"Sugarbabies" / "Arrangements" Amateurs or Not?

[QUOTE=CephlapodLove;3824787]So I use FB from time to time in doing some due diligence on POTs. After a couple of days of intensive looking around, I log in and FB has a list of people I might know or who are potential friends. Sure enough in that list are a few girls I had dated but not recently searched!

Now reading the website and googling, I learned that one's search history is hidden. So it looks like reading a girl's FB page is anonymous. She can't see that you looked, nor that you are lurking! I also delete my search history weekly.

So my concern is this. If looking around at these girls ends up generating a list of "people I might know", do I in turn end up on their "suggested / potential friends" lists? Is my searching around likely to lead them back to me with a suggested friend? If so this is scary and I need to rethink how I use this tool![/QUOTE]I would just make sure you don't have a FB account under your real name. There are all sorts of perils for an SD with an SO or a career to use FB under his real identity. Everything from the girl possibly learning your true identity, to even "contact association data" being sold by FB to other companies at some point in the future and published on a public website. Invasion of privacy is big business these days, and the technology for doing so is so good that folks who have dedicated their career to this field have trouble keeping up. The typical consumer / facebook user doesn't stand a chance. What happens on FB today is not necessarily what you will see tomorrow.

[QUOTE=JZLizard;3826511]I would just make sure you don't have a FB account under your real name. There are all sorts of perils for an SD with an SO or a career to use FB under his real identity. Everything from the girl possibly learning your true identity, to even "contact association data" being sold by FB to other companies at some point in the future and published on a public website. Invasion of privacy is big business these days, and the technology for doing so is so good that folks who have dedicated their career to this field have trouble keeping up. The typical consumer / facebook user doesn't stand a chance. What happens on FB today is not necessarily what you will see tomorrow.[/QUOTE]Yeah, I agree. The problem is that it appears to be impossible to set up a monger account on FB these days. Er, unless someone knows what techniques one can use? I do know that FB will NOT accept an app number, like Google Voice, so one has to use a a burner number that is a "real" phone number. Now whether FB puts cookies or some other identifying info on your computer or phone so that when one sets up a a "second" account from that device, FB knows. It is however clear that IF FB suspects something that it immediately requests you send an scan of I'd. So it appears to be difficult if not impossible to set up monger accounts now.

Anyone know techniques to use?

[QUOTE=MattBrown;3825053]That is scary. Can fabebook do tht? What if I clear histry on my browser? Will it still kno?[/QUOTE]You think that is scary?

I was doing some online shopping and the details of teh products on offer were a bit confusing. Plus the retailer practically urged me, by comments on the website, to call one of their helpful customer service Reps. So after some time scratching my head, I called and was connected to "Bill Smith" I start talking to Bill and then all of a sudden a pop up box appears on my screen with a picture of Bill & his phone number! Huh? How'd they do that?

Then as the conversation continued, Bill wanted me to look at another product, so on my computer screen up pops yet another box which has a hotlink to what product he wanted me to see? So some how from a phone call, the retailer could "see" my computer and manipulate the computer to do pop-ups!

[color=red][B]WTF!!!!![/B][/color]

How is this possible? A phone call and a company is in control of my computer?

[QUOTE=CephlapodLove;3828079]You think that is scary?

I was doing some online shopping and the details of teh products on offer were a bit confusing. Plus the retailer practically urged me, by comments on the website, to call one of their helpful customer service Reps. So after some time scratching my head, I called and was connected to "Bill Smith" I start talking to Bill and then all of a sudden a pop up box appears on my screen with a picture of Bill & his phone number! Huh? How'd they do that?

Then as the conversation continued, Bill wanted me to look at another product, so on my computer screen up pops yet another box which has a hotlink to what product he wanted me to see? So some how from a phone call, the retailer could "see" my computer and manipulate the computer to do pop-ups!



How is this possible? A phone call and a company is in control of my computer?[/QUOTE]Websites use "cookies" - text files that gather information on what pages you visit, what links you click on, even what pages you spend time on. Thata data is fed back to the website your on, analyzed and used to throw popups for things you appear interested in. Google, Facebook, Amazon and all of them also share that data. Its pretty spooky.

You can turn cookies off in most browsers but sometimes the sites won't load properly or fully if you do. That setting is usually under security or privacy.

Good luck and stay safe!

[URL]https://www.seekingarrangement.com/member/01e0c739-4491-4a83-893b-efd922056222[/URL]

Anyone who has recent dealings with this one and can share, please send me a PM. Thanks.

[QUOTE=MattBrown;3825053]What if I clear histry on my browser? Will it still kno?[/QUOTE]Yes, they will. This is the equivalent of asking "if I clear the call log in my phone, will Verizon still know who I've called?" History stored in your device is not tied at all to histories stored in their servers.

[QUOTE=FanRat;3828090]Websites use "cookies" - text files that gather information on what pages you visit, what links you click on, even what pages you spend time on. Thata data is fed back to the website your on, analyzed and used to throw popups for things you appear interested in. Google, Facebook, Amazon and all of them also share that data. Its pretty spooky.

You can turn cookies off in most browsers but sometimes the sites won't load properly or fully if you do. That setting is usually under security or privacy.

Good luck and stay safe![/QUOTE]ALL of the browsers I use, on my PC, laptop and phone are put permanently into "private browsing mode". This means that the browser doesn't store any history of where I've been, or usernames / passwords / auto login info (good for a girlfriend or SO's prying eyes), and the browser automatically erases any and all cookies that are stored on my computer every time I close the program. That means any website I visit cannot reference a previously placed cookie on my machine and use it to figure out who I am. They must place a new cookie, which is of course deleted when I close the browser again. I also set my browser to never accept third-party cookies. Why would I allow a site that I'm not actually visiting to put any code on my computer?

The downside to this is that I need to actually type my username and password into all websites I log into, each time I go there. My browser will never remember login info. That's inconvenient, but the privacy improvement is more important to me.

I also run an adblocker on all of my web browsers -- And I selectively "whitelist" the sites I want to support. (Yes USASG, you're whitelisted!) But there are so many bad actors who create ads that contain more than a link to their site that I block ads on 99% of websites. Bad advertisements will place their own cookies on your computer, and some will even try to run malicious code on your machine. My adblocker also blocks the little social media tracking bugs. Did you know that those "like buttons" on pages you visit are actually tracking you for FB, IG, etc. , etc? Sorry, internet businesses, but the few have spoiled the advertising revenue stream for the many.

Real computer types will correctly tell you that this method is not foolproof. Websites are collecting IP addresses to try to figure out who you are, and even doing "browser fingerprinting" to circumvent those of us who use Private Browsing. But it's a help.

As soon as I can find a bit of time to sort it out, I'm going to get a VPN. Again, not foolproof, but another speed bump in the road for those who want to profit from my personal info. Of course, I don't use FB, Snapchat, Instagram or any of the other social media sites. These sites earn nearly 100% of their income from leveraging their user's data, and I'm positive they have technologies to track people that the public doesn't know about.

I'm always interested in learning new security and privacy techniques, so if any of you have ones you like, please post them. It's always a balancing act finding the sweet spot of privacy vs a usable computer / reasonable life.

Kwag.

[QUOTE=Kwagmire;3828189]ALL of the browsers I use, on my PC, laptop and phone are put permanently into "private browsing mode". This means that the browser doesn't store any history of where I've been, or usernames / passwords / auto login info (good for a girlfriend or SO's prying eyes), and the browser automatically erases any and all cookies that are stored on my computer every time I close the program. That means any website I visit cannot reference a previously placed cookie on my machine and use it to figure out who I am. They must place a new cookie, which is of course deleted when I close the browser again. I also set my browser to never accept third-party cookies. Why would I allow a site that I'm not actually visiting to put any code on my computer?

The downside to this is that I need to actually type my username and password into all websites I log into, each time I go there. My browser will never remember login info. That's inconvenient, but the privacy improvement is more important to me.

I also run an adblocker on all of my web browsers -- And I selectively "whitelist" the sites I want to support. (Yes USASG, you're whitelisted!) But there are so many bad actors who create ads that contain more than a link to their site that I block ads on 99% of websites. Bad advertisements will place their own cookies on your computer, and some will even try to run malicious code on your machine. My adblocker also blocks the little social media tracking bugs. Did you know that those "like buttons" on pages you visit are actually tracking you for FB, IG, etc. , etc? Sorry, internet businesses, but the few have spoiled the advertising revenue stream for the many..[/QUOTE]Browser use matters. This has recently been discussed in this thread. The best is Tor, your signal gets bounced around the world 4 times, so it is hard for the site you are actually going to to tell where you're from. It always automatically deletes all that intel stuff on shutddown. However, right now, SA is set up not to allow access via a Tor browser. It used to work just fine w / SA. My backup is a privacy browser, Epic, which has its own built-in VPN. You appear to the whole web like you are coming from the exact same IP address as all the other Epic users. I have logged on to SA with Epic many times. I would also be super cautious about any google sites. We all rely on google voice, I have recently posted some great things that can be done with it. However, google is one of the worst companies regarding invasion of privacy, so be careful. I have found that again I can use Epic w / the gmail account I got w / google voice / android on my burner phone. If I try to use Tor, it takes me through a validation process that is painful, especially if I don't have my phone (like at home on the weekends around the SO).

Note that none of this addresses another identifier, the MAC address of your computer or phone. There is software that allows you to change or spoof it, though.

[QUOTE=FanRat;3828090]Websites use "cookies" - text files that gather information on what pages you visit, what links you click on, even what pages you spend time on. Thata data is fed back to the website your on, analyzed and used to throw popups for things you appear interested in. Google, Facebook, Amazon and all of them also share that data. Its pretty spooky.

You can turn cookies off in most browsers but sometimes the sites won't load properly or fully if you do. That setting is usually under security or privacy.

Good luck and stay safe![/QUOTE]Yeah, I know about cookies. I know about private browsing, deleting cookies, clearing web history, etc. This appears to be more than just a "cookie" issue! [B]How does a company know how to or is able to access my computer when I make a telephone call to them?[/B] It is two separate technologies! One a telephone and the other an internet connection. So how is it that when I call on my telephone, IN REAL TIME, a company can cause pop-ups to appear on my desktop computer?

The guy I was talking to on the telephone was directly causing pop-ups to appear on my computer screen! He would say, let me show you product ACX and right then the product link would appear on my screen. No need for him to tell me the url, no need for me to type anything, it just happened! So this was no "cookie" driven, what you like style pop-up but a direct access to my computer.

Look, I know I have talked to my computer online support in the past and always had to do something special to grant them access to my desktop so they could help with issues. This company (not a computer company) did NOT ask and I DID NOT grant any access. The company just "took" it and somehow gained access!

So who can explain the technology and what is happening?

[QUOTE=CephlapodLove;3829192]
So who can explain the technology and what is happening?[/QUOTE]My guess would be they have a pool of phone numbers. When a user begins browsing the site, they assign an available phone number to your session and display it to you. When you call in, they use the number you called in on to identify which active session on the site you are, then push the pop-ups out to that browser.

[QUOTE=FarFarAway;3828363]My backup is a privacy browser, Epic, which has its own built-in VPN. You appear to the whole web like you are coming from the exact same IP address as all the other Epic users. <snip> However, google is one of the worst companies regarding invasion of privacy, so be careful. I have found that again I can use Epic w / the gmail account I got w / google voice / android on my burner phone. If I try to use Tor, it takes me through a validation process that is painful, especially if I don't have my phone (like at home on the weekends around the SO).

Note that none of this addresses another identifier, the MAC address of your computer or phone. There is software that allows you to change or spoof it, though.[/QUOTE]Thanks for the tip about the Epic browser. That's really great.

I know what you mean about google. I had a GV number that I used as my hobby phone, tied to a completely separate hobby gmail address. One day someone on the CT boards mentioned a site called [URL]usphonebook.com[/URL]. This is kind of like all the other "people look up" sites except that they give a lot more info about a reverse number lookup than other sites without having to pay. Its good for checking girls out before seeing them. Of course, when I first found out about the site I looked up my personal cell and my GV hobby number. The site had full and accurate info on me linked to my hobby phone #, and completely incorrect info on my personal cell. Obviously, I deleted that google account immediately. All I can hope is that none of the girls I used that number with ever looked me up, and hopefully their lives are in enough disarray that they lost their phone and all their contacts. I worked very hard to keep the hobby phone anonymous, but obviously there was a leak somewhere.

[QUOTE=Kwagmire;3829932]Thanks for the tip about the Epic browser. That's really great.

I know what you mean about google. I had a GV number that I used as my hobby phone, tied to a completely separate hobby gmail address. One day someone on the CT boards mentioned a site called [URL]usphonebook.com[/URL]. This is kind of like all the other "people look up" sites except that they give a lot more info about a reverse number lookup than other sites without having to pay. Its good for checking girls out before seeing them. Of course, when I first found out about the site I looked up my personal cell and my GV hobby number. The site had full and accurate info on me linked to my hobby phone #, and completely incorrect info on my personal cell. Obviously, I deleted that google account immediately. All I can hope is that none of the girls I used that number with ever looked me up, and hopefully their lives are in enough disarray that they lost their phone and all their contacts. I worked very hard to keep the hobby phone anonymous, but obviously there was a leak somewhere.[/QUOTE]I just ran my GV number through that website and got the following reply: Searching billions of phones we did not return a valid result for XXX-YYY-ZZZZ.

I had a buddy who had a GV number tied to his phone. I was talking to him at one point and he crossed a cellphone boundary and the call was dropped. Of course my number was still there on his phone so he hit "redial" and his phone called me back, not his GV number. That was another way he inadvertently out of himself. Then another buddy kept his monger phone on while he was at home and he suspects that that "parked at location" was run through an GPS / county property record search as a girl ran his number through an app called "Mr. Number" and his real name & address came up in relation to his monger GV number. Sigh.

I guess there is truly no hiding, just hoping that there is enough distance between you and a girl who may not be too tech savvy.

Warning, so I just wrote top and she pretty much outed herself after we had M&G from the other address.

[URL]https://www.seekingarrangement.com/member/6b0ba124-3dea-4a24-bf9d-ec53b93ac1af[/URL]

Same as.

[URL]https://www.seekingarrangement.com/messages/inbox/d9699368-4c7a-4e80-8cd0-1f12ee6f7467[/URL]

[QUOTE=CephlapodLove;3830023]I just ran my GV number through that website and got the following reply: Searching billions of phones we did not return a valid result for XXX-YYY-ZZZZ.

I had a buddy who had a GV number tied to his phone. I was talking to him at one point and he crossed a cellphone boundary and the call was dropped. Of course my number was still there on his phone so he hit "redial" and his phone called me back, not his GV number. That was another way he inadvertently out of himself. Then another buddy kept his monger phone on while he was at home and he suspects that that "parked at location" was run through an GPS / county property record search as a girl ran his number through an app called "Mr. Number" and his real name & address came up in relation to his monger GV number. Sigh.

I guess there is truly no hiding, just hoping that there is enough distance between you and a girl who may not be too tech savvy.[/QUOTE]Here is another website I have been using that seems to do a decent job and doesn't charge.

[URL]nuwber.com[/URL]

It seems that Google does not like it if you use a privacy browser like Epic. I have bragged about how easy it is to use your gmail to check texts to your Android phone. Now, when I try to log into gmail to do that using Epic, the browser slows to a crawl. If I use Safari (even with private browsing), I can log right in. Google wants to know who I am, obviously, and track me. These people are slime. We can only hope that the day never comes that google has to give up all the info they have been collecting on all of us to the secret police.