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VPN Recommendations for left organizing?
(hexbear.net)
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this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2024
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There’s two ways to do this:
The online organizing way is to use a paid vpn to prevent local WiFi attacks and isp snooping, harden all devices and computers that will be used, only use encrypted communications and develop data security practices compatible with the possibility of being jammed up.
You gotta have real knowledge and awareness to pull this off as an individual, or a huge point of trust/failure in one person who does it for you.
If you do all that then the cops will just use metadata and inference to get warrants or just have someone infiltrate you or turn a trusted member.
The other way, the way the bolsheviks used, is to only organize in person and develop a no-trust framework for interacting with your community.
Then the cops will infiltrate or turn members but you have at least prepared for it and expect it.
IDK if we're at this level of need right now. But I want to start people on the path to doing these things as a habit.
I could see our org doing mutual aid to help undocumented immigrants hide, help women cross state lines for abortions, etc. in the near future. I want us to be ready to cover our tracks before we need to.
I’m saying this not to belittle or hurt you, but to make my point clear:
You are not capable of what you’re saying. It is not possible to safely include people in your group while doing what you’re saying.
If that sounds like too much of an assumption, if it sounds like I’m being hyperbolic, think of this completely not yanked from the local headlines amalgamation of cop activities in the surrounding handful of rural counties over the last year:
You’re doing something, an opponent shows up to agitate. There is violence, the police show up. Did everyone leave their phones at home? Does everyone’s phone have biometrics turned off? Is everyone trained to resist interrogation? Has everyone changed login credentials from data breaches? If their phones are Apple, do they have lockdown and advanced data protection turned on? are they not carrying the recovery code on their person? If they’re using an android phone, is it running a trustworthy non manufacturer install? Are they capable of figuring out if an android version is trustworthy? If they’re all in some trustworthy encrypted chat, are they treating it like there’s someone screenshotting?
A vpn wouldn’t help at all if any one of those things were wrong.
Just recently, a peaceful talk about Palestinian resistance was interrupted by Zionists and violence broke out. Are all your people 100% prepared even when it’s a seemingly friendly environment?
Don’t organize online. In person or bust. Don’t take computers with you unless they’re wiped clean except for the bare minimum that is needed to do the job they’re gonna be used for. A phone is a computer.
I understand completely and I am aware that there are levels of security my little org is not going to realistically meet.
For anyone reading this planning more "sensitive" things: loose lips sink ships, and follow the advice above!
My org is what I would consider more of a pipeline for disaffected Democrats to become baby leftists and eventually, maybe, do something cool for the community. As such the threat is more from right-wing activists disrupting events or trying to doxx members, get people fired, etc. So I want folks to start getting the basics locked in now so that if they radicalize more it will be easier going from "I have a password manager and VPN" level secure to "drop the phones in this Faraday bag before entering this meeting".
That’s smart.