Re: [tor-talk] Will Tor affect Internet Explorer? (newbie question)

[Gabrielle DiFonzo <catshark14@xxxxxxx>]

"Let's say you visit the NHL website to check up on hockey scores. And that you click on...provocative adverts." Okay. That got into truly weird territory rather quickly.

"How would being anonymous affect you watching 'Like a Surgeon'?" Because it might affect the Java required to watch Youtube, no?

Also, what is Microsoft Time of Day?

Anyway, thanks for the Tails info.
-----Original Message-----
From: Buck Calabro <kc2hiz@xxxxxxxxx>
To: tor-talk <tor-talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Mon, Jul 15, 2013 1:25 pm
Subject: Re: [tor-talk] Will Tor affect Internet Explorer? (newbie question)


On 15 July 2013 02:46, Gabrielle wrote:
>
> The question is this: How would not being completely anonymous while
> watching "Like a Surgeon" on IE affect my anonymity while using the Tor
> path to get to reading about more intense subjects?

Every time you leak your personal information, your ISP and maybe your
government has a record.  A data point.  What you like, sure, but what
you don't like factors in as well.  For instance, let's say you often
visit the NHL web site to check up on hockey scores.  And that you
click on... provocative adverts.  But you never visit woman's wear
shopping sites.  Looking at the totality of the record, one might
reasonably assume you were male, despite your user name.  Little by
little, bit by bit, the electronic dossier grows and grows.

This gradual accumulation of personal information is why you'll often
read advice to go anonymous all the time.  Then you leak much less
personal information.  Thinking this way is not easy for those of us
who grew up on an open society; others of us have learnt the hard way
to protect our personal information.  So turn the question upside down
for a moment: How would being anonymous affect you watching 'Like a
Surgeon'?

The problem is that there are many things running in the background
which use the internet without you actively running it.  For instance,
Microsoft's Time of Day service and Microsoft Update, Google Update,
and the Java, Firefox and Adobe updaters all run silently in the
background and periodically wake up to see if something needs
attention.  Every one of these leaks your IP address and probably more
than that.

> Also, how would online shopping be affected?

Credit cards are a different problem altogether.  Clearly, if you were
to buy something online - whether using Tor or the open internet - the
credit card company knows who you are and what you bought.  In most
jurisdictions, this information is available to the government if they
ask for it.

> As for Tails, can someone give me a primer on that?

Tails is a complete operating system intended to be secure / use Tor
from the get-go.  You download the .iso file and burn that image to a
DVD.  Then you put the DVD in the DVD drive and reboot the PC.  The
machine will boot Tails off of the DVD and you will be running a
secure, (mostly) anonymous operating system.  You can surf knowing
that Adobe isn't sending 'usage statistics' behind your back like it
does with Windows.  When your 'private' session is over, take out the
DVD, reboot and you're back to leaky Windows.  There's no
configuration you need to tinker with on your computer, no strange
interactions between various applications, no wondering 'did this new
program upset the apple cart?'  It's completely separate from Windows.
 It's sort of like having a second computer without having to actually
buy a second computer.  Plus, you can take the DVD with you and surf
anonymously at a friend's house if you wish.
_______________________________________________
tor-talk mailing list
tor-talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk

 
_______________________________________________
tor-talk mailing list
tor-talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk