Internet Security Tips

[CK4957 STD]

I summarize the most important points:

DON´T register at a zoo site with a internet persona (nickname) that you are reknown for at other places on the net
DON´T USE an avatar, profile pic or any personal pic that you are reknown for using on non zoo sites
DON´T register using your real name that is unique
NEVER post an unobstructed face pic
DON´T post pics that can be easily identified
DON´T put a small town name as your location in your profile
DON´T be specific about your personal life
NEVER create a timeline for the public
DON´T register with shared email address
DON´T use a shared computer without clearing the history and cache each time you visit
DON´T put your address, phone number or email address in your signature or profile

When you communicate with other members on this zoo site:

LOOK through a member's posting history to see if what they might be conveying to you is what their posts represent.
TRY to find an answer to: Are they pleasant to all? Non-confrontational? Have they been accepted by the community
and given likes? Do they have a high Like percentage in relation to their number of post? Do they participate actively
with the community? How long have they been here? Does their profile reflect any information that they have relayed
to you? What is their motive for contacting you and is there a less than admireable underlying motive?

There´s absolutely no need to hurry... TAKE THE TIME to get to know the community overall and its members...

STAY CLEAR OF CONTROVERSY on the forum - DON´T MAKE FOES... There is a good reason why we have mods to intervine - use
PM option if there´s someone making trouble.

DON´T make a public spectacle of a situation! DON´T take your problem and blow it up by making a new topic about it!
Using the PM system to a mod will save you a whole lot of grief.

ALWAYS BE AWARE that EVERYONE is paying attention to you. It is not wise to make yourself known as NEEDY, STARVED FOR
ATTENTION. DON'T BEG FOR ATTENTION!

You can add your own tips. Thanks, and Good Luck!

 

[CK4957 STD]

Oldman´s Online Security Tips

Originally posted by Oldman

GENERAL POSTING
1. Do not use an identifiable avatar. This includes faces, tattoos, fursuits (especially if they are not yours)

2. Review every picture, every video you post multiple times. Look for identifiable things; houses, barns, unique saddles, collars with or without tags, pictures, furniture, mail, packages, collectibles, mirrors or anything can reflect your face or body, absolutely anything that can be used as identification.

(2A. Use an EXIF stripper program to delete EXIF data in your jpg files
2B. Remove all metadata and personal Information from your media files)

[Originally posted by dogluver101]
I believe mostly all video files and of course images of all formats store metadata.
Many of the stuff stored in them is slightly different for the format. Such as exposure, ISO, camera type, etc. Even serial numbers of
the device used. If equipped, it can take down GPS data. There is away of removing it, but there's also away to remove it just by
right clicking on the file and going to properties. Then "Details" and on the bottom "Remove metadata and Personal Information.

3. If you have a unique pet, be very, very careful. If you have posted normal pictures anywhere, like facebook, twitter, ect., do not post him here or anywhere zoo themed. Even if you delete the social media pics, it's too late. ( Familiarize yourself with Reverse Image Search, what
it is, and how it can be used against you )

4. Be careful with the information you post. Anyone with enough patience can piece together little things through pictures, descriptions, email addresses, anything to pinpoint who you are.

5. Use an email that is not attached to anything. Do not use real name, and do not setup a password recovery phone number or alternate email. Make yourself an absolute stand alone free email account and do not use it for anything else but zoo. Not even furry or fursuit related sites or accounts.


ONLINE SECURITY
1. Public IP addresses can be used to track your general location. We Recommend a VPN service like Nord VPN to mask your IP.
ALWAYS USE VPN!

2. Use Strong Passwords on your ZooVille Account.

3. Use an Encrypted email service like protonmail.com vs the large ones like yahoo.com or gmail.com for zoo related activity.

4. Whatsapp and Discord are NOT recommended services for private off-site chat. They have been known to be leaked and report info on users.

5. Telegram and Signal are considered safe in of themselves, however always used a VPN when logging onto telegram and also be wary of phishing for your IP address with external HTML links. This has been used before to catch users NOT using VPN on telegram or Signal.

6. Public telegram links to group chats are allowed here on zooville if you own a group (see site rules), however be aware that bestiality is illegal in many countries. Law enforcement can phish users out into private chats is a common way to trace and doxx your identity. TRUST and RESPONSIBILITY is on your hands for whomever private chats you join.

 

[CK4957 STD]

Originally posted by Pickle

Sound advice, as always. Somethings came to mind as I was reading it:

Delete anything beast/zoo from the dropdown menu in your address bar;
Delete anything beast/zoo from your hard drive, use a flash drive;
Delete any beast/zoo shortcuts from your smartphone browser.
Close your last tab.

I sometimes use my smartphone to peruse Zooville, and wondered what would happen if I was suddenly in a medical emergency, and a first responder woke up my phone to call my ICE number, and found a pic of some dude banging a sheep, or some chick getting nailed by a German Shepard.

Just my two cents.

 

[CK4957 STD]

Originally posted by PansFriendOfTheForest

As for good, strong passwords:

I use 32-character length, composed of mixed case alphabet, numeric, AND symbols without any problems.

I would like to add:

DO NOT use the same password you use elsewhere! ! !
DO change your passwords periodically (at least once a month is a good start).
Clear your browser cache and cookies before you close it (if not already automatically done through any "end-of-session" settings).

If you need an example of good strong passwords,
Check out: https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/
( WordPress Secret Key service generates 64-character hashes - mixed case, numeric, and symbols! )

I would also advise being very careful about visiting this or any other similar site through the use of TOR, or any other "free proxy" services: Your security is only as good as the trustworthiness of the proxy/end-point operators! - This is especially true for those sites you log in to.

- Pan

 

[Zoo50]

I would add that using VPNs is not a completely perfect method of hiding one's identity -- even if the VPN provider says they're not keeping logs, one is still "at the mercy" of what the VPN provider does (for instance, the VPN provider could be lying and they could be keeping logs). Theoretically, if the authorities demanded that a VPN provider hand over one's data, they would probably do it.

Tor Browser is not perfect either, but at least with Tor Browser there are three different "nodes" between the person and the website, so even if the final node is malicious, they can't see where the traffic is coming from. There are still some weaknesses to Tor (when Javascript is enabled, for example). Meanwhile, a VPN provider may have sensitive data (such as one's real IP address) stored on their servers (unless one is using a VPN and Tor Browser, which is a whole other story).

Both VPNs and Tor Browser hide one's real IP address -- they just differ in some ways. They both have issues, but they're both better than using a "common" unprotected browser.

There are things called "secure operating systems"; the most well known secure operating systems are Tails and Whonix. Tails is an amnesiac operating system, while Whonix is an operating system that can run from within a common OS (such as Windows or Mac) -- Whonix uses two "virtual machines" (VMs) run from within the VirtualBox program (usually) and all connections are sent through Tor -- if malware (such as Javascript-related malware) gets into a VM, it cannot "escape" from the Whonix VM, and so malware cannot ever see one's real IP address. The Whonix VMs also hide internal computer data (like one's MAC address). Tails, one the other hand, is more focused on "amnesiac" functions (like deleting sessions).

As was already said, people should delete the EXIF data associated with their photos or videos, which can include things like GPS coordinates, the type of camera used, the time, etc. Identifiable things within the photo itself should be removed so that it is "anonymized". Like dogluver101 said, photos of "common" animals and breeds are safer than "unusual" animals.

People should encrypt their data with an encryption program such as VeraCrypt. To stop "stylometry", one could use an anonymizing writing program such as "Anonymouth". Also, don't use Google (use DuckDuckGo).

 

[CK4957 STD]

How to deal with phoney peeps?

The anonymity of the www gives folks the freedom to completely re-invent their lives. Some men and women do
use this opportunity to project an idealized version of themselves to get attention, or to get something they don´t
get in real life... Men posing as women, old posing as young, non-zoos posing as zoos, poor posing as rich etc.etc.
Fake people act that way because it pays off for them for a while. If they aren't good enough at faking to get away
with it, they stop doing it. That´s why many of them will disappear. Some soon, some later. Either way, problem solved.

 

[Sapphic_Yiff]

Sorry to be one asking the dumb questions, but : Why the need to be so secure about this forum ? What is the danger of it ? What are the risks I am taking in writing this reply for instance ? I don't understand.

 

[caikgoch]

Sorry to be one asking the dumb questions, but : Why the need to be so secure about this forum ? What is the danger of it ? What are the risks I am taking in writing this reply for instance ? I don't understand.

This is a public forum. Good guys and bad guys both frequent these pages so you need to protect yourself thoroughly until you are certain who is who. Even then you need to protect your identity. Intruders in any part of the chain between you and and the trusted few can become a threat. Your ISP can be the worst threat.

 

[Zoo50]

This is a public forum. Good guys and bad guys both frequent these pages so you need to protect yourself thoroughly until you are certain who is who. Even then you need to protect your identity. Intruders in any part of the chain between you and and the trusted few can become a threat. Your ISP can be the worst threat.

Both VPNs and Tor Browser hide sessions from ISP, right?

 

[caikgoch]

Both VPNs and Tor Browser hide sessions from ISP, right?

TOR is an enhanced VPN. You can use TOR to go extra risky places but don't try to download with it. Both will hide you destination and content from your ISP and anyone else in your network but they won't hide the volume or nature of your traffic. It will be obvious when you download but not what.

Remember that most outings and prosecutions are from your physical device when someone breaks into it. The only way to fully protect a physical device is to switch to a SELinux OS with complete encryption and never leave it running out of your sight. All other OSs have factory back doors.

 

[Zoo50]

TOR is an enhanced VPN. You can use TOR to go extra risky places but don't try to download with it. Both will hide you destination and content from your ISP and anyone else in your network but they won't hide the volume or nature of your traffic. It will be obvious when you download but not what.

Remember that most outings and prosecutions are from your physical device when someone breaks into it. The only way to fully protect a physical device is to switch to a SELinux OS with complete encryption and never leave it running out of your sight. All other OSs have factory back doors.

Do you know if switching Tor exit nodes frequently makes one safer?

 

[squirtforme]

Here's one more thing if you are using Windows. You've swept your browser, emptied the trash, cleared histories, and so on ... you think you're computer's pretty clean, right? Don't forget to delete the windows explorer's thumbnail cache. Here's a pretty good article on what it is and how to do it: View and Delete Thumbnails in Thumbs.db or thumbcache.db

Just for fun, download the "thumbcache viewer" app (in the article) and drag/drop some of your thumbcache files in "C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer" folder. You'll be surprised what you find. Here's what's in one of my thumbcache files: