[OPSEC] How to write excellent reviews while maintaining anonymity.

There has been an uptick in quality reviews with pictures and reagent test results recently. This is excellent for our community as a whole and keeps vendors selling safe, pure product. However there is much confusion about maintaining anonymity from these reviews. Many reviews I have seen include identifying information that could be used to identify the user. In this guide I will show you how to write an excellent review and keep yourself safe. I am using my Gammagoblin MDMA review and domesticdoode's fake ketamine review as a template and guide. (btw domesticdoode your bitchass still owes me $100 after you left the order in dispute for a month till abaxas exit scammed it)

1. Access and account quarantine

There should be a reddit account created solely for DMN reviews or activities. Ideally you should be posting everything from TOR or an anonymous VPN. Reddit only permanently logs the IP on which the account signed so in this case TOR is a MUST for signup. Other info such as IP of posts/comments and possibly up/down votes are saved for 100 days. One should assume that this is also permanent however. Browsing is most certainly not saved but one should assume so. All traffic going though your DNM account should not be linked to an identifying IP or any other activities that could be linked to you (i.e. other subreddits). If you feel comfortable with maintaining a review account over time it will help build up reputation for your reviews compared to a throwaway (for those sweet internet and feel-good community points) at the increased risk of being doxed.

2. The Review

The review templates on the sidebar in my opinion are outdated. There needs to only be certain information given in the review:

3. Pictures

The key to any good review is going to be pictures. Any shill can post a review without proof. Photos of product and tests will keep the vendor accountable and users safe. If the product is excellent it will help reward a honest vendor with more business. Ideally your review should contain no identifying information in the picture except for:

Having good review pictures helps weed out fake reviews and should become the standard rather than just an exceptional case.

STRIPPING EXIF DATA

In regards to EXIF data on pictures. There is much confusion out there about how this data works and how to strip it. Exif metadata can contain extremely sensitive information such as the exact GPS coordinates of where the picture was taken from. Other data could also help identify you such as the phone model, pixel density of camera, DSLR model, etc. That can be used against you. I would advise everyone not just those using DNM's to make sure that 'Location' is not enabled by the camera app. This is how GPS is tied to metadata. If you deny permissions to location GPS will never be inserted into metadata.

Paradoxically imgur always strips exif data from pictures from the perspective of the image viewer. They may or may not however store them so if you have any concerns over that, strip it locally before uploading. There are some other 'anonymous' image hosting sites that in fact do not strip exif data and have lead to doxing. You can however get a higher level of security by stripping the data locally before uploading. There are multiple other ways of also stripping this data locally, here are just a couple of examples how:

After uploading and before posting the review on reddit, you can always check to make sure that the exif data is stripped here: http://regex.info/exif.cgi

NOTE: Never run commands suggested by an internet stranger without at least knowing what it does, in this case I have provided corroborating sources for these commands

TAILS / Linux

Open the command line and run these commands in the directory of the image, in this example the image will be on the desktop, in this example the image is called 2kilosofcolumbiancoke.jpeg:

cd ~
mogrify -strip 2kilosofcolumbiancoke.jpeg

source

Windows

  1. Select all images you want to strip
  2. Right click and select properties
  3. Go to the details tab and click 'Remove Properties and Personal Information' at the bottom
  4. select 'Create a copy with all possible properties removed' and hit OK
  5. Make sure there are no errors. Windows might have issues stripping some exif data.
  6. Make sure you upload the copy and not the original.

source

Mac

You need brew installed, if you do not already have brew installed run this command:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

source

Open the command line and run these commands in the directory of the image. In this example the image will be on the desktop, in this example the image is called 2kilosofcolumbiancoke.jpeg:

brew install exiftool
cd ~
exiftool -all= 2kilosofcolumbiancoke.jpeg

source

This of course is all a sliding scale in which you pick what level of security vs. convenience you are able to tolerate. You would be more secure never posting a review or going through all the extra trouble with in depth unix commands and such. And a reminder of everyone, if you see a good review upvote it. The reviewer is taking a calculated risk by providing to you good information where he/she otherwise did not have to do so.


Comments


[7 Points] MLP_is_my_OPSEC:

As most Linux distros come with ImageMagick, you don't really need to install another tool to strip exif data. I believe it's also installed by default in Tails.

mogrify -strip image.jpg


[3 Points] None:

[deleted]


[3 Points] wombat2combat:

"Paradoxically imgur always strips exif data from pictures. I highly doubt they store them and if uploaded from tor/vpn you are probably 99.9% safe."

i think that i somewhere read that they keep a version with the exif data but it is not publicly available. i could not find a source for this but because one should always remove the exif data before the upload this is not really an issue.

also you can not upload images to imgur using tor because they blocked the ip addresses of all exit nodes.

imgur is also a big company located in the us so in case your images somehow cause trouble for them they will not hesitate to cooperate with law enforcement [from their privacy policy: "if we receive a subpoena or other legal process requiring usto disclose whatever information we may have about you, we may have no choice but to do so." https://imgur.com/privacy]


[2 Points] BrlingtonCOATfactory:

This is all good info. And once in a while people do need to be reminded to upvote quality reviews.


[2 Points] None:

[removed]


[2 Points] D5qkFR4Yx0ev:

thank you for this guide. i know your post is geared towards review photographs but this information is relevant for posting any images anonymously online.

scary metadata is not limited to gps -- modern dslr cameras may also embed the serial number of the camera and the legal name of the owner if the owner configured the copyright field.

thank you again. i am new to this community but not new to security -- this is great information.


[2 Points] zman3000:

Lol i remember some e-tard posted a molly review with a selfie in it


[1 Points] None:

I believe Gimp(Tails default editor), actually has export options for stripping exif data as well.


[1 Points] None:

[deleted]


[1 Points] Vendor_BBMC:

You certainly go to extreme lengths to avoid standing by, or being associated with, a review.

Throwaway accounts are rarely used to tell the truth, or for the public good. For this reason, they can't be used to get free drugs out of vendors in return for a positive review.

I just spent two days mediating between a "carrot and stick" reviewer, and another vendor who he was determined to finish off.

It turns out that the only thing needed to soothe his concerns on the community's behalf was a promise of free drugs from the vendor. The vendor should have known this reviewer if he was on the ball, but he's just phoning it in at the moment

Building up a reviewer account is a great way of not paying for drugs. You should try it. Follow the simple instructions above and you can lie your head off for free drugs, and your regular "telling the truth" account will suffer no reputational consequences.


[1 Points] DNMTiger:

On windows when removing the data from the photos is it fine if you hit remove the following properties from this file and then click select all?


[1 Points] DNMVendor-Reviews:

all my review's are non-biased and based off personal experience. I think there decent quality.


[0 Points] None:

[deleted]


[0 Points] usermayne9:

Only on the DNM would someone write an essay on how to make a review, as if anyone with a brain couldn't already figure it out lol