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That's a great idea
Pass-er-By 237 reads
posted

Hide something not so bad.

I had that come up when there was a couple of hundred dollars unaccounted for. Hmmm, what did I spend that on?

A hobby she does not approve of, but not this one....as far as she knows.

watchm892617 reads

To one and all with SO's!!!
Remember that your browsers have a private browsing setting that will not keep track of the sites you visit or the passwords you use!!  

Very easy to access via tools tab for Firefox or the wrench icon for chrome.
For iPads goto the settings icon, highlight safari then turn on private browsing.  

When your done reviewing, searching, or chatting just close your browser and all is reset back to normal like you were never there.  iPads you have to go back and turn off private browsing!

Have fun and stay safe!!!

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Alliscool579190 reads

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KGirlCrazy348 reads

Get your own laptop. Password protect it. And don't let anyone else use it, ever.

And for the super-paranoid, there is a great program, totally free, called TrueCrypt. Download that, learn how to use it, and keep all of your information encrypted. Unless your SO works for the CIA, she won't ever be able to crack that level of security!  :)

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mindoverbatter326 reads

Is it worth getting a second phone just for hobbying?  I feel like this is a major inconvenience as I'll either have to carry around two phones or go to the bat cave to check messages from time to time.  Plus if the SO sees it, it'll be hard to explain away.

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KGirlCrazy292 reads

Yeah, second cell phone is a double-edged sword. Very good to keep everything separate. But if your SO finds it, then you're screwed. Anybody watch Breaking Bad? Good example of that!

Ultimately, I think it's better to have one computer and one phone that are password-protected and only used by you. Keep them totally off limits to everyone else. If the SO wants to check your phone/computer, the answer is "no." If she threatens to leave because of it, the answer is: "There's the door."

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mindoverbatter244 reads

A friend recommended putting cell on airplane mode whenever he's away from his phone.  This keeps all texts, emails, vibrations at bay until he returns.  Plus it's more discrete than keeping phone on silent or vibrate mode.

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watchm892246 reads

Nice!!!
Never thought of that!

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Alliscool579260 reads

Before you do anything, you need plausible deniability. After that, you weight your risk vs reward. On cell phone, I got a hobby phone. I turn it off and keep it at the bottom of my tool box (my SO has absolutely no interest in tools). I only correspond with emails. I password protect my PC. I'll take it out only after my SO is out of the house and I am on my way out to hobby. I also started to complain about my cell phone reception. If my SO find my hobby cell phone then I will try to explain it away by saying I am testing different cell carrier. After each encounter, I erase everything on the hobby cell and all emails on my PC. Oh, I use a different password for hobby only.

I welcome any suggestion.

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Alliscool579245 reads

I do use TrueCrypt. It's very easy to use and provide pretty decent security. It's probably good enough for SO, but probably not for LE. Make sure you use a good password.
I have been concerned with email security because they are comparable to a post card in the snail mail world. Anyone, who intercept it, can read it. That's why I started to use Hushmail. They will encrypt your emails so it will be comparable to a letter in an envelope. Unfortunately, not too many people use it. I think PM is a better choice than regular emails, such as Gmail, YahooMail, etc. I wish more people will use it. It's a lot more likely for SO to snoop into our email accounts than into our TER accounts.

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Pass-er-By238 reads

Hide something not so bad.

I had that come up when there was a couple of hundred dollars unaccounted for. Hmmm, what did I spend that on?

A hobby she does not approve of, but not this one....as far as she knows.

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ddglover295 reads

I gotta soon write an "article" about that. But for now, here are the top two things you must have:
1. You don't need another phone. Your phone needs another number. Get that with Google Voice and tweak its settings to fit your needs. You don't want your phone to ring? Wanna screen callers? Check.
2. American Express Prepaid Debit Card. It's rechargeable. And get paperless statements.

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Alliscool579197 reads

After reading your post, I have started trying out Google Voice. It sure is more convenient to keep only 1 phone and reduce the chance to be caught by SO of 2nd cell. You can also save the monthly fee of a prepaid cell. However, there's few potential downsides. It may be suspicious if your SO checks the cell statement and notices strange phone #s on it. With prepaid cell phone, you can be 100% anonymous. With Google Voice, you will leave a trial at Google and LE can get info if they want. I don't feel the downsides are that significant, but it may be for someone else.

From reading AmEx Prepaid Debit Card FAQs, it appears that the card you buy at retail is only temporary card. Do you need to get the permanent card from AmEx? That definitely will be a problem if they need to ship it to me.

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ddglover228 reads

First, make all your statements paperless. Second, calls made through Google Voice may or may not appear in your phone's statement depending on your phone and carrier.

About leaving an electronic trail, even without using Google Voice you leave a trail in your carrier. So who do you trust: Google or Verizon/AT&T/T-Mobile? I'm not a lawyer, but I doubt local LE can obtain your records without warrant. Now the higher powers might be able to monitor all your communication, but unless your hobbying could be considered an act of terrorism, I doubt they'd be interested on you. But if you're really paranoid, get TOR in your phone.

Ship AmEx to your work address or get your own PO box.

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