I was surprised to learn that this forum's posts are public

[jonas-e]

I was surprised to find out a couple of days ago, that many (perhaps all?) forum threads/posts are public - any one can read them without logging in.I changed my avatar to an anonymous one and deleted some very personal posts in this thread:https://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/40811-primary-caregiver-separation/- and checked my other threads to see if they contained anything sensitive.I wonder why? As I see it, it counteracts what I thought was the purpose of this forum?

 

If I want something to be completely public, I'll put it on e.g. facebook or twitter.

I'd better refrain from using the forum to discuss the most sensitive topics that I would like to discuss with fellow FDR listeners.

[Wuzzums]

Yes, all threads are public. Like almost anything else you post on the internet.

 

What's the point of a conversation about freedom and non-aggression to not be public?

[PatrickC]

I'm surprised you didn't realise this Jonas. The only way to avoid the all seeing eye of Google is as a gold donater or above, as they have private forums there.

[jonas-e]

In the specific thread that I link to above, I wrote details about my most intimate relationships that I haven't yet discussed with the people in question - because I need advice on how do proceed. What would otherwise be an appropriate place to discuss that with fellow FDR listeners?

 

I'm aware that e.g. my gmail account is not safe from spying eyes - but at least it's not widely open to the public - only to those determined to hack it.

 

What does it take to become a gold donator?

[Phuein]

It is safe to make the assumption that everything on the internet - and I mean everything - may be viewed by others. No matter how private you make it.

 

There's an endless horde of bots, whose sole purpose in life is to gather information, and pass it along. It's luck of the draw, if your info gets looked at, and even reposted.  And they are designed to use any weakness and vulnerability they can find, to slither inside.

[Wesley]

What does it take to become a gold donator?

https://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/36511-donator-statuspremium-content-information/#entry335622

 

The purpose of these forums also is not to anonymously discuss things as it is rather difficult to keep things truly anonymous. The idea is to discuss things in a forum that is pseudo-public that allows others to reference the material. This is why call-in shows are made public and tagged and the boards are also referenceable by people who may be curious about a topic.

 

Options if you want more privacy:

 

When not during a call-in show, the chat room is off limits to people who are not registered members.

 

You also can have private chats with individual members in the chat room, even if a call in show is going on by clicking their name and selecting that you want to start a private chat.

 

Also, there are private gold donator and philosopher king forums that cannot be accessed besides people in those donation levels.

 

Finally, some members participate in skype chats with other board members. Some are recorded as skype conversations and others are not.

 

Occasionally, a sensitive podcast will also be limited to people of a donator group and above, especially if the material is very personal or otherwise would not be able to be understood by the general public without some context of having listened to the show for a while.

 

However, if the vast majority of content was produced in private, either by the board members or by Stef, then it would seem to be rather counter productive to actually being able to affect the world and philosophy the way that we might want to.

 

 

I am sorry that you were not aware of this, but I would not support making the forums private, and I would actually consider it to be working against the goals of FDR.

 

There are the options I listed above if you wanted to have a more private conversation with someone.

[jonas-e]

Thanks for your explanations guys.

 

@phuin - what kind of email system do you consider to be safe?

[PatrickC]

Yes, I'd keep those personal conversations and details off the boards. There are plenty of great members you can connect with where you can discuss those personal things privately elsewhere. In my experience just getting to know people and build up some trust before diving in.

 

I kind of get how it was a bit of a shock for you now. Given the information you were sharing.

 

I think the Gold sub is $20 a month

[JamesP]

Could you withdraw your outrage at the board not being private? You had a bad assumption, and I get that this was initially shocking to you, but coming in with a demand to make the entire board private or you won't post... well, I'm frankly inclined to let you stop posting.

[SamuelS]

I never would've joined if the forums weren't visible to the general public...it gave me a chance to see what was being discussed and the general atmosphere in here. That said, I assume everything I type is being recorded somewhere, even if I don't hit submit -- ESPECIALLY if I don't hit submit -- if I was writing backdoor spying programs for the NSA, backspacing would be an automatic flag.I'm sorry you didn't realize the openness of the forum before posting sensitive information, that's got to be a real bummer. I hope you can continue to contribute with that reality in mind.

[jonas-e]

JamesP: I will change the phrasing if possible when I get to a desktop computer, mobile won't let me.

[jonas-e]

My bad, I apologize - I am sorry that I went on an emotional rant about this, when it was clearly my own mistake - i.e. that I failed to understand the nature of this forum before posting in it. In the pursuit of self-knowledge, I should know better than to direct the frustration of my own mistakes on to others. As a result, my reputation has suffered - hope I can make it up to you guys in the future.

 

I have changed the title and the initial post to be concise without the negativity in it. Hope you approve of it as it is now?

 

And thanks for all your advice and elaborate responses!

[Phuein]

Thanks for your explanations guys.

 

@phuin - what kind of email system do you consider to be safe?

 

None. Nothing online is "safe".

 

However, I doubt that you need to be that safe, anyways. I like an old good quote by Dr. Phil (paraphrased): You'd be surprised how little other people think about you. They hardly ever do.

 

Just act normal, and rephrase sensitive topics. There are many ways to phrase sensitive information, into something that can be denied etc'. Politicians and lawyers do it all the time!   For example, if I don't want to say that "my child had been abused by his mother, and I feel it is my fault" - for the sake of a super sensitive topic - utterly made up by me now, then I could say, "I feel at fault for letting a dependent loved one, in my care, be abused by another relative of mine." <- Might as well be talking about completely other people, eh.

[jonas-e]

None. Nothing online is "safe".

 

If one hypothetically were to engage in agorism, it would be preferable to be somewhat safer than by using e.g. Gmail.

 

Any suggestions?

[Wesley]

If one hypothetically were to engage in agorism, it would be preferable to be somewhat safer than by using e.g. Gmail.

 

Any suggestions?

If you somewhat know what you are doing (but are still relatively easily able to be hacked) I feel like you would be looked into more than someone who didn't use encryption or anything.

 

However, feel free to encrypt as many innocuous messages as you feel like. It is slightly entertaining to send a shopping list with GPG encryption.

 

The safest methods involve passing physical items or talking in person.

 

There are resources out there like the  Anonymous – The Über-Secret Handbook and any entire group and ideology of cryptoanarchy, which bitcoin has many of it's roots in.

 

However, it is vastly more dangerous for you to kind of know what you are doing than to not know what you are doing and assuming that it is unsafe to communicate through the inerwebs.

 

Thus, you can either spend quite a bit of time trying to be safe and secure, which even then it can be quite difficult ot you can just assume that everything that you say is public information and thus act accordingly.

 

Neither is a perfect solution.

[Phuein]

If one hypothetically were to engage in agorism, it would be preferable to be somewhat safer than by using e.g. Gmail.

 

Any suggestions?

 

I'm not sure where ideologies come into play, when we're talking about a technical issue. Again, nothing online is safe. Anything that you want "off the record" must be done, technically, off any record. And the Internet is one big record.   Use extremely innocuous language online, and use it comfortably and publicly, and then commit to actual conversation in a place that is off the grid. Cellphones off or removed. Trusted people. Quite an impossible mission - I know.

 

Better spies than me, have said before: "The best place to hide anything is in plain view." - Edgar Allan Poe   

[shirgall]

You pretty much have to operate under the assumption that if it is on your computer, government employees around the world are passing it around, marking it with red sharpie, and giggling.