You haven’t done anything wrong, so why should you worry about surveillance? It was Cardinal Richelieu who said, “If you give me six lines written by the most honest man, I will find something in them to hang him.” The United States doesn’t hang innocent people any more, but it certainly does imprison them by the millions, and occasionally does kill them.
So why worry about surveillance, if you are honest? As the Miranda saying goes, anything can be used against you in a court of law. Law enforcement’s job is to come up with things to use against you, and the most innocent bits of data, combined together in ways you might not expect, can paint the most honest, innocent person as a criminal. Someday you could find yourself on trial for a crime you never committed, for instance, or you could be detained for hours every time you try to board an airplane or cross the border.
Last week the Electronic Frontier Foundation launched its Surveillance Self-Defense project, an online guide for protecting your private data against government spying. EFF created the guide, it said in a news release, “to educate Americans about the law and technology of communications surveillance and computer searches and seizures, and to provide the information and tools necessary to keep their private data out of the government’s hands.”
After all, data the government doesn’t have can’t be used against you. I presume, of course, that you are innocent of wrongdoing, and it is for innocent people that this guide is designed: activists who use their First Amendment rights to lobby for changes in government policy, for example, or ordinary Americans who get caught up in a criminal investigation due to a computer error, or simple human mistake such as police serving a warrant at the wrong house. Unfortunately this sort of thing happens far too often.
“Despite a long and troubling history in this country of the government abusing its surveillance powers, most Americans know very little about how the law protects them or about how they can take steps to protect themselves against government surveillance,” said EFF senior staff attorney Kevin Bankston. “The Surveillance Self-Defense project offers citizens a legal and technical toolkit with tips on how to defend themselves in case the government attempts to search, seize, subpoena or spy on their most private data.”
The site explains the law in the United States as it applies to what data the law enforcement and intelligence communities can obtain about you and how they obtain it. It then covers in depth how to protect your personal data on your computer, as it is in transit over the Internet, and while it is held by third parties. Importantly, it also provides an easy to understand overview of what security is and how to assess your personal security risks so that you can implement security measures which make sense for your own circumstances. Finally it covers specific security measures and technologies which you can use to protect yourself.
I’ve reviewed the site myself and I highly recommend it for anyone who has even the slightest possibility of being targeted by the government for any reason. And, unfortunately, that means every single individual, since, but for happenstance, the next person who gets their house mistakenly raided and their dog shot to death by a SWAT team could be you. Protecting your privacy using these techniques won’t guarantee your security, of course, but it will certainly reduce the likelihood of becoming the next victim of government surveillance.
(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)
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Ultimately, the war supporters in Congress prevailed in the vote on the resolution. Still, the vote was significant because it places every member of Congress on the record as supporting or not supporting the unconstitutional, costly, violent occupation of a country that never attacked us. This vote should serve as an important reminder to the American people of where their representatives really stand when it comes to policing the world, empire building, and war.
Gardner Goldsmith explains why claims by politicians that consumers can become "irrational" and why claims by the same politicians that government can help "fix" markets are both false and misleading. He also explains what the terms Praxeology and Epistemology mean, which is key in understanding how to place free markets in their proper place among human history.
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the toilet
Mar 09, 2009
What pisses me off the most is when they watch me take a crap. Those bastards!!!
Scarmig
Mar 09, 2009
The site looks like a good introduction to security for folks who’ve never thought about it before. Thanks for sharing!
BelchSpeak
Mar 10, 2009
Michael,
The US is imprisoning millions of innocent people? Riiiiiight…. And the Miranda states anything you say can be used against you. Not simply anything as you erroneously stated.
susan 28
Mar 10, 2009
great article just caught it over on the FSP blog.
Colonel Hogan
Mar 10, 2009
Hey Susan U a Free Stater too?
susan 28
Mar 11, 2009
Oui, Co-lo-nel.. but i haven’t moved yet, so i can’t complain when Schulz calls me a cockroach! the Liberty Forum seemed positively stellar this year, John Taylor Gatto (a personal hero of mine) even came. had i known i’d have found a way to be there. i think i might skip Porcfest this year and just plan on making the Forum next year, never been to one. i’ve got some family circumstances here holding me back but am thinking by the time we hit 20k i’ll have some wings.
TheQuestion
Mar 12, 2009
Michael, thank you for posting this.
you and the readers will appreciate this little video put together by a criminal lawyer/college professor and a veteran police detective… the title of the videos is “don’t talk to cops” and it is separated into two parts:
part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8z7NC5sgik
part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08fZQWjDVKE
susan 28
Mar 12, 2009
thanks for posting that TQ; i’ve seen it before but it can’t be spread around enough.
TheQuestion
Mar 12, 2009
I agree completely…
we have to spread this sort of information around…
Gregory Greene
Mar 14, 2009
We can’t be trusted so we have to be watched, right? I wrote a book on where it’s all leading. Read it for free at http://personal.inet.fi/private/walkabout
Luis Cifras
Mar 16, 2009
What did i do to them..lol no really this is serious stuff. but i got nothing to hide so watch away fellas!
susan 28
Mar 17, 2009
ah, the obligatory police-state apologist, “dignity is only for those who have something to hide”..
well if the dignity/privacy argument doesn’t persuade you, try: “you’ve got nothing to hide until they change the definition of ’something to hide’, and by then it’s too late because the unaccountable spying infrastructure you endorsed back in the days when you had ‘nothing to hide’ is already in place”.
if you were anti-war during the Bush administration (and now as far as the was-conceived-as-and-ever-will-be right-wing FBI is concerned) and ever uttered expressed it by phone or email, you’ve got something to hide.
and if you’re posting on this website, you’ve definitely got something to hide :) Luis Cifras.. got an address to go with that? we don’t wanna make the poor dears work to hard..
consider this: privacy, from childhood, is essential to the formation of personal boundaries. this is why teens, just beginning to emerge as individuals, become so obsessed with it and like to lock their doors, whether or not they’re doing anything ‘wrong’. they’re becoming fully-developed humans and as such need their space.
the invasion of privacy erodes those boundaries, and has a deleterious effect on the public psyche as a whole when done in the wholesale, institutionalised manner in which it now done.
consider also that the worst punishment on the infamous Devil’s Island prison – which was viewed not just as torture but torture of the most insidious and exquisite kind – was to be chained to the floor of your hut with a guard posted at your window whose sole duty was not to guard you – you were already shackled – but merely ro stare at you, 24/7, with no words uttered. the guards would rotate, but always a pair of dispassionate eyes burrowing into your head, your every move scrutinised, not because you were a threat, but just to drive you insane.
it was a *punishment*, and we now do that very same thing to each and every citizen in the country, “innocent” or
“guilty” (as though such things can be legally determined without a trial and their investigations performed without a warrant), with the added twist that although you know it’s happening, unlike the Devil’s Island prisoners, you can’t watch back; you never know exactly when the eyes are on you. which to me makes it even worse. at least the Devil’s Island tormentor had the courtesy to show himself. not so the FBI.
our founders inserted the 4th amendment into the Constitution not because they viewed us as a nation of criminals who had things to hide and wanted to protect the guilty, they did it because they’d just freed themselves from the shackles of an unaccountable regime and knew where that situation led.
so, forewarned is forearmed. we now return you to American Idol.
ps thanks for the book Greg, i’ve bookmarked it. which probably is enough to convince some desk-jockey somewhere that i now have something to hide..
Gregory Greene
Mar 17, 2009
You might as well download it, Susan–I’ve been advertising it for a week and have had 100 hits so far. Some day soon they’re going to find out and take it down.
susan 28
Mar 17, 2009
will do sweetie, thanks again for your effort.
Jeff Hoyt
Mar 17, 2009
“but i got nothing to hide so watch away fellas!”
Neither did the Jews…
Jeff Hoyt
Mar 17, 2009
And heaven be praised – intelligent discourse…
Thank you Susan, Colonel Hogan, TheQuestion, and Greg.
Jeff Hoyt
Mar 17, 2009
My conscience quickens me to mention Bob, Glen, Ray, et.al. Just haven’t seen them here yet.
susan 28
Mar 17, 2009
least i can do Jeff.. gotcher six!
Bob
Mar 19, 2009
Thanks Jeff. It touches me that I am missed, but I couldn’t think of anything to say on this topic.
I watched the videos from TheQuestion and I think I learned something. It’s always hard for me to keep my mouth shut but now I might try a little harder.
Why is there so much fear out there, and why does it seem so misplaced?
We are logically apprehensive about things that cause, or lead to death and misery. That makes sense.
Every day, we have thousands of people dying from car crashes, fatness issues, smoking, drug overdoses and the list goes on and on. These are all things we can prevent and overcome as individuals, on our own with a little self discipline and courage but we don’t, and we don’t seem to fear these things either. Instead, we focus our fear on things that barely merit a yellow alert, like cops kicking in our door. Realistically, that doesn’t happen all that often. Car crashes and heart attacks do. Nobody worries about that when they get in the car every day and munch on a couple of donuts on the way to work(if they have a job). They spend the time on the drive thinking about the security cameras watching them from the signposts, or imagine the Illuminati conspiracy behind the price of gas, or wonder when they are going to be forced to get a chip under their skin, or worry about somebody finding out what website they were on last night.
It doesn’t make sense to me. It’s not that these things aren’t important, I just think we worry about them too much.
If we live our lives as free individuals, it will all work out. We might have to struggle at some point, but that’s just the way it is. We’ll handle it. Free individuals can live in any type of society, it’s just that some societies reduce their life expectancy. Freedom is in your head. Don’t fear death, fear living a life that isn’t free.
The only thing that could really terrify me is the idea that someday I might give up my freedom and turn my back on my principles and beliefs in exchange for a few more years of being alive. That’s not going to happen.
Crowds, bats, spiders and snakes make me pretty nervous too.
Blah, blah, blah. Bob talks too much. Take the Fifth, Bob.
susan28
Mar 19, 2009
where’s Chester the Cheeto’s tiger when ya need him ;)
i would simply say that worry is for pussies, but this is legitimate concern and anger; and also that life is cheap but dignity is precious and that without the latter the former is worthless.
our founders agreed, which is why they put privacy so high on their priority list (#4 to be exact) – not just becsause privacy is necessary to dignity but more importantly because information is power, and the more power you surrender (especially to unacocuntable agencies) the more pwn’d you are. life wasn’t that bad under the King but they kicked him to the curb anyway on *principle*, and that’s what we’re promoting here. sometimes the small things are the big things.
in other words it’s not what a government does, or what it’s likely to do, but what it *can* do that’s the issue, and you don’t need a long-debunked anti-semitist myth to know that what Power can do, it eventually will; all you need is some knowledge of history and human nature and a little critical analysis.
and there are more examples everyday of innocent people getitng their doors kicked in *by accident* and their animals shot (which has become pretty much automatic now when it used to be rare) simply as a result of the increasingly-casual use of such tactics, and as far as i’m concerned even one is unacceptable let alone the level we have now, which is becoming disturbingly high – and again we’re not talkng odds here we’re talking principle.
i’m sure we’d all be up for some tips on how free folks can live in an unfree society (such as the article provides), provided they’re not along the fatalist grin-and-bear-it line nor the “nuts and berries” stuff (which is great for the Thoreau types but not us ’slickers).
you used disease and addiction as examples of “things we can actually do something about”.. is that to be construed as your feeling that it’s all over but the shouting and that we should just “learn to love the Bomb”, as it were?
Bob
Mar 19, 2009
I don’t think I had disease in there Susan, but whatever.
Our system is socialist(has been for years) and it has a good head of steam up heading for outright communism.
I think those systems are wrong and this is what I do to fight the movement in that direction.
I pay as little in taxes as I possibly can so that I don’t support it. I take care of myself with my own labor and I ask no help from anyone. I try to be honest with others and treat them as fairly as possible and I help out where ever I can. I refuse to give up my firearms because I intend to use them against anyone who threatens myself or my family, including any cops kicking in my door and shooting. Haven’t had to use them yet, and I’m 44 years old. Things obviously haven’t been that bad up ’til now but I expect them to get worse. I’m ready.
Those are the things that I can control.
If everybody lived that way, we wouldn’t have problems and we could be as different and individual as cats and dogs. If our leaders knew we were all like that, things would be a lot better.
Individuals are the problem today. We tolerate too much crap. I’m lucky so far. Crap hasn’t come knocking on my door in any way that I haven’t been able to deal with.
susan28
Mar 19, 2009
yeah i guess i just read “disease” into the smoking and fatness issues thing, ie: preventable disease. but ya my bad.
VERY sage advice, babe.. i mean Bob ;)
Bob
Mar 19, 2009
Just to put it in perspective, in those 44 years that were free of kicked in doors and police brutality and surveillance, I’ve been in three car wrecks and the wife was in a rollover. Only one wreck was really my fault. I’m sure I have at least some heart and liver damage from all the drinking I’ve done. My body is all gimped up from wear and tear at work. My lungs hurt from cigar smoke and paint fumes and two stroke exhaust, and I lost a testicle when I was fifteen in a slippery kickstart-no seat accident with my old Norton.
Yeah, Obama and the possible existence of the Illuminati and whether or not they are watching me are some things I think about now and then, and so is our collapsing economy and slide towards communism, but really, they should be the least of my worries. I’ll deal with them when they are in my face.
And if they are just there to ask questions, I’m going to keep my mouth shut.
susan28
Mar 19, 2009
there’s no Illuminati Bob. infact funny you mention it as my friend Reverend Shearer over on antipasministries dot com has an article up on his main page tracing the whole sordid history of that myth. second article down.
it doesn’t mean there’s not a loosely-knit political and economic oligarchy with a stranglehold on global power structures which tends to interbreed (hence those hyphenated and funky middle names they use to keep track of who’s who) and move in common social circles but it’s not a religious cabal, just garden-variety opportunists. they’re schemers but seem pretty stupid for the most part, prolly from all that cousin-fucking.
the “Illuminati” is the “Social Register”, basically, and not very Jewish by and large.
GlenGary
Mar 19, 2009
I certainly hope the NSA likes my collection of naked broads on my computer. I know I do.
PrivacyNewB
Mar 20, 2009
This is my first time here after doing a little Internet searching today. I am enjoying the informative articles as well as the well written and informative responses.
I haven’t been able to view the Surveillance Self-Defense article yet, as my company blocks the site, but will check it out on my lunch hour. Looking forward to it.
I started looking at privacy by reading the book “How to be Invisible” and besides realizing that you can never be truly invisible anymore, it seems that staying private is a very difficult thing to do. Does anyone have any recommended sources for a newb such as myself?
I loved the videos! I was able to watch them from the office (not much work to do today).
Colonel Hogan
Mar 27, 2009
PrivacyNewB,
Your company blocks the site huh? Maybe they’re watching too. My new year’s resolution for next year is to make it appear that i’ve fallen off the face of the earth to any watchers. Good-bye Komandant Klink. Good-bye Gen. Birkhalter. Good-bye Luft Stalag 13. I’m going to London (or maybe NH).
[Only 2 actors in the show "Hogan's Heroes" were not Jews. Ironic Huh?]
Jackie
Mar 31, 2009
For #26 PrivacyNewB — I have everything J J Luna has ever written. He beats all the other “experts” in the field. You might go to howtobeinvisible.com and click on BOOKS. The best one is “Invisible Money.” (I just followed one of his tips by opening a bank account in Canada.)
Rogelio rodriguez
Feb 04, 2010
Ive had 5 friends arrested for marijuana possesion when they werent doing anything but walking or sitting in a car and one of them didnt even have weed on him. im 19 never did anything illegal but grow a 3 plants for my personal use. i didnt sell and even stop buying weed so why was i targeted? And if they were so sure about me being some kind of drug king why did they have to lie to me about the reason they came onto my yard without permission?they didnt even knock. but some how cops magically figured out i was growing weed? my lawyer says in my part of town using flir cameras without a warrant is a common practice by the police. Not saying all police are bad my family are close to 2 police officers and their family and we are friends with a ex sheriff down the street who i might say can account for the crookedness of many police officers. i wish i had cameras installed all around my house and car cause im tired of their lieing to our faces.