Anonymity made easy
[NOTE FROM BOYWIKI EDITOR -- This information is more than 15 years old. Some is still relevant, and some is not. Use the following material with caution. This information is mainly for its historical interest.
Anonymity Made Easy
A necessity for most newcomers to the BL community
Maybe you feel that you don't need to be anonymous, that you are not doing
anything illegal, and you don't need to protect your privacy. Maybe you
are new to the idea of personal privacy on the internet. Maybe you have just
discovered that there are other boylovers in the world, on the internet.
Before going any further, click on this link and read through these
introductions:
Introduction to Internet Safety
The first effort to have anonymous e-mail, for most of us, was one of the
web-based e-mail services. They offer the convenience of access from any
web browser anywhere. There are free services and pay services, and they
differ mostly in the amount of advertising that you receive. I will call them
Hotmail-style accounts, since this seems to be the largest and best known
of the web-based services. Many folks like others better. Some services,
such as USA.NET, will
forward your mail to your home e-mail address if you choose. Some can be
accessed with regular mail runs (POP3 and SMTP) just like your regular e-mail
system. They ask for some personal information, but none of them verify it.
I am told that they do expect your city (fictional or not) to match the ZIP
code. They all collect your IP number when you call, and most send your real
IP number out as part of your "anonymous" mail (supposedly
www.mrpost.com , www.supernews.com , and www.goplay.com do not).
- I have confirmed that goplay.com does not send out IP
numbers
None of these operations are in business to give you anonymity, they are selling
convenience and generally won't protect your identity if questioned.
In short, Hotmail-style accounts are simple, easy, but not very anonymous.
There is one little trick that makes it much more anonymous, which prevents
your IP number from being attached to every piece of mail that you send, and
also removes the "From: " header. Whether from Hotmail or from home. Hotmail
still has your IP number in it's logs, tied in with your account, but at least
the recipient does not have it. Everyone should understand how it works:
The Hotmail Trick
There is an encryption program around called PGP. It is different from the
simple substitution codes that everyone knows about. With PGP, there are two
keys....a "public" key for encrypting messages that only you can decrypt (you would distribute it to your friends and enemies so they can write to you)
....and a "secret" key for decrypting messages (that you keep only in your
computer). This allows privacy (of message content) but also, when used
in conjunction with the free remailers that make the "Hotmail Trick" possible,
this means that you can hide addresses, so that snoops can not tell who you
are writing to. The ultimate in anonymity is using PGP in connection with one
of the free nymservers. When I use the term "nymserver", I refer to
either nym.alias.net or anon.efga.org (anon.efga.org also
operates an ordinary remailer) - weasel.owl.de is another nymserver
that is shut down for awhile - I am not referring to www.nymserver.com which
is not the same thing at all.
A nymserver allows you to create a full-fledged e-mail account and never tell
the nymserver who or where you are. Snoops reading mail on the internet
cannot tell anything about you either. Establishing an account with a
nymserver is a little complex, because you have to set up an untraceable path from the
nymserver to you, through one or more remailers, so that your message can be
delivered to you. Remailers can use PGP, so that at each step you should
encrypt the mailing instructions for the next remailer. In order to send
outgoing mail from the nymserver, in your pseudonym, you must encrypt the
message and mailing instructions before you send it to the nymserver (this is
required by the nymserver). In other words, you are doing all the hard work,
so the administrator of the nymserver does not have to know anything.
There are programs to make all this simpler for you. Private Idaho is an
older program (for Windows) that does the simpler jobs well enough, using
several point-and-click steps. Potato is a newer program that does even the
more involved jobs of setting up and maintaining a nymserver account, it's
single data screen is available either in a window or from DOS, and it (or
Jack B. Nymble) is by far the easiest means of handling a nymserver e-mail
account, sending mail, and decrypting received mail.
(Yes, you can arrange so that even your incoming mail is encrypted,
for total privacy). Potato's "Jack B. Nymble"
Win95 program is available, and is the software of choice for Win95 users.
A member of the community who runs Macintosh has offered to walk any Mac user
through the process of setting up and using a nymserver account if you wish.
Contact me about this.
So pick whatever system fits your needs. For many of you, a simple
Hotmail-style account, together with the Hotmail Trick, is good enough.
Goplay seems to be enjoying a lot of popularity recently as well. But if you
think that anyone may be trying to track you down, with investigators or court
orders, then learning the ropes of PGP and nymservers is pretty painless. If
you want me to hold your hand (through the process of learning nymservers)
just let me know. Glad to help.
Basics from an old friend on the net, a good starting place. The first
two remailers he mentions are obsolete, and EFGA has a new Cypherpunks
remailer.
The information is simple, and a good short overview of the subject.
Lots of basic information about remailers, although not about nymservers.
Remailers and PGP make up the heart of the nymserver experience, and you
can't manange good anonymity without understanding remailers.
A new site, up-to-date with the Potato program and a simple help "kit"
to let anyone install and use it. You can establish and use a nymserver
account easily and quickly with these tools. I prefer Potato over Private
Idaho.
Secret, Secret, I've Got A Secret
The reincarnation of a popular old web page about anonymity from a notorious
old BoyChatter. He goes in to managing e-mail securely on your home computer
as well as on the internet. Where to get PGP.
A good set of links to general background information about privacy and
anonymity on the internet. Good for further study on the social angle.
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External links
https://web.archive.org/web/20001214181000/http://www.fpc.net/pages/spike/anon.htm
