[@ADarkLightbulb]

Hi, I can help with some of the issues you've been running into. The ISP thing sounds similar to something we've encountered before. Can you PM me a screenshot of the error and the ISP you use (either for your home or your cell carrier, whichever the error shows up on)? The reason it doesn't show up on wifi is because you'd be on whatever ISP they use, which may not falsely flag the site.

In terms of privacy, I can answer your questions. I'm also a professional in information security, so hopefully I can put your mind at ease.

The Guild doesn't store any personal information (obviously some details are necessary for the site to operate at all, like the email you use to register) as far as I can recall. I can go back and check the database logic to tell you [i]exactly[/i] what goes into it if you want me to (and if you want to fact check me, the Guild is open-source, and our code is available on GitHub).

In terms of the ads you're seeing, that's based on Google's ad network, which is on pretty much every site on the net, not specific to the Guild. Havoccultist is correct in that it uses heuristic information to figure out your general location, including both previous google-connected sites you've visited and your IP address. People make a big deal about IPs for some reason (probably a remnant from when networks were build slightly differently than they are now), but it's not private information and shouldn't be something you're super worried about people getting unless you really want your (very broad) location to be completely obscured from anyone. Additionally, if it's any comfort, none of the mods have access to live data. Only the superadmin who runs the site does.

The one additional caveat I'd note is that modern encryption is very, very strong. I appreciate a healthy skepticism of government agencies, and fortunately that's led to protocols that, to the best of the infosec industry's knowledge, not even the big three-letters can crack (which might make you feel better about the state of things [@Havoccultist]). Obviously there are other ways to get information and I could write a novelette here diving into all of them, but as a general rule all end-to-end encrypted traffic (on the web that's HTTPS sites) is 100% unreadable and unmodifiable until it reaches the other side.