Logging? Are we retraceable?

[Smork]

Just in case that the servers get taken over by some executive forces... does the server log anything that could be used to retrace visitors? Talking about IP addresses, cookies, browser footprints, anything like this...

Just in case...

[TheDawg]

Just in case that the servers get taken over by some executive forces... does the server log anything that could be used to retrace visitors? Talking about IP addresses, cookies, browser footprints, anything like this...

Just in case...

Unless it's been disabled, and depending on what webserver is running there might be access logs.

I know apache has a logfile called access.log.
It looks something like this:

Code: Select all

123.456.789.123 - - [02/Oct/2014:15:08:14 +0200] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 474 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/29.0.1547.57 Safari/537.36"

(Note the IP (123.456.789.123) is made up...)

I'm sure it could be disabled if someone wanted to.
So I can't answer to if this server has any kind of logging, but by default the webserver probably does.
As well as the forums (phpBB) probably keeps track of which IPs users login with. (By default at least)

Anyways, a very good question! I also believe this might belong in the Help forum.

[Wicked]

you are a user in a forum. what's illegal about that. you post links here just like google has links to photos. right?

[TheDawg]

you are a user in a forum. what's illegal about that. you post links here just like google has links to photos. right?

Yeah, if they would take the servers, which isn't very likely, they won't care about the users. They'd be more interested in the owner/admin.

[Smork]

Being justified and actually winning a case are two different things. It's not illegal to just look at the leaked photos. But it can raise an initial suspicion that one has also looked at (accidentally) leaked pictures of (at the time the picture was taken) underage stars. At least in my country this initial suspicion might already be enough to lead executive forces to execute a search warrant. Getting such a warrant here isn't much of an issue since we have far too few judges. Someone once calculated that a judge here has merely two minutes to subscribe a request for a search warrant because he doesn't have to justify the positive decision. On the other hand if he denied to subscribe he would have to justify the denial. You probably can imagine what the result is: most search warrants are granted, no matter if they are justified or not, because judges are just humans and humans are lazy.

TL;DR: Call me paranoid. I just want to avoid unfounded house search.

//edit: I have to add to this. Just thinking this way, talking about this, shows us where all this surveillance mania has already lead us. We feel guilty and fear punishment for things that are totally legal at least on paper. Isn't that horrible?

[Wicked]

I wonder if phpbb has a addon that lets you add blocklists? Other forums "That I personally hosted" (not this one) had that option.

[groot]

Re: Logging? Are we retraceable?
Unread postby Smork » Fri Oct 03, 2014 1:31 pm

Being justified and actually winning a case are two different things. It's not illegal to just look at the leaked photos. But it can raise an initial suspicion that one has also looked at (accidentally) leaked pictures of (at the time the picture was taken) underage stars. At least in my country this initial suspicion might already be enough to lead executive forces to execute a search warrant. Getting such a warrant here isn't much of an issue since we have far too few judges. Someone once calculated that a judge here has merely two minutes to subscribe a request for a search warrant because he doesn't have to justify the positive decision. On the other hand if he denied to subscribe he would have to justify the denial. You probably can imagine what the result is: most search warrants are granted, no matter if they are justified or not, because judges are just humans and humans are lazy.

TL;DR: Call me paranoid. I just want to avoid unfounded house search.

//edit: I have to add to this. Just thinking this way, talking about this, shows us where all this surveillance mania has already lead us. We feel guilty and fear punishment for things that are totally legal at least on paper. Isn't that horrible?

Damn man! Where are you from? I mean, in here (Portugal), and in a lot of country's in Europe, they would need a pretty good fucking reason to search my house and my shit. Like you said, it´s not illegal to look or even to download the pics, that problem is in the hackers. If they are underage that's a different story but i bet that they are gonna first look for people who have priors rather that any of us.

And totally agree with the edit part, people are waaayy to paranoid these days, and the internet only came to aggravate that even more. And also because nowadays we have too little privacy, cell phones, computers, camera streets, you name it...

[allen12345]

Everything tracks you these days, if your concerned about a trace of you being left behind use the tor browser. Just don't use it for anything that you login to like online banking or gmail...

I'm sure the day will come soon when potential employers will be able to get your search history and what sites you visit as part of a background check.

[Smork]

Damn man! Where are you from?

Germany.

I mean, in here (Portugal), and in a lot of country's in Europe, they would need a pretty good fucking reason to search my house and my shit.

Well, current method here in Germany often is to just request a search warrant on an initial suspicion, get it granted due the judge lacking time and just execute it without questioning. Even if you sue police afterwards, most of the time those lawsuits get abandoned. It's just a gut feeling but I think this problem is getting more and more serious. Well, like I said, call me paranoid with regard to this particular situation. But it's definitely and in fact way too easy for the police to get a search warrant here.

Like you said, it´s not illegal to look or even to download the pics, that problem is in the hackers. If they are underage that's a different story but i bet that they are gonna first look for people who have priors rather that any of us.

Initial suspicion paired with overworked judges...

And totally agree with the edit part, people are waaayy to paranoid these days, and the internet only came to aggravate that even more. And also because nowadays we have too little privacy, cell phones, computers, camera streets, you name it...

And so am I. But it's a kind of paranoia that is unfortunately supported by actual real cases. Including myself. I've already experienced a house search. It's something that I wouldn't even wish my worst enemy. Well... to be honest, yes, I would... but it's something I absolutely don't want to experience once more.

To begin with I just wanted to know if I'm logged here... which leads us to my initial question. Am I, Mr Admin, kind sir?

[Wicked]

Via Update page

this website doesnt keep any logs for your protection

[conflicted]

However, the 'terms of agreement' which we 'agree' to when registering to the forum also contains these words:

The IP address of all posts are recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions.

As a user you agree to any information you have entered to being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent, neither “The Fappening - Now a community!” nor phpBB shall be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.

The "information" talked about in the above lines includes our email adresses, which itself contains further details about us that can be used to track us.