How do "they" know your web-posting habits?

[Fixer]

They can not use just anything in court. Evidence has to pass certain criteria before being admissable. In court my Ex lied about her finances to reduce support. When we were back in court for a custody dispute my lawyer could not bring up the incident because it wasn't admissable. He kept trying but was never able to get it admitted to question her.

It is not as easy to bring things up in court as it may seem. I would definatly wait until it ia all said and done before even commenting on it here or any other board.

I would also not go running my pie hole and say something that I would regret someone else seeing. Even after the situation is over and done there is no reason to go on about it other than to post the facts of the incident.

 

[jsharmon7]

You guys are missing the obvious answer: Fenway is one of "them." He keeps tabs on all such situations and gets them to the government immediately!

 

[KG1]

Don't say anything here you wouldn't say on the radio or in the newspaper. I found out the hard way, but was still able to take the 5th on it because there were "potential" criminal charges. If it is a civil case, you can't take the 5th unless there criminal charges or potential criminal charges down the road. Someone here, and there is no loyalty here, will be sure to print everything out and send it to the prosecutor.

I think you're on target with your last sentence. There are a lot of people from all different backgrounds viewing posts on an internet forum whom I believe would have no problem sending a link to a post to an interested party in the prosecutors office.

 

[jbombelli]

You guys are missing the obvious answer: Fenway is one of "them." He keeps tabs on all such situations and gets them to the government immediately!

Doesn't every post get routed through the NSA, FBI, BATFE and Indiana State Police anyway?

 

[jsharmon7]

Doesn't every post get routed through the NSA, FBI, BATFE and Indiana State Police anyway?

Absolutely! This website is just a big spiderweb for alphabet agencies. Keep posting, little flies...




Love the Blackbeard avatar, by the way.

 

[Andy219]

Doesn't every post get routed through the NSA, FBI, BATFE and Indiana State Police anyway?

Not to sure, but I use a wireless router named ATF/field team

 

[Jack Burton]

Tell that to George Zimmerman. His computer was not involved in the incident. But they searched it.

Note that it was the FBI, and not the locals searching the home and computer.

they were there gathering evidence for a completely different crime.

While anything is possible, and real life is much stranger than fiction can ever be, the odds of a zimmerman happening to any one of us is very slight indeed.

 

[cobber]

Here is the first thing that pops up when I google "5th amendment civil case".

Invoking The Fifth Amendment In Civil Cases, Fifth Amendment Protection, Oklahoma Personal Injury Lawyer | Abel Law Firm

Yeah, that's Oklahoma case law, although there's some SCOTUS stuff there too. Don't assume that IN courts care what OK judges think.

In any event, it would be unwise to glean legal advice from a website.

 

[RandomName]

Ahh...

But what if a prosecutor asks you, under oath, during deposition?

"Mr Indy_Guy, can you please tell us what, if any, websites that you frequent and what your screen names are?

I went through a deposition over a civil case where I wasn't the target (a business I contracted for was) and it wasn't criminal in nature (so no 5th amendment protection).

I'm not a lawyer, going by memory of something that happened years ago, and would suggest you do your own research prior to finding yourself in the position. What I remember is if your own attorney says not to answer it, you don't have to. You can further ask that a question be presented to a judge to determine if its relevant to the investigation before you answer. I think it was called "Certifying the question". They can't just ask you anything and make you answer.

 

[RobbyMaQ]

im guessing they investigate your phone and computer, find internet history, temp files, and favorites, then put 2 & 2 together?

 

[DC47374]

Ahh...

But what if a prosecutor asks you, under oath, during deposition?

"Mr Indy_Guy, can you please tell us what, if any, websites that you frequent and what your screen names are?

That would be protected under the 1st and 5th amendments. The freedom of association and right not to self-incriminate, since there are charges against you.

 

[snowwalker]

First, this place + one other is the only places I post anything. Second, NO facebook here or twitter. Third, NO google use. Fourth, I delete history and temp files often. And fifth, I am NOT paranoid!

 

[Stschil]

First, this place + one other is the only places I post anything. Second, NO facebook here or twitter. Third, NO google use. Fourth, I delete history and temp files often. And fifth, I am NOT paranoid!

1. Unless you wipe your hard drive and write over all data, it's all retrievable
2. Doesnt matter much what you do, the server still has your "surf prints"

 

[snowwalker]

Clean the "index.dat file" fixes that.

 

[jsharmon7]

1. Unless you wipe your hard drive and write over all data, it's all retrievable
2. Doesnt matter much what you do, the server still has your "surf prints"

After attending a seminar led by an FBI computer forensics guy, you're correct. Short of nuking your hard drive from orbit, there's a good chance a professional can retrieve it. Even if you've deleted it or hidden it or password protected it, they'll still get it. Or, he lied to us and I fell for it. I had to destroy three hard drives full of world takeover plans after that seminar.

 

[jbombelli]

After attending a seminar led by an FBI computer forensics guy, you're correct. Short of nuking your hard drive from orbit, there's a good chance a professional can retrieve it. Even if you've deleted it or hidden it or password protected it, they'll still get it. Or, he lied to us and I fell for it. I had to destroy three hard drives full of world takeover plans after that seminar.

Lol. They talk a big story. But then, when they want to see what's on an encrypted hard drive, they go get a court order to force you to give them your password.

 

[MTC]

I had to destroy three hard drives full of world takeover plans after that seminar.

Ahaah! Too late! Ya just let it leak out.

"First they came for the cornbread ..."

 

[jsharmon7]

Ahaah! Too late! Ya just let it leak out.

"First they came for the cornbread ..."

D'Oh!

Just leave the cornbread alone...there will be consequences and repercussions.

 

[MontereyC6]

After attending a seminar led by an FBI computer forensics guy, you're correct. Short of nuking your hard drive from orbit, there's a good chance a professional can retrieve it. Even if you've deleted it or hidden it or password protected it, they'll still get it. Or, he lied to us and I fell for it. I had to destroy three hard drives full of world takeover plans after that seminar.

Yup, there are programs that are designed to overwrite a hard drive. Once the physical space has been overwritten, its gone for good. In my line of work, its a bad thing. It usually means for us that important files are gone, which costs us lots of $$$$

 

[CathyInBlue]

The NSA publishes data destruction guidelines. Essentially, you make multiple passes over hard drive space dedicated to a given data set you want to delete for good. One pass writes all zeros, the next all ones. Then passes writing 01010101b and then 10101010b, etc. After X cycles like that, where I believe X = 25, there's so much overlapping data that the original data stored is only retrievable with the resources of a first world nation-state and that at great cost in equipment and highly trained expert labour to run it. Finally, I write random garbage from the machine's hardware random number generator over the space before doing a proper file deletion system call. It's so straight forward, before I installed the "secure remove" (srm) program on my Linux box, I wrote a shell script to automate the NSA standard routine. It's just time consuming if you're scrubbing a lot of data on a slow hard drive.

The principle is that when a HD recording head passes over a track on the platter, it doesn't do so with precision. Rather, every pass of overwriting previous data leaves a thin slivver of the previous data plainly visible on one side or the other of the newly recorded data track within the platter space set aside for that track. The task is to over write with so much garbage that statisticly speaking, there's no chance that any vestige of the offending data eluded over write.

Problem is, that's a statistical process. You could get really, really unlucky and all of those over writes still left enough vestigial data for even an elementary schooler to reconstruct. In addition, every time a bit is written, that too is a statistical process. Most, but not all, of the magnetic domains that encode the bit flipped to the new setting. Some remain in the old orientation. Even if the vestigial data is hit a few times, a quantum magnetic scan can pick up the patterns of the overwriting data and filter them out to leave the original pattern in the "sticky" domains.

Not sure how the same issues work out on solid state storage, but I suspect the issues are similar, just electric instead of magnetic.