How much privacy does one get on Twitter?

[Wags]

There's a Twitter war developing between a couple of activists in my industry against some powerful money interests who have the city officials on their side. The city has already gone to our management, at the behest of their corporate donors, telling them to rein in their employees, as well threatening defamation suits, etc. One of the activists has touched base with the ACLU and the media is starting to get interested. The good thing is this Twitter campaign is obviously getting to them. So, how secure are these activists behind their twitter wall of anonymity? I know they don't have the resources if this escalates into some sort of legal fight. I don't want them to lose their jobs over it. And, is their anything one can do to make it even harder for someone to penetrate?

[cbelt3]

There is one basic truism that applies to everything one does on the Internet.

There is NO Privacy.

If you are going to indulge in a legally actionable activity, your anonymity can and will be stripped rather quickly. Libel, defamation, race crimes, inducing panic, inspiring sedition,etc. are generaly actionable. What "IS" one of those items is dependent on the judge and jury.

Since you are already 'under the gun' you should be talking to your legal counsel instead of asking this bunch of rummies. (Myself included).

Legal Disclaimer- This poster is not a lawyer, nor does he play one on TV. Life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness is your responsibility. No se habla espanol.

[NewtonMP2100]

.....it is like changing your clothes.....in the middle of Times Square.....during rush hour.....zero.........................................

[kap]

Love your legal disclaimer, cbelt3 :bunny:

[DRR]

2nd what cbelt3 said.

However, if done carefully, you (they) can afford themselves a little extra protection.

Let's say you buy a $20 usb wi-fi adapter so there's a unique mac address. Buy it with cash. Install it on your laptop, set up a new account from public wifi and tweet only from public areas - small coffee shops, community colleges, etc.

It's no guarantee but it would realistically make it a b*tch to find you (or whoever.) If you (or them) tweet from home, all they need to do is put legal pressure on twitter to find an ip, and then they find out who the ip belongs to.

[Wags]

cbelt3 wrote:
There is one basic truism that applies to everything one does on the Internet.

There is NO Privacy.

If you are going to indulge in a legally actionable activity, your anonymity can and will be stripped rather quickly. Libel, defamation, race crimes, inducing panic, inspiring sedition,etc. are generaly actionable. What "IS" one of those items is dependent on the judge and jury.

Since you are already 'under the gun' you should be talking to your legal counsel instead of asking this bunch of rummies. (Myself included).

Legal Disclaimer- This poster is not a lawyer, nor does he play one on TV. Life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness is your responsibility. No se habla espanol.

Ha! Its not me, although I'm tempted to get involved because I have some serious inside information. I've already touched based with my legal person - that's not what I'm asking. I figure this bunch of rummies here would know about the actual mechanisms standing between my guys and exposure. Like, could they find them through their ISP? The prime instigator seems pretty savvy, so I wonder if there's some way he/she could have set up their Twitter account to make it hard to track down their portal. Or if someone wanted to get involved but has not yet set up a Twitter account is there anything to do that would make it more difficult to unmask them? OK, that last one might be me :confused:

[Wags]

DRR wrote:
2nd what cbelt3 said.

However, if done carefully, you (they) can afford themselves a little extra protection.

Let's say you buy a $20 usb wi-fi adapter so there's a unique mac address. Buy it with cash. Install it on your laptop, set up a new account from public wifi and tweet only from public areas - small coffee shops, community colleges, etc.

It's no guarantee but it would realistically make it a b*tch to find you (or whoever.) If you (or them) tweet from home, all they need to do is put legal pressure on twitter to find an ip, and then they find out who the ip belongs to.

OK, that's what I was looking for. Thanks DRR.

[DRR]

Yes, a little legal pressure on Twitter or the ISP and they'll give up the IP address, and whoever's account it's linked to. Google, ISPs, etc have a history of cooperating with law enforcement. Or rather, ratting someone else out to cover their own a$$.

Without legal pressure, I would think it would be difficult for anyone to be able to figure out who/where someone is tweeting from.

If you choose to pursue my public wifi idea, there are a couple of other things you may consider. First, go to the thrift store or a pawn shop and buy the cheapest usable PC. Pay cash. Wipe and reinstall Windows. Use an external usb wifi adapter if possible. When you go to a coffee shop or other public place, put a rubber band around your wallet so you don't mistakenly use your credit card. Leave your cell phone at home. Don't buy anything except with cash. Fire up your web browser and tweet. Do not check any other sites. Do not check personal email. YOU WERE NEVER THERE. Alternatively drive around the suburbs looking for open wifi access points and tweet from there.

It's overly paranoid and STILL there's no guarantees, but doing these things will realistically eliminate the chance of them being able to find you. Follow all those steps and it will make it almost impossible to find you. I mean they'd have to get a court order to get a tape pull of the coffee shop security cam footage to see who was in there at the time... not terribly likely.

[Blankity Blank]

Throw a web proxy or an onion router into the mix?

[Filliam H. Muffman]

Most of the worthwhile anonymous web proxies cost money and accessing them from a limited number of locations could eventually be tracked by someone with enough money and pull.

DDR has covered most of what I was going to say. They have to switch to a cash only existence, don't even have a RFID device on their person (some new credit cards have them without telling the customer). Never use one location twice in a row. Only pick busy times/locations. Vary times and maybe even change appearance if they use a location twice. Do not use any locations they normally frequent.

I can't find/remember the exact details, but there was story last fall where a writer tried to go underground for 30 days. There was a big prize for finding him, like $20,000. He was found because he got lazy and fell into a predictable routine after he got tired of running.