Keeping oneself anonymous

[anon123]

Hello!

What ways could one use to buy a dedicated server totally anonymous?

I'll be hosting a torrent site, not so popular, private, and definitely not likely to get a DMCA notice or anything. However, once they are serious about getting you caught... I most likely won't have any safety, like DMCA safe harbor because I do administrate accepted torrents myself. That is, I can be held responsible for actions my users do on the site.

I may be able to get funds to my paypal anonymously. That's not the real problem. The problem is, I'd need to fake paypal account details. That's not so wise, I have been told. I heard they can flag your account easily locking funds there, and they could definitely put me to the high-risk-category because I would be using VPN to sign that account up (not leaving my real ip there).

Do you suggest using real paypal details? That's kinda ummh, insecure? They can just ask your server provider for your payment details. Then they ask paypal, PP will give your details out without doubt. And then there you are, busted.

I don't have any disposable credit cards etc available where I live (northern europe). So that's not an option. I could buy one through internet, but then again, you will leave your traces where you actually bought that disposable CC. Most of them need subscription or something like ID card, and probably will log all your CCs bought.

One option that comes to my mind is paying cash through mail. However, I doubt many server providers will accept cash payments, especially overseas. And even if they do, it's really risky. (NOTE: I generally dislike wasting probably hundreds of euros when the envelope gets lost)

Should I just use my real details when buying the server? Do you know if there are VPS / dedicated server sellers that don't log your personal / payment details?

I would like to stress, I'm not afraid of getting my server taken down by DMCA. If I ever do get DMCA, I have done something wrong. The site is supposed to be private and anonymous. In case my host gets DMCA, I would prefer they instantly terminate my server subscription wiping all hard drives or then forward it to me, and I do personally wiping + making sure no traces are left.

Thanks for your replies.

- anon123

anon123 Reviewed by anon123 on 4th Jun 2010. Keeping oneself anonymous Hello! What ways could one use to buy a dedicated server totally anonymous? I'll be hosting a torrent site, not so popular, private, and definitely not likely to get a DMCA notice or anything. However, once they are serious about getting you caught... I most likely won't have any safety, like DMCA safe harbor because I do administrate accepted torrents myself. That is, I can be held responsible for actions my users do on the site. I may be able to get funds to my paypal anonymously. Rating: 5

[jayfella]

Any legitimate company - and i mean the ones your most likely going to want to deal with - will log all details - primarily to protect themselves from fraudulent activity. To at least partially answer your question, your best bet afaik is China, which is around twice the price of a regular server in say the netherlands.

[Storming]

If your dealing with a proper company who deals with this area they will not disclose your personal details to anyone nor you paypal information.


edit: reading further you ask "do you know any providers that don't log details" most providers if not all log details but there is no harm in using un-real details like a fake name/address etc. The only problem would be the fraud checks etc. You could contact them stating your concern about this and they may be able to help you


As I mentioned above no details would be given to any third-parties.

[anon123]

" If your dealing with a proper company who deals with this area they will not disclose your personal details to anyone nor you paypal information."

If they do get a court order, I'm sure they will disclose all details they have. For this matter, it would be better to have no details at all or fake details.

EDIT: And yeah. What I'm trying to accomplish here is probably very different to your aims. You want to advertise, you want to earn, you want to be resilient against DMCA. I want to be private and anonymous, I'm doing this just for fun and DMCA is a great thing for me: it's an alert I should take my servers immediately down. There have been cases in the past where BSA, RIAA etc. have attacked private trackers. Public trackers they threat with DMCAs. When it comes to private trackers, there are usually court orders or total server takedowns involved. It's not critical if the site suffers downtime or ISP refuses to extend my subscription because of copyright issues. It's not critical if the ISP allows torrent tracker because they most likely can't even notice that. What is critical that when some big dog gets interested there isn't anything they could trace back to me.

[RLKing]

Highly doubt they will get a court order.

[anon123]

They have gotten court orders in the past. I do not classify myself as a high risk target, but if I can minimize the damages when the shit hits the fan, I'll do it. It makes me sleep better...