How To Vanish » Personal Privacy

Fun With A Decoy Drive

Bill Rounds Esq. — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:19:59 +0000

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.

Cloud Security

Bill Rounds Esq. — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:29:27 +0000

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.

Set Up Free Email Encryption In 15 Minutes

Bill Rounds Esq. — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:40:55 +0000

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.

No related posts.

Is Privacy Dead?

Bill Rounds Esq. — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:03:06 +0000

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!

Stop Frivolous Lawsuits Before They Start

Bill Rounds Esq. — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 03:14:09 +0000

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

It is no secret that some attorneys will initiate litigation of a weak case hoping that the defendant will settle instead of risking a trial. This is a very calculated move. Understanding the calculation and how privacy can affect the formula in your favor, can help lower the risk and cost of marginal litigation and stop frivolous lawsuits.

Most plaintiff’s attorneys will take a case on contingency. That means that they will not get paid unless the case is a winner, and they will only get paid a percentage of the judgment. If a law firm is going to stay in business, they need to make sure they don’t spend their time pursuing claims that will not recover as much as their costs to litigate.

Most successful attorneys will evaluate a case using the following formula:

Liability x Damages x Recovery > Cost.

As long as the left hand side of the equation is greater than the estimated cost of litigation, there might be some attorney willing to take the case. To stop frivolous lawsuits, the cost of the frivolous lawsuit needs to be greater than the other side of the equation.

Cost

Cost will be different depending on each firm. The higher the left side is relative to the cost, the more likely it is that there will be a lawsuit. Many things could affect the cost of a case, from the size of the law firm taking the case to the difficulty of the subject matter being litigated. Since you really have no control over the “Cost” side of the equation, the best way to stop frivolous lawsuits is to focus on reducing the “Liability x Damages x Recovery” side.

Liability

“Liability” represents how easy it is to show that someone is at fault. The more clear the liability, the more accurately the outcome of a trial can be predicted.

A case where the liability is very clear would be where a drunk driver drives onto the sidewalk and injures an old lady in front of a dozen people. The driver has clearly violated a bunch of laws, gone way beyond any type of acceptable behavior and there were plenty of witnesses. Fault is very clear.

A case where liability might be less clear is if a man was hit on the head by a pebble while fishing at a quiet pond. He thought he saw a woman tossing rocks into the pond earlier, but there was nobody else in the area. Although he had a small bump and bruise, he did not take any pictures of the injury and did not seek medical care. It would be very hard for anyone to prove liability in a case with such little evidence.

Damages

Damages are the amount of money that can be recovered in a lawsuit. Damages often include the medical costs, lost wages, costs to fix or replace damaged property, pain and suffering, among other things. Thus, the worse the injury the higher the damages.

In some cases there might be punitive damages involved. Punitive damages are available when harm is done intentionally or recklessly. Those damages can depend on the financial condition of the defendant.

If the drunk driver is found liable, she will be required to pay for the injuries she caused. She may be subject to punitive damages if she was intentionally trying to run someone over or was extremely intoxicated. If the rick thrower is found liable, she will probably only pay nominal damages for the insult of hitting a poor old man on the head, even if it was intentional.

Privacy is unlikely to be of any benefit to a person who finds themselves at the ugly end of a punitive damages claim. In these cases, the defendant is required to disclose their assets, no matter how well those assets are buried in the back yard. Failing to disclose something that should have been disclosed would be perjury.

Recovery

Even if there is clear liability, and even if the damages are very high, possibly including punitive damages, a key factor is the ability to recover from the defendant. If the person has no ability to pay a judgment, it is worthless to bring an expensive suit. Not being able to pay a judgment is often referred to as being judgment proof.

All attorneys will look at these factors when evaluating the strength of a case. If some factors are exceptionally high, the other factors do not need to be as high for a lawsuit to be worth it. For example, if damages are very high and the potential defendant has plenty of means to pay a judgment, they can be a target for claims where liability is marginal.

Privacy Can Stop Frivolous Lawsuits

Privacy can affect the perception of the ability to recover any judgment. As a result, the liability and/or damages will generally need to be much more clear for a case to be worth it. Before deciding whether to take a case, many attorneys will investigate potential defendants. They might look at the public records for their assets, send investigators to look at their home address, or find out what kind of job they have to see if the “Recovery” factor is high or low. If the potential defendant appears not to have much to their name, an attorney might pass on bringing a marginal claim against them.

Conclusion

If you feel like you might be a target because people are aware that your ability to pay a judgment is high it might be worth it to use a ghost address to protect your true home. It might be worth it to own real estate in the name of a trust or private business entity. Protecting your privacy might help you avoid court costs and attorneys fees to defend or settle marginal litigation and can help stop frivolous lawsuits.

5th of November Celebration

Bill Rounds Esq. — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 00:58:22 +0000

Reading time: 7 – 11 minutes

“Remember, remember the 5th of November…”

Cue the William Tell Overture!!!

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.

5th Of November Celebration

Bill Rounds Esq. — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 23:13:40 +0000

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!

Privacy Screen For Urban Dwellers

Bill Rounds Esq. — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:34:18 +0000

Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes

Lots of people enjoy the peace and solitude of a private outdoor space. But we don’t have to be in a remote wilderness to bask in natural light and a gentle breeze. We can create our own private outdoor spaces in sprawling suburbia and in the vast urban jungles of modern life. Whether it is to cover an unsightly view outside, or to shield yourself from nosy neighbors, a little private outdoor space can make living in dense neighborhoods a lot more relaxing. If all you have is a little patio, deck, porch, or balcony, you can create a tranquil and inviting outdoor place all to yourself.

Privacy screens are a great way to enclose an intimate space where you can eat, read, or enjoy a nice conversation from time to time. Even if you have a home with a large yard but you either can’t install a fence, or you simply lack the desire to undertake a huge fence building project, you can use privacy screens to enclose a small area for an undisturbed, unseen sanctuary. Here are some simple ideas to get you a bit more outdoor privacy in the urban jungle. All of these solutions are relatively cheap, easy, and will work well to meet all kinds of needs.

Portable Privacy Screen

The simplest way to create a private outdoor space is to put up a privacy screen or two. Privacy screens are inexpensive, easy to install, easy to rearrange, and come in a wide variety of styles. Buy enough to surround your entire space or place them strategically to block certain views.

Potted Hedge

When planting your own privacy hedge is out of the question, potted plants, even fake ones, can be used to surround your patio with an attractive and eco-friendly green screen. It is also a great way to beautify an urban landscape.

Combo Package

Lattice growing plants are a great way to combine the ease of a privacy screen with some natural beauty. There are dozens of varieties of potted plants that grow up lattice work to create a beautiful but impenetrable screen to shield the outside world from your rest and relaxation.

Water Fountain

One aspect of an urban outdoor space that people don’t often consider is keeping their patio conversations private. If your neighbors are within earshot, they could easily overhear lots of fodder for juicy neighborhood gossip. Or, if you live near a busy street, you may want to cover up the pervasive sound of city traffic. A small water fountain is a great way to create a soothing background sound to keep eavesdroppers out of the loop and keep the hustle and bustle of the thoroughfare out of your ears.

Conclusion

We don’t have to give up a private outdoor space when we live in more densely populated areas. Practical privacy solutions, like portable privacy screens, potted hedges and water fountains, are great ways to give yourself a private sanctuary in a busy, nosy world. For other great ideas on making your home a more private place, check out the book How To Vanish.

Remember, remember the 5th of November…!!! Check back at HowToVanish.com on November 5th for a special event. There may be fireworks!

How To Create An Anonymous Website

Bill Rounds Esq. — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 06:28:37 +0000

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

Free speech is threatened when corrupt forces can pressure the means of distributing speech. Corrupt governments all over the world, or corrupt elements within governments, use the methods at their disposal to silence uncomfortable speech. One of the main methods they use is to threaten the source of speech.

Anonymous speech is important, even for more mundane reasons than scathing political criticism. Advocates of medical marijuana, proponents of evolution, gay rights activists, critics of local police, and many others may need the protection of anonymous speech to protect themselves while they voice their opinion. Efforts to censor online speech are doomed to fail because people will find ways to publish unflattering material online without leaving any trace of identity behind.

To publish a website, there are several points of weakness where identifying information could be gleaned. Political activists and whistleblowers will be able to easily circumvent identity requirements at each one of these points, allowing them to anonymously publish material online with an anonymous website.

Anonymous Website Domain Name

A website needs a domain name (one of those .com things) which must be bought and paid for through a domain registry like GoDaddy. Most domain registries allow people to protect their identity by using a domain registration proxy. Using these proxies is not sufficient to protect identity because identifying information must still be shared with the proxy, which can be pressured to reveal it.

To prevent the domain registry from revealing their identity to anyone, political activists will simply enter pseudanonymous information, like Publius or Silence Dogood. If they are really sneaky they may even enter the information of a competitor to register their domain or use an anonymous domain registrar.

Anonymous Website Payment

An important link in the chain is payment for services. Even if a pen name is provided, the person paying for the domain name could easily be tracked down by ruthless government officials by tracking down the source of payment, making an anonymous website less anonymous. To avoid leaving an audit trail back to their own financial accounts, political journalists may pay for their domain name with a money order paid for in cash, use a prepaid credit card (which they paid cash to acquire) or pay with Bitcoins. There are several companies that offer domain name registration for Bitcoins. If they send payment from a Bitcoin address that has not been published anywhere else, it will be hard to trace payments to them.

Anonymous Email

Domain registrars need to communicate with owners to provide information, remind them about renewals, and other things. Most of that communication is done by email. Whistleblowers will easily be able to set up an anonymous email address with any free email service.

Anonymous Website Hosting

Another critical part of maintaining a website is a server to host the website. Most websites are hosted by a web hosting company. As with domain registry, activists will use pseudonyms and anonymous email addresses to create their accounts to host their politically sensitive websites. And, they will pay with cash, prepaid credit cards or Bitcoins for the web hosting service.

Anonymous IP Address

As an extra layer of protection, anytime smart political dissidents connect to the domain registrar, set up or log into their email, connect to their web hosting company, or log into their website to post information, they will use anonymous web surfing techniques. Tor is free and easy, proxy servers are available all over the world. VPNs, especially those based offshore, will prevent authorities searching through service provider records from discovering the IP address of political activists. These methods are also a way to circumvent government blocked sites, a common practice in places like China.

Continuing Threats

Even if a clever political critic takes all of these measures, they are of course still subject to censorship from corrupt pressure on service providers to cut off service. The domain could be seized by government officials or the web host server could be confiscated.The activist themselves would still be protected, and they would be able to republish their information in other locations.

Even in the absence of legal action, a domain registrar, or a web hosting company can always be pressured to take information down. Offshore companies in jurisdictions that are unfriendly to the criticized government may be harder to pressure.

Conclusion

Free speech and the ability to dissent is threatened by censorship that results from threats of imprisonment, violence and assassination. Those threats are less effective to prevent people from publishing on the internet when people can easily publish information completely anonymously. For more techniques on protecting anonymity, check out the book How To Vanish and the upcoming report for political activists on Anonymous Internet Publishing.

Occupy Wall Street Protester Privacy

Bill Rounds Esq. — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 07:33:33 +0000

Reading time: 7 – 11 minutes

Why “Occupy Wall Street” Protesters Need To Worry About Their Privacy

It isn’t hard to see why the Occupy Wall Street movement got started. Outrage over massive fraud committed by huge companies, combined with a government that protects them from prosecution, then takes money from innocent taxpayers and gives it to those same fraudster institutions is hard to contain.

The goals of the Occupy Wall Street movement are not clear at this early stage, and they may never be clearly defined. Certainly there will be some demands that are a step in the wrong direction, but there may be some demands that would be a positive change. So far, the movement is peaceful. No matter what they are protesting, peaceful protest is not always safe. The Occupy Wall Street protesters, Tea Party protesters, and any other peaceful protesters around the world, can use a few simple tactics to protect themselves and be more successful.

Peaceful Occupy Wall Street Protests Upsets Powerful People

Like all who oppose the ruling class, Occupy Wall Street protesters face serious danger to their finances, freedom, and even physical safety. Unjust imprisonment, unfounded criminal charges, potentially unwarranted fines and financial control are all possible tactics of a justice system loyal to financial crooks.

Occupy Wall Street Needs Strategy

While some protesters welcome the opportunity for political martyrdom, offering themselves up to be arrested, others would rather take a more strategic approach to promoting massive change. For those looking for an effective strategy, a very powerful tactic includes protecting the identity of protesters. Anonymity can be an effective tool to protect many protesters from unjust pressure.

Why Privacy Is Important To Protect Peaceful Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators

There are several elements that show why privacy is key to protect peaceful demonstrators.

Police Funded By Target Of Protest

First, JP Morgan, one of the main subjects of protester outrage, has donated millions of dollars to the NYPD. This donation will help provide better surveillance software for the NYPD to use, presumably on Occupy Wall Street demonstrators. It is no small stretch to think that police, as benefactors of such largesse, might be more inclined to protect their wealthy patron rather than the public. Thus, the Occupy Wall Street protesters may be subject to unjust actions by police.

Electronic Surveillance Is More Cost Effective Crowd Control

Second, the brute force being used to police the protesters is costing millions of dollars. With the expectation that the protests will grow in size, the financial cost to police will become enormous, even if funded by Wall Street bankers. Electronic surveillance is much more effective and efficient to protect the Wall Street bankers from the Occupy Wall Street protesters. The donation of JP Morgan and simple economics will push the police to use alternative tactics, such as electronic surveillance and control of cell phones, bank accounts, credit cards, and more, to control Occupy Wall Street.

Police Already Brutalizing Protesters

Third, the police have already begun using unjust tactics to injure or arrest innocent people. After corralling a small peaceful assembly of people on a public sidewalk, officers used pepper spray on them without any justification. In another incident, police guided protesters from a pedestrian area (where protesters could legally be) to lanes of vehicle traffic (where protesters supposedly could not legally be) and arrested them en masse.

Types Of Electronic Surveillance

What kind of electronic surveillance might law enforcement conduct?

Cell Phone Surveillance

Law enforcement can get many cell phone records without a warrant. They can either ask the phone company for the records, claiming it is part of a criminal investigation, or they can hijack cell phone service and collect the information themselves. This could reveal the identities of many of the people who have cell phones at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. Those individuals could then be singled out for other types of selective enforcement of laws.

Facial Recognition

Police might use visual surveillance and facial recognition to identify individuals in the crowd. Police could then prompt protesters to J-walk, litter, smoke a cigarette within 20 feet of a doorway, or commit some other action that is captured by surveillance cameras and citations issued by mail. Citations are annoying enough, but failure to pay them could lead to more serious jail time, bigger fines, and other financial problems.

This kind of crowd surveillance has been used before. In Colorado in 2006, protesters gathered in the hundreds to voice their support for relaxed marijuana rules. Cameras scanned the crowd, later police offered $50 to identify individuals in the photos, and issued citations for trespassing, among other things. 5 years later, facial recognition technology may make it much easier for police to identify numerous Occupy Wall Street demonstrators.

Financial Blockade

Protesters that are identified by visual or electronic surveillance could be made known to the various financial institutions that people depend on. Protesters could see their Visa, Master Card, bank accounts or Paypal accounts frozen, payments refused, or services denied. Those organizations accepting donations for the Occupy Wall Street movement could also see a similar financial blockade.

These kinds of financial blockades have been used before. Visa and Mastercard stopped processing donations to Wikileaks and Paypal froze their account, causing serious financial trouble for the activist website. Paypal is notorious for freezing accounts for arbitrary reasons.

To Prevent The Crippling Effects Of Surveillance, Protect Privacy

To prevent potentially crippling pressure, protesters in any movement can follow a few simple tactics.

Stop Cell Phone Surveillance

To stop cell phone surveillance, buy a pre paid cell phone with cash and use that to communicate while at the protests. Otherwise, remove the battery of your cell phone or leave it at home. There will be no way for law enforcement to surreptitiously collect the data from your phone if you do.

Prevent Facial Recognition Software

To stop visual surveillance, wear a hoodie, hat and sunglasses to the protest. In places where masks and face paint are not illegal, they can also be used to prevent facial recognition. This may not apply in New York where there are laws making wearing a mask or face paint illegal.

Use Cash, Gold, Silver and Bitcoin

To prevent financial blockades, people can use cash, gold and silver to trade in person. Be careful using gold and silver as a medium of exchange. The capital gains tax on gold and silver is very high (28%) so using it may actually cause you to owe taxes that will go to bailing out the very banks that are being protested. For anonymous online transfers, Bitcoin may be a viable option. It not only protects the identity of users, but Wikileaks uses it to accept donations in spite of the financial blockade of the formal banking system.

Conclusion

Protecting privacy protects peaceful protesters of any cause. Smart strategy is needed to prevent financial blockades, unjust police action and other tools that could be used to cripple protest movements. Using these privacy tactics and others in the book How To Vanish can help peaceful people avoid unjust actions from law enforcement around the country and around the world.

Patient Privacy Rights And Private Hospitals

Bill Rounds Esq. — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:38:08 +0000

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

Secret Weapon To Protect Medical Privacy

Medical information is among the most private personal information. New healthcare laws in the US essentially require doctors to make all of their records electronic and store them in government databases. This poses a serious threat to patient privacy rights. There is one way to find private hospitals where your information will not be entered into US databases and you may even get better health care for much less.

Risk to Patient Privacy Rights

Having detailed medical information housed in one massive database makes it one of the most lucrative targets for hackers. It will not only contain health information (potentially worth its weight in digital gold to the highly ethical pharmaceutical industry), but it will also include demographic information, like race, ethnicity, primary language, and gender. This information is golden to marketers. And that says nothing of its value to identity thieves.

Government databases are well known as extremely poorly protected. They aren’t even capable of protecting classified and top secret material. I hate to think how well they will protect our medical data. It may only be a matter of time before our medical histories are public information.

There Is Bound To Be Abuse

The law permits use of the data for clinical research, even if the subject objects to the use of their data. North Carolina sheriffs have already asked to browse prescription records to look for potential pain medication abusers. With even more data available, who knows what kinds of crimes they think your medical records might be evidence of.

About 12 million people will have to have access to such a health system, from heart surgeons to grocery store pharmacists. It is inevitable that one of those 12 million will be able to accidentally or purposefully leak massive amounts of data.

And, if the US social services system becomes anything like the UK system, the government will be able to take away people’s kids for being overweight or for a learning disability. Having all medical records searchable means that many more innocent people with unfortunate genes could be the target of overzealous social workers.

Protect Patient Privacy Rights

To prevent medical procedures or conditions from showing up in US medical record databases, use offshore medical facilities. Seeking treatment in private hospitals in other countries is often called medical tourism and can be far more beneficial than just protecting privacy. Many hospitals in places like New Zealand, Thailand, India, Mexico and Costa Rica, cater to wealthy foreigners. In many cases the doctors are trained in the US. They offer as good, or better, health care than any US facilities and they are usually 50% to 90% cheaper, including all travel expenses like airfare and hotel.

Risks

Before seeking medical care abroad, be sure to do extensive research. Although some private hospitals may cater to wealthy travelers, not all hospitals in those countries will be the same. Some will offer substandard care in unhealthy facilities.

Most other countries will not protect patients from medical malpractice, like they do in the US, and pharmaceutical companies may not be liable for injuries from medications like they are in the US. Also, medical information in foreign countries may not be protected as private.

Protect Yourself From Risks

There are several companies that help arrange offshore medical visits to make sure you select the best facilities and doctors. There are also voluntary organizations that certify medical facilities such as the JCI to promote quality care. A considerable amount of research should be done before seeking medical treatment away from home.

Conclusion

Seeking medical treatment abroad can help protect patient privacy rights. Information about those visits will not be automatically entered into the US electronic health record database. Additionally, seeking care offshore can be far less expensive, it can be as good, or better than US care, and you may even have access to many treatments, drugs and procedures that are not permitted in the US. Don’t forget to check out the book How To Vanish for more ways to protect your privacy.

Internet Privacy Guard: Fraud Edition

Bill Rounds Esq. — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:47:36 +0000

Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes

Protect Yourself From Online Fraud With This Internet Privacy Guard

Fraud = Bad. Privacy is about protecting information and fraud is about misusing information. Protecting your privacy means preventing fraud. Check out the top 10 ways that you might be defrauded and the best privacy guard to protect yourself.

Trash Digging

An oldie but a goodie, people still dig through the trash looking for financial information. Once you have set your trash on the curb, it is actually legal for anyone to rifle through it. To protect your privacy, shred any documents that you throw out.

Email Scams

There are lots of ways that people use email to scam you out of information or money. Spammers could send you links to nefarious websites disguised as legitimate links, they can spoof an email from a friend with attachments infected with viruses, or they could just convince you they are a Namibian prince.

Preventing these kinds of attacks includes a bit of common sense and some software. The common sense part includes not opening emails from suspicious sources, not opening attachments that you aren’t expecting, even if it comes from friends, and not clicking on links in the body of the email, even if it comes from friends.

The software you need is simple anti virus software (make sure to keep it updated), and make sure your firewall is on.

Man in the Middle

This kind of attack occurs when someone intercepts your internet traffic and watches what you do online. It usually happens when someone picks up your unsecured wireless router signal, or picking up your traffic when you log in through a public wifi spot like at a coffee shop.

Protect your home or office router with a strong password. If you are surfing the internet from a public place, log into a secure VPN before you start browsing.

Website Spoofing

Fraudsters will sometimes try to imitate legitimate websites, like your bank website or email, to get you to enter personal information. They might try to get your email address, password, bank account info, credit card, or a whole host of other data.

To protect against this kind of fraud make sure that the URL is the one you expect to see. Many times fraudsters will try to capitalize on a slight misspelling in the URL. The spoofed websites will also often have spelling or grammar mistakes, or it will simply be slightly different from the website you normally visit. Double check these things before entering any personal information.

Spyware

Many websites can track your surfing activity after you have left their site, sometimes for months after you have visited. This lets them collect a lot of data about you.

To prevent this kind of tracking, delete cookies from your browser. You can also use private browsing modes or secure browsers, like Iron Browser.

Conclusion

Privacy is freedom. Some people abuse freedom and some people abuse privacy. That does not mean that honest people will not go to great lengths to get both. Using the right internet privacy guard, combined with some quick thinking, to prevent most kinds of fraud. For other tips on preventing information fraud, check out the book How To Vanish or subscribe to the list.

Facebook And Fake Names

Bill Rounds Esq. — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 02:38:27 +0000

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.

Ignore The Police!

Bill Rounds Esq. — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:18:05 +0000

Reading time: 6 – 9 minutes

For the past few months, police departments have been using a new iris scanning device to identify people they encounter. Many more police departments will begin using this device soon. The scanner can be held up to the eye of any person and almost instantly identify them more accurately than a fingerprint. Police have imposed restrictions on themselves to prevent misuse of iris scanners. Like a chubby kid guarding a Happy Meal, indulgence is more likely than restraint.

Currently, iris scanners are limited to checking the person scanned against a national database of iris scans. This database presumably only contains criminals, children and individuals who may need assistance, like alzheimers patients. The devices are not supposed to be able to capture and store new entries. These self-imposed limitations may only be temporary.

Warrantless Iris Scans Are Probably Unconstitutional

Although not yet tested, there are some potentially strong constitutional challenges to many iris scans that are likely to occur. If you have a reasonable expectation of privacy in some information or item, the police need a warrant to conduct a search. (Katz v. United States) There is no reasonable expectation of privacy for things that are in the plain view of the public. (Texas v. Brown) Technologies that enhance the senses to be able to see what is in plain view, like common binoculars, can be used by police without a warrant. (Dow Chemical v. United States) Something that is not visible to the naked eye is not in plain view. (California v. Ciraolo; Kyllo v. United States; People v. Arno) Police may also conduct a search that would otherwise require a warrant if they get consent. (Schneckloth v. Bustamonte).

An image of your iris and the detail of your iris is apparently very important information. Many people might reasonably expect to have a right to privacy in that intimate part of their body. Although the iris is held out to the public, the very intimate details, so much detail that the iris becomes a unique identifier, is not held out to the public because nobody can see that with the naked eye. A very powerful technology that can see more than the naked eye, even upon very close inspection, is required. Thus, such a search will likely be unconstitutional without a warrant.

Do Not Consent To An Iris Scan

If you agree to have your iris scanned for identification purposes, you give up any chance you had of fighting the constitutionality of a warrantless iris scan. Simply stating that you do not consent to having an iris scan taken should be sufficient.

Don’t Let Them Scan Your Face Either

These same devices are also capable of scanning faces for identification purposes. Preventing these scans is a bit more complicated because your face, and the ability to recognize you from your face, is most definitely held out to the public in plain view. To prevent face scanning requires knowing at what point in a police encounter the face scan is taking place. Knowing this will help you to know if you must submit or if you are free to leave.

Ignore The Police: “Free To Leave” Encounters

Police may stop people on the street in what is known as a “consensual” encounter for no reason at all. Police could potentially ask you for a face (or iris) scan during this “consensual” encounter. If you reasonably think you are free to leave you can ignore everything the police are saying and just walk away. (Florida v. Royer; Michigan v. Chesternut). If you aren’t sure, or you just want to be polite, one of the best things you can say is “am I free to leave or am I being detained?” Stopping the encounter as soon as possible before a scan of your face can be required is the best way to prevent a facial scan. If you aren’t free to go, you are being detained.

Detention

To detain you, the police need reasonable suspicion based on articulable facts that you are, have been, or will be committing a crime. (Terry v. Ohio) If a reasonable person thinks that they aren’t free to go, they are being detained. (United States v. Mendenhall). Here is where it gets a bit tricky. Some states permit you to remain silent to questions at this point, but many require you to at least provide your name. (Hiibel v. 6th Judicial District Court of Nevada) If you are in a no name state, you may be able to refuse a facial scan. This will probably make the police pretty mad so it might not be recommended. In states where your name is required, there is probably nothing you can do.

Arrest

If the police then have probable cause to believe you committed a crime, they may arrest you. They will take you into the mug shot room where a long line of celebrities have taken their most memorable photos. At this point, there is nothing you can do to keep the police from putting your face in their facial recognition database.

Conclusion

Warrantless, unconsensual iris scans are probably unconstitutional. Face scans aren’t as inherently unconstitutional, but can still be prevented. If you are a law abiding citizen, these, and other tips from HowToVanish, can help you protect more of your privacy from one of the worst invasions of privacy that exist, police encounters.

Information Leakage From Cell Phone Apps

Bill Rounds Esq. — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 04:35:40 +0000

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.

Cell Phone Security

Bill Rounds Esq. — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 20:48:10 +0000

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.

Use RedPhone To Encrypt Cell Phone Calls

Bill Rounds Esq. — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 05:48:09 +0000

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

“Hey, man, listen very carefully, man. Don’t answer the phone, man. You got that? Don’t answer the phone, even if its me calling, man, don’t answer it, because I think the phone is bugged, man…”

- Pedro… I mean… Freddy

It’s finally safe to answer the phone. Phone conversations are very difficult to keep private. You should never actually commit crimes, but if you joke about committing crimes over the phone, someone may be listening and they could use your jokes to convict you.

RedPhone Encrypts Cell Phone Calls

Telecom infrastructure is built so that the telecom companies can have secret access to all of your phone conversations. These same companies help law enforcement tap land lines and cell phones to spy on ordinary citizens without warrants or probable cause. Now you can use RedPhone to encrypt cell phone calls and protect your privacy.

When there is no neutral third party monitoring the use of phone taps by law enforcement, and when the service providers we use are complicit, the likelihood of abuse of law abiding citizens skyrockets, especially since the eavesdropping law enforcement officer might be involved in a criminal enterprise, be a stalker or a rapist. It is essential for honest people to protect their own private health information, communications with their attorney, trade secrets, negotiation strategies, embarrassing facts and keep stalkers from eavesdropping on conversations, no matter what kind of costume the the eavesdropper is wearing.

VoIP Is Better Than Traditional Phone Communication

To protect your phone calls from surreptitious surveillance without a warrant, the best option is to use VoIP services. VoIP is a way to make calls over the internet. Some of the most popular VoIP services are Skype and Google Voice.

There is one big weakness with using private VoIP services like Skype or Google Voice. They have the backdoor ability to let law enforcement secretly listen to your calls without a warrant. Open source VoIP can prevent the use of back doors by eavesdroppers but can be intimidating to use for computer novices.

RedPhone Protects Phone Privacy

RedPhone is a free program available for Android cell phones that lets you encrypt your cell phone calls to other RedPhone users. Your cell phone company can only see encrypted traffic, your ISP can only see encrypted traffic, and any other eavesdropper can only see encrypted traffic when you are encrypting your conversation on both ends with RedPhone.

Weaknesses Of RedPhone

Although it is privately owned by Whisper Systems, they claim, unlike many other VoIP, that there is no backdoor ability for them or anyone else to secretly listen in on your conversations. They have yet to publish their source code to verify their claims, but they have indicated they might do so soon. RedPhone is also much more user friendly than most open source VoIP so novice users will find it very easy to use.

Text Messages Protected By TextSecure

Whisper Systems has also released a free program called TextSecure for Android phones which encrypts your text messages and stores them in an encrypted file on your phone. Even if your phone is searched, the text messages will remain encrypted. Text messages are a large part of the data that is routinely provided without a warrant to law enforcement. TextSecure can prevent warrantless disclosures of text message information to law enforcement.

These powerful tools are only available for Android phones right now. They are also still susceptible to breach if you have malware on your phone or your hardware has been compromised.

The Bigger Privacy Trend

The existence of tools like this represent a bigger trend in the empowerment of individuals over large institutions like government. Peaceful solutions, like many discussed in How To Vanish the book, that defend fundamental liberties against the encroachment of governments are being created faster than governments can stifle them. Even if some of these methods of protecting freedom are made illegal, it is less and less risky for people to use civil disobedience to fight unjust laws.

Conclusion

RedPhone and TextSecure are powerful tools to protect your privacy from corporate espionage, thieves, stalkers and other threats. They are free, simple and fun. Hopefully these kinds of solutions will be available on other cell phones soon. Don’t forget to check out the complete strategies and tactics for protecting privacy in How To Vanish the book.

Police Corruption Out Of Control: Threatens Personal Information

Bill Rounds Esq. — Tue, 31 May 2011 05:28:23 +0000

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

The San Diego Police Department has finally done it! They get their shot at having the highest incarceration rate in the world. But not among the residents of San Diego, among the ranks of the SDPD itself.

Police Corruption Means High Percentage Of Police Are Criminals

The SDPD currently has 11 officers out of 1,100 patrol officers under criminal or internal investigation. The alleged police corruption ranges from drunk driving and harassment, all the way to domestic violence, sexual assault and rape. That is a solid 1% of the police. If they play their cards right and all 11 get locked up, the SDPD will have about the same incarceration rate as the general US population! That gives the SDPD a solid chance to take sole possession of first place very soon.

SDPD – Higher Percentage Of Criminals Than Any Other Population In The World

Having a higher incarceration rate than the general US population is quite an accomplishment. But, given the fact that the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, the SDPD has a solid chance of taking sole possession of first place very soon. The closest competitor is Russia with a .6% rate, a mark that the SDPD are very likely to beat, even if all the criminal officers aren’t incarcerated.

Personal Information Available To Criminal Police Officers

So what are innocent people to do when the boys in blue are just as likely to be a criminal as anyone else off the street. Is your information really protected when access is limited to law enforcement riddled with police corruption? Your internet activity, phone records, phone location, bank records and lots of other information are searchable by law enforcement. And what about the information that you are required to give law enforcement, like your name, address, drivers license, etc.?

Protect Personal Information From Police Corruption

There are lots of ways to limit or protect your information from falling into criminal hands, no matter what uniform they are wearing. Proxy servers or VPNs based in another country keep your internet searches out of the jurisdiction of domestic authorities. VoIP phone services based in a foreign country can minimize the phone records available to law enforcement without a warrant. Removing the battery of your cell phone keeps your location from being tracked. You could also bank in a foreign jurisdiction to increase the costs to law enforcement of searching your bank records. You could even go so far as getting a foreign drivers license so that you reveal less of your sensitive information, like the address where you stay in the US, to the 1% of the police officers that are criminals.

Record Police Corruption Without Violating The Law

It is also important to note how modest the record breaking police are about having their picture taken by admiring fans. Sometimes amateur camera men are arrested and charged with a crime, usually for recording a cop without their consent under wire tapping laws. CopBlock.org is full of these kinds of encounters. Getting charged with a crime has a huge affect on your personal privacy.

A few states require you to get consent from everyone involved before you can record a conversation. Through some extreme distortions of these wire tapping laws, and with the help of prosecutors and judges who possibly aid and abet police misconduct, prosecutions for filming cops are possible, although relatively rare.

It cannot be helped that some people, like Rosa Parks, will violate unjust laws in protest. Others who do not want to risk prosecution can avoid breaking the law and still contribute to protecting liberty.

Don’t Record Sound When Recording Police

To help prevent violation of a grossly distorted understanding of wire tapping laws, don’t forget to take your special Cop Cam that does not record sound. Since most wire tapping statutes require you to record a conversation to violate the law, if you don’t record the sounds of a conversation, you probably won’t be guilty of a crime. The individual facts of each situation will be important for your attorney before they can give you legal advice on the matter.

Conclusion

When the authorities are more likely than anyone else in the world to be a criminal, it is important to protect as many of your rights as possible. It is your right to protect as much of your information as you legally can. Using these tips, and others in the book How To Vanish, you can legally prevent the police from gathering more information than you are legally required to provide. And you can prevent violating any laws when you are trying to contribute to helping the police set a record for the number of criminals in their ranks.

If you know of great offshore VoIP services, countries where it is easy to get a drivers license without sharing a lot of information, or other helpful tips to share with other readers, leave a comment about it!

Foreign Drivers License Protects Families

Bill Rounds Esq. — Tue, 24 May 2011 07:35:39 +0000

Reading time: 6 – 10 minutes

Your home address is one of the most sensitive pieces of information you have. You don’t want uninvited visitors bothering you and your family at home. Even though lots of businesses want to get a hold of your home address for marketing purposes, there are a lot of ways to prevent revealing your home address without paying that extra $1 for your Cheerios. Using a P.O. box or other ghost address will usually cut it when you need to share your home address without disclosing where you and your family actually hang out.

One of the only times that you can’t use a ghost address is with a drivers license. A drivers license is an absolute necessity for most people and you can’t get one unless you reveal the place where you and your family lay your heads at night. Usually. There is one way to drive legally in the US without having to give away your most sensitive information. Use a foreign drivers license.

Revealing Home Address Is Not Safe

“But,” you say, “not just anyone can go look up DMV records.” “What is the harm,” you proclaim, “from sharing your home address with the government?”

Remember the geniuses you had to deal with the last time you were at the DMV? They are the ones protecting the vast amounts of information in their databases. A little bit of social engineering and, voila: data is easily compromised.

Plus, the bigger the stash of data, the bigger the target for identity thieves and hackers. DMV databases are ripe targets because they house so much important data. Yet the public is essentially forced to store their data in DMV databases and take that risk.

Foreign Drivers Licenses Are Legal

You can drive in any state with a valid drivers license from any other state. You can also drive with a valid drivers license from any other country. (Check Out California Vehicle Code Section 12502 (a)(1)). International drivers license certificates are not required and are really only suggested if your drivers license is from an obscure country. The other great thing about foreign drivers licenses is that you don’t have to reveal any information to the US government to get it. You might be able to find another country that requires less information, or stores less of it in vast electronic databases.

Get A Foreign Drivers License

Every country will have its own laws, but generally if you have permanent residence you can get a drivers license.

Avoid Having To Get A Local Drivers License

Here is where using a foreign drivers license can be tricky, but it is still doable. Most states make you get a license after residing there for just a few days or weeks. This doesn’t apply if you are NOT a resident of the state. If you are a temporary visitor to a state and have your permanent residence somewhere else (like another country) you will not have to get a local license, thereby allowing you to drive without complying with dangerous rules. (Check out California Vehicle Code Section 12505(c)).

People with multiple residences in multiple states have dealt with this issue often. Even though they may spend a few months out of the year at their winter home in Phoenix, a few weeks at their cabin in Montana, and the rest of the year at their permanent home in Lake Tahoe, NV, they do not need to get more than one drivers license. They get it in the place that is their permanent home. It is actually illegal to have more than one drivers license at a time. Using a foreign license is a similar concept on an international scale.

Show Permanent Residency Where You Want It

You are generally considered a resident of the place where you call home, the place where you intend to return. To demonstrate this very subjective standard, you can look at other factors to provide evidence of your permanent residence. Things like your voting registration, where your permanent home is, and several other factors could demonstrate adequate residency. (Check out California Vehicle Code Section 12505(a)).

Avoid Residency

Employees are almost always a resident of the place where they have a job. Either make sure you can work remotely, commute to the place where you work, or avoid being a regular employee. Also, avoid paying in-state tuition if you are a student, or if your kids are students.

There are dozens of other facts that could be used to show where your permanent residence is. The more factors that fall in the place where you wish to be a permanent resident, the better. The State Income Tax Optimization Guide has a comprehensive strategy for controlling where those factors appear and where they do not.

Time Is Not Critical

Many people think that the amount of time you spend somewhere is critical. I often hear the phrase 6 months and 1 day. This may be true in some places, but for the most part it is just a guideline and is not determinative. It can be helpful (or hurtful) but it isn’t everything. Just because you happen to spend more than 6 months in a particular place does not mean that you are a permanent resident there. If other factors line up heavily in favor of some other location as your permanent residence, the other factors will probably control.

Conclusion

Most of these rules are based on the rules of California. Most other places are not as strict. So if you have a valid foreign drivers license and avoid having to get a drivers license in the state where you happen to be driving, you can protect a very important piece of information… where your family actually lives. So go ahead and protect your family from the useless and dangerous requirement of disclosing your home address in order to drive by getting a foreign drivers license. For more tips on how to protect your important personal information sign up for the email list. For a comprehensive strategy to protect your privacy, check out How To Vanish the book.

Can You Be Prosecuted For Using Gold Or Silver? – Liberty Dollar Part III

Bill Rounds Esq. — Tue, 10 May 2011 06:56:42 +0000

Reading time: 16 – 26 minutes

The Liberty Dollar case has had a huge impact on the world of gold and silver trading, investing, ownership and use. I covered a lot of ground in Part I and Part II, but there is another important aspect of that case that leaves the legal landscape partly shrouded in ominous and threatening clouds. What is the risk of criminal prosecution or criminal conviction to those who make or use gold and silver rounds of “original design”?

Is There A Risk Of Prosecution For Trading With Gold And Silver

To answer that, we have to fully understand the actual law that was broken. We also need to consider the existing law that was not at issue in the Liberty Dollar case, the threats of prosecutors and the effect of potential constitutional challenges to those laws if a prosecution were undertaken.

Mr. von NotHaus Violated Fraud Based Statutes

The Liberty Dollar Trial was about fraud, not a private currency system as prosecutor Anne Tomkins falsely implied. The jury was asked to decide if the elements of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud were met, nothing else. No other legal basis for the prosecution was ever presented to the jury and implying that there was another legal basis is mis-stating the facts of the case.

Critical Facts of The Case

Liberty Dollar made, sold, and used rounds that had many similarities to official US government coinage. The rounds were minted with a face value but the FRN value of the silver in the coins was less than this face value. Liberty Dollar encouraged exchanging Liberty Dollars with people who were unaware that the underlying FRN value of the silver was less than the denomination minted on its face. Liberty Dollar profited from this difference in value.

Key Elements Of Fraud

To be guilty of fraud, a jury must decide that a person has met all of the elements of that crime. The Jury Verdict Form contains all of the elements that this particular jury decided. The critical parts are summarized here.

Count 1 – Conspiracy

I will not get into Conspiracy because it is not in controversy.

Count 2 – Counterfeit Coin (18 USC 485 and 2)

The core actions that Liberty Dollar must have taken to be guilty of this crime are:

1. To make coins;

2. That resemble official US government issued coins;

3. And use those coins;

4. With intent to defraud.

It is undisputed that Liberty Dollar made and used coins. Their resemblance to official US government issued coins was a question of fact for the jury to decide. As described in detail previously, there were plenty of facts that could lead a reasonable person to believe that Liberty Dollar rounds resembled official US coins.

The final necessary element was the intent to defraud. I personally don’t think Mr. Von NotHaus had the intent to defraud, but intent can only be inferred by surrounding facts and circumstances. Clearly there were several facts that could lead a reasonable person to believe that there was intent to defraud. For example, encouragement to make change with people who did not know that there was a difference between the FRN value of the silver in the round and the face value.

Notice that nothing in this count requires that the coins be of original design.

Count 3 – Current Money (18 USC 486)

The core elements here are:

1. Make and use a silver coin;

2. Intended to be used as current money;

3. Resembling genuine coins of the US OR coins of original design

Again it is undisputed that element 1 was met. Their resemblance to US coins has already been established. The intent can only be supposed from surrounding facts. The fact that Liberty Dollar encouraged merchants to make change with unsuspecting people could be the reasonable basis to find intent to use Liberty Dollars as current money.

It’s important to note the “OR” in Count 3. This means that the statute is violated whether you violate one, the other, or both of these prongs. As I have laid out previously, the “resembling genuine coins of the US” prong could easily stand on its own as having been violated. The “original design” prong is unnecessary for the conviction.

The “resembling genuine coins” prong is essentially a case of fraud. The Liberty Dollar rounds were presented as something that they were not, to the detriment of unsuspecting individuals. It appears the jury thought the case was about fraud as well. At least one person claiming to be a juror in the case left a comment in the original post stating that my previous analysis correctly reflected “what went on in court in the Liberty Dollar Trial.”

Who Was The Victim?

Many have claimed that there were no victims because the underlying value of the silver would eventually (and in hindsight has) become more valuable than the FRN that people gave up to get Liberty Dollars. Even people who mistakenly accepted Liberty Dollars, they claim, would have actually benefited.

This argument defies reason. The FRN price of silver changes. Sometimes it goes up and sometimes it goes down. Although I bet money that it will go up over time, it is impossible to predict the future. Nobody knows for sure if or when the price will change, how much it will change, and in which direction.

What must be understood is that to get someone to unknowingly accept Liberty Dollars instead of FRN is to unknowingly accept the risk that silver would appreciate in value instead of the risk that the FRN will decline in value. This is a risk unwitting acceptors of Liberty Dollars did not agree to bear.

Risk Has Value

Another problem is that the person who takes the discounted Liberty Dollar could have taken their $10 FRN and bought more silver somewhere else had they been paid in FRN instead of the Liberty Dollar round. Thus if the price of silver rises, they would have been prevented from realizing gains on a larger amount of silver. Thus people who unknowingly accepted Liberty Dollars instead of FRNs unknowingly suffered real or potential losses.

Tips To Avoid Prosecution For Fraud

So now that it is clear that the elements of fraud were met, what can honest traders do to avoid innocently coming too close to the line of fraud, which I think Mr. Von NotHaus did. Everyone should talk to a lawyer directly for legal advice, but a general principle is to avoid anything that would give the impression of fraud to investigators and clearly include things that would help eliminate the impression of fraud. Avoid making, using or trading rounds, medallions or tokens that in any way resemble official government currency of any country.

Avoid:

Using the $ symbol

Putting the name of a country on it like “USA”

Putting any word on it that appears on official currency like “Liberty”

Using denominations that match the same denominations used in the official government coin

Putting images on them that are similar to images used on official government currency.

Offering them as change in FRN transactions

Some things that can be helpful are:

Use fictional characters, like Disney Dollars or Ithaca Hours do

Display the weight and fineness of the metal rather than a numbered value like $10

Be extremely clear when using them that they are not official US coins.

Likelihood Of Prosecution

There are a handful of private mints, thousands of coin dealers and millions of people that make, use and trade rounds, medallions and tokens. If they follow many of these guidelines they are probably not at risk of prosecution for fraud.

Prosecution For Fraud Is Legitimate

Libertarian principles allow the use of force to protect against fraud. Dr. Viera concedes, in Pieces of Eight (pg. 1533) that Congress may have the Constitutional authority to legislate the “resembling genuine coin” prong. Since it is clearly shown that people were, or there was an imminent threat of being, defrauded, prosecution under this part of the statute is likely to withstand any philosophical or constitutional challenges.

Prosecution For “Original Design”

Anne Tompkins inferred that she intended to prosecute people under the “original design” prong. She was obviously relying on dicta from a few lower court cases as the broad basis of her threat.

Dicta is not the law. Dicta is a statement in a court ruling that is usually made by a judge in passing with little to no research or analysis. At best she can hope that dicta maybe, possibly, someday becomes the law. Thus she is threatening to fly us head on into the brooding storm clouds of untested areas of law.

What This Threat Of Prosecution Means To Honest People

There are real implications to this kind of threat. First of all is the cost of legal defense. Even a person who is ultimately found innocent will probably incur legal costs in the tens of thousands of dollars. If there are constitutional challenges, which might require multiple appeals, the cost could easily rise to the hundreds of thousands.

Overzealous Prosecutors Regularly Disregard The Intent Behind A Law (To Punish Real Criminals) And Target Anyone Who Accidentally Crosses The Line

While most people find prosecution of people with innocent intent deplorable, overzealous prosecutors have been known to disregard the reason for a law and use their discretion to prosecute anyone who violates the letter of the law, even if the defendant’s intent and actions are otherwise completely innocent.

A good example of that is the prosecution of an Ohio woman under anti-drug laws for buying 2 packages of cold medicine in 1 week, one for two separate members of her family who were ill. The uphill evidentiary battle that defendants face makes it easy for prosecutors to convince juries that a defendant should be convicted in these kinds of cases.

If That Were The Law It Would Be Completely Unworkable

If this dicta were adopted as law, cautious people would have to avoid making or using anything that could potentially be used to barter because such an item could conceivably be used to compete with official government issued currency. That could include millions of rounds, commemorative medallions, or tokens. That is obviously a ridiculous outcome.

There are a few cases where clearly marked tokens such as Chuck E. Cheese tokens or batting cage tokens are outside of the purview of the “original design” prong. Hence prosecution of those special purpose tokens is very unlikely.

A case centered around the “original design” prong would not be about fraud at all. It would be about the right of people to use whatever medium of exchange they choose. Preventing private parties from trading what they want in such a manner is complete tyranny. In Argentina and other places around the world, the people purchase vehicles as a hedge against inflation. Under Anne Tomkins’ erroneous definition of the law, vehicles would be illegal because they compete with the national currency. Another ridiculous outcome.

18 USC 486 Is Probably Unconstitutional

The arguments supporting the unconstitutionality of the “original design” language are quite strong.

Art. I Section 8, clause 5 of the US Constitution states in part:

“The Congress shall have Power To… coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin.” On its face this gives the Congress the power to regulate the value of its own coinage, and that of foreign coins. There is absolutely no mention of the ability of Congress to do anything regarding private coinage.”

Clause 6 continues stating:

[Congress shall have power to...] “provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the… current Coin of the United States.” This clearly gives Congress the power to punish counterfeiting the coins that they themselves produce, and probably to punish coins resembling genuine US coins. Again, there is absolutely no mention of private coinage. In fact, the definition of private coinage is that it is not the current coin of the US. Therefore Congress has no authority over private coinage at all and neither does any other branch.

The Ninth Amendment to the US Constitution states

“The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

The Tenth Amendment:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Since no Congressional power over private coinage is delegated, or even implied, nor is that power reserved to another branch of government, private coinage must be a power and right reserved to the states or the people under the 9th and/or 10th Amendments.

There are many, many, many, many, many, many examples of private coinage used throughout the US, under these same Constitutional provisions, for centuries. See What Has Government Done To Our Money by Murray Rothbard for a full discussion and historical examples.

What Is So Unconstitutional About 18 USC 486?

18 USC 486 states:

Whoever, except as authorized by law, makes or utters or passes, or attempts to utter or pass, any coins of gold or silver or other metal, or alloys of metals, intended for use as current money, whether in the resemblance of coins of the United States or of foreign countries, or of original design, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. (emphasis added)

The constitutionality of the “original design” clause is clearly eviscerated by Dr. Viera in Pieces of Eight pg. 1533 (criticizing 18 USC 486):

“This prohibition [on private coinage] is plainly not grounded in Congress’s power “To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the current coin of the Unites States” because a person… who makes… coins… of original design is not doing anything with relation to the “current coin of the United States” by definition.”

The power to regulate coins of original design is clearly not within Article I Section 8 clauses 5 or 6. It is thus a clear violation of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the US Constitution.

Dicta that claim legitimacy of this language shows that judges have clearly failed to consult legislative history, constitutional authority, American history, or case law dealing with it. Thorough research and analysis would likely reveal the error in these statements of unauthoritative opinion.

The Outcome Of A Constitutional Challenge Is Unknown

Unfortunately, the current state of monetary law in the United States is nonsensical so it’s tough to know how persuasive these constitutional arguments would be to an uneducated judiciary. Thus a constitutional challenge is not guaranteed to have the logical outcome of invalidating the offensive language of the statute.

Someone Else Must Be Convicted Before A Constitutional Challenge Can Be Made

Without getting into some very intricate rules on “redressability,” it is doubtful that anyone could even challenge the clearly unconstitutional parts of 18 USC 486 until someone is convicted under the relevant part of that section. That is because a person can’t appeal a decision unless the outcome would change if they win the appeal. (Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737 (1984)).

Here, Mr. von NotHaus was convicted. His conviction would stand under the fraud prong of the statute alone and does not need the “original design” prong. Even if the “original design” language was declared unconstitutional on appeal, it wouldn’t change the outcome for him. Therefore he is unlikely to be able to challenge its constitutionality.

Another Legal Guinea Pig Is Needed

To challenge the constitutionality of the “original design” prong, another individual will have to be convicted. This time, their conviction must clearly be under the “original design” prong and not at all under the resemblance prong. This means that the constitutionality of this law will probably remain unresolved for many years.

Practicality of Enforcement

When innocent people might be wrongly prosecuted because it looks like they are committing a crime when in fact they aren’t, they must determine how likely it would be for them to be prosecuted for their innocent behavior. Part of this calculation is determining how likely it is that they would be prosecuted based on the practicality of enforcing the law that could mistakenly be used against them.

Private Mints

A mint, the company actually making rounds, medallions and tokens, is at the most risk of prosecution. Their operation is probably fairly large, easy to find and hard to move.

Fortunately that risk is still very low, even after the von NotHaus conviction. The Sunshine Mint that produced the Liberty Dollars was not a defendant in the case and there have been no prosecutions of the many other private mints throughout the country. Thus prosecution of private minters under the original design prong is unlikely.

Individuals

It would be very difficult and expensive to prosecute individuals for using rounds medallions and tokens in private transactions. It would be incredibly difficult to detect and investigate. Unless people feel they have been defrauded upon accepting them, there is unlikely to be any investigation of individuals for using metal to pay for goods and services.

This is important for the millions of innocent people who will be trading things that are not illegal because they should know the risk of erroneous prosecution. It is extremely low because of these difficulties in detection and investigation of the transactions.

Risk Of Prosecution For Fraud

There are millions of rounds, medallions or tokens existing in the US that follow the guidelines mentioned earlier. To prosecute every maker, holder or user of them would be completely outrageous. It would also be practically impossible to prosecute everyone because it is impossible to monitor that many private transactions effectively, even with dictatorial control. Therefore, someone making or bartering with gold or silver who is following these guidelines has very little risk of mistaken prosecution for fraud.

Conclusion

Barter with metal has not been ruled by a court of law to be illegal. Barter is constitutional, whether it is for chickens, potatoes, FRN, gold or silver rounds or anything else you want. There is a cloud over the issue of bartering with gold or silver rounds, medallions or tokens because of the generalized and remote possibility of being prosecuted if you do. Bartering with metal is so common and widespread it would insanely expensive to systematically investigate and impractical to enforce such a policy. Thus, the threat is not nearly as great as the threat posed to Liberty Dollar. Plus, the “original design” language that smacks of dictatorial control is likely to be overturned because it is probably unconstitutional. For more ways to protect your right to private exchange of goods and prevent being mistakenly prosecuted, get the book How To Vanish and sign up for the email list.

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