitcoin, privacy and anonymity is generally needed up to an extent. In my case, I wouldn't say I am completely anonymous but can partially be called so. I have never uploaded any pics of mine nor do allow anyone to upload my pic in any of the social media platforms (inc whatsapp) and have never revealed the real name of mine anywhere around in terms of social media platforms. I once had a defunct facebook account (without a pic and a fake name) which was deleted 6 years back and so on.  Grin

But to the contrary, I don't use a VPN since I am really not willing to hide what I am doing to my ISP provider. I have an official twitter, keybase and an instagram account linked to the forum name but neither of them are related to my real life. Only 2 or 3 of my real life acquaintance do know I am literally involved in bitcoin and cryptocurrency and other than that none of them really does know what I do over the lengthy leisure days.

I don't really trade much but majority of my bitcoin earnings and savings are being used for global transactions in order to import and export stuffs in and around the country. I would compare myself with L from Death Note anime (I have 2 separate identities which aren't interlinked to each other and are completely different from each other)

Besides being anonymous for your safety, imagine that you have 10,000 BTC and some criminals know it, which is definitely not good.
As Lucius pointed out, boasting about ourselves and our involvement in crypto to our friends and acquaintance will probably end up in a death threat (just kidding) Grin but I wouldn't trust any of my friends or acquaintances with my personal info on bitcoin.
member
Activity: 66
Merit: 27
April 14, 2020, 03:40:36 PM
#36
I've been finding ways to reduced identifiable or traceable data back to my identity. My question is: Is it worth taking care of anonymity too much, even if I won't be using cryptos for any illegal matters?

It's worth everything, you can go over board with the privacy concept. Big data is always willing to offload your info for a quick buck, also you have to ask yourself who are you trying to remain private to? If you say governments for example you can only do so much, they have many more resources, time and money to get what they're looking for. However you can make their work more difficult by using tools like wasabi and routing transactions over tor for example, this is just one of many ways.
sr. member
Activity: 939
Merit: 256
April 14, 2020, 02:34:56 PM
#35
I've been finding ways to reduced identifiable or traceable data back to my identity. My question is: Is it worth taking care of anonymity too much, even if I won't be using cryptos for any illegal matters?
The purpose of bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market is to create an anonymous market where people can exchange with anyone without having to go through the central bank. So if you do not commit illegal acts, I think the anonymity absolutely necessary.
Besides being anonymous for your safety, imagine that you have 10,000 BTC and some criminals know it, which is definitely not good.
legendary
Activity: 2212
Merit: 7064
April 14, 2020, 12:57:17 PM
#34
Better to be a bit 'paranoid' then with sheep-like attitude 'I don't care, and I don't have anything to hide'
Edward Snowden and Julian Assange are not persecuted for nothing.
Even if we can't be 100% anonymous we can use some tools for protection and reduce using G-tracking things.

sr. member
Activity: 1610
Merit: 372
April 14, 2020, 11:47:52 AM
#33
The main problem is that it is almost impossible to remain anonymous.
In addition, anonymity does not always imply that you will engage in gray schemes or something criminal.

It all depends on your goals. If you don’t want anyone in the databases, if necessary, to calculate you and where you live, then you should think about it.
Of course, not everyone has access to these databases, but different things happen in life.
Someone will need to wipe even their footprints in the sand, and for someone it will be enough not to leave their personal data anywhere.
newbie
Activity: 1
Merit: 0
April 12, 2020, 05:00:41 PM
#32
The right to privacy is not just for criminals. It's important to protect yourself. The way I anonymize BTC transactions is with incognito.org. Better than mixing by miles.

Edit: first post. Hi everyone!
newbie
Activity: 4
Merit: 0
April 12, 2020, 03:41:03 PM
#31
We are all willing to manage our funds (USD, CAD, EUR, whatever) via apps, your web browser. If anything Blockchain as it is, is a security solution to government regulated currency going digital itself in a sense. I am new to the environment and this is actually a big reason I am getting into it.
hero member
Activity: 1722
Merit: 801
March 30, 2020, 09:25:28 AM
#30
Coin join transactions are good for your privacy. Your privacy, in turn will depend on how you mix your coins with Coin Join and how you use your coins after mixing. There are two wallets that use Coin Join transactions, Wasabi and Samourai, but I have my own assessment that Wasabi wallet is better.

Wasabi: https://wasabiwallet.io/
Samourai: https://samouraiwallet.com

Theymos has his shared opinion on privacy: [Guide] Decent mixing methods
full member
Activity: 840
Merit: 105
★Bitvest.io★ Play Plinko or Invest!
March 29, 2020, 05:41:44 AM
#29
I've been finding ways to reduced identifiable or traceable data back to my identity. My question is: Is it worth taking care of anonymity too much, even if I won't be using cryptos for any illegal matters?
For me it is worthy to take care of a persobal identity. More specially if you are working online, it is better to be anonymous so other people or any bots could not have any records about you. That is why, I am not into KYCs that other exchanges and wallets are offering. Or even airdrops and bounties. Just think of them that they could use your personal information illegally any time. It is always better to be safe. Prevention is always better than cure.
legendary
Activity: 2268
Merit: 18748
March 29, 2020, 12:57:13 AM
#28
The thing is, I personally think preserving your identity isn't of much help at all if you only do it when using cryptocurrencies. I've seen people use VPNs and Tor and all that shit for a tx and then turn them all off and wildly browsing any website they encounter and using the least privacy-focused apps.
Agreed. The best option is just to not give away your personal details to anyone - social media sites like Facebook and Instagram and corporations like Google are the worst offenders, and should be avoided wherever possible. If you absolutely must use these sites, then have an entirely separate device for doing so, and keep all your crypto related and other sensitive activities away from it.

I'm going off Google, Facebook and everything else. Fuck control, I want to be under my own and I do not want to encounter these slowly abusive corporations anymore.
Great! Here are few resources to get you started replacing privacy-invading sites, programs, software, apps, etc. with privacy respecting one:
https://prism-break.org/en/
https://www.privacytools.io/
https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/wiki/de-google
copper member
Activity: 1666
Merit: 1901
Amazon Prime Member #7
March 28, 2020, 08:23:19 PM
#27
Is it worth taking care of anonymity too much, even if I won't be using cryptos for any illegal matters?
Of course it is. Privacy should be a fundamental human right, and you shouldn't be willing to give it up just for the sake of convenience.
I have to disagree with you on the bolded part. People should be free to give up certain levels of privacy as they see fit. They should weigh the pros and cons of giving up some amounts of privacy and decide for themselves. You can potentially get benefits for giving up some amounts of privacy to certain tech companies, such as personalization and efficiencies.

There may also be some instances where giving up privacy may allow you to "get lost in a crowd" and actually result in decent amounts of privacy versus taking extreme steps to maintain privacy may attract additional attention and someone may look for and find mistakes in your attempt of maximum/absolute privacy.
legendary
Activity: 1134
Merit: 1598
March 28, 2020, 07:57:18 PM
#26
7 years in the game, getting closer to 8. Haven't done illegal stuff but I'm still taking care of my identity. You don't want me to ever link your personal data to any of your accounts, right? Well, then take care of your identity and don't let me find out who you are. Simple as that.

The thing is, I personally think preserving your identity isn't of much help at all if you only do it when using cryptocurrencies. I've seen people use VPNs and Tor and all that shit for a tx and then turn them all off and wildly browsing any website they encounter and using the least privacy-focused apps. If you want to preserve it, then do it all ways possible or it's not worth the headache.

I personally think it is certainly worth it to keep yourself anonymous. Your personal data is worth a lot of money, why give it away for free? Why let a crazy dude be able to link your data together to find something you may not even think about?

I'm going off Google, Facebook and everything else. Fuck control, I want to be under my own and I do not want to encounter these slowly abusive corporations anymore.

I like being fair: if they can censor my posts, then let me censor my identity.
legendary
Activity: 2226
Merit: 6947
Currently not much available - see my websitelink
March 28, 2020, 07:30:08 PM
#25
Snowden once compared privacy to free speech and the time has proven that he's 100% right. Data analytics became very valuable and this process will continue.



There are so much possibilities for attacks if someone (maybe your opponent) knows information about you, he can destroy your carreer (job, politician) your relation etc., report you to an (corrupt) goverment if you have a critical opinion of their policies.
But also for political purposes like rigging elections or damaging a company.



Most points were already brought up, like protection from scammers, company greed (selling analysed data about you) or identity theft (KYC).

What if someone bad knows you hold x BTC (or any altcoin). He knows crypto seedphrases are seldomly kept in a bankvault at the bank, but usually reside somewhere in your home. I wouldn't want somebody with a big baseball bat waking me up demanding the seedphrase of my wallet and threatening to hurt my daughter or my wife if i don't comply.
Important point, bad privacy protection will result in an high vulnerability of the famous 5$ wrench attack. If that attack happens to us, our coins will be gone:



And most robbers aren't nice people, we don't want them to be in our house.
member
Activity: 882
Merit: 17
March 28, 2020, 12:40:24 PM
#24
yes it is important to trace your identity and if possible remove from the database of the holder. whether you like it or not, some scammers do trade information of people tru the dark web or with companies willing to pay huge for such exchange. Ever since i have gotten different attacks on my emails, i have decided to stop joining suspicious campaigns and Airdrops because they are the likely possible way of exposing information here.
legendary
Activity: 2268
Merit: 18748
March 27, 2020, 06:13:12 AM
#23
Their servers are in switserland, so not any agency in the world can touch it.
That's not quite accurate. They have servers in many countries all around the world. They are headquartered in Switzerland, and therefore subject to Swiss privacy laws.

If you like that, than also get protonMail Wink free aswell. it will protect communications like no other will.
ProtonMail is good, but if you want complete protection for your communications then you should really be using PGP.

Some might even find this by itself suspicious - so you need to think of a trick to open a tunnel, than (re)direct tor-traffic through it...
You can either use Tor-over-VPN or a Tor bridge to get around this.

With a VPN you still are hiding yourself
A good VPN is a good idea, and I use one 100% of the time I'm not using Tor, but it is not 100% protection as you are suggesting. You still have to completely trust your VPN provider to not be monitoring or deanonymizing your traffic.
newbie
Activity: 1
Merit: 10
March 27, 2020, 04:43:11 AM
#22
high.

it is my first reply / post on here, but i do want to weigh in. i cant nt weigh in. this sh!t eats me alive...

privacy, you better take that serious. There is not a law, in any country which specifies you have the right to privacy.
To ignore it, because you dont use illegal sites, thats utter nonsense to tell people and a crap rule of thumb.
Companies like google, yahoo, etc. Are bigger, more financcially powerful than shell, texaco, etc...
Because???

Your data is worth more than oil these days. I am not going into discussion here with anybody. believe me or educate yourself
better on this topic, because i believe "you" are seven years behind. "so catch up - yall slow - escargot."

Maybe the documentary "the great hack" will scare you ignorants straight. i ffs hope so, watch that thing please.
You wont be sleeping that day. You will be changed forever.

About securing your ass:
Usually a proper vpn is where it starts, next to not using windows. that was never ment for online. its an office product.
But still, i suggest to checkout ProtonVPN, it has a really really good free option. binaries for all distro's, os's, droidTurds.

the payed version is better, ofcourse and still very cheap. but what you get for free - it is fenominal.
A proper, good, secure no-nonse vpn service. As free member, you ride along because proton understands even me and you
need to protect yourself, and basically use the paying customers cash to let you , us do that.

Their servers are in switserland, so not any agency in the world can touch it.
If you like that, than also get protonMail Wink free aswell. it will protect communications like no other will.
also available on all platforms.

if you need more anonimity you can use tor, or better even: t.a.i.l.s.
download iso, burn, boot. done. You have a live-bootable tor enabled linux desktop, focussed on yur anonimity and privacy.
tails stands for: The Amnesiac Incognito Linux System.
Occasionally i use it, than all TX going out will be instantly recognizable a tor-traffic.
Some might even find this by itself suspicious - so you need to think of a trick to open a tunnel, than (re)direct tor-traffic through it...

either way, on linux, unix, w32/64, droid, apple...get a VPN it really is mandatory.
even if you cant really care, you are a saint - someone else shouldnt peek at what you do! point.
than sell what they know about you against the highest bid. how can someone not care?

i cannot understand this. it is really the wrong attitude.

Now say, if you need to comply with such and such service, site, whatever and you have to provide some details
like mentioned in this thread: name, surname, address, phone, license, registration, urine sample...

a vpn can still be used. I am from the netherlands, i use dutch ip addresses all the time - i can choose from
many, if not all countries. I even use a dutch ip as entry point for my tunnel, i come out at yet another dutch ip.
Even if you dont or cant - whatever!

With a VPN you still are hiding yourself, your system specs, browser specs,
analytics cant get to you!!! thats soooo important.
it is THE most important i'd say since 7 or 8 years back. Protextion against analytics.
For some, it is LE - but they will be protected against both or be in jail {^-^}

again, watch "the great hack". remember the name: cambridge analytics.
they toppled governments - like many many many. with use of analytics, manipulating users with "personalized ads "
mindWarped, corkScrewed their heads, hypnotic suggestively fed cookies and pet them on the back until their target was reached - B4NG.
onto the next.

let me give a shocking or even a "i cant believe you guy" hint:

england out of the eu. it was a test, performed by cambridge analytics. to show how much power they have.
trump as the circus leader, was the goal. they have the power to get that funking joker in the white house.

you think someone who has no money, owns factually one hotel / appartement building - instead of what he tells: the half west coast...
a below average iq , billions in debt, and is just a marketeer, a talker a sales person wouldd make it to the white house?
h3lln0. not. never.
hiring a morally corrupted company who using analytics as a weapon against their own people just barely did the trick... lol.

One woman, not the least - human right activist, with some serious curicculum vitae told before a judge:
what we do, abusing analytics data from facebook, google, etc.
should be registered as a weapon: it is psychological warfare.

she showed a map of arizona orso, with blue and red. Most was blue - but should be red for their goal.
the interviewer asks: what if the bblue stays? she said: well we keep going until it is what we need it to be?

// mumbling in myself.. "omg - the world, all you too - seriously need to get up to par. this sh!!t happened years back."

they had like 40M x 5 companies of user profiles, and each profile has 5000 target points?
you , me... 5000 points to influence you,to make you do what they need, want, require. or just to funk whicha.
No stopping them, until they get it done. While "you" don't even know it... let alone notice it.

please do not think, or say that privacy is ot important.
until YOU are the owner of YOUR data, best watch-r-back.

the great hack.
watch that, before going into discusssion with me.

i am used to alottttt. this one shook me off-balance. things are further ahead than i thought.
let alone what the world thinks. the word cant handle the truth, "the great hack".

Thanks for reading,

~ Joe.


legendary
Activity: 2590
Merit: 3015
Welt Am Draht
March 26, 2020, 02:17:01 PM
#21
If you can do it without badly compromising the smooth running of your life then it's a no brainer. There's no point in giving it up if you can easily avoid it. Once it's gone, it's gone.

At the same time there's a balance. I've seen people looking at giving up 10-20% of the value in crypto they're trying to realise dicking around with gift card resales or dealing in cash. I'd prefer to retain more and deal with a small number of reputable companies who will know my ID. And all your obsessiveness can evaporate with one slip up.
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