Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: PuertoRico on July 30, 2013, 03:33 pm

Title: Am I safe to use images from startpage or clearnet (google images) for products?
Post by: PuertoRico on July 30, 2013, 03:33 pm
Title says it all really, may be a stupid question. Im not comfortable with using my phone camera to take product images but if I take images from websites or google images via clearnet or startpage in tor is that safe?

I will make it clear in the listing that the photos are from google, but because of the nature of the product this will not affect the buyer. I just want to make sure LE cant track that some how.

Sorry I am not very up to speed with some aspects of computer security.

One more question on shipping, if anyone has any suggestions for this. Before packaging I wear gloves and wipe down my products to avoid fingerprints obviously is there a good material or spray to remove fingerprints? I worry wiping bags down with a clean tshirt or clothe just isnt good enough in case of fibres.

Call me paranoid but better safe than sorry, thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with the above.
Title: Re: Am I safe to use images from startpage or clearnet (google images) for products?
Post by: ShApEsHiFtInGsHaPeS on July 30, 2013, 03:48 pm
from a buyers perspective i would say that taking pics from google is a bad idea.the pics are meant to be a proof that the vendor has the product and maybe can give clues about the quality. i for myself wouldn't buy from someone who's pics can clearly be traced back to a different source.

take the 10 minutes it takes to find out how to remove exif data from pics and maybe get yourself a cheap cam (not as much data as mobiles) and you are fine.
you figured out TOR,PGP and a lot of other stuff, why stop at this minor obstacle when it comes to anonymity and trustworthiness?

just my 2 satoshis
Title: Re: Am I safe to use images from startpage or clearnet (google images) for products?
Post by: jonjon2 on July 30, 2013, 03:55 pm
from a buyers perspective i would say that taking pics from google is a bad idea.the pics are meant to be a proof that the vendor has the product and maybe can give clues about the quality. i for myself wouldn't buy from someone who's pics can clearly be traced back to a different source.

take the 10 minutes it takes to find out how to remove exif data from pics and maybe get yourself a cheap cam (not as much data as mobiles) and you are fine.
you figured out TOR,PGP and a lot of other stuff, why stop at this minor obstacle when it comes to anonymity and trustworthiness?

just my 2 satoshis
100% agree, people won trust u if you use a picture from google, and it doesnt tell people u hav the product nor will it show your product .. show people what you got, with a hand written vendors name on paper next to it, i'd rather buy from a vendor that like that, than one copied and pasted, it shows no effort or personality.
Title: Re: Am I safe to use images from startpage or clearnet (google images) for products?
Post by: PuertoRico on July 30, 2013, 04:02 pm
I understand the concerns from a buyers perspective when it comes to drugs. However with things like vacuum packing materials, bongs, colour changing pipes I can get these images from headshop websites and they will probably give a clearer picture of what I am selling than me taking a photo.

For things like MDMA and weed I think taking my own pictures is a good idea and it wouldnt be fair not to.

For headshop products using google images is safe though right?
Title: Re: Am I safe to use images from startpage or clearnet (google images) for products?
Post by: ShApEsHiFtInGsHaPeS on July 30, 2013, 04:15 pm
my statements still stand when it comes to paraphernalia or packaging materials, but (as i must admit) to a much less degree.
anyway:
i guess if you download pics over google you are somehow (vagually) traceable but i don't think that LE will take the hassle to look who has downloaded a pic of a pipe if they don't think they can use it against someone who also sells significant (kilos) of drugs and even then i doubt that they can make much of it.

cheers
Title: Re: Am I safe to use images from startpage or clearnet (google images) for products?
Post by: PuertoRico on July 30, 2013, 04:20 pm
Is there really a traceability to going on to a headshop website and using one of their images? for something just like seeds, pipes etc it will be just as clear what I am selling and the quality of picture will be higher.

Other than LE being able to work out that picture is from that website could they analysis the picture to know I was one who downloaded it?

Sorry if thats a stupid question and thanks for your advice.
Title: Re: Am I safe to use images from startpage or clearnet (google images) for products?
Post by: jackherer1975 on July 30, 2013, 08:51 pm
Is there really a traceability to going on to a headshop website and using one of their images? for something just like seeds, pipes etc it will be just as clear what I am selling and the quality of picture will be higher.

Other than LE being able to work out that picture is from that website could they analysis the picture to know I was one who downloaded it?

Sorry if thats a stupid question and thanks for your advice.

not if you access the site through TOR  8)
Title: Re: Am I safe to use images from startpage or clearnet (google images) for products?
Post by: PuertoRico on July 30, 2013, 09:36 pm
I thought downloading images through tor could unmask you as such?
Title: Re: Am I safe to use images from startpage or clearnet (google images) for products?
Post by: ShApEsHiFtInGsHaPeS on July 30, 2013, 09:37 pm
Is there really a traceability to going on to a headshop website and using one of their images? for something just like seeds, pipes etc it will be just as clear what I am selling and the quality of picture will be higher.

Other than LE being able to work out that picture is from that website could they analysis the picture to know I was one who downloaded it?

Sorry if thats a stupid question and thanks for your advice.

not if you access the site through TOR  8)


as far as i understand it, that is not exactly true.i'm not smart enough to understand it completely but blah blah blah, even downloads over TOR could reveal your real IP...or something like that, blah. maybe someone who understands it better will chime in and confirm or tell me that i'm falling for SR-forum -paranoia. personally i believe that you are safe to do it that way
Title: Re: Am I safe to use images from startpage or clearnet (google images) for products?
Post by: CannabisConsumer on July 30, 2013, 10:42 pm
Is there really a traceability to going on to a headshop website and using one of their images? for something just like seeds, pipes etc it will be just as clear what I am selling and the quality of picture will be higher.

Other than LE being able to work out that picture is from that website could they analysis the picture to know I was one who downloaded it?

Sorry if thats a stupid question and thanks for your advice.

not if you access the site through TOR  8)


as far as i understand it, that is not exactly true.i'm not smart enough to understand it completely but blah blah blah, even downloads over TOR could reveal your real IP...or something like that, blah. maybe someone who understands it better will chime in and confirm or tell me that i'm falling for SR-forum -paranoia. personally i believe that you are safe to do it that way
Downloading images off of tor will not compromise security unless they are using some sort of exploit in order to install malware on your computer. Do it inside of a Tails live bootdisk/USB and you'll be fine.

What you really have to worry about is javascript, flash, java applets, ect.
Title: Re: Am I safe to use images from startpage or clearnet (google images) for products?
Post by: kmfkewm on July 30, 2013, 11:20 pm
Is there really a traceability to going on to a headshop website and using one of their images? for something just like seeds, pipes etc it will be just as clear what I am selling and the quality of picture will be higher.

Other than LE being able to work out that picture is from that website could they analysis the picture to know I was one who downloaded it?

Sorry if thats a stupid question and thanks for your advice.

not if you access the site through TOR  8)


as far as i understand it, that is not exactly true.i'm not smart enough to understand it completely but blah blah blah, even downloads over TOR could reveal your real IP...or something like that, blah. maybe someone who understands it better will chime in and confirm or tell me that i'm falling for SR-forum -paranoia. personally i believe that you are safe to do it that way

To a large extent it depends on what you are downloading and what you are doing with it after it is downloaded. If you download a Word document (or any other advanced text editing format/document) it could deanonymize you after you open it, because such documents can have hotlinked pictures embedded in them. So you download the document via Tor and then open it up in an application that is not set to go through Tor, and it loads the hotlinked image directly without going through Tor. That is the reason why it is not safe to open arbitrary things that you have downloaded through Tor unless you take precautions against such things happening (like opening the document in a virtual machine without networking enabled). Different files carry different risks, lots of document formats can have issues like this including .pdf, certain video files could try to load a certain codec or otherwise phone home as well also depending on the video player you run them in. For the most part pictures are safe to download and open through Tor without having to worry about things like this, although it never hurts to see if the image editing program you are using is even network capable. Amazingly these days almost every damn thing can connect to the internet, even stuff that I would think has next to no place in being networking enabled. The biggest risk comes from feature rich documents and videos though, images and simple .txt files generally cannot do this sort of thing.
Title: Re: Am I safe to use images from startpage or clearnet (google images) for products?
Post by: CannabisConsumer on July 30, 2013, 11:34 pm
-snip-
-snip-

-snip-

To a large extent it depends on what you are downloading and what you are doing with it after it is downloaded. If you download a Word document (or any other advanced text editing format/document) it could deanonymize you after you open it, because such documents can have hotlinked pictures embedded in them. So you download the document via Tor and then open it up in an application that is not set to go through Tor, and it loads the hotlinked image directly without going through Tor. That is the reason why it is not safe to open arbitrary things that you have downloaded through Tor unless you take precautions against such things happening (like opening the document in a virtual machine without networking enabled). Different files carry different risks, lots of document formats can have issues like this including .pdf, certain video files could try to load a certain codec or otherwise phone home as well also depending on the video player you run them in. For the most part pictures are safe to download and open through Tor without having to worry about things like this, although it never hurts to see if the image editing program you are using is even network capable. Amazingly these days almost every damn thing can connect to the internet, even stuff that I would think has next to no place in being networking enabled. The biggest risk comes from feature rich documents and videos though, images and simple .txt files generally cannot do this sort of thing.
This is why anyone who takes their anonymity seriously should be using Tails.
Title: Re: Am I safe to use images from startpage or clearnet (google images) for products?
Post by: kmfkewm on July 30, 2013, 11:40 pm
Tails takes care of this problem but there are other solutions as well. I think isolation of the working environment from Tor and external IP address is an even better solution. And then there are things like Qubes that let you automatically open files in untrusted virtual machines without internet access.
Title: Re: Am I safe to use images from startpage or clearnet (google images) for products?
Post by: PuertoRico on July 31, 2013, 04:31 pm
Thanks for all the info everyone. Tails is something im going to have to get rolling and for the mean time I will download some images from tor and remove meta data from others.