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  • Privacy question

    From hey joe@21:1/5 to All on Sat Mar 5 11:06:38 2022
    Hi there,

    Quick question, and I apologize if this isn't the correct place to
    post this, but I hope I can get a response here. When posting on text
    usenet groups, is your IP address or any other personally identifiable information stored in the posts or threads you create? I'm using the
    Forte Agent client, and I haven't seen such specifics, but that
    doesn't necessarily mean other clients can't pull this information.

    Any clarification is greatly appreciated, and again, I apologize if
    this is posted in the wrong group.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Frank Slootweg@21:1/5 to hey joe on Sat Mar 5 19:23:48 2022
    hey joe <heyjoe@mail.com> wrote:
    Hi there,

    Quick question, and I apologize if this isn't the correct place to
    post this, but I hope I can get a response here. When posting on text
    usenet groups, is your IP address or any other personally identifiable information stored in the posts or threads you create? I'm using the
    Forte Agent client, and I haven't seen such specifics, but that
    doesn't necessarily mean other clients can't pull this information.

    Any clarification is greatly appreciated, and again, I apologize if
    this is posted in the wrong group.

    Putting IP address and similar identifying information in the headers
    of your post is normally determined by your News provider - i.e. in your
    case probably newshosting.com -, not by your newsreader (Forte Agent).

    I've checked the headers of your post and there is no personally
    identifiable information in them.

    In case you don't know how to show your headers, here's a copy as they
    are on my News server:

    Path: uni-berlin.de!fu-berlin.de!news.uzoreto.com!news-out.netnews.com!news.alt.net!fdc2.netnews.com!peer01.ams1!peer.ams1.xlned.com!news.xlned.com!peer02.iad!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!fx39.iad.POSTED!not-for-mail
    From: hey joe <heyjoe@mail.com>
    Newsgroups: alt.fan.usenet
    Subject: Privacy question
    Message-ID: <br572h57mholh0e6nhk0e1997gepkvpqqq@4ax.com>
    User-Agent: ForteAgent/8.00.32.1272
    MIME-Version: 1.0
    Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
    Lines: 11
    X-Complaints-To: abuse(at)newshosting.com
    NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2022 17:06:38 UTC
    Organization: Newshosting.com - Highest quality at a great price! www.newshosting.com
    Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2022 11:06:38 -0600

    N.B. The content of the 'Path:' header depends on the originating
    (your) and receiving (mine) News servers and the path the post took to
    get from there to here.

    N.B.2. news.software.readers is a more appropriate group, but as far
    as I'm concerned, this group is fine as well.

    Hope this helps.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Francis S@21:1/5 to All on Wed Mar 9 21:02:19 2022
    On 5 Mar 2022 19:23:48 GMT, Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid>
    wrote:

    hey joe <heyjoe@mail.com> wrote:
    Hi there,

    Quick question, and I apologize if this isn't the correct place to
    post this, but I hope I can get a response here. When posting on text
    usenet groups, is your IP address or any other personally identifiable
    information stored in the posts or threads you create? I'm using the
    Forte Agent client, and I haven't seen such specifics, but that
    doesn't necessarily mean other clients can't pull this information.

    Any clarification is greatly appreciated, and again, I apologize if
    this is posted in the wrong group.

    Putting IP address and similar identifying information in the headers
    of your post is normally determined by your News provider - i.e. in your
    case probably newshosting.com -, not by your newsreader (Forte Agent).

    I've checked the headers of your post and there is no personally
    identifiable information in them.

    In case you don't know how to show your headers, here's a copy as they
    are on my News server:

    Path: uni-berlin.de!fu-berlin.de!news.uzoreto.com!news-out.netnews.com!news.alt.net!fdc2.netnews.com!peer01.ams1!peer.ams1.xlned.com!news.xlned.com!peer02.iad!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!fx39.iad.POSTED!not-for-mail
    From: hey joe <heyjoe@mail.com>
    Newsgroups: alt.fan.usenet
    Subject: Privacy question
    Message-ID: <br572h57mholh0e6nhk0e1997gepkvpqqq@4ax.com>
    User-Agent: ForteAgent/8.00.32.1272
    MIME-Version: 1.0
    Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
    Lines: 11
    X-Complaints-To: abuse(at)newshosting.com
    NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2022 17:06:38 UTC
    Organization: Newshosting.com - Highest quality at a great price! www.newshosting.com
    Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2022 11:06:38 -0600

    N.B. The content of the 'Path:' header depends on the originating
    (your) and receiving (mine) News servers and the path the post took to
    get from there to here.

    N.B.2. news.software.readers is a more appropriate group, but as far
    as I'm concerned, this group is fine as well.

    Hope this helps.

    This is exactly the information I was looking for. Thank you so much
    for the detailed response!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Beard@21:1/5 to hey joe on Thu Mar 10 10:38:31 2022
    On 2022-03-05 at 11:06 -0600, hey joe wrote:

    usenet groups, is your IP address or any other personally identifiable information ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^
    stored in the posts or threads you create?

    I am replying a little late to mention another important issue: your
    news server might add other non-standard headers that, even if they do
    not mention your IP address, make all of your posts at the very least recognisable as written using the same account -- with the server
    organisation (but not the public) being able to know much more about
    you, including IP addresses, connection history plus email address and
    any information you gave at registration time.

    This is the case for at least one of the popular public-access Usenet
    providers -- I will not give details here, even if I do not think they
    are actively trying to hide this information: a technical user will
    notice it quite easily.
    I would not be surprised if most or all providers did the same.

    The organisation I am talking about includes this identification header
    with a value which is unique for each *account* (one can only post after
    begin logged-in), but a similar effect could be achieved by other means:
    for example by including a header contained the IP address encrypted
    with a symmetric key only known by the organisation. One could imagine
    other information such as connection latency being included.

    One should certainly *not* rely on information posted on Usenet being anonymous, without knowing much more.

    --
    Beard

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)