Wait a minute, have you not noticed.

[_act_]

This forum is very unique as Theymos satisfied everyone.

What does exchanges, hardware wallet companies like Ledger Nano and Trezor and other sites getting wrong or insiders are just truly selling our data?

If theymos is not selling our data, what are those sites getting wrong?

I was sent this phishing message recently and I have many Trezor phishing messages which later become a spam.

Scammers are sending scam messages to Trezor users
Hackers sent email that Trezor database has been hacked hacked

There were many of the emails and later it become spam as I can receive 3 Trezor emails in a day from the scammer. They will stop, but that is not the end as they can come again after some months.

Ledger is the worst among the hardware wallets, to the point that scammers were sending phishing mails/paper letters and not only emails.

Few months that I registered on Gate exchange, I saw this: Phishing attack on Gate

I have phishing email of a gambling site that I registered on through this forum.

Phishing attacks are not just only about submitting your email or identity documents on scam sites, but also on legit sites like Binance, OKX, Gate, Ledger, Trezor and other ones.

I can decide not to use email to register on Bitcointalk, but I decided to use email, I have not seen a just one phishing email before on the email account that I used to register on this forum since over 5 years, although I become posting very well in 2022 and not in 2021 when I registered that I posted just only 1 post while my second post was in 2022 after 10 months.

Theymos do not sell our data and also he makes it difficult for hackers to get to it. I am referring to our emails.

[Welsh]

I think the difference is they're businesses, while this forum is a community, and theymos treats it as such. Therefore no selling of data etc. Plus, he seems to care about releasing data when requested, i.e only releasing it if he thinks its justified. Whereas I bet a lot of other companies are just willing to release from any old request.

I'm not justifying selling of users data at all by the way, but when people are money driven they'll do a lot to screw others over. In the EU / UK we have GDPR which makes it a legal requirement that you can opt out of marketing emails for example, but they always tend to make it the most difficult thing to actually go through instead of a one click, bang done.

Also, in the UK / EU you have the legal right to request that your account is deleted and all data forgotten... but they are allowed to keep data even when sent that request if they have a legal obligation. I wonder how many don't delete the data out of a 'legal obligation' blanket justification. This only applies to businesses that operate in the UK / EU though.

[Lida93]

You have to understand what anonymity really means in essence before you can be able to handle a community like this because at the end of each day if we're to be waking up to the receipts of countless phishing emails to the email address we used in registering in this forum then it could be raising a question about what the forum stands for as a bitcoin forum.

The forum is promoting an ideology (privacy) and it must have to first be the example to it, this theymos understood already.

[rat03gopoh]

I am referring to our emails.

KYC was previously required and some actually completed it. bta.lk/t/5124947.0

[dzungmobile]

This forum is very unique as Theymos satisfied everyone.

In fact theymos does not satisfy everyone in this forum, and you see many complaints in the forum about many things, some even direct attacks to theymos. I guess managing this forum is not actually comfortable for theymos and I admire him for doing that in many years since his takeover as a forum head admin since a long time ago.

What does exchanges, hardware wallet companies like Ledger Nano and Trezor and other sites getting wrong or insiders are just truly selling our data?

If theymos is not selling our data, what are those sites getting wrong?

Forum is like for community, these companies are for business but all data can be hacked, or leaked, sold for purposes. When there are less people engaged in management and operations, there will be less risk of leak, sale of data.
Bitcointalk history of hacks and vandalism.

[lovesmayfamilis]

In fact theymos does not satisfy everyone in this forum, and you see many complaints in the forum about many things, some even direct attacks to theymos. I guess managing this forum is not actually comfortable for theymos and I admire him for doing that in many years since his takeover as a forum head admin since a long time ago.

Figuratively speaking, it looks like people don't like the car that drives them, but they are not the owners of this car. It is always possible to get out and not use the car. If someone doesn't like the admin of the forum, then why does he visit this forum at all? Isn't the admin the owner of this forum? Who should dictate to someone how to live and how to run their business? 👎

No one is being forcibly held here, and there is always a "Logout" button. And yes, we leave all our data by ourselves, with our own hands, being of sound mind and in good health, and we do not take any guarantees from the forum that nothing will happen to our data. All that people leave behind about themselves is just their problems.

[PX-Z]

Yeah, the difference is pretty obvious, such companies or ecom site usually have settings that is default checked that you will receive marketing email notif or your email will be shared to their partner which you will notice it later on.

Hacked or breached data/email usually mean that you will receive phishing emails, or ransom emails. For forums, although for new ones i mean new software, have like summary of forum hot topics or etc. on xxx range dates sent monthly or weekly.

[Btcdeybodi]

Theymos do not sell our data and also he makes it difficult for hackers to get to it. I am referring to our emails.

theymos is not the only one that has access to our email addresses, when you make a report to moderators your email address will become visible to them. The reason i like this forum is that it allows email masking during registration and if you enable 2FA, most of your personal data will be protected from hackers. The forum is very unique so i doubt if theymos or any moderator will reveal or sell our personal data to a third party. I think the forum uses a defense-in-depth approach

theymos is not the only one that has access to our email addresses, when you make a report to moderators your email address will become visible to them.

This was removed, we don't see your emails when you report. That's just default SMF stuff, but this forum has long past that.

Oh! thanks for this, didn't notice it has been removed.

[Welsh]

Hacked or breached data/email usually mean that you will receive phishing emails, or ransom emails.

right, and the forum was hacked in 2015~(I think off the top of my head) and I believe emails were exposed at that time. So, technically if you are a older user, and use the same email you might get spammed from that old database breach.

theymos is not the only one that has access to our email addresses, when you make a report to moderators your email address will become visible to them.

This was removed, we don't see your emails when you report. That's just default SMF stuff, but this forum has long past that.


All I see is:
- Reported user
- Post reported
- Reporter (username)
- Report comments

[Zaguru12]

Theymos do not sell our data and also he makes it difficult for hackers to get to it. I am referring to our emails.

Probably Theymos is trying to showcase the importance of what brought altogether here, wouldn’t it be absurd that someone who manages the forum belonging to a currency that actually is advocating for freedom and anonymity/privacy is the one selling users data?.

I have actually thought about this too, why isn’t there data leaks too here like we see on other platforms and sincerely one thing I have actually been able to get hold of is that this forum isn’t handle or doesn’t have it data exposed to more people like the platforms you listed, since it’s probably only theymos he could actually hold on to the data with selling them, but for a platform with two or more people actually having access to the users data they could be one of them who actually compromised at one time due to greed or carelessness.

[dzungmobile]

Figuratively speaking, it looks like people don't like the car that drives them, but they are not the owners of this car. It is always possible to get out and not use the car. If someone doesn't like the admin of the forum, then why does he visit this forum at all? Isn't the admin the owner of this forum? Who should dictate to someone how to live and how to run their business? 👎

I did not mean so but perhaps you misunderstood me.  

My post is to counter back to the point from OP only.
Perhaps you understood my post correctly and your post is not about me but about the OP.  

theymos is not perfect as all people are but I see that theymos has very deep thinking and he has carefully managed this forum in many years. I was very surprised to know that theymos is a young person when he took over the forum adminstration and his thinking is exceeding and more matured than his age.

The story of how I became head admin is actually pretty boring. Moderators were needed, so I was made a global moderator. Then admins were needed, so I was made an admin. Then over time the other admins slowly lost interest and resigned until I was the only one left. I guess most of the people who were around here to see this have more-or-less left the community now. That's a bit sad.

It's not entirely clear, but for simplicity I usually say that I became head admin at the beginning of 2011, a little over a year after the forum was created.

theymos was a student as he wrote in another post back then.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1dkqcx/i_am_theymos_ama/?rdt=57642

I am a 21-year-old computer science student in the US and an avid bitcoiner since early 2010. I am the head admin of the Bitcoin Forum and the top mod here, though I didn't create either community.

[Ambatman]

I believe sometimes data leak isn't by the exchange or platform
But by those working there
We experienced something similar in my work place early this year.
I believe the reason such occur in said platforms is because there's money involved.
I still believe is always better to use unique emails for different site to prevent your original getting compromise.

[NotATether]

I think the difference is they're businesses, while this forum is a community, and theymos treats it as such. Therefore no selling of data etc. Plus, he seems to care about releasing data when requested, i.e only releasing it if he thinks its justified. Whereas I bet a lot of other companies are just willing to release from any old request.though.

Bitcointalk is holding at least 250 BTC in escrow (probably more, I don't know I don't really care), so they have no need to sell our collective data for not even a whole Bitcoin.

Besides, forums aren't exactly enterprises that harvest people's data, unless they are also being ran by a company. And a particularly poor one at that, to rely on data sales to turn a margin.

[OcTradism]

Bitcointalk is holding at least 250 BTC in escrow (probably more, I don't know I don't really care), so they have no need to sell our collective data for not even a whole Bitcoin.

It's 1196 bitcoins, not 250 bitcoins. These coins are cold-stored in following addresses.
https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/address/bc1q9md45gnwykdkf2r79fdzxyrs96rwejq5nkpca6
https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/address/bc1qyya7dyql06nkkpcx486qdlq4nvq5rsvdv33pnl

Besides, forums aren't exactly enterprises that harvest people's data, unless they are also being ran by a company. And a particularly poor one at that, to rely on data sales to turn a margin.

Years ago, when people raised their ideas and proposals for changes in forum VIP and donator members to change from bitcoins to fiat equivalent or stable coin equivalent, and reduce the donation from 50 and 5 BTC to something smaller, theymos said that forum no longer need donations.

He also stopped forum advertisement banners like 2 or 3 years ago too.

It's not like how a forum need money so that there is need to sell forum data.

[EarnOnVictor]

My major concern is not about your conclusion of whether or not our data are not being sold, for I've never thought of that before, though I used a general email, I have a lot of spam messages. My concern is messages targeting your exact email used for the exact purposes. I think this is more serious than you think, and this people might know more. I advice you to abandon that email for sensitive purposes, because this is too persistent and coincidental, IMO.

[AVE5]

I can decide not to use email to register on Bitcointalk, but I decided to use email, I have not seen a just one phishing email before on the email account that I used to register on this forum since over 5 years, although I become posting very well in 2022 and not in 2021 when I registered that I posted just only 1 post while my second post was in 2022 after 10 months.

Theymos do not sell our data and also he makes it difficult for hackers to get to it. I am referring to our emails.

As the case maybe that we commonly think that it's only when a platform isn't regulated that gives the key to an excellent security or privacy, I think the bitcointalk is beyond that limitation with the NON-VERIFIED EMAIL SYSTEM feature of the forum which doesn't really have to verify ownership.
In other words. So there should be a tightened security gadget there accept for the fact that there's admin that oversees all the forums activities.
Indeed such was forum like this can only be trusted via reputations of the admin as Theymos just as the worth of Satoshi Nakamoto's reputations pf creating bitcoin and made it himself a trustless network.

Don't forget that your forum account is safer when you registered with unused email which had not been exposed to others otherwise, it'll be a loophole for hackers.

[The Cryptovator]

I can decide not to use email to register on Bitcointalk, but I decided to use email, I have not seen a just one phishing email before on the email account that I used to register on this forum since over 5 years, although I become posting very well in 2022 and not in 2021 when I registered that I posted just only 1 post while my second post was in 2022 after 10 months.

Theymos do not sell our data and also he makes it difficult for hackers to get to it. I am referring to our emails.

Probably they secure our data hardly to save us from hackers. Not often do all the companies sell our data; most of them get it from data breaches. I know users' data has been sold on the black market, but most data is from the hackers through data breaches. On the forum all users here are crypto users somehow, so hackers would always target that. That's why maybe they think something different to secure users' emails, but I'm not sure how it's been protected.

[notocactus]

As the case maybe that we commonly think that it's only when a platform isn't regulated that gives the key to an excellent security or privacy, I think the bitcointalk is beyond that limitation with the NON-VERIFIED EMAIL SYSTEM feature of the forum which doesn't really have to verify ownership.

There is an advice from theymos if people want to register accounts with non existing emails, or change their initial emails to non-existing ones. It does not mean the forum does not really verify ownership of users.

You will need to sign, stake your Bitcoin address (with private key), or sign and stake your PGP key as marks of your account ownership. These things can be used to verify your account ownership in the future. Without these things, it's harder to recover your account in the future if it is hacked for example.

Make sure that your email address is secure. If you don't want to set an email address, use something like yourUserName@invalid.bitcointalk.org; don't use a random nonsense email like y@x.com, since somebody might create that domain/email.

Stake your Bitcoin address here.
The BCT PGP/GPG Public Key Database: Stake Your PGP Key Here.

[shahzadafzal]

Theymos do not sell our data and also he makes it difficult for hackers to get to it. I am referring to our emails.

Theymos selling user data? 😄

The guy probably has more Bitcoin than most crypto businesses. Selling email addresses would be like Satoshi opening a lemonade stand to earn some pocket money.

Did you forget? https://bitcointalk.org/donate.html

Bitcointalk even stopped selling ads since long time... I think last auction was like in July 2022, yet the forum is still thriving. That alone should tell us that making money from users' data isn't exactly part of the business model. 🙂