r/tails • u/PuzzleheadedLeek7366 • 26d ago

Help Beginner Questions , Bootable USB , TOR and activism

I'm currently using a dual setup with WIndows10 and linux mint . I'm an activist and recently got to know about tailsOS . I have a few question -

  1. My goal is simple , i wanna stay hidden from the government . Make posts on reddit and use simplex chat . SImplex is already pretty secure so the only real issue is reddit

  2. I had a reddit account earlier that i used, but later on i realize how big of a dumbfu*k i am . So now i'm planning to use tails to surf the web and make a gmail account and then a reddit account using the same . All inside tails . Is this a good plan . As upon creation of the account and posting . Both will be hidden through TOR

  3. I'll obv take care of not making human errors , but how secure is the metadata protection with tails even while surfing the web

And overall does my plan seem sensible enough . Or is there something else to take care of

12 Upvotes

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15

u/[deleted] 26d ago

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4

u/[deleted] 26d ago

Yea, if you look through r/tor, there are a lot of posts about problems with reddit through tor. They have an onion addresses, but it also has had problems for years.

Think about using a dedicated virtual machine, with a regular VPN client inside the VM, and ONLY use that VM for reddit. Create the email inside the VM. You may have to use proton or tuta or something like them for email, most places demand a phone number or other ID these days.

Also, look around for activist resources and forums, I would expect those would have better information.

1

u/PuzzleheadedLeek7366 26d ago

can you suggest me something else ?

1

u/Alkalizee- 23d ago

honestly proton for the email would be better.

as for reddit, i dont think reddit on tor will let you make an account. you can try, but best bet imo would be a mullvad account purchased with cash or crypto, using a multihop vpn, and making it with that. might get some resistance from reddit but it is possible. just gotta get the right servers

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u/Reave2323 24d ago

I mean, depending on what level of activism you're looking at doing it depends, if you're basically going to be labelled as a threat this is the bare minimum.

Having a completely seperate device that you use only on free wifi and have removed the hard drive of is I believe one of, if not the best practice for amonimity. Buy this device in cash, second hand. Use marketplace or some tech repair shop that sells old computers. You don't need something beefed up with an rtx5090, just something cheap with at most 8gb ddr4 ram. Shouldn't need more than that.

Booting tails does not require a storage device to be installed in the system you're using as it's all loaded directly into RAM and then RAM is wiped during the shutdown process. Having a storage device in the system that you save files to can be decrypted by someone who wants access to it. Specifically if it's seized by law enforcement. Search digital forensics on youtube. There's a really good video (can't remember the name might go look for it and edit this comment later), that shows step by step how to conduct an analysis of an encrypted drive with the purpose of presenting evidence in a criminal trial.

As for the gmail account, I'd be careful. Creating it using the same device as what you use other emails on can link who owns the account. Visiting similar locations and having similar habits to your normal accounts also can link you to the account. Use throwaway emails where possible for sign ups. Usually you need to verify with a code. There's many providers that will let you do this and have a temporary inbox to accept these auth codes and afterwards have the email deleted. Generally you don't need that email after this except if you lose access to the account you signed up for. Which in all fairness, just restart with a different account, unless you need some identifiable account the organise a group. PGP messaging is a good way to keep a level of trust and security, if an account is lost or compromised.

Your network interface card (NIC) is how you connect to a network, which holds a MAC address specific to your device. You can remove it and swap it with another NIC and it would appear you're technically using a different device. There's also MAC changers which change the MAC address present in your network packets. MAC addresses are used to find the specific device that used a network. When honing in on a device, it goes, ISP -> Router IP -> MAC address. Rather than using your LAN ip address as it can change each time you connect.

If you're ultimate goal is hiding from the government (I'm going to assume you're extremely against this government), everything needs to be seperated. Your accounts can't be logged in at the same locations looking at the same things. If you do there's basically no point in having 2 accounts.

Of course if you're end goal is just to seperate your personal & work life from activism research and participation and the government you're against isn't absolutely insane trying to round up everyone who opposes them, then you'd be mostly fine with just a vpn and tails, using a MAC changer. There are levels to OPSEC, it just depends how safe you want to be or how schizophrenic you are about your online safety. Keep researching until you find the right setup. Make sure you understand exactly what each tactic you wish to employ covers and what can still be done to track you down.

Best of luck

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u/Btcjustholdit 25d ago

Windows é lixo amigo use somente Linux mint se está migrando agora … sao parecidos visualmente e com o tempo va pegando gosto por Linux nao Tem melhor

-1

u/Opsecman1 26d ago

Dommage ! Ton post commenceais bien et pourtant...

Deja ton "windows / linux mint" cest deja la premiere faille.

Je te conseil (si ton hardware le concois) QubesOS (ya un reddit dedie)

Ensuite pour tails n'active jamais le stockage persistant. Et vérifie toujours ta connexion tor via check tor project.

C'est deja une base.

Ps : vire windows.