Hello there,

I'll be blunt, I've got two separate enquires I'd like to make regarding the Roleplay-guild. To be honest, I'm not very good with technology and therefore the more technical aspects of my concerns might be messily written, but I'll do my best to explain myself and questions, so please bare with me. Alright, here we go!

1: This website appears to be falsely flagged up by my mobile's internet service provider.

Whenever I attempt to access this website using my mobile data, and without Wi-Fi, the guild is usually flagged as 'insecure' and subsequently blocked. My phone will incorrectly proclaim the domain is attempting to 'steal personal information' or could be used as such by hackers. Even stranger is this error appears to be inconsistent, sometimes (for seemingly no reason) the website will work flawlessly, only for it to be blocked again later. At the current moment it's working, but I'm sure it'll be faulty again soon. This issue never occurs when using Wi-Fi, even public Wi-Fi at that.

2: Privacy and data

I often use incognito mode when browsing this site as I tend to engage in adult themes, preferring to keep these personal and unrelated to my day-to-day life. Nevertheless, even with this precaution I've noticed ads popping which give the accurate addresses to nearby businesses, sometimes within walking distance away from my actual location. Now I'm not an expert on the matter, but if google has taught me anything in last few hours of searching, it's all due to something called an 'IP address' that's linked to my real-time location. So, my question is, how long does this website store personal data and IP addresses (honestly, my only real concern is the IP, nothing more). Is my IP address permanently logged onto the site, or will it be automatically overwritten/deleted if enough time passed without me being on the site? I'm guessing this site stores information separately to the ads too, if so then I'm only concerned about the site, and how long IP addresses is stored.

And that's it

I'm perfectly aware my understanding of the internet, and how it functions, is rather lacking despite my frequent usage of it. I'm not sure if I've provided enough information for you to work with here or even if my questions made much sense. Either way, I hope you can get back to me soon!

Cheers.

I often use incognito mode when browsing this site as I tend to engage in adult themes, preferring to keep these personal and unrelated to my day-to-day life. Nevertheless, even with this precaution I've noticed ads popping which give the accurate addresses to nearby businesses, sometimes within walking distance away from my actual location. Now I'm not an expert on the matter, but if google has taught me anything in last few hours of searching, it's all due to something called an 'IP address' that's linked to my real-time location. So, my question is, how long does this website store personal data and IP addresses (honestly, my only real concern is the IP, nothing more). Is my IP address permanently logged onto the site, or will it be automatically overwritten/deleted if enough time passed without me being on the site? I'm guessing this site stores information separately to the ads too, if so then I'm only concerned about the site, and how long IP addresses is stored.

All incognito mode does is intentionally fail to save your browsing history. It clearly states that your ISP and the like may still be able to see the sites you visit, and they do since they're the ones routing all that traffic unless you're using something like TOR (although with the right analysis methods or you owning nodes through which traffic is routed, even this isn't completely hidden from prying eyes). So naturally ads in Chrome can see/display your IP address--or your router's rather--and then narrow down your location based on that. Chrome as a browser does the exact same when you're just browsing regularly, it even states your estimated location near the bottom of the page of search results for example. They do this even if you turn locational data off, although it gives a supposedly less accurate location. I say supposedly because I personally have that option switched off on my PC and phone and they still narrow down my real world location to within a town of where I actually live.

There's also analyzing traffic a user sends in general, along with what sites they visit and products they purchase to put together a kind of profile that lets you narrow down where they are most likely to be in the real world, but since my memory is so spotty at the moment I won't go too deep into that as I don't want to give potentially misleading or false information. Matter of fact, those who know more or have more experience in the IT and data analysis field please feel free to correct anything I might have messed up thus far, lol.

The first issue could be caused by a wide variety of things. See the follow-up reply for more info.

Found this. This might help explain the IP issue you've mentioned: support.google.com/websearch/answer/1…

Also this: howtogeek.com/115483/htg-explains-lea…

Actual info on the "Site Not Secure" error you mentioned, as well as means by which it can be fixed: hostinger.com/tutorials/site-cant-pro…

Hello there!

I'm not certain if the website was updated or edited in any meaningful way just before/after posting this thread, but despite repeated attempts to use mobile data to trigger the error, it seemingly is working fine now. I have legitimately no explanation for this, and can apparently use the site without WiFi, as its no longer blocked by my mobile service provider. I'm actually using my mobile data to type/post this very response, something which was impossible just last week. Again, no idea why and it's almost frustrating that it starts working the moment I post something about it, hahaha.

Thanks for the detailed links about IP addresses, it did further my understanding of that concept entirely, and made me realise how little I am invisible online; which is both fascinating and terrifying at the same time hahaha! I still want to know, for how long (roughly) would websites like this one store information about IP addresses/data from site users? For example, would the IP address I had when I first signed up (whatever and whenever that was) still be logged, and for however long will that information remain? Is it even logged by the site at all? If I were to stop using the site at any point for an extended period of time, would the IP addresses I've used still remain for administers to peruse if they do desired, or would it eventually be lost/deleted/overwritten given enough time?

Cheers.

Hello there!

I'm not certain if the website was updated or edited in any meaningful way just before/after posting this thread, but despite repeated attempts to use mobile data to trigger the error, it seemingly is working fine now. I have legitimately no explanation for this, and can apparently use the site without WiFi, as its no longer blocked by my mobile service provider. I'm actually using my mobile data to type/post this very response, something which was impossible just last week. Again, no idea why and it's almost frustrating that it starts working the moment I post something about it, hahaha.

Thanks for the detailed links about IP addresses, it did further my understanding of that concept entirely, and made me realise how little I really am invisible online; which is both fascinating and terrifying at the same time hahaha! I still want to know, for how long (roughly) would websites like this one store information about IP addresses from site users? For example, would the IP address I had when I first signed up (whatever and whenever that was) still be logged, and for however long will that information remain? Is it even logged at all? If I were to stop using the site at any point for an extended period of time, would the IP addresses I used still remain?

Cheers.

This can explain the logging aspect: vpnranks.com/ip-address/what-is-ip-lo….

As for the site, I'm not privy to the internal workings of it. But from what I have seen Mahz is the only one who can really do anything substantial update wise since he's the only one with access to the server, but he's rarely online and active here despite being the owner. So it being updated is unlikely to have been what resolved or caused it. At least that's what I assume from the information given. It sounds more likely to be something with your network or ISP or something else on your end than it is the Guild considering that mobile data allowed your request to go through without returning a similar warning or error.

Oh and for more info on just how not anonymous we all really are, government agencies like the NSA and FBI or CIA aside (as they all have their own means of breaking cryptographic protections, or already look at all or most of the data you send, and so on), there's this wikipedia page on web tracking. Obviously looking at the sources and doing your own research is recommended: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_tracking

EDIT: I can't say for how long each address is logged as it likely varies from administrator to administrator, server to server, site to site, etc. Plus I'm not in the IT field professionally just yet, I only have what I know from reading online and from what I got when getting my associates degree (I am working on my bachelors presently), so I can't speak with any authority as to the general practices of, say, a company like Google when it comes to how long they keep logs of IP addresses.

All right, so one of the only things I could find on IP logging policies is a Stack Exchange question. The rest was either Quora discussions or Reddit threads: security.stackexchange.com/questions/….

I'll go ahead and link those too come to think of it, along with a blog on the matter I found, but take them with a grain of salt just in case: quora.com/For-how-long-do-ISPs-store-…

chefkochblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/18…

reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/nc3jht/…

torrentfreak.com/how-long-does-your-i…

Hello there!

I'm suppose my questions regarding how long this particular website logs/stores IP addresses for can only be answered by one of the mods here, even if they can't do anything to edit/change those logs. I'm not too concerned about other sites at this moment, even if it is somewhat scary to know I'm not nearly as anonymous as I thought I was, since I'm specifically curious about this domain for the time being. I suppose we'll have to wait for a mod to read the thread and then answer that last remaining question. I think its best to PM me if you want to talk about this further, as to not digress the thread, otherwise any mods might not see/answer my above last remaining question.

Thanks for the information though, honestly, I appreciate it.

Hello there!

I'm suppose my questions regarding how long this particular website logs/stores IP addresses for can only be answered by one of the mods here, even if they can't do anything to edit/change those logs. I'm not too concerned about other sites at this moment, even if it is somewhat scary to know I'm not nearly as anonymous as I thought I was, since I'm specifically curious about this domain for the time being. I suppose we'll have to wait for a mod to read the thread and then answer that last remaining question. I think its best to PM me if you want to talk about this further, as to not digress the thread, otherwise any mods might not see/answer my above last remaining question.

Thanks for the information though, honestly, I appreciate it.

In the past Posts would have their IPs stored in the header for us to see, we could then use an IP searcher to connect posts of multiple accounts.

There was however an issue when we started to get more spam so Mahz changed the way the IP lookup worked and used another method for searching posts. This however created an issue cause something in the code wasn't accounting for VPNs and it would just endlessly look up IPs from posts that were seemingly not connected... And so the site crashed and lagged a few times.

Since then the IP feature has been disabled so we don't have much visibility on some of those aspects, and with VPNs IP look ups are rather pointless. For instance some games in the past have banned cheaters based on their hardware not their IP, meaning that to evade it people would have to buy a new stick of ram or GPU with a different serial code.

There's actually a really good video sum up on IPs and VPNs here if you wanna understand your Internet privacy more and why VPNs can be a waste of time.



If anything, the main take away from all this is that regardless to what site you're on the simple fact that your device is just connected means that you are always visible to others online.

@ADarkLightbulb

Hi, I can help with some of the issues you've been running into. The ISP thing sounds similar to something we've encountered before. Can you PM me a screenshot of the error and the ISP you use (either for your home or your cell carrier, whichever the error shows up on)? The reason it doesn't show up on wifi is because you'd be on whatever ISP they use, which may not falsely flag the site.

In terms of privacy, I can answer your questions. I'm also a professional in information security, so hopefully I can put your mind at ease.

The Guild doesn't store any personal information (obviously some details are necessary for the site to operate at all, like the email you use to register) as far as I can recall. I can go back and check the database logic to tell you exactly what goes into it if you want me to (and if you want to fact check me, the Guild is open-source, and our code is available on GitHub).

In terms of the ads you're seeing, that's based on Google's ad network, which is on pretty much every site on the net, not specific to the Guild. Havoccultist is correct in that it uses heuristic information to figure out your general location, including both previous google-connected sites you've visited and your IP address. People make a big deal about IPs for some reason (probably a remnant from when networks were build slightly differently than they are now), but it's not private information and shouldn't be something you're super worried about people getting unless you really want your (very broad) location to be completely obscured from anyone. Additionally, if it's any comfort, none of the mods have access to live data. Only the superadmin who runs the site does.

The one additional caveat I'd note is that modern encryption is very, very strong. I appreciate a healthy skepticism of government agencies, and fortunately that's led to protocols that, to the best of the infosec industry's knowledge, not even the big three-letters can crack (which might make you feel better about the state of things @Havoccultist). Obviously there are other ways to get information and I could write a novelette here diving into all of them, but as a general rule all end-to-end encrypted traffic (on the web that's HTTPS sites) is 100% unreadable and unmodifiable until it reaches the other side.

@LegendBegins
It very much does. And I admit it was a bit of hyperbole on my part since the ways in which certain groups like the FBI "cracked" the TOR network involved using an exploit with malware to de-anonymize certain users on the network who got it on their machines. I didn't go into all that, however, so as to not digress too much from the questions at hand. Plus, a lot of articles seem to overplay or confuse exactly what they did when, and exactly how it was done, so it'd be a paim to find one that was not only understandable without a technical background but accurate as well.

@Havoccultist

Yeah, TOR is its own can of worms, and probably its own chapter in that novelette to boot

Hello there!

Perhaps I'm oversimplifying this due to my lack of technological knowledge and understanding, but ultimately my IP address is inaccessible and secure on this site, have I got that right? As in, nobody could go "Ah, that PM/post made 7 months was made by a user which had this IP address".

Additionally, outside of this site, I take it privacy pretty much doesn't exist on the internet, hahaha! I always used to think 'odd, I was just thinking about that product, what a coincidence it came up in an ad'... But yikes, so google has literally been tracking me to a limited extent to tempt me into buying something... Reminds me of youtu.be/YMPQdaq-qqk (20 second meme video, but scarily relevent).

Cheers.

@ADarkLightbulb

You're completely correct. Our site does not publish your IP anywhere. To my recollection, we don't even save it. There are other ways for people to get your IP online if they really want it, but there's nowhere for them to look at your profile or a post you've made and have the Guild tell them.

Yep, privacy is hard to come by. Personally, I use a browser called Brave that automatically adds several privacy features for me. Also, I see your PM and I'll check it out tomorrow.

As in, nobody could go "Ah, the PM/post made 7 months was made by a user which had this IP address".

With a simple answer, no.

Additionally, outside of this site, I take it privacy pretty much doesn't exist then on the internet, hahaha! I always used to think 'odd, I was just thinking about that product, what a coincidence it came up in an ad'... But yikes, so google has been literally tracking me to a limited extent to tempt me into buying something... Reminds me of youtu.be/YMPQdaq-qqk (20 second meme video, but scarily relevent).

Your most valuable asset online is your meta-data and history of what you search on Google, Amazon, etc. Have a think about it this way. Who is going to make more money off you? Some hacker who may trick you into downloading some sketchy looking software, or a company like Amazon and Google who noticed that you were looking up details about a particular product?

For example with me, if I open YouTube on my phone now the first advert I can see is one from Expedia, a site about holiday travel. This is because I have been thinking about going on a trip back to Japan for a while and my history indicates that I have an Interest in Japan. As such the image that it shows is of a man with a red Japanese paper lantern. If I go onto Facebook the first advert that it shows is Omnidesk, a company that focuses on Office Furniture cause I've been looking at getting a new chair for my Computer.

Tracking a user is not necessarily a bad thing as companies can use that data to expand their businesses and reach new customers, while also spending less on customers that aren't interested in what they are selling. With this day and age it is actually very easy to start up a pop up business in your garage, import a bunch of sunglasses from an overseas manufacturer with your logo on it, and resell them to people as an online retailer. Sites like SquareSpace offer users the ability to have a shop front, and this overall creates an economy.

You can actually look up a lot of your data if you have a Google account. By going to "Manage your Google Account" you can download your data, see what third party apps and services you have connected, etc. I can even see the history of my phone usage and the notifications that I have had.

3 notifications
Including topics:
Cyberpunk Red Combat Zone
Nvidia - dismissed
Weather - dismissed
3:45 PM • Details

or...

Screenshot [+]

This is not to say that you should throw your privacy out of the window, no, but what this is to explain is that there are some aspects that you can be cautious about (like not downloading from that dodgy site), and some aspects of your internet activity is always gonna be visible.

The best recommendation I can say is to make sure you're always on https not just http.

HTTPS: What are the differences? HTTPS is HTTP with encryption and verification. The only difference between the two protocols is that HTTPS uses TLS (SSL) to encrypt normal HTTP requests and responses, and to digitally sign those requests and responses. As a result, HTTPS is far more secure than HTTP.

Hello there!

Thank you for explaining all that, honestly, I appreciate the effort you put into it. You were clear and helpful, couldn't have asked for a better answer! I do wonder though, are all my previous IP addresses (aside the one I'm using to literally access this website right now) also invisible/inaccessible to mods/admins too? Like, is Google ads the only thing that gets to see it here, hahaha!

Once I have an answer to that, I think that'll be the end of this thread! Honestly, thank you, all of you, for explaining this to me! I feel as if my IQ has doubled just from reading this, and I've learnt alot about the internet too, and even about businesses online! Seriously, thank you!

Cheers.

Hello there!

@NuttsnBolts I have one last question in regards to the IP address enquiry, and it follows on the previous question you answered for me beforehand. I just wanted confirmation that site administrators, owners, mods and similar can't view/discover my IP address under any circumstance whatsoever on this website (except for the IP's very recently/currently used). Thanks in advanced for the answer, you're always helpful! :)

@LegendBegins It appears the issue with mobile data has returned, and once more I can't access anything without WiFi! This time I looked into the reason as to why! The error message that comes up is rather vague, and is as follows: "NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID". Additionally, instead of a image of a lock on the URL, an image of a triangle warning sign appears, and clicking on it reveals this message from my mobile data's service provider: "The identity of this website hasn't been verified. Server's certificate is not trusted."

Cheers. Hope to hear from both of your soon!

@ADarkLightbulb

Next time this happens, please click "Show Certificate" and send me what it pulls up.

For anybody following along at home, I checked the database and IP addresses are a data point the server records, but it's outside the scope of what mods or site admins can access (the only way to get it as far as I know would be to log into the database directly and grab that info). IP addresses are constantly changing, so it's not a permanent value attached to you.

That said, on the internet if someone wants your IP, it's not a huge challenge to get it.