Hi All,
Been awhile since last posting & I thank all for past advice, which has been acted on!

Two questions today:

1st)  As you know I have traveled extensively with my job & have collected quite a few photos whilst traveling.  I would like to post these on Internet/ Dark-web, but have been hearing some disturbing reports on people being traced through Metadata.  What I would like to know is how to remove my identity from any pics I publish. I will be using TOR & VPN software & various things used In conjunction with TOR, such as Tails etc.  Once such Identifiers have been removed, is there any other suggestions to hide my ID?

2nd)  If using GIMP photo editing, can an IT expert restore images & things I have altered so photo appears as originally taken?
 
Also I refer to both above questions asked.  I will be using an external h/drive for all such work, any other security suggestions to keep things private?   I will encrypt sensitive docs, but can pics be encrypted?!  I use Windows 10 as my operating system.

Please keep your advice in layman terms, as I am not an IT expert, but have a basic understanding & learning more everyday!

Thanks Jo

[Army of One]

1st)  As you know I have traveled extensively with my job & have collected quite a few photos whilst traveling.  I would like to post these on Internet/ Dark-web, but have been hearing some disturbing reports on people being traced through Metadata.  What I would like to know is how to remove my identity from any pics I publish. I will be using TOR & VPN software & various things used In conjunction with TOR, such as Tails etc.  Once such Identifiers have been removed, is there any other suggestions to hide my ID?

To knowledge, there is software out there that'll strip metadata from photos. You will have to Google for it, as I don't know off the top of my head.

2nd)  If using GIMP photo editing, can an IT expert restore images & things I have altered so photo appears as originally taken?

Depending on the work, yes. It's how so many got caught by law enforcement.

Also I refer to both above questions asked.  I will be using an external h/drive for all such work, any other security suggestions to keep things private?   I will encrypt sensitive docs, but can pics be encrypted?!  I use Windows 10 as my operating system.

I think so.

I do wonder now why you ask these questions.

[Grumpy]

Yeah, this all sounds very fishy...

I don't want to accuse you of anything, but I'm not sure I want to help you either, unless you tell me in specific terms what you want to do. Because in my (albeit fucked up) mind, this line of questions could easily come from someone who has taken pics of kids or other very illegal/immoral shit and now want to post them on the dark web with their own face/identifying marks removed. And I am not about that.

No, No, No, there is know pedophile, or ultra young preteen girls involved, it's not masking girls or raping of underage girls!  The pics are of teen girls modeling, but want to screen some of the locations involved & make them look better.  I will be posting fictitious stories with some of the pics &  altering the pics to suit the stories, I feel this would be more erotic & merge with stories better!  Also I want to prevent anybody recognizing locations & giving girls a problem, as taken in very religious, conservative countries!

I hope this puts your minds at rest, but if not don't comment, leave it up to you ... Jo

[Army of One]

No, No, No, there is know pedophile, or ultra young preteen girls involved, it's not masking girls or raping of underage girls!  The pics are of teen girls modeling, but want to screen some of the locations involved & make them look better.  I will be posting fictitious stories with some of the pics &  altering the pics to suit the stories, I feel this would be more erotic & merge with stories better!  Also I want to prevent anybody recognizing locations & giving girls a problem, as taken in very religious, conservative countries!

I hope this puts your minds at rest, but if not don't comment, leave it up to you ... Jo

Okay...I'm happy with that, but remember that reverse image search exists (and is used a lot), so even with background blurring, they can still be tracked.

Additionally, when people talk of the dark web, it is almost never with chivalrous intention.

Hi Army of One,

Yes, I get what your saying about dark-net & still not sure where I will be posting yet.  My Idea is to put some sort of amateur site together, but this is very much in the planning & research stage, might not even happen!

As far as reverse imaging, not sure this would be a problem as these were local girls & not girls that would be known on the net.  These girls did nothing wrong except flash their bodies for HP & were rewarded as models would be!  But locations I travel in sometimes are heavily censored & care needs to be taken.  Hotel rooms & locations where pics taken could be identified & cause girls & me future problems, but maybe I'm being over cautious? 

The plan for my site would be aimed at Western countries & maybe some more developed countries with less morality rules, so above hopefully shouldn't cause any problems for those involved... Jo

[Army of One]

As far as reverse imaging, not sure this would be a problem as these were local girls & not girls that would be known on the net.  These girls did nothing wrong except flash their bodies for HP & were rewarded as models would be!  But locations I travel in sometimes are heavily censored & care needs to be taken.  Hotel rooms & locations where pics taken could be identified & cause girls & me future problems, but maybe I'm being over cautious? 

Overcautious on the kind of site you seem to be talking about is a nonexistent concept. You'd want to make sure you're abiding by all the rules, as well as respecting your models' privacy.

[Nero]

  Once such Identifiers have been removed, is there any other suggestions to hide my ID?

I use a little app called EXIF to strip metadata. It's pretty good.

If using GIMP photo editing, can an IT expert restore images & things I have altered so photo appears as originally taken?

It's pretty easy to tell that a photo has been altered, but to restore the original content? If you save to a lossy format like jpg and slightly resize the image then I doubt anyone could reverse engineer it. The only  possibility would be by matching to the original image, but that original image would have to already be available online.
 

Also I refer to both above questions asked.  I will be using an external h/drive for all such work, any other security suggestions to keep things private?   I will encrypt sensitive docs, but can pics be encrypted?!  I use Windows 10 as my operating system.

Anything can be encrypted!

Hi Nero,

Once again Nero, your 'Pearls of Wisdom' are much appreciated!  I will look into advice given by you & feel certain it will prove extremely useful in the future.   

Stay safe... Jo