Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

I am not talking about collecting hunting decoys for needy hunters.  I am talking about swapping out a sensitive laptop hard drive with a hard drive that has no sensitive information (a decoy drive) to protect your privacy from snoops.

Privacy Tactics

A great tool for protecting privacy is misdirection. Misdirection can make others believe you have nothing of value, reducing your risk of theft, invasion of privacy, etc. Misdirection can also include using decoys. Privacy predators that find a clever decoy, of no value to you, will be prevented from invading your real privacy and they won’t even know it.

Misdirection does not mean lying or committing fraud. Such tactics actually reduce your privacy because when a lie or fraud is discovered your affairs will be even more closely scrutinized, possibly by law enforcement.

Misdirection Helps People

To illustrate the difference between lawful misdirection and fraud, take the case of a celebrity who would like to go out in public without being recognized. A simple misdirection tactic that they might use would be to wear frumpy clothing, a hood and cheap sunglasses. This obscures many of their features so that, hopefully, they can pick up some toilet paper at the store without being hassled by hundreds of fans.

If that same celebrity were to use a fake ID to carry their disguise even farther, they would potentially be committing a crime.

As an example of effectively using a decoy, I turn to the wisdom of Mel Brooks. The folks in Blazing Saddles used a decoy town to protect their real town from the ravages of savages.  If they were to use a decoy town in some settings, such as when selling the real estate,  they might be committing a massive fraud.

Using A Decoy Drive With A Laptop

Us common folk can apply the principles of legal misdirection and decoys with the data on a laptop. Removing the hard drive of your laptop and replacing it with another hard disk is a great way to use misdirection to protect your data privacy.

There may be a million reasons why you would want to use a decoy drive to prevent access to your main laptop hard drive. You might be crossing a border where you and your data will be searched.   You are not required to provide encryption keys, assuming you have encrypted your data, to enter the US, but other countries like Great Britain will require you to disclose those encryption keys.  Only by removing a sensitive hard drive before traveling to Great Britain will your sensitive data be protected. Maybe you suspect a keylogger has been surreptitiously installed and you want to access an online account without tipping off the snoop.  Or, you are just a fan of personal liberty and you want to try out a cool tactic.

Decoy Drive Steps

First, make sure you are fine with the consequences of swapping out your hard drive. Some warranties might be voided if you do it yourself.

Second, purchase an appropriate hard drive for your needs.

Third, follow the instructions in your user manual to remove the hard drive. Make sure to remove the battery so you don’t get zapped.

Finally, install the new hard drive and you are in full decoy mode.

Advanced Strategy

If some snoop were to discover your decoy drive, would they believe it was the only hard drive you have? If your decoy drive has no activity on it, a snoop might realize that they have not truly uncovered what they were looking for. Upon realizing you have used a decoy, they may be even more interested in finding out WHY, leading them to investigate you even more than they would have.

Just like deer hunters spray their decoys with scent, you need to do more than make your decoy drive look like it is the real thing.  Please do not spray your computer with anything. To make it look like your decoy drive is your main drive, engage in some meaningless activity on your decoy drive regularly.  Save some innocuous documents there, save some harmless family photos, do some meaningless web surfing or play solitaire once in a while.  This will help you sell your decoy as genuine.

Conclusion

Swapping out your sensitive hard drive with a decoy drive at the right times can help protect a lot of your data privacy.  Snoops will have to be very sophisticated to recognize what you have done if you are doing a good job selling your misdirection. To learn more about this and other ways to protect your privacy, check out the book How To Vanish.

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3. My Privacy Library Part II

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

Cloud file storage is a great way to get a little bit more privacy.  Separating your sensitive files from your physical location gives you flexibility and security.   But are you exposing yourself to more risks by trusting your data with another company?

For privacy minded people, cloud security can be just as important as convenience.  There are lots of cloud storage options, so which one offers the best cloud security?

There are three contenders that provide very good options for cloud storage which can also provide the cloud security and privacy needed.  Dropbox, which we have discussed before, SpiderOak and Wuala.  Check out how these three services stack up against each other to decide which, if any, you think is best for you.

Dropbox

Dropbox lets you store, sync, access and share selected data online.

Privacy/Security

Dropbox encrypts the content of your files, however, the file names are readable to Dropbox.  Also, they maintain control over your password so there is a possibility that your password, and thus your data, could be compromised by rogue employees, warrantless searches, etc.

For this reason we have urged Dropbox users to encrypt their sensitive files with the open source encryption program Truecrypt before putting them in Dropbox.  Open source software is the most trustworthy way to prevent surreptitious access to your data and get more cloud security.

Accessibility

Dropbox  allows you to access your files, or save new files to your Dropbox folders, from any web accessible computer.  You do not have to be using your own computer to access or save new files.  This can be very handy for travelers working from internet cafes, people working from a different office computer, or if your own computer is lost or damaged.

Ease of Use

Dropbox is the simplest of these three options to setup and use.  The lower default privacy and security settings make it easy to integrate with other services and easier to use in general.  It is also extremely easy to customize the cloud security you want by encrypting your own sensitive files with Truecypt and leaving less sensitive files encrypted by Dropbox.

Price

Dropbox, along with SpiderOak and Wuala, offers 2 GB of free storage space.  That can be enough storage for a few critical documents, like birth certificate, passport, etc. There are ways to increase storage, including paying about $10 per month for 50 GB or $20 per month for 100 GB.

SpiderOak

SpiderOak provides encrypted backup, storage, access and sharing of your files.

Privacy/Security

SpiderOak automatically encrypts all of the files backed up or shared through their service.  The encryption is done on your own computer with the SpiderOak software that you download so SpiderOak’s central servers never have control over your password.  That way, the SpiderOak employees or other snoops cannot read the files you have uploaded to your account, not even the file names.

SpiderOak software is not open source so there is no way to verify the claim that they do not have  surreptitious access and cannot grant surreptitious access to others.  It is still advisable to encrypt sensitive documents separately with Truecrypt before backing them up with SpiderOak.

Accessibility

SpiderOak allows you to access backed up files from anywhere, but you cannot upload new files to your SpiderOak account from a remote computer.  This may be inconvenient for people who might be working from an internet cafe, etc.  This loss in convenience is the price paid for increased cloud security.

Ease of Use

SpiderOak offers more features than Dropbox so it is a bit more complicated to use, although it is still fairly simple. Because of the limitations in accessibility it is harder to integrate with many other applications that you might have.

Price

In addition to the 2 GB of free storage, every 100GB of storage costs $10 per month.  That is about half the price of Dropbox.

Wuala

Wuala is like somewhat of a hybrid between Dropbox and SpiderOak.

Privacy/Security

Wuala encrypts your data automatically before it is uploaded, similar to SpiderOak, although it is based on more open source projects than Dropbox or SpiderOak. It is not completely open source, so the same open source caveat generally applies.  Wuala is, however, based in the EU where there are stronger data protection laws than there are in the US.

Accessibility

Wuala provides a way to access files via the web.  This gives you access to your files from an internet cafe or other places, not just from your own computer.  It still allows you to encrypt and decrypt your data locally, maintaining the high security while still providing the ease of use.

Ease of Use

Wuala is able to support drag and drop file management, much like Dropbox.  This, and other features, make it less complex than SpiderOak, which does not have drag and drop features.

Price

The cost of Wuala is about the same as SpiderOak, which is about half the price of DropBox.

Conclusion

These are at least three good solutions for online backup, file sharing and storage which still offer cloud security.  Each has different features and capabilities that will appeal to different people.  If you want flexibility you can use Dropbox.  If you want automatic strong encryption, you can use SpiderOak.  If you want a bit more of a hybrid, try Wuala.  You can combine any one of these with Truecrypt for maximum privacy and cloud security.

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Reading time: 6 – 10 minutes

A lot of people think email encryption is an awesome idea.  But very few of them ever do it.  Emails travel around the internet in plain text. Anybody routing the traffic can easily read the entire content of your emails like a letter carrier can read a post card.  When it is legal to secretly read your emails without a warrant and it is legal to detain you indefinitely without charges, more people than ever might be motivated to start encrypting some of their emails.

I’m sure part of the reason why many people don’t encrypt their emails is because they think it is too complicated, too time consuming, too cumbersome, or requires major computer skills.  A few might even think it is useless, since there are not a lot of people that currently encrypt their email.

If you know more about Gatekeepers and Keymasters than you do about public key and private key cryptography, you are in luck.  Not only is free email encryption very useful, but it is fairly simple, almost seamless, and you don’t need to befriend a bunch of encryption fanatics to use it effectively. Plus, you will not be summoning any giant marshmallow demons when you use it.  Follow these simple steps to set up free email encryption in 15 minutes.

Email Account

To get free email encryption you can use an existing email account, or you can set up a dedicated account to receive your encrypted communications.  A dedicated account is usually unnecessary because your email provider, and warrantless email snoops, will not be able to read any encrypted emails.

The email account that you use must have IMAP or POP forwarding capabilities.  Plenty of email providers, like Gmail or Fastmail, offer this feature in their free accounts.  Yahoo mail only offers forwarding on paid accounts. Before you start, check the settings of your own email to make sure you have IMAP or POP forwarding.  You will use this email address in the setup process.

1. Download Free GnuPG Encryption Software

Both the sender and receiver need to be using the same software in order to properly decrypt the message. GnuPG is one of the leading email encryption programs.  It is like the Microsoft Word of email encryption software, except that it is free.   It is very simple to install and should only take a minute.

Download GnuPG for PC

Download GnuPG for Mac

2. Download Thunderbird from Mozilla

Thunderbird is free email software that will allow you to manage your encrypted messages. It only takes a few moments to set up.  Follow the installation and setup instructions and use your email that has IMAP or POP forwarding in the setup process. This step is also very simple and should only take a minute.

Download Thunderbird for PC

Download Thunderbird for Mac

3. Install Enigmail Plugin

Save the Enigmail file to your computer.  Open Thunderbird and go to the Tools, Add-Ons menu to install Enigmail.

Download Enigmail Plugin for PC or Mac

4. Create Your Encryption Keys

Now that you have the software installed, you are almost ready to start encrypting your email. You will want to close Thunderbird and GnuPG before continuing.  Open Thunderbird up again and  go to the OpenPGP menu and select Key Management.  Then click on Generate and then New Key Pair.

Choose the email address you want to use  and come up with a passphrase to send and receive encrypted email using strong password techniques.  Click on Generate key and your keys will be generated shortly!

5.  Penultimate Free Email Encryption Setup Items

Thunderbird will ask you if you want a revocation certificate, which is a good idea to have in case of a disaster, so click yes on that option.

Check out your key id by going to Key Management under the OpenPGP menu item.  Search for your email address and write down or save the key ID.

6. Publish Your Public Key

You want everyone in the world to know your public key.  Without it, nobody can send you an encrypted email.  You can publish your public key in the public key directory by going to Key Management, highlighting your email, go to the Keyserver menu item and select Upload Public Keys.  You can also publish your public key on your website, email it to all of your friends, or put it anywhere else by going to edit, copy to clipboard and then pasting your public key where you like.

You are completely ready to use free encrypted email now.

Use Free Email Encryption

Now that you have  a new toy, you might want to test it out.    Check out these detailed instructions on how to send an encrypted email.  Compose a message and send it to “adele-en@gnupp.de” with your public key attached.  Send signed and encrypted messages and you will receive a response within a few minutes letting you know whether it worked or not.

Free Email Encryption Prevents Email Scams

Even if you are the only kid on your block with email encryption, it is still a very useful tool. Email scams are big business.  I am sure most of us have seen an email from someone impersonating one of your contacts.  When you sign an email, even if the email itself is not encrypted, the recipient knows you are sending it. The recipient doesn’t need to be using email encryption to prevent email impersonation scams.

Conclusion

Free email encryption is one of the best ways to get a lot more privacy for very little effort.  It will keep warrantless snoops from invading your private life. Massive surveillance of private messages will be much more difficult when private emails are encrypted. It is easier, less cumbersome, and less time consuming than most people probably realize. Check out more ways to protect your privacy in the book How To Vanish.

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Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

Your old computer has more sensitive information than the diary of a 13 year old girl. I doubt you would sell or give away that kind of a diary, but it seems wasteful to destroy a computer that could be perfectly good for someone else. So what can you do with an old computer that could still be perfectly useful to someone, without compromising the security of your tax documents, diary entries, embarrassing childhood photos, and other private information?

Recently I donated an old computer, that was still in great condition, to charity. I took some very simple steps that you can use to safely sell or donate your old computer.

Deleting Doesn’t Cut It

Simply deleting a file is not sufficient for you to safely sell or donate your old computer. “Deleted” files actually remain on a computer until they are saved over with other information. They don’t show up on the regular operating system anymore, but those “deleted” files are easily recoverable by some nosy 10 year olds.

Completely Wipe The Hard Drive To Safely Sell Or Donate Your Old Computer

The entire hard drive needs to be wiped out to prevent any old files on the computer from being discoverable by a donee or subsequent owner. This sounds very technical, but it requires very little technical skill to do. If you can install a simple program on your PC, you can wipe your hard drive.

Step 1 – Get Free Software

You first need to download free software that will securely wipe your computer hard drive. I recommend Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN). Save the “DBAN 2.2.6 Beta” file to your computer.

Step 2 – Burn A Disk

You will need to save the file to a CD or DVD. Most computers now have CD or DVD burners. When you open your CD burning program, make sure to select the option to burn an “ISO” image. If you were looking closely, you will notice that the DBAN file you downloaded is a “.iso” file. Burn the disk like normal.

Alternative – You can also save the file on a USB drive if you want.

Step 3 – Boot Computer From The Disk You Burned

Now you need to put the burned disk with the DBAN file into your computer before you boot it up. If you have already booted up, restart the computer with the disk in. If you saved DBAN to a USB drive, plug that in before booting up or on reboot.

Step 3.5 – Configure Computer To Start From Disk Drive

If your computer started up like normal with DBAN in the disk drive, you need to reconfigure your computer to boot up off of the disk drive. You will need to restart your computer once again. Right when your computer is starting up, you will be able to access a menu with some very basic configuration options (the BIOS menu) if you press a button, usually “F2″ or something like that. Be quick because the screen only flashes for a few seconds.

Find the boot up options. Every menu is a little different at this stage, so you may have to search around for it. Once you have found the boot up options, make sure that the computer is looking to the disk drive where DBAN will be to boot up first. If you used a CD, look to the CD drive, if you used a USB, make sure the computer boots from that drive.

Step 4 – Point Of No Return

Make sure you really, really, really want to do this. There is no turning back from the next step. Back up anything you will need later.

Step 5 – Wipe Your Hard Drive

When your computer boots off of DBAN you will see a hideous blue screen and be given some options. You can simply type in “autonuke” then press “Enter” to erase your hard drive. This method is good, but it may miss some important data that can be recovered later. If you want to be very secure about erasing everything, follow this second suggestion.

Once your ugly blue DBAN screen comes up, hit “Enter” to go into interactive mode. Hit the letter “M” and then select “Gutmann Wipe” and press “Enter”. Use the “Space” key to select your hard drive. Press “F10″ to start wiping. This method will wipe your hard drive several times over and won’t leave any data behind.

Autonuke will take approximately one hour to completely wipe your computer. The Gutmann Wipe will take much longer.

Step 6 – Safely Sell or Donate Your Own Computer

You can now sell or donate your computer without having your data fall into the hands of strangers. The wiped computer will need an operating system do that before getting rid of it or let the next owner take care of it themselves.

Conclusion

You don’t have to destroy or throw out your old computers to protect your private data. You can still be generous or earn a little cash by selling or donating your old computer after wiping your sensitive hard drive of all private, personal information. These steps are for a PC.  If you are donating a Mac, check out these other steps to delete your sensitive information.For other tips on protecting your digital privacy, check out the book How To Vanish.

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Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

Some people feel like it is useless to protect privacy.  Privacy pessimists already feel the ubiquitous surveillance of almost every action they take.  They envision a near future when every thought, word and deed are detected recorded and archived for later reference by anyone who wants to know.  The advance of technology makes it seem like privacy is dead.

Privacy Is Dead Because Of Technology?

It is true that technology is advancing to track our every move, often without our knowledge. But technology is also advancing to protect privacy in ways that were not available before.  There are already many tools that we can use to protect our private information and most of them are free and easy. Tor, Truecrypt, and GnuPG are three great examples.

Unfortunately, as Julian Assange  alluded to following the release of “The Spy Files,” much of the technological effort is aimed at invading privacy.  But, if privacy is valuable to people, more and more privacy protecting solutions will become available. If privacy is not valuable, then nobody will read this.

The reality is that privacy protecting technology is usually easier to employ than privacy invading technologies.  For example, it is free and only takes a few seconds to encrypt files or emails.  To break into those emails, you need a significant amount of technical skill, time and money.

Privacy Is Dead Because Of Social Norms?

Many also look to the changing social norms that seem to punish people who don’t want to participate in social network surveillance.  Idiots get paid millions to display their stupidity on TV and on the internet.  Governments and advertisers can now track people like the East German Stasi could only dream. But, even Mark Zuckerburg is publicly noting the dangers of social networking. Plus, the Stasi aren’t forcing anyone to use Facebook.

The Law Is Killing Privacy?

The Patriot Act has made constant, warrantless digital searches legal.  Telecommunications are controlled by strict regulation, preventing communication without government permission.  Your bank accounts are under government surveillance. Death by one thousand cuts of privacy invading regulation is a real problem, but the future is not as bleak as it may appear if we look at the bigger picture.

Americans of Japanese descent have much more privacy now than they did during World War II, even though the law allowing them to be imprisoned based on nothing but their heritage is still valid.  Minorities, while still brutalized by law enforcement, are brutalized much less and enjoy much greater freedom than they did under Jim Crow laws.

Encryption Technology Is A Model For Privacy

The most significant protection from unjust law is the technology that has developed to make the law irrelevant.  The history of strong encryption is a good example of this.  Strong encryption was developed and used by the US military several years ago.  At that time, fearing the power of encryption in the hands of the enemies of the US military, it was illegal to export high level encryption technologies to other countries.  It was treated as a munition.

But, other groups outside the US were able to harness the power of mathematics and develop strong encryption on their own.  Now, strong encryption is so ubiquitous it is available for free to anyone with access to the internet.  The law preventing the export of encryption is as useful as a law preventing people from riding their bike in a swimming pool and was severely relaxed in the US.

Many other technologies are rendering other laws irrelevant.  Torrents, Tor, GnuPG and other solutions allow individuals to communicate privately.   Financial transactions can take place with Bitcoin across international borders with no limits on value, no declarations, and no ability to restrict a transfer.

Keeping Privacy Alive

As with most things in life, 80% of the benefits of privacy can be attained with 20% of the effort.  Focusing on just a few of the most effective privacy tools and techniques will go a long way to protecting a material amount of your personal privacy. Giving up does not do any good.

Conclusion

Privacy is alive. We may not be able to unplug completely from the Matrix, but we can have a material amount of privacy by using a few tools that best fit our situation.  All we need is to carve out some areas where we can keep our private files, communicate anonymously and transact anonymously.  Other information, like our favorite color and our favorite food can be uploaded to the Matrix without much harm done to ourselves.  I have no doubt that in some ways there will be privacy battles that are lost in the future.  But at the same time, I have no doubt that many solutions to protecting the most fundamental aspects of human autonomy will be developed.  There is no putting the genie back in the bottle for many of the privacy protecting tools that have been, or will be developed.  Long live privacy!

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Reading time: 7 – 11 minutes

“Remember, remember the 5th of November…”

Cue the William Tell Overture!!!

Contact us about payments via cash or BitCoin.

If you have seen the movie V for Vendetta, you may remember the broadcast the character, V, sends out to challenge corruption and authoritarian rule. He did that while remaining completely anonymous. In that spirit, to celebrate the 5th of November, How To Vanish is also showing political activists, and every one else, how to do the exact same thing: exercise freedom of speech while protecting your anonymity.

People Are Fed Up

Political activism is growing around the world.  The Arab Spring, Wikileaks, the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, these political activists are promoting ideas that challenge the current political and economic power structure and expose political and corporate corruption across the globe.

Challenging Power Is Risky

But challenging the powerful and exposing corruption is risky. Whistleblowers suffer financially, they are harassed, ostracized, and intimidated. In extreme cases they are faced with violence, imprisonment and even death. We don’t even have to look all the way back to the Mississippi civil rights workers in the 60s who were killed for examples. There are plenty of examples in recent memory.

• Just a few days ago there were reports that 13 Syrian bloggers and journalists have disappeared.

• A Google employee, was imprisoned for several days for organizing protests against the Egyptian government.

• Joe Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, was outed as a CIA operative because he publicly criticized the Bush administration for using bad intelligence on WMD in the State of the Union address.

• Wikileaks is being financially blockaded, crippling their ability to function and possibly leading to the end of the whistleblowing website.

These are mild cases of intimidation. For some political activists, the threat of violence is very real.

• David Kelley, a British weapons expert, died under suspicious circumstances after revealing that the British government manipulated WMD data to make the case for the Iraq invasion.

• High ranking US politicians have called for charges of treason and the death penalty for Bradley Manning for allegedly blowing the whistle by releasing evidence of crimes committed by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

• A 16 year old American citizen was targeted and killed in a drone strike, without criminal charges and with no due process of law.

 Freedom Of Speech Is Threatened

The bottom line is that people need to be able to speak out to challenge ruling powers and expose corruption without risking their finances, their freedom or their lives. But that can be very difficult to do.

The Law Is Insufficient To Protect Free Speech

The law can’t protect political activists or freedom of speech.  Very few countries have any kind of law that protects whistleblowers from unjust retaliation. Even where those laws exists, they are almost completely ineffective. In fact, those laws usually make it worse for the whistleblower.

Most countries also have laws that are used against whistleblowers to deter exposing corruption. In some countries, it is illegal to oppose the government. In places like the US, whistleblowers are often charged with all kinds of other crimes that could range from trespassing to treason.

The Powerful Are Above The Law

There is a different law for people in power. They rely on their chronies to insulate them from legal consequences. Tricky dick was pardoned by Gerald Ford and congress made AT&T immune to liability for illegal wiretapping. The investigation of the murder of the 3 civil rights workers in Mississippi in the 60s had to be done by federal officials because state officials refused to prosecute the murderers. The law is much more strict for the rest of us.

The last reason why the law cannot protect activists is because you can’t trust corrupt people to respect the rule of law. When corrupt people control the legal process, they will break the law to preserve their power and cover up their corruption.

Solution: Publish A Website Anonymously

But there is still a way for political activists to challenge the power structure and expose corruption without risking their finances, their freedom or their lives. It is by publishing anonymously on the internet with an anonymous website.

Free speech includes the concept of anonymous speech. There is a long history of anonymous speech in the US having a meaningful impact on justice.

The Watergate scandal was exposed by a person known only as Deep Throat.  That scandal led to the resignation of Nixon and has had a lasting impact on politics in the US.  That revelation was only possible because Deep Throat could remain anonymous.

We Need New Tools To Protect Anonymity In A World With New Technology

The techniques that were used in the past were well suited for their time.  But now we live in the information age.  We need a lot of new techniques and new tools to protect our anonymous speech.  Those same tools that were used previously may not be as effective as they were in the past.  There is simply more information now that is aggregated, filtered, sorted, archived, and often forgotten.

Placing an anonymous call to a reporter, slipping a note under the door of a newspaper, or leaving an anonymous comment on the web may not be enough to effectively challenge power and corruption.  Wee need the power of the internet.

Constant Electronic And Financial Surveillance Make Anonymity Difficult

We are also living in a time of almost complete digital and financial surveillance. Every phone call you make, every email you send, very website you visit, every book you buy on amazon.com, and every financial transaction you make is recorded, databased and searchable. Usually without a warrant.

All of that activity can be traced right back to you, making it very hard to do anything anonymously.  Advanced computer forensic tools can search through tons of electronic records and  reveal our identity.  So when a court ordered Judith Miller to reveal her source, there were plenty of ways for her to comply.  When she refused, she was sent to jail.  If her source had taken steps to protect his anonymity, even from the reporter, that reporter could not have been compelled to produce the identity of her source and would not have served jail time.

At How To Vanish we know how important it is to be able to speak anonymously. And we know some things about privacy that others don’t.

5 Step System To Create Website Anonymously

So we created a simple 5 Step System to publish a website, completely anonymously.

• Protect Identity – This system will give political activists the anonymity they need to challenge the political and corporate power structure and expose corruption in high places while completely protecting their own identity.

• Anonymous Internet  – We show you how to use the internet completely anonymously to prevent electronic surveillance so your identity stays secret.

• No Financial Transaction Record – We show you 4 easy ways to make anonymous payments for services that you might need to publish your information. There will be no audit trail that leads back to your bank account or credit card. Searches of financial records won’t lead to your identity, whether they have a warrant or not.

• Prevent Financial Blockade – We also show you how to accept anonymous payments to prevent financial blockade like Wikileaks.

• Forbidden Knowledge – Most of the solutions you will see to publish a website anonymously will not work.  They rely on a complete false sense of security that will not keep the least motivated people from discovering your identity, let alone the corrupt individuals you expose.  Only this 5 Step System will give you superior identity protection.

•  Easy – And finally, the 5 Step System is extremely easy and completely within the law so just about any political activist can use it. You don’t need to have any advanced hacking skills to use it.

Ultimately, this 5 Step System will show you how to speak freely without being subject to threats, intimidation, financial ruin, prison, or even death.

Get Your Copy Of 5 Steps To Anonymous Speech

“Remember, remember the 5th of November.”  Get your freedom of speech back. Click on the order link now to get your 5 Steps to Anonymous Speech.

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Reading time: < 1 minute

Remember, remember the 5th of November...!!!  Check out the 5th of November special event from How To Vanish.  There may be fireworks!

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Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes

What What Happens If You Use A Fake Name On Google+ Or Facebook?

People love Facebook.  Social networking is just a part of what humans do, so the fact that people use online social networks like Facebook and Google+  is no surprise.  They are powerful tools for social change, business opportunities and developing strong relationships with friends and family.

But, people are nervous about providing their personal information to social networking sites, and with good reason.  Social networking sites sell your information to the highest bidder.  They make billions of dollars from the information that we give them for free.  That information allows repressive governments to easily target undesirables, it could damage a career, or just plain cause embarrassment.

How People Protect Personal Information On Social Networking Sites

To harness the power of social networking while protecting personal information, some people use fake information in their profiles.  There are lots of reasons people provide fake info.  Everything from using a fake birthday or city, to using a fake profile picture or name are used by people who fear stalkers, by Egyptian revolutionaries, and by average people to protect their privacy.  Only the most dedicated snoops can glean good information from a false trail.

But Facebook’s terms of use states that:

“Facebook users provide their real names and information, and we need your help to keep it that way. Here are some commitments you make to us relating to registering and maintaining the security of your account:

1. You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook…

2. You will not create more than one personal profile.

7. You will keep your contact information accurate and up-to-date.”

Google+ also states:

“To help fight spam and prevent fake profiles, use the name your friends, family or co-workers usually call you.”

Risks Of Using Fake Information In Social Networking Profiles

What happens to people who violate these terms of use and include fake info in their profiles?    Failure to follow these terms of use simply means that the offending account could be shut down if discovered.    Facebook doesn’t sue people for providing fake information and the cops won’t arrest people for using a drawing of a dog as their profile picture.

The likelihood that a social networking site will discover fake information is currently low.  Many people use stage names, pen names, pseudonyms and nicknames every day.  It is perfectly legal to use those alternate identities in many ways.  Those names do not have to be the same as the one on a birth certificate and they can often be far more unique than what is found on a birth certificate.  This makes it difficult for sites to tell what information is “real” or “fake,” as Google+ recently found out.

Don’t pretend you are someone else, don’t use another person’s real information and don’t commit fraud.  That should be easy enough for you to avoid.

Are There Alternatives?

There are few alternatives to the information diarrhea on Facebook and Google+. Diaspora* is a potentially promising alternative but it is a long way from providing the value that Facebook does. Until Diaspora or some other alternative becomes viable, be careful the information you use to create your social networking profiles.

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Reading time: 6 – 9 minutes

Bitcoin is new. There has never been anything like it before. It is also risky. A lot of things need to happen for it to be successful in the long term.

But many intelligent people have missed the fact that Bitcoin is new. I am not an economist or investor, but I have not seen any economists or investors analyze Bitcoin correctly because they do not fully understand what Bitcoin is.  This is a serious mistake. Failing to analyze based on correct facts can lead to wrong conclusions.

Bitcoin Reduces Privacy Cost

The main benefit of Bitcoin is vastly reduced costs. Bitcoin eliminates many costs, but one of the most important is the cost of providing personal information to participate in the economy; the privacy cost.

Cash and precious metals have the lowest privacy cost of any medium of exchange. But cash and metals are mostly limited to small, in-person transactions.  The world needs something more.

Before Bitcoin, every other financial transaction had an extremely high privacy cost, along with lots of other costs. Checks, credit cards, and bank wires require a significant disclosure of personal information to banks and governments.

Personal Information Is Extremely Valuable

Personal information is valuable. The market values Google and Facebook so highly, in part, because of the enormous amount of personal information they collect. Before Bitcoin, market participants had no choice but to disclose personal information. Bitcoin allows users to protect valuable personal information.

Doug Casey Is Wrong About GoldMoney And Bitcoin

One of the best ways to see how well Bitcoin protects personal information and privacy is to compare it to one of its best competitors, GoldMoney, on those issues. GoldMoney tries to take the private exchange of metals into the information age while protecting personal information by operating in the bank privacy haven of Jersey, in the Channel Islands. Doug Casey is a very smart investor, but he thinks there is little difference between GoldMoney and Bitcoin, except that GoldMoney is better because it is backed by gold. As has been aptly pointed out, Doug Casey is wrong on that issue. There is a huge difference. GoldMoney is not just a gold-backed Bitcoin. GoldMoney costs a lot in terms of personal information and privacy, Bitcoin does not.

GoldMoney Wants Your Location

GoldMoney requires customers to disclose the country where they are located. They only accept customers from about half of the countries in the world. The other half, like residents of Argentina, Egypt or the Netherlands, are prohibited from using GoldMoney.

Of the customers that they accept, some are required to disclose a lot more personal information, depending on the country. GoldMoney follows the know your customer rules so things like name, address, tax identification, photo identification and many other things might be required.  There are other restrictions based on where customers live.  For example, Germans can’t make payments of metal to other people and physical delivery of metal is only available in 40 countries.

Bitcoin does not know or care what country users are from. It can be accessed by any user that can manage to get on the internet. Third party wallet services mean users don’t even have to own a computer to use Bitcoins.

GoldMoney Centralization Makes Them Vulnerable

GoldMoney is centralized. Every transaction is recorded in their system. A rogue employee could reveal those transactions to anyone they wanted. A warrant or subpoena served on GoldMoney could also reveal lots of personal information. The strong bank privacy laws in Jersey, like those in Switzerland, may prove to be no obstacle for a powerful government capable of strong pressure on the centralized organization. Hackers could also compromise the GoldMoney system.

The decentralized Bitcoin network cannot be pressured by any government. The network will route around any such obstacles. No organization exists to subpoena or submit to a warrant search. The public transaction record is pseudonymous and there are plenty of anonymizing services to eliminate personal identification. There are no employees to go roque. Even a rogue developer on the Bitcoin development team must operate in the open source light of day. A hack of Bitcoin would not reveal personal information.

Tax Information

If you have more than a combined $10,000 in foreign financial accounts, including GoldMoney, those accounts must be reported on the FBAR. You need to report your name, birthday, address, where the account is held, the account number and the highest balance during the year, among other information.  I  guess it is so the treasury can send you a birthday card.

There is no information reporting requirement with Bitcoin. Although you need to report income, there is no requirement to disclose your payment addresses, details of transactions, the balance, where you store your Bitcoin wallet, or even that the income was earned in the form of Bitcoins.

Sending And Withdrawing Funds

You cannot fund a GoldMoney holding without first having a bank account. For US citizens, that means a lot of personal information disclosures. If you are going to accept goldgrams for labor, services, sales of products, donations, gifts, or transfers, you must disclose that banking information to GoldMoney, which keeps it on file. If you want to fund your account by buying gold directly, you must do so through a wire transfer. That wire transfer information is disclosed to GoldMoney, to your bank and to SWIFT, the main financial transaction network for most of the world.

Bitcoin does not require a disclosure of any personal banking information. You can accept Bitcoins for labor, services, sales of products, donations, gifts, or transfers without ever opening a bank account. You can even buy Bitcoins from exchangers on the street for cash to get some Bitcoins without notifying your bank or SWIFT.

Conclusion

Gold will always be money. GoldMoney is an excellent service.   But that service is very expensive in terms of personal information and privacy.  The  privacy cost is so high, only a very tiny fraction of the world’s population can even use GoldMoney.  Bitcoin does things that GoldMoney can’t.

Bitcoin is still risky and some people may choose not to use it. It may fizzle into nothing. But, in terms of privacy, its cost is lower than any information age alternative. The value we give to the banking system is at least as much as the value we give to Google or Facebook. We give them that value by giving them our personal information. Individuals have had no private alternative until now.

More privacy is not the only benefit of using Bitcoin. Most people who use it once, even to transfer an immaterial amount, begin to realize how powerful it is.  We will eventually see if the market values those benefits.  Smart economists and savvy investors need to understand those benefits  before they can make an accurate assessment of Bitcoin.

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Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

Surfing the internet usually leaves a huge data trail behind.  Private browsing helps cover digital tracks.

Web Browsers Track Your Internet Movements

Web browsers like Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer, keep track of a lot of the things you do on the internet.  They keep a record of the websites you visit, your login information and sometimes even your password.  This can make web surfing a smoother experience. For example, it can keep you logged in to Facebook whenever you navigate away from it and then return. All of that information is accessible to anyone who has access to your computer.

Websites You Visit Create A Data Trail

The websites you visit can also leave behind a trail of data on your computer.  One of the major things they do is install cookies (small tracking software) on your computer to remember your settings, tell when you visit other sites in their ad network and a lot more.  Sometimes malicious software can use cookies to find its way onto your computer.  Cookies can also make the internet surfing experience smoother, but users are hardly aware when and how often they are being installed and what exactly they are doing.

Private Browsing Protects Some Privacy

A simple tool to take more control over cookie management (what a delicious sounding job) is private browsing.  Most browsers have a setting called private browsing (it is called incognito in Google Chrome and InPrivate in Internet Explorer) which will severely limit the web browsing data that is stored on your computer. The private browsing tools work best for a few specific purposes.

If you lend your computer to someone, they won’t be able to accidentally or intentionally stumble upon the websites you visit or accidentally pull up your Facebook or email account when they were trying to get into their own if you use private browsing regularly.  It is like putting a lock on your digital medicine cabinet.  Private browsing also works well when you borrow someone else’s computer to prevent the same snooping when you give it back.

Private browsing is also helpful when you use a shared computer. If you do a little gift shopping for a spouse on a shared computer, your surprise might be ruined when they see the items you recently viewed on Amazon.com or see the sites you recently visited.

Weaknesses of Private Browsing

Private browsing is not bullet proof. It will prevent a lot of the wide scale data mining that goes on and it will deter accidental and unsophisticated eavesdroppers from finding your internet browsing history.  Also, the different browsers all have different strengths and weaknesses with the overall privacy of their private browsing option.  The most secure private browsing option of any major browser is on Opera.

Secret And Sneaky Data Mining

One of the biggest problems with private browsing is Flash cookies. Flash cookies are most often used with video, like YouTube, but many sites could be using Flash cookies to track users.  These are similar to regular tracking cookies but they are moe sophisticated, less well known, and they do not get erased when you clear your cookies.  Private browsing does not prevent Flash cookies.

3 Simple Internet Privacy Tips

Delete cookies on a regular basis. Private browsing deletes most cookies when you log off, but regularly deleting cookies can help ensure a sanitary browsing history.

Adjust Browser Settings. Most browsers allow you to set rules for which cookies to accept and which cookies to reject. This lets users decide when they prefer convenience over privacy and vice versa.

To delete Flash cookies, or to set preferences for future Flash cookie tracking, check out the Macromedia website.  You can also get a good look at just how much information has been gathered on you by those Flash cookies before you delete them or set any preferences.

Super Secret Ninja Privacy Move

Some browsers, like Firefox and Chrome, offer a portable version. Those versions can be saved to a USB drive and launched from any computer you plug the USB drive into. All cookies, history and tracking data is saved on the USB drive and is not ever recorded by the computer itself. If you store your portable browser inside a TrueCrypt encrypted volume on your USB drive, your browsing history, cookies, internet settings, and lots of other information will be well protected.

Conclusion

Private browsing isn’t water tight, but it can be a very useful tool to protect privacy.  Like any tool, it can be modified to give you more or less privacy in exchange for convenience.  To see how to use private browsing in a more comprehensive approach to privacy, check out the book How To Vanish.

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Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

Mobile phone apps can collect a lot of private, personal information and share it with others. Most people don’t even know this information leakage is happening. You need to know what information is gathered, how it is gathered and who can get it to protect yourself from disclosing too much personal info through your smartphone.

Data Collected

There are lots of types of data that can be collected. They fall into a few broad categories.

Account Info – Many apps ask you to create a user profile to use an app. For example, Facebook requires you to use your user name and password to log into your account from your phone. Others might simply ask you to create an account to use the app. Since so many people use the same usernames and passwords often, sharing this information could compromise other accounts.

Contacts – Some apps access, transmit and share your entire contact list. If any A-list celebrity has the unlisted information of other A-listers, there could be a serious breach of privacy if that contact list is shared.

Demographics – Your age, gender, income, etc. can be gathered by some apps. Although demographics without a name sounds very anonymous, it does not take much statistical analysis to make much of that data uniquely identifying. For example, the US census gathers similar demographic information and over 90% of anonymous respondents can be uniquely identified by analyzing their individual responses and comparing it to other publicly available stats.    There is less information shared in the census than many of the apps collect. So it is likely that app data can be used to identify an overwhelming majority of the users, even if there is no name associated with it.

Location – Apps that access location might be able to find the location based on GPS coordinates, triangulation with the cell phone towers, the city, zip code, or by using the IP address the phone uses to surf the internet. They all have differing levels of accuracy. At the very least someone with access to those stats can tell where you are in the world at a particular time, and might even be able to tell who you are with.

Phone ID – The phone ID is like the serial number of the phone which is tied directly to the user. That unique identifier can lead to lots of other personal information.

Number – Some apps even collect your phone number. If you want to have an unlisted phone number, you have to prevent sharing this detail.

How Information Leakage Through Apps Occur

A smartphone is basically a computer that fits in your pocket. Apps are programs that are downloaded onto a smartphone. Those apps can be programmed to access a lot of the data on the phone or to keep track of what the phone is doing (websites visited, text messages, phone calls, etc.). Each app will be programmed differently and if the programmer decided to collect some figures, they can collect it.  Most people are unaware of the amount of information leakage their apps create.

Who Has Access To This Data

Developers – The person or group that develops the software might collect this info for themselves. Most apps that collect any data at all, probably permit the developer to have access.

Third Parties – Many apps also transmit data directly to third parties, such as marketers.

Both developers and third parties that get data from your phone can do almost anything they want with it. They can sell it to other companies, share it with government, law enforcement or just sell it to any willing buyer.

How Data Is Used

How much gets shared is usually limited by the user agreement, which should be disclosed to app users. In reality, these agreements are extremely broad and let developers and third parties do whatever they want with the information leakage their app creates.

Sometimes giving an app access to sensitive personal stuff can be helpful. A maps application that gives you directions based on your GPS location can be very helpful, especially when you are visiting a new, exotic city on a regular basis. Other apps could also provide helpful functions if given access to some sensitive, personal data.

Other times, there seems to be no functional reason why an app needs the data it is trying to access other than to gather data for marketing or other purposes. Angry Birds would work just as well if it didn’t collect your contacts and location information. The app developer would have less data to sell though.

Reduce Information Leakage

Before downloading an app and having an information leakage, research it to see what data the app can access. Don’t just download something because everybody is doing it. A lot of people have shared their contact list by downloading Angry Birds, but you do not have to join them.

Check the data that an app can access when you download it.  They usually disclose this information when you try to download. If it needs more than you are willing to share, find another app.

Check the apps you already have on your phone to make sure you aren’t already broadcasting your life to strangers you don’t know.

Conclusion

Smarthphones are a handy tool to have.  They can also expose a lot of your sensitive data if you aren’t careful.  Use good judgment when using applications that might be disclosing your information.  You might even use a prepaid smartphone to reduce the risk you have of disclosing data.  There are lots of other great tips on how to protect your personal data on smartphones in the book How To Vanish.

RELATED POSTS:

1. Cell Phone Security
2. Cell Phone Security: Mobile Phone Taps
3. Block Caller ID, Prevent Reverse Phone Lookup, and Keep Your Phone Number Private

Reading time: 12 – 20 minutes

Cell phones are like drivers licenses. It’s really hard to function in the modern world without one, but they reveal a lot of information about you that you might not want to share. Fortunately, most people won’t try and verify the weight you put on your drivers license, and there are a lot of great ways to protect confidential information with cell phone security.

Cell Phone Security Is Broad

Unfortunately there are too many service providers, too many types of phones, too many different countries, a lack of fully developed solutions, and not much compatibility across them all to give you one simple solution to your mobile privacy needs. This is an overview of the information that you might want to keep private and a few general ways to do that, mostly for smartphones, but not-so-smart ones can be more secure as well. With this overview, it should be easier to discover and implement your optimum privacy configuration.

Laws are different everywhere. It may be illegal in some places to use some of these cell phone security tools or techniques. Do not use any techniques that will violate the law. That will negatively affect your privacy much more than if you had complied with the law and not used that tool.

Subscriber Information

When you buy a phone, your name is usually attached. You sign a contract or you make payments with a credit card, or do something else that ties all of the activity on that device to you.

Keeping subscription information private prevents corrupt governments from accessing that information with or without warrants, subpoenas or due process to silence dissidents, jail peaceful protesters, and hide abuse. It also prevents hackers and rogue employees from compromising networks and databases to steal the valuable data.

Prepaid Cell Phone – Prepaid cell phones can still be purchased for cash without a contract. Minutes can be reloaded with cash as well. You can use the prepaid cell for all of your communications, or just for the most sensitive communications. After a while, the prepaid phone will probably gather enough data to identify you. Replace your prepaid phone often.

Published Number

Most phone numbers can be found in online directories. Those directories are compiled by the vast amounts of data that thousands of companies gather from their customers. If you give a number to a company, or even give them a call, they probably record that number in their database. Your number then might be shared, sold and copied many times by hackers, corrupt governments, thieves and stalkers.

Your phone number can be a key piece of data to paint a data profile that identifies you and a lot more information about you. Hackers, thieves and overly curious stalkers could easily use your phone number to cause you harm.

Unlist Number – Ask your service provider to unlist your number. Contact the databases that collect this information, like Intelius and Acxiom, and follow their procedures for unlisting your number. Stop giving out your number or give out a fake number to people who don’t really need it.

Block Caller ID – Many carriers will allow you to block caller ID so that the people you are calling can’t get your phone number. In the US you can block caller ID before an individual call (for a price) using *67.

Call Forwarding – You can sign up for call forwarding that forwards calls from your public number to your private number, keeping your private number confidential. Google Voice is a helpful free call forwarding service.

SpoofCard – With Spoofcard it can appear that you are calling from any number you want, protecting your actual number.

Location

Your general location is constantly triangulated by your service provider’s cell towers. Your precise GPS coordinates and the WiFi networks you are close to can be monitored and recorded as well. When you use your device, the location is logged.

Corrupt governments can access this data with or without warrants and thieves can use it to target your house when you are on vacation. The cell phone can also be pinged at any time to determine its location, even if you aren’t using it.

Prevent Unwanted Tracking – You can turn your cell phone off to make sure that you aren’t connecting to any WiFi, your general location isn’t being triangulated, and your GPS coordinates are not being tracked to increase your cell phone security.

Malware can continue to broadcast location information, even when the phone is switched off, although it is not common. To prevent surreptitious tracking, remove the battery.

Data Stored On The Phone

Every phone has lots of information stored on it like contact lists, calendars, text messages, photos, call logs, browsing history and much more.  The most basic aspect of cell phone security is securing the device itself.

Corrupt, over-criminalized governments that gain access with unjustified searches could use this information to convict you of ridiculous crimes. Sneaky competitors can get inside information that harms a business if employees and owners don’t use good cell phone security. Thieves and snoops could get vital information like bank records, passwords, and many other pieces of information that might be on your device.

Settings – Many phones allow you to adjust settings to store less history on the phone itself. This way your old text messages, call logs and other sensitive items can be less vulnerable.

Password Protect – This isn’t just to prevent butt-dialing. This also keeps out the curious. Most thieves, illegal government searches and hackers will easily get around the password protection unless the phone is encrypted.

Delete – Regularly delete unwanted data. Just like a computer, its not really gone until it gets overwritten, but at least novice thieves and the casually curious won’t get it.

Don’t let your phone out of your sight – All someone needs is a few minutes with your phone to install software or hardware that can overcome almost any cell phone security precautions you have taken. If someone that you don’t trust has had access to your phone, you may think twice about trusting it.

Wipe/Remote Wipe – Some phones allow you to completely wipe the phone memory remotely. If your phone is lost or gets stolen, you can make sure that data won’t be compromised. Every provider also publishes steps needed to wipe a phone before you dispose of it.

Full Encryption – Full encryption is ideal to make sure that all the data is well protected from all but the most sophisticated attacks. The best encryption is open source, since there will be no entity that could provide a back door. There are few open source options available right now, so using a trusted encryption program is the next best thing.

Partial Encryption – Many smartphone apps allow you to encrypt certain types of data on your phone while the rest of it is not encrypted. It can be tricky to make sure there are no unencrypted copies of the data somewhere else on the phone, but partial encryption can be useful to save certain confidential files. Again, open source is best, but trusted encryption software is also good.

Kryptos (iphone)

CellCrypt Mobile (Blackberry, Nokia)

WhisperSystems (Android)

Protecting Conversations

Usually when you have a confidential call with your business partner, your spouse, your attorney or your doctor, nobody else is invited to the conversation.

Cell phone networks around the world allow governments to secretly listen in on those conversations without a warrant. Rogue employees can listen to those conversations too. There is even a slight chance that malicious software is installed on your phone to capture your voice conversations.

Voice Over IP (VOIP) – Many phones let you use VOIP to communicate over the internet instead of over the network which may be compromised by secret wiretaps. A VOIP app might be available or you can use VOIP through your phone’s internet connection. You will still have to trust that the VOIP service is not eavesdropping. Open source VOIP software is best, trusted software is good too. Some common software that is free but not open source is Google and Skype. None of this will stop malicious software on your phone from spying on you.

Kryptomobile

Antivirus – Although it is still rare, phones can be infected with viruses and malware, just like a computer. But, there is antivirus software for cell phone security, just like for computers. You can use that software to protect yourself from viruses. You can also protect from viruses by not opening suspicious email attachments and not clicking on sketchy links like you would on a computer. You can also make sure to download only trusted apps.

Texting

Text messages are very unsecure. They travel through the network unencrypted, are stored on your device and might be stored for a long time.

Text messages are available to just about anyone who gets any access to your phone like corrupt governments, clever hackers, thieves, and unscrupulous competitors. They get it by accessing the network, accessing your provider’s records, accessing your phone, and many other ways.

Secure Text Message App – There are some apps available that encrypt your text messages both in transit and at rest on your device.

Instant Messaging – There are several web based IM programs and IM programs designed for different phones that are encrypted and protect your cell phone security and text communications much better than old fashioned text messaging. Unless the IM software is open source, you still have to trust the source, but it is probably better than trusting a large provider.

Voicemail

Voicemail is stored by your service provider on their server.

Rogue employees, corrupt governments and hackers are the most likely to have unauthorized access to voicemail information.

Encrypted Voicemail – Some VOIP services will also offer encrypted voicemail. You still have to trust the VOIP service, but a small offshore VOIP service is less likely to reveal confidential data than a larger service provider.

Photos

Smartphones not only take photos, but they usually add a lot of hidden data to the picture file, called EXIF data. It can include time, date and GPS coordinates, among other things. Any photo that you email or upload from your phone might have this identifying EXIF information in the file.

Turn GPS Tracking Off – Some phones let you turn off geo tagging in the settings. Turning geo tagging off can prevent the data from ever being added to the picure file.

Wipe sensitive data before uploading or emailing – There are several programs which let you remove the EXIF data from images. That way you can send and share images without sharing the identifying information.

Mobile Apps

Mobile apps let you play cool games and have powerful business tools at your fingertips, but many of them can be mining a lot of data that you wouldn’t want to share. Linked-In, for example, stores your username and password in plain text. Since most people use the same username and password in many places, this is very damaging information that is very unprotected. And there are lots more apps that do similar things. Some apps even have malicious code hidden in them.

Use Trusted Apps – Minimize your usage of apps or only use trusted apps to increase your cell phone security. Research what data they access and then use them only if you are willing to share that information and are sure there is no malware in them.

Email

Email is the digital equivalent of a post card. The message passes through the hands of many servers en route to its destination and everyone along the way can read it. At the very least your email provider will have a log of your emails which can be subpoenaed or peeked at by corrupt governments.

Encrypt Email – You may be able to encrypt the emails that you send from your device so that nobody can read them in transit or at rest. If the recipient is also using proper encryption, the message may be protected from end to end.

Web Browsing

Your internet provider can see every website that you visit and they can see every wireless network that your phone connects to. Your browser can see every term you search for.

All of this data is readily available to rogue employees and corrupt governments. In many cases it may be sniffed out by clever hackers and sneaky competitors. Most of this data is also stored right on the phone where anyone that has physical access, even the casually curious, can find it.

Use Anonymous Web Surfing – Some phones let you use VPNs like the Tor network so that your carrier, the web browser, and the websites that you visit can’t see where you go on the internet. The VPN records would only be available to corrupt governments if the VPN is in a cooperative jurisdiction.

Conclusion

This is just an outline of what is possible. There is no single cell phone yet available that can accomplish complete cell phone security. You may only be interested in a few features. Figure out what features you want and what is most feasible to protect as much of your confidential communications using your cell phone or smart phone as possible.  Check out the book How To Vanish for more tips on protecting your phone communications.

RELATED POSTS:

1. Cell Phone Security: Mobile Phone Taps
2. Police Search Cell Phones On Massive Scale
3. Block Caller ID, Prevent Reverse Phone Lookup, and Keep Your Phone Number Private

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

Cell phones contain more private information about you and your activities than just about anything else. They keep track of where you are at all times, everyone you call or text, email, social networking, photos, videos, personal files and much more. Would you want strangers to have access to all of this data?

Michigan State Police Search Cell Phones On A Massive Scale

Michigan State Police have reportedly been downloading data from cell phones of motorists that get pulled over for minor infractions like speeding, as if 8 million warrantless requests to Sprint weren’t enough. They use a special piece of hardware to download all of the data on the phone, including information the user has deleted.

What makes matters worse, the MSP are refusing to turn over information about the data they extract, procedures to get the data or why they get data unless a fee of $500,000 is paid. Does anyone know the average ransom paid to Somali pirates?

Violation Of Anyone’s Rights Is A Threat To Everyone’s Rights

Even if you are a completely honest person and think you have nothing to hide, think again. There are over 10,000 recorded laws in the US. Most honest people probably violate the law on a regular basis whether they know it or not.

If the police have access to such huge amounts of data about you, it can reveal violations of obscure, bureaucratic laws that you have never heard of. Or, that data could provide circumstantial evidence wrongly implicating you in crimes you had nothing to do with. That is assuming that no police officer will make improper use of the data.  If you have read a single article on CopBlock, you know that abuse is very possible.

Here is what you can do to protect yourself from overzealous police who try to search your phone without cause.

Police Can Search Some Things

The law allows police to do a quick pat down to check for weapons when they stop you. There is not much more that they can do to search you unless your give them permission or they arrest you.

Hopefully you can avoid arrest, but Michigan State Police officers might be very diligent in trying to get you to consent to a search of your phone.

How To Prevent A Search Of Your Cell Phone

The key is to politely refuse their request. One of the best ways to avoid giving consent is to clearly and politely say “ I do not consent to any searches.”

If they are asking, they probably don’t have enough cause to search your phone without your consent. Refusing to give consent alone cannot give police sufficient grounds to search without your consent. If they continue to search your phone, that search will likely be unconstitutional and any evidence obtained as a result of that search will be considered fruit of the poisonous tree and be thrown out.

“I Don’t Consent To Any Searches”

You should learn this phrase well and use it any time an officer asks to search you, your car, your backpack, your house, your wallet, or asks for your cell phone. Just because they ask for a cell phone does not mean that you have to provide it.

Knowing your rights is the best way to protect your private data from overzealous police. But the law and the government can’t always protect you. Here are some ways to have better cell phone security, especially if you plan on encountering law enforcement.

Protect Yourself

Don’t carry a cell phone. This may be useful if you are going to a protest or rally where you expect a heavy police presence, and it may be a good excuse for some people who want to un-tether themselves from the matrix. It probably won’t be practical for every day use or chance encounters with police.

Use a prepaid cell phone. If you buy them with cash and replace them regularly, they will not have a large amount of data on them. The less data available the better.

Regularly wipe your cell phone. Getting rid of old data on a regular basis will also reduce the data available. Every make of phone has a different way to do this so check with your phone company to see how.

Encrypt as much of your phone as possible. This can be very tricky because encrypted emails, secure text messaging, storing encrypted files, and anonymous web surfing are more difficult on your phone than your laptop. You may need a separate application to encrypt each type of data and not all phones are created equal in the security department. Fortunately, the Fifth Amendment protects people from revealing their encryption keys.

Use call forwarding services. This is not foolproof, but using a free or paid call forwarding service can reduce the amount of data stored directly on your phone, adding an extra step the Michigan State Police will have to take to get your data.

File an official complaint with the police department.  Complaints about any officer that unjustly takes or searches your phone after you have refused consent may be the kind of record that will help someone successfully sue that officer or the police department in the future for improper conduct.

Conclusion

Michigan State Police are downloading the data on people’s phones on a massive scale. This kind of data mining can be prevented by people who stand up for their rights. Don’t consent to letting a police officer search your phone. Help them to better spend their time protecting people and property from real crime. Learn more ways to protect your private data to protect yourself from overzealous police and lots of other threats.