I've been reading about how to establish total anonymity on the Internet. I've seen people recommend that instead of just booting my laptop from a Tails USB stick, I should buy another whole laptop (usually used) to get started, one that I've never used before. Why is that? If I boot from a USB drive using something like Tails, is there still information exposed by my laptop that could potentially be traced back to me?
You could always take out the HDD/SSD instead of buying a new laptop. But that's pretty much to thwart nation state hacking imho. And imho if your country finds out you're that cautious they might start investigating you. Fun isn't it?
If a nation state wants me, they'll get me. But my desire to thwart big tech has been gradually building since I watched The Social Dilemma, and it came to a head when I read that Facebook will require Oculus Quest 2 users to have FB accounts, and may ban users (thereby bricking their devices) for arbitrary reasons and perceived infractions, with no appeal possible. Call me a rebel, but if I spend $400 on a device, I kinda think it belongs to me, not to the remote auditors at Facebook. Anyway, assuming you replace the hard drive, is there anything else (CPU serial number, etc.) that Tails or another privacy- focused OS might leak that would identify the user?
Every device in your PC has a serial number. Though it is doubtful that they can be retrieved with a browser, they could probably be leaked with any installed software.
This could be a full book to answer. Keeping it short but workable. Assuming you lose the original operating system, especially if its Windows is the first starting point. Windows directly points back to YOU if it was your computer originally. If you know how to forensically wipe a hard drive you can keep it. Next the MAC address is now your primary concern depending upon where that computer was used. If you were on your home network ONLY then your LAN router is the only device to ever have seen the specific MAC in question. However; if you are mobile and often used public wifi then all of those AP's could have captured your wireless NIC's MAC address. Skipping specifics my goal and suggestion is to use a Linux OS as a host operating system and then for workspace (actually going out on the web) conduct all activity via a linux Virtual Machine. It sounds like alot but its really simple. The virtual machine can reflect virtual numbers for all macs, adapters, etc... and can change every single session if you want them to. It is by far the easiest and most thorough way to remain anonymous online, while leaving the bread crumbs from yesterday's use of the machine in the closet! Key; the virtual machine cannot even see the motherboard on the laptop at all. It cannot betray you by handing out the actual identification specifics of the physical machine. BTW - the host operating system should be on a VPN (trusted good one) or TOR with the virtual machine NAT'd/Bridged to the host. Its what I am doing while creating this post --- VPN's --> Tor -- > and here I am. I only wish this website had a full/true onion address for us.
Thanks for the feedback. I would boot to Tails from a USB stick, spoof the mac address, and connect using tor through a VPN. All good there. What I don't know is whether or not there are identifiers embedded in the laptop that might still leak or be exposed by software. That's what I'm hoping to learn. Also, as a side note, I think I will have to disagree with you about the safety of using a VM. I'm no expert, but I know it is relatively easy for an intrusive program to detect that it is running in a VM jail, and then it may use techniques to dig into the host OS and hardware. That's why I prefer booting to Tails from a USB stick.
According to the Tails documentation, it does not touch the HD and leaves behind no trace of itself whatsoever.
Malware can easily identify that it is IN a VM, which is why most of the better ones shut themselves down immediately to avoid showing their code. BREAKING out of a properly constructed VM is not going to happen in the wild! Maybe a 3 letter agency but not a basement hacker. I still think you are missing the value in constructing a VM bridged properly to a host. The absolute value is that the physical hardware YOU claim to be concerned about is no longer visible while you are using workspace. Tails from a USB stick is a nice model IF the physical machine is not your concern, and more importantly if you are on a home LAN where only your router detects any MAC address from a machine. Maybe a quick read of the Whonix website to get a picture of WHY its so important to separate workspace (actually surfing around) from the supporting gateway that provides a way out to the internet. I wish you well in your pursuits!
