Posted to USENET with real name whilst on VPN

danielroddy75 · 7 Jan 2015 at 10:29

Hi Guys

I made a mistake, I posted to USENET over my VPN using my real name and a free newsgroup account which has a login account which can be traced back to my email address.

Granted my VPNs IP address is encrypted in the header field of the message I posted but the key to unlock it will be given out if law enforcement request it.

I guess I am being a bit paranoid as the message I posted was innocent enough and nothing to do with doing anything illegal so there is no reason why anyone would take an interest in it.

I am now posting with a fake name using an anonymous usenet account.

Thoughts?

danielroddy75 · 7 Jan 2015 at 11:27

The thing that worries me is that my single message will be archived by google groups for eternity. As I said earlier am now using a fake name with a free, anonymous usenet account with the X-No-Archive: yes so my messages won't be archived by google.

danielroddy75 · 7 Jan 2015 at 14:39

KIA said:
You're being paranoid.

That's the thing when you use a VPN, you become more concerned about anonymity/privacy. I don't really care about using my real name on USENET have done for years and never had a problem even if it was traceable back to my ISPs IP address. Now that I have a VPN I am starting to take privacy more seriously.

danielroddy75 · 8 Jan 2015 at 09:22

mrbell1984 said:
Anyone who uses VPN is paranoid.

At the end of the day posting to USENET isn't illegal so I have nothing to worry about, I just won't make a habit of posting with my real name from now on!

danielroddy75 · 8 Jan 2015 at 10:49

mrbell1984 said:
Shouldn't make a difference posting your real name if you don't have anything to hide really.

I could still post to USENET using my real name and the X-No-Archive: yes option which would make sure my posts aren't archived by google. So the original header information containing my encrypted IP address would not be archived.

However given the fact I have just got into VPN it seems silly to post anything which could trace me back to the VPNs IP address and lose the anonymity or rather privacy I am paying for.

Could also post with my real name on the anonymous USENET server which hides the IP address but its stored in their logs so this information is available upon request. I can use this server with a fake name so no way to trace my real name to the VPN IP address.

Its all extreme paranoia of course as I am doing nothing illegal!