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Consider using Tor/VPN when using Hexbear so your ISP/government doesn't know (hexbear.net)
submitted 2 months ago by oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net to c/technology@hexbear.net
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If they don't know you use Hexbear, you might not end up on a list for that

Some VPN's accept cryptocurrency, and have high standards of not collecting/keeping data

Post made in honor of that guy who deleted his account a few minutes ago

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[-] dead@hexbear.net 19 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Post made in honor of that guy who deleted his account a few minutes ago

How do you know such person isn't a troll? It is possible that a bad actor wants to create fear in the community. Also deleting your account won't protect you. Remember when Graham Platner "deleted" his reddit account and every can still see his reddit posts? The same thing applies to hexbear.

If a user deleted their account, it's going to make the site worse if that user had any important posts. Deleting your account won't protect you from your government. The best thing you can do is to not admit to any crimes on the internet. It is probably also unsafe to post about personal immigration status on the internet.

I have linked a personal digital security guide below. EFF is a non-profit civil rights organization. If you click on the button that says "activist or protester", it gives you a list of 8 guides for improving your digital security in relation to political activism.

https://ssd.eff.org/

[-] LeninWeave@hexbear.net 12 points 2 months ago

Deleting your account won't protect you from your government.

The purpose of deleting your account is to make it harder for individuals and groups to doxx and harass you (and even notice you for doxxing/harassment), rather than to evade government surveillance (especially targeted). It's a valid action for certain threat models.

[-] dead@hexbear.net 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

That is not effective. There are logs of hexbear posts outside of hexbear. Users on other instances access hexbear posts. Other instances could be keeping records of hexbear posts. Any lemmy user could be keeping records of hexbear posts. You can't delete things from the internet. Everything posted on the internet is basically permanent record.

You can make a new account to have a new identity. Deleting an account is ineffectual and makes the website harder to browse.

I strongly recommend for people to use different usernames on different websites.

[-] PowerLurker@hexbear.net 3 points 2 months ago

yeah just echoing what LeninWeave said, the threat model for this kind of thing is almost always random weirdos vs state actors, be they reactionaries who lurk this site or just disgruntled people with a grudge. someone dedicated enough could dig up the deleted stuff, true, but types like this are often not that driven or resourceful. just creating a barrier that makes them lose interest early in the process can very often be enough. definitely agree about different usernames!

[-] LeninWeave@hexbear.net 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

That is not effective. There are logs of hexbear posts outside of hexbear. Users on other instances access hexbear posts. Other instances could be keeping records of hexbear posts. Any lemmy user could be keeping records of hexbear posts. You can't delete things from the internet. Everything posted on the internet is basically permanent record.

I am fully aware of all this, it makes no difference to the goal of making it harder for individuals and groups to doxx and harass you. That's why I said harder and not impossible. Once people have posted potentially identifying information, they can't un-post it. Deleting it is the best option available. Often just making something harder to find is sufficient to prevent harassment from occurring that otherwise would have.

Deleting an account is ineffectual and makes the website harder to browse.

I agree, but people have a right to be forgotten.

I strongly recommend for people to use different usernames on different websites.

Correct. I understand your point that people should adopt better practices to obviate the need to delete an account, I'm just speaking to the case where they already haven't and are trying to mitigate the potential fallout.

[-] LeninWeave@hexbear.net 14 points 2 months ago

Post made in honor of that guy who deleted his account a few minutes ago

wut

[-] oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net 9 points 2 months ago

Some guy named trinicorn that made a post and comments about how Hexbears shouldn't access Hexbear directly, so your ISP doesn't see it and get you on a list. They also said some other stuff.

3-4 minutes after their last reply to me, they deleted their account.

[-] LeninWeave@hexbear.net 7 points 2 months ago

I knew something happened because I saw the comment count on the feedback discussion megathread go down again.

[-] oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net 7 points 2 months ago

I noticed when my unread messages count dropped by 5, lol

[-] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 11 points 2 months ago

Isn't tor compromised?

[-] LangleyDominos@hexbear.net 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

There is no protection against fed-owned nodes nor fed-owned exit nodes. Whoever owns enough nodes on the network can deduce the routing. Plus Tor is slow and tor services are fairly mundane, inactive, and useless compared to the clearweb. If you're a dissident in a country and the idea of Americans possibly tracing your traffic is preferable to your own government, and you enjoy 1MB speeds or less, go ahead.

[-] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 6 points 2 months ago

Understood, comrade 🫡

[-] Kefla@hexbear.net 11 points 2 months ago

Sort of. It was made by the US government and if they really want to find out who someone is, they can. But that takes effort, it's not like the system doesn't work at all.

[-] abc@hexbear.net 11 points 2 months ago

Copy paste and spread it

ICE allegedly has been targeting Marxist Lemmy instances according to some sources online. If you are at risk of possible deportation by ICE, or are worried about the US government harassing you. I will advise you to be very careful about what you say here. Anything that is more important that needs to be said should be handled over encrypted communications. ICE has been knowingly monitoring online spaces for potential deportees for several months now and Hexbear itself has been put under increased scrutiny. At least one user so far has claimed they were raided by ICE for posting in online Marxist Lemmy instances.

[-] LeninWeave@hexbear.net 11 points 2 months ago

For anyone reading it, this is a bit (copy of a recent post about Discord which was removed for being rumor with no sources).

[-] jackmaoist@hexbear.net 8 points 2 months ago

Hexbear on Tor speeds must be atrocious

[-] oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Tbh it's not that bad, most of the bottleneck are serverside. It's like how people were posting about emojis not loading, regardless of how good their connection was or how good their computer was.

[-] hello_hello@hexbear.net 6 points 2 months ago

Just use a neutral third party DoH (DNS over HTTPS) instead. A lot of peoples devices just default to their ISPs DNS (or things like google or cloudflare) when that really doesn't have to be the case at all. Mullvad runs one.

this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2025
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