How to be Anonymous Online

How to be Anonymous Online – A Quick Step-By-Step Manual

August 2015 Update

By A M Eydie

Copyright © A M Eydie

All Rights Reserved

2015

Table of Contents

Preface

Preview

WARNING, DISCLAIMER OR WHATEVER...

Section: Build A Toolbox

Section: Up and Running

Section: Safe Updates and PGP Program Authentication

Section: PGP/GPG – Everything you want to know

Section: Email, Chatting, Messaging

Section: Writeprints – They will identify those other anonymous netizens... but not you

Section: Bitcoin is NOT Anonymous

The Great Flaw – You are not Stealth, You are Secure

In Closing

BONUS – Creating a bootable microSD card that doubles as your phone's microSD card

The following works are cited in these instructions:

I know these instructions will be purchased by anonymity seekers of many levels. Here is where I am coming from in writing this guide and what you stand to gain.

First
, this guide is $4.99. There is something worth $4.99 in this for 95% of you. For beginners, you will be totally anonymous online in two hours (and that is giving you time for a cigarette break). For post-beginners, you will discover some little, yet important, detail(s), like a wrong setting in Tor, that will blow your cover if uncorrected. After all, Tor and Tails DO NOT come preconfigured for total anonymity (f.y.i., there is more to this guide than Tor). Remember, if you have one, single, tiny, little hole in your system, you are NOT anonymous. If you are a know-it-all anonymity expert hacker computer science grad student, you do not need this guide, so feel free to move on. Again, this guide is only $4.99. You probably earn that in 15 minutes at work. Amazon will even give you a refund if you think this whole thing is a total waste.

Second
, it is easy to be anonymous once you know how, but it is a pain in the ass when you don't. For $4.99, I will take the pain out of your ass. In the last ten years many anonymity "game changers," like Tor, Tails and Bitcoin, have come about… However, they have flaws. Tor and Tails need some modifications to be secure. Bitcoin is not anonymous in its current form. It does not even pretend to be anonymous. It is pseudonymous… This is a HUGE difference. I talk about why this matters and how Bitcoin can be anonymous in the near future with modifications YOU will make (and no, not "Bit-Laundry" services).

Third
, PGP Encryption is confusing. I break it down into short step-by-step instructions, saving hours of figuring it out yourself ($4.99 to save a few stressful hours of your life is a good deal).

Fourth
,
this is not a book you read these are instructions you follow
. If you are looking for a book to spend the day reading by the fire, do not buy these instructions. If you read these instructions in 30 minutes, and then complain that this 'book' merely says install Tails, you did not read this page, AND you did not follow the instructions. It will take you a couple hours to build a solid system.
If you want to spend $4.99 to do things the right way the first time instead of spending days searching Google and browsing forums trying to figure this stuff out yourself (and still leaving holes in your system), buy these instructions. If you build your kid a doll house, you do not want a book about doll houses, you just want instructions for building a doll house.
For $4.99, I am telling you what to do without asking you to subscribe to a proxy service, buy software or trust a third party.

Fifth
, I post all updates on my blog. I make updates often, and there is no reason you should have to buy a new copy to stay "in-the-know." As new technologies are developed, new shortcomings are discovered (like how your mega-strong encryption will be broke in 5 years), and spelling mistakes are corrected :/ I will share them with you.

1. In 1,2,3 step format
   
2. With concise, yet thorough, instructions
   
3. For beginners using a DVD bootable PC with a DVD burner
   

1. Use someone else's computer without them knowing
   
2. Browse the internet anonymously
   
3. Circumvent Windows without altering anything on the system
   
4. Make an email account that actually is anonymous
   
5. Use PGP Encryption the right way (I make this simple)
   
6. Taunt Kim Jong-Un
   

I will show you that Bitcoin is NOT Anonymous and how that is about to change.

I will provide you with future updates.

I believe in the “Keep It Simple Stupid” methodology. This manual details exactly what you need to get what you want, no more, no less. I wrote this so you could be anonymous today instead of spending the next week reading everything you find on Google and, in the end, still not know how to implement the proper steps.

The problem I've seen in other books and online instructions is they give you a bunch of sources and programs for anonymity, but they do not tie all the loose ends together. For instance, you might buy anonymity software, but god knows what a totally unrelated program in Windows is still tracking and saving to your hard drive. Besides that, if you want to use a work computer, they certainly are not going to allow you to install anonymity software. Moreover, maybe, you do not want to encrypt your hard drive because that looks suspicious. You need to run straight from a DVD, Flash Drive or Micro SD card outside of Windows altogether. I will even show you how to boot with a flash drive on old computers that typically will not do so.

Let’s tie up those loose ends.

----------

1. Disabling Cookies is USELESS
   – You are still traceable through your digital fingerprints
   
2. Using an IP Proxy Service is BAD
   – It routes all your activity through a central source that can track you
   
3. Logging into a computer is BAD
   – It leaves a record that you were there
   
4. Subscribing to an Anonymity Service is BAD
   – You are giving out your name, credit card, etc. to buy your anonymity… You are not anonymous if you have to share personal information!
   
5. Creating an anonymous Yahoo, Gmail, etc. account is BAD
   – Just ask General Petraeus how well this works
   
6. JavaScript is BAD
   – This is a prime vehicle for transporting malware into your system
   
7. Super-Cookies are BAD
   – They regenerate deleted cookies, are stealthy and hard to delete
   
8. Digital Fingerprints are REALLY BAD
   – Advertisers have begun using digital fingerprints to track an individual's activity. Digital Fingerprints are pulled by gathering the data your system provides websites, such as installed fonts, browser extensions and their micro-versions, operating system and its updates, time zone, and such. While individual bits of this information are not particularly dangerous, collectively, they are compiled to create a traceable and absolute "digital fingerprint."
   
9. Bitcoin is NOT Anonymous
   – Other books tell you that Bitcoins are Anonymous or that you can use “Bitcoin Laundry” services to cover your tracks. I will show why they are wrong and what technology is in the works to fix this.
   
10. You Have Writeprints
    – Writeprints are a means of identifying an author solely from the characteristics of her written work. With the ability for individuals to mask IP addresses and minimize digital fingerprints, writeprinting is often the only method available to identify the author.
    

Don't worry, we are going to work around these.

To my knowledge, as of August 1, 2015, no one following my instructions has faced an exploit. Since I update these instructions regularly to reflect changes in technology, weaknesses that develop will see rectification quickly and accordingly.

Unfortunately, everything has flaws, especially software. The most popular, and probably most secure, software for online anonymity is Tor. The most popular operating system for online anonymity is Tails. These are the heart and nervous system of these instructions. The strength of these programs comes from the ongoing development of each and their open code. When good guys find flaws, work to rectify them begins immediately. When bad guys find flaws, they may be exploited indefinitely.

If being anonymous online is a hobby, this is the way to go. If being anonymous online is a way to restrict corporate advertisers from tracking your online life, this is the way to go. If you hate the fact that some governments are collectively spying on you for no reason, this is a way to make a point that you are not blindly submitting and a way to complicate their efforts.

The great length that people must go to break these systems hints that they work well. However, if you want a foolproof, 100% certain way to avoid the prying eyes of every entity, there is no solution for you. There are organizations with thousands of people dedicated to tracking and watching you. If you want to use Tor to bad mouth Vladimir Putin, you should know that the Russian Ministry for Interior has a 3.9 million rubles reward for developing methods to identify you. If for nothing more than bragging rights, there are academics and hackers that simply want to be the first to publicize mistakes. In fact, a couple of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University gained a huge amount of attention for their attempts to de-anonymize Tor users in 2014.

These are advanced methods for protecting your anonymity. I take you through detailed steps, far more than you are likely to find in one place online, to authenticate your software. I think the sections on authenticating your system are the most overlooked, yet most valuable aspect of this guide. However, if you are looking for a way to evade every entity in existence, I do not know what to tell you.

Nothing I say, do, provide, link to or recommend is guaranteed to protect your anonymity. Whether it is tomorrow or thirty years from now, every security measure will eventually be compromised. That is the power of technology. Frankly, if you can sue me for it, I am telling you that I am not guaranteeing it; therefore, it is at your risk to follow or do anything that I write in this manual.

The first thing you need to do is gather your tools. By the end of this section, everything you need will be in place and ready to go.

If you are already comfortable and familiar with Tails you can skip to
Section: Safe Updates and PGP Program Authentication
.

Your Tool List:

Hardware

• DVD Bootable Computer with a DVD burner
  
• Three Blank DVD-R's (you only need one to get started)
  
• One 4 GB+ USB Flash Drive
  (
  Important – Windows 8 is screwing with us.
  The flash drive you need must NOT be "Windows 8 Certified." If you fail to find a flash drive that is NOT "Windows 8 Certified," you can use a Micro SD Card with a USB adapter instead. Many SD cards come with the USB adapter
  so a quick trip to Walmart and $10 should take care of things)
  
• (Optional) Micro SD card with a USB adapter
  

Software

• Tails
  
• Plop Boot Manager
  
• InfraRecorder
  

Step 1
: On your Desktop, create a folder named
Toolbox.

Step 2:
Download your
Tools

1. I have bunched all the software you need into one .zip file that you can download from my website.
   
2. I have https encryption, malware protection, and you do not have to register or subscribe to anything.
   
3. I recommend that you initially download the
   Tools
   from my website so you have the exact versions I used when writing this guide. Doing so will make it much easier to follow along.
   
4. Later on, you will download and install the latest versions of the software directly from the developer’s websites.
   
5. Download the tools from
   https://howtobeanonymousonline.info/toolbox/
   
6. Save the
   Toolbox.zip
   file into the
   Toolbox
   folder on your desktop (it’s over 800MB because it’s a big deal)
   
7. Now, extract the Toolbox.zip file's contents into the Toolbox folder
   

If you need a .zip file extraction program, I use 7-zip (
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sevenzip
)