No, it's not really safe for several reasons. Unless you have a particular reason to view the filth, I would not recommend navigating to the site; 99% of what is posted there is fabricated. If you need to visit, be aware of two things:
1) The leakers will store and track the IP address that you use. While this is a common practice on many websites, it is especially important to the leakers for two reasons. First, they will try to match your IP address to logs from other websites that they have access to. They want to learn as much as they can about anyone involved in the hobby. It is even possible for them to turn your IP address into your name and address (depending on your Internet provider). Second, they want to keep very strict control over what is posted on the site, so they will block any IP address that they consider a threat. They pretend that are in favor of "free speech", but they have repeatedly blocked or edited any users or posts that didn't fit their agenda.
2) Eccieleaks represents a potential source of viruses. There have been reports of virus infections from visitors from time to time, although it is unclear whether the dangerous links were posted by the owners of the site or outside posters. Also, because what Eccieleaks does is illegal, they have to host their website on shady off-shore shared servers. It is common for a virus infection on one part of a server to spread to other sections when some part of the server is compromised.
In any event, use proxy connections and up-to-date virus software if you navigate to the site. And keep a trashcan nearby if you don't have a strong stomach.
Isn't Eccie hosted in Canada? Because what they do is illegal in the US.
ReplyDeleteActually, Eccieleaks is hosted by a company called Ecatel in the Netherlands (see Who or what is Ecatel?). They use a company called Underhost that is in Canada to register the IP address secretly. For some reason, they stopped using the fake "Thomas Quinn" name in Las Vegas. And you are correct, what they do is very much illegal in the US.
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