lesson learned (about privacy and computers)

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KinkInSpace
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Re: lesson learned (about privacy and computers)

Post by KinkInSpace »

Ah yeah, hiding your kinky stuff on your computer is tricky.

When I was young I had collected a few photos from online browsing and the sorts. They were of course BDSM related photos, not vanilla photos.

The computer was located in my room, and I was mostly behind it, but my mother also occassionally used it as it was our only computer at the time. I required one for school.

Anyway, to hide my photos I placed it in a folder on the harddrive nested deeply. At some point, it was drivers/cd-rom

I was pretty sure no one would even want to go in that folder, so I felt pretty safe.

Anyway, some day when I was organizing my photos, and viewing them, I accidentally right-clicked and used Paintshop Pro's browse function, which opens the folder in paintshop pro for convenience. It automatically indexes the folder and creates a pspbrowse.jsp which contains the thumbnails. I quickly closed psp as I immediatelly knew this was bad. I deleted the pspbrowse.jsp file too and considered the matter restored.

Apparently it wasn't. Days later my mother was using the computer when I was at school and apparently paintshop pro's internal browse function opened directly in my porn folder. I normally use explorer's right-click menu to browse, she opens paintshop pro, then goes to browse, and navigates from there. :facepalm:

When I got home, she came to me and said: "You have some nasty porn pictures." Of course being as ashamed (and probably as red as a tomato) I denied everything and told her I didn't knew what she meant. She said that she couldn't locate them anymore though. I said, maybe they were on a cd-rom? (hoping the trigger of cd-rom in the path would make her think of that.) She wasn't sure but left it alone.

I'm pretty sure at that moment she knew it was my porn even still, but as she gets old, she thankfully also becomes forgetful. I'm pretty sure she doesn't remember it anymore today.

But for this reason I have added a different layer of security. I installed a virtual machine on my pc, running windows in it, and I use this solely for my bdsm stuff. The VM was labelled development, so I'm sure no one would use it. It was also password protected. I have a 2nd development area, so if someone found it, I would just type in the password wrong a few times and claim that I don't remember and that I have a different one.

On the remark that I should remove it, I would then say: hmm, yeah, maybe I'll do that. But I first want to give it some thought if I can remember, there are some good projects in there.
Formally known as Slave_L.
I'm not yet very comfortable expressing my love for kink from my private life. I will therefor hide behind my username KinkInSpace and not allow any connections to who I really am. I'm sure you'll understand.
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Sir Cumference
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Re: lesson learned (about privacy and computers)

Post by Sir Cumference »

Whenever browsing naughty, use the "private browsing" functionality.
It will not hide what are doing from the NSA, your provider or the company IT-dept. but it will stop the browser from remembering where you went.

Anything naughty that needs storing should be on an encryptet external drive, not the harddisk.

When taking screen dumps, be aware of other open tabs..... Or open a number of un-appropriate tabs to freak out the recipient.
:mrgreen:
~ Leatherworking, blacksmithing , woodworking and programming are the most pervertable skills you can learn! ~
Fifer
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Re: lesson learned (about privacy and computers)

Post by Fifer »

My Dad got caught out a while ago - he'd obviously been perusing some "interesting" images online and had decided to print off a couple of copies. For some reason, the printer had malfunctioned, failing to do as asked, and he'd shut down the computer. Next day, Mum fires up the computer and hey-ho, the printer remembers what it was supposed to do and spits out said copies.
Cue Mum making a slightly irate call to me, asking why this had happened (I'd left home a couple of years before, fortunately). I told her that it must have been my Dad, since there was only the two of them living in the house. He denied all knowledge, claiming the computer must have fallen victim to hackers or scammers!
My Mum is a bit old school, she still lives in the 1950's (bless her heart) and finds the idea of my Dad printing off hardcore pornographic images quite disturbing, it's probably for the best that she doesn't know what her son gets up to in his spare time!
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FatherOfFour
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Re: lesson learned (about privacy and computers)

Post by FatherOfFour »

Years of network security for my and other companies tough me almost all the lessons to be learned...
Although my kink have developed since a couple of years, and rarely wanted to watch porn, I used honeypots, decoys, bogus passwords lists, fake storage, VMs, hosted servers, and so on...
Don't ask me what I've seen on most computers!...

Today, I recommend a few specific approaches:
- At work: use RemoteDesktop/TeamViewer/... (remote sessions). Usually screen capture is illegal or too expensive, and they only do key logging at max. Any direct browsing stays in permanent logs (gateway)
- Shared computer: use Linux bootable sticks (with storage or external hdd)
- Own computer: whatever rocks Your boat...

Encryption is a "two way sword"(*): Some countries ban encryption, or prosecute the owner for not providing password, and data recovering (data loss is far more probable than perquisition) is a bitch!

Have fun, keep secrets,
f4
==========
(*) two_way_street and double_edged_sword
Sergio
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Re: lesson learned (about privacy and computers)

Post by Sergio »

Another vote here for a Virtual Machine for your 'private' side - possibly even in the cloud so even with access to your home computer no-one could tell of its existence.

And completely separate accounts for email and for Ebay/Amazon/AliExpress etc. (A second credit card may be needed but most card companies are okay about a card "for online use only".) Especially for email as there are so many ways that could go horribly wrong. Imagine showing your smartphone at the click-and-collect desk in a store and as the cashier reaches to read it they touch the screen and "Thank you for your order the reference is 123456" scrolls to "Your latex catsuit and bondage harness have been despatched". Or you're giving a presentation and an email notification pops up "25% off dildos and anal toys!" :oops:
mymy42
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Re: lesson learned (about privacy and computers)

Post by mymy42 »

So many true stories here!

I'd love to talk to someone working in post office. With all those nasty toys ordered from China and with various packaging, they must have certainly seen "interesting" stuff here or here.
lj
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Re: lesson learned (about privacy and computers)

Post by lj »

mymy42 wrote:So many true stories here!

I'd love to talk to someone working in post office. With all those nasty toys ordered from China and with various packaging, they must have certainly seen "interesting" stuff here or here.
In my case, I ordered a pair of handcuffs from what I thought was a UK supplier. a few days later the Post-lady arrived and asked me to sign for a package. It was a small padded bag covered with Thailand stamps, and the customs declaration, in large capital letters read "HANDCUFFS" :shock:
be a switch, double the fun :-)
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