SO I've been trying to educate myself on ways to further protect myself from those who mean me harm & wanted to share.

Please contribute if you have more to add to the subject or modify anything I've stated if it's incorrect!! I am by no means an expert on the subject - just a self-educated layman lol.

We live in a digital age & everything we do online leaves a digital footprint. A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is the cheapest & most effective way to leave as little imprint as possible. What a VPN does is cloak your originating public IP address by routing your activity as though it were connected through a secure & private network with a completely different IP address.

This is important. Whether you are using your home's WiFi, a hotel's, public place or prepaid internet service - you should be using a VPN. Without this extra security you are leaving yourself wide open to prying eyes. Unmasked, your IP address is tied to a GPS location (which could be your home), the hosting companies info (which WILL release your info if subpoenaed), & your activities are not secure.

There are many who use this service already. If you are like me, you use your phone to peruse/post on many escort sites or to respond to client/provider emails.  

For android users who just want to protect themselves during this usage, I recommend Flash VPN - it's completely free & easy to use. I just turn it off when I'm doing "normal" things on my phone. There are many other VPN apps you can download which may or may not cost. I found this website to be helpful in picking one:

http://www.androidauthority.com/best...n-apps-577594/

I don't use my PC for anything hobby related so information about VPNs for those who do is welcome!!

Stay safe out there & remember:

An informed community is a safer community!!

XoXo
Caramel

END OF MESSAGE

From what I have read TOR isn't reliable nor trustworthy.  VPN seems to be the best way to protect yourself.

VPN encrypts the connection and NATs the address, so yes instead of logging on Starbuck's free WiFi, a VPN would be the way to go.  But VPN activity can be logged by the VPN provider as well, so the US gov't can request it.  There is a construct called TORVPN.  They will only release your data if the request is made in Hungarian courts.  

So, if you are on a public network with a TOR browser, you IP will change several time before it returns to you. They can encrypt as well.  

Bottom line, unless you know how to mask you MAC address you can get got. That's why I would use public computer, not to transact business with credit cards and the like, but anonymous browsing with anonymous email you are good to go.

Thank you for the helpful info

The low tech method isn't bad either.  

Walk in and buy a wifi enabled device with cash.  Any number of cheap tablets can cover this need.   When you want discretion, shut off your smart phone and drive around to one of the billion free/open wifi hotspots.   Use your tablet only for the hobby.  Never do anything that could cause association with your Mac adresss to your real identity.   Sure as hell never log into any of your other online accounts.  

 
And remember - all it takes is one mistake and you could leave a footprint behind.   If they compromises a site like this, all it would take is one log on from your "normal" hardware to associate your MAC address to this account to your hobby device.  

Selection of an offshore email provider is also a nice protection.  Ups the hassle factor to request information to the point that they may not even bother

I boot from TAILS and use TOR for everything hobby-related. Free and simple to do. Type in URLs to visit sites rather than use insecure/monitored search engines. Anonymous and encrypted with TOR browser using HTTPS-Everywhere. The hardest thing to remember is to not do or offer anything personally-identifiable when connected this way.  

You can download and use ORBOT on an android device to have TOR access on your mobile, tablet, etc.., although I believe mobile devices in general are inherently less secure.

I played around with batch files to change MAC addresses, and looked at using VPN through TOR (AirVPN allows easy configuration) for an extra level of security but haven't added them to my routine yet.

I use anonymousspeech.com for hobby-only email. Hushed for voice and text.

Given that every podunk po-po has a Stingray now and they do not bother getting warrants to use them as they should... I think we should all be considering end-to-end encryption for phone and text. Redphone (android) / Signal (apple) for ete voice encryption and ChatSecure/TextSecure for OTR chat and text. Let them know who I am and where I am... they can't decrypt what I'm saying (the podunk sheriff; of course NSA can - with effort).

I guess what we do depends upon the threat we perceive... are we more concerned with being anonymous to our "dates" or to Big Brother? I say that if I have tech to confound Big Brother, that's plenty to be secure from the other. Not to mention, I like learning and applying new tech...

Used this in the past and it is fast easy and affordable.  You create a VPN tunnel to a Canadian company that has web servers throughout the world that hides your IP address.

I've been in the IT business (government and private) for 15 + years.