Privacy

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What would be the best way to organize local protests online while remaining anonymous and reasonably private? (discuss.online)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I entirely understand that the more secure and private a means of communication gets, the less convenient it is. That being said it seems like there should be some way to be reasonably secure while still being able to promote these types of things.

To be completely transparent I am not planning on being said organizer of protests, but recent events have simply piqued my interest in the topic. I've read certain frequently referenced materials like "What is Security Culture", "Confidence Courage Connection Trust", and "Mobile Phone Security for Activists and Agitators". I feel like the more resources I read the more it seems like there is no general consensus on the best solutions even for similar threat models.

So far the only thing I've truly gathered is that if you want the best security and privacy you should just not use online communications, which obviously is sub-optimal for gaining traction.

Some people say using Signal is the best means of communication, but that the use of phone numbers and centralization could be a concern. Some people say SimpleX, but cite concerns about notifications or how it hasn't been around long enough to be fully vetted. There's Briar which actually seems great but goodbye to every iPhone user.

Is there any completely solid answer to such a scenario where privacy and security must be upheld while maintaining outreach? I get all things will have their tradeoffs, but is the best solution really just using network communications as little as possible and being careful about your presence?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah Signal should be fine. Don’t use a picture, don’t use your name, activate disappearing messages, change your user name whenever you’re sharing your contact details. Never share your phone number, only the handle.

Activism is trust based, as others said it’s a lot word of mouth how you learn about things going on. The unfortunate reality is that depending on what kind of activism you’re doing there might be people infiltrating.

You have to be more careful if you’re e.g. a climate or pro-Palestine activist. This is my experience from Palestine activism, the Zionists actually send people speaking perfect Arabic into protestor groups in and outside of Palestine. They get the names & info on everyone, what their role is in the group, things they share, they use that to disrupt the activism, blackmail and jail people. So you might consider not sharing social media accounts and your real name either, the less the better. But that really depends on the kind of activism you’re doing and the kind of people you’re surrounded with. I would assume that climate activism might be equally dangerous. Although mind you my experience is also a dictatorship like scenario, or whatever you wanna call military occupation.

The infiltrator issue also sucks because it destroys trust, there have been cases where undercover cops lived a double life for years just to keep some group infiltrated but those are rare. And that’s why a lot of things are word of mouth, you get "in" over doing more work and building friendships with people.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Cops will literally have long term relationships and marry the person they are spying on when it comes to eco-activism.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/jan/19/undercover-policeman-married-activist-spy

The oil companies have such incredibly firm control over the worlds' police forces that they have cops have long term sexual relationships with people opposing their ecocide and spy on them the entire time.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Wow, fascists, whether corporate or colonial or otherwise nationalistic really know no boundaries.

In our case we had a guy in the group who claimed to be from a specific place I happen to know very well since I have friends from there and the dialect of the guy just didn’t match his story. This is something very specific to Arabic dialects though where every region, every city has their own dialect. It was very awkward to tell this to the others, because it just ruins the trust in the group.
That's why it’s often better to give menial tasks like putting up posters or painting banners to suspected infiltrators rather than put the accusation out there and keep them out of the loop otherwise.

In general I’d recommend having several layers of communication and only let those in which seem trustworthy. If infiltrators start having sexual relationships with group members and become leaders of the group like in the article, well… No idea what to do in such a case, this is just crazy.