Just Curoius, not paranoid

[The_Expanding_Man]

In the name of full disclosure, and protection of privacy, I hope the mods can answer me:

What information am I giving away by logging into Merb from my home computer?

Yes my i.p. address. What do the cookies that are created on my computer do?

Are they really deleted when I log out?

What information do you gather?

Thanks in advance

 

[Royal]

Oh yeah, they already tracked you: they have your name, your home address (or the address you logged in from), and with those two infos they can probably find your phone number and where you work. You're screwed
Buddy, just delete your cache and all your cookies, and log-in in private mode

 

[The_Expanding_Man]

Royal, it's a question for the mods.

Does merb retain any information after I log out?

 

[Mod 11]

Hi Expanding

MERB isn't keeping any more info than what you provides or what is visible to any web site you might visit. It would be very useful for us if we could gather other info when we deal with shills and other trolls but it's impossible to do so. We can't pull information out of your computer.

There is a log of IP and actions you did while on MERB, that's a vBulletin tracking file that exist on any vBulletin-based forum, nothing more.

Next question will be "Can you read messages in my pm box?" There are programs that exist to hack vBulletin in order to do this but, MERB is not using any. Can we prove it? No. Can anybody actually prove a MERB mod/administrator ever accessed a member's pm box before? Some tried to say we did but, no proof were ever provided, because we never did it and never will.



Thanks

 

[The_Expanding_Man]

Hi Expanding

MERB isn't keeping any more info than what you provides or what is visible to any web site you might visit. It would be very useful for us if we could gather other info when we deal with shills and other trolls but it's impossible to do so. We can't pull information out of your computer.

There is a log of IP and actions you did while on MERB, that's a vBulletin tracking file that exist on any vBulletin-based forum, nothing more.

...

Thanks

Thanks for this info.

what about when I post? What private information is attached to this post forever and ever (from your point of view)?

And how do you catch the "shills" if they have multiple computers to work with, or get a new machine with a different ip address?

For example if an agency or massage parlour has been banned, but they create a new identity on a new laptop.... how can you prove it's the same shill?

Like I said, just curious.

 

[Mod 11]

Expanding, for obvious reasons, I can't discuss how we catch shills. The info attached to the post is as explained before. It stays with the post, until the post is hard-deleted by a supermoderator or administrator, or until the database is deleted, with it's backups. When a member delete a thread or post, it's still there, including the post itself.

Curious, the physical location is given by your IP address and it's not foolproof either. For example, Vidéotron have IP blocks registered in Montréal but used in Québec City or elsewhere.

I repeat, we can gather the same info any site can gather when anybody visit, nothing more. If you don't tell us anything else, we won't get anything else.