Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Great Read from Kit Perez- " What to Do if You Have Nothing to Hide"

 
 
Kit and others have pushed me to include more net security in what we do here at Sipsey Street.  It is a process but every little bit helps.  Kit is former Air Force, (but we don't hold grudges) with a BA in Counterintelligence and is currently finishing a thesis for a Master's in Criminal Intel.  She has more than a few things to say about keeping your digital house clean.  I guarantee a visit to Order of the White Rose will not be misspent time.
 
 
An excerpt: "... if you’re of the absolute belief that you have nothing to hide, that everything you do is just fine with the government, then you have a moral obligation to use that position to help the rest. You of all people should be providing cover, using the means available to help those who are being persecuted and targeted."


11 comments:

skybill said...

Hi Sgt. Matt,
What it all boils down to is how "Big" is the "Magnifying Glass" that the .gov has to dig into your past?? So someone managed to "Pull off a couple of 'Fast Ones' and not get caught??" Or is this info just sitting there in some file somewhere waiting to get "Uncovered??" So the "Statute of Limitations" has expired!! (That is a Joke!!) If they want to sling S#!t they will!! Since the day you were born (even before) you have been tracked!! Get used to it.....OUTLAW!!!,
...Good old George Strait ,,,,,,,,"Some times I feel like Jesse James, Tryin' to make a name!
Think about it....in his time..."NOBODY"...had a "SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER!!!!!!"
Got Gunz.........OUTLAW!!!!!,
III%,
skybill-out
PS Sgt. Matt... I used to say,"Got Gunz....OUTLAW!!!??????," ...but ya' see....there is no question about it anymore....we're all "OUTLAWS" now..... 'Told Mike this some time ago.

Dutchman6 said...

Skybill,

I agree we all must make a line in the sand. Her salient point was that security is not just for you but for everyone down the line. I remember as a teenager of about 14 (circa 1993) , being in my dad's office when he received a fax from a local militia leader in Gadsden. Before, the Old Man had operated in the fledgling militia movement trying to maintain operational security by being as careful as possible with information. I believe the group he had run had a mission to remain hidden and clandestine until needed. What that fax did was alert every federal and local LEO that was monitoring the very public militia leader that the Old Man was reasonably quite agitated for being outed, but soon came to the conclusion that if he was out he might as well do the best with it. I remember him saying quite often that "if they are going to make me into an outlaw, I might as well be the best outlaw I can be." After that he became quite vocal which led to his elevated status among the national groups.

It just isn't you out there. Thanks so much for the comment.

- Matthew

Chiu ChunLing said...

I'm not going to claim I have anything to hide, because that's not a very good way to hide anything I really want hidden.

But as someone who doesn't claim to have anything to hide, I was at first puzzled by what exactly it was that was being suggested here...it could a bit for me to realize that using privacy services of various kinds even when you are doing things that are entirely innocuous to make it harder for the Feds to target people for simply using such services was the idea.

I hate to be a downer, but the argument implied here seems critically flawed to me. When people say that they aren't concerned about privacy because "they have nothing to hide", I assume that also means that they don't think anyone else should have privacy either because they don't like other people hiding things. That's kinda the point of saying it, as Snowden's comparison to not caring about free speech because you have nothing to say implies. In other words, you aren't saying you have nothing to say so much as that the government is already saying it for you, it is a way of siding with those now in power.

As I referenced before, the only other reason people might say they have nothing to hide is because they actually have plenty to hide but claiming they don't is part of their strategy for keeping it hidden. I bet those people are already using privacy services quite a bit, even while claiming they have nothing to hide.

My argument would be more along the lines of "if you really have nothing to hide from the government, then why does your government have so much to hide from everyone?" If everyone who claims to want there to be no secrets could be persuaded that the only way to be taken seriously in that claim (whether or not they believe it themselves) were to protest against government secrets, that could accomplish something. And if people "have nothing to hide" because they identify their own interests so closely with those of the government, then they can be made aware that the government must be hiding things on their behalf, and either take responsibility for complicity in what the government hides or become aware that perhaps the government is hiding things that would upset them.

Well, I say "my argument" but I'm pretty sure I've heard it somewhere before.

Anonymous said...

Well seeing that you brought up the "...nothing to hide" subject, i suggest that camera's be put into the White House and every Congress critter's office...And to the average "nothing to hide" Joe - take down your blinds and curtains and leave the bathroom door open when doing your business if privacy is of no great concern to you

Anonymous said...

Nothing to hide?

Look, whatever you have in your pants is very similar to what 50% of the people on this planet have in their pants. They've seen theirs, they know pretty much what yours looks like. So what's the big deal? Take off your pants and go about your daily business!

But wait. Those are called "your private parts" for a reason. They're PRIVATE! And they're not the only private thing you have:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,[a] against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." -- Fourth Amendment to The Constitution of The United States

Now have a look at Pierce v. Society of Sisters, Griswold V. Connecticut, Lawrence v. Texas, and of course the infamous Roe v. Wade.

In sort, SCOTUS has ruled that a "right to privacy" exists and that is among the rights mentioned by Jefferson in The Declaration of Independence.

You might also want to read up on the concept of "reasonable expectation of privacy".

MikeH. said...

I wonder if my Sipsey Street friend request on Facebook will earn me a spot on the no fly list!!!

MikeH.

Dougie said...

It wasn't Snowden who betrayed us.

Kit Perez said...

ChunLing,

One of the things that I hear quite frequently from various groups and even leadership is that "we aren't doing anything illegal so we have no need to hide it." They're referring to their training, operations, etc. They'll post the coordinates of their FTX, frequency lists, etc. all the while claiming that because they don't have anything to hide, they shouldn't HAVE to hide.

Their argument has a dual undercurrent--both sides of which are equally flawed.

1) Their claim of nothing to hide literally screws anyone who deals with them because when you refuse to use digital security protocols or even basic tradecraft, that decision doesn't affect just you. It affects everyone who knows you. If five people are in a group and four of them use security but the fifth doesn't, well, they're all exposed. As you mentioned, their claim of not needing privacy equals "we don't think you should have privacy either," and in making that decision for others they're basically infringing on the privacy rights of others. In short, someone refusing to use security is literally denying others who deal with them the right to decide for themselves if THEY want privacy.

2) In many cases that I've seen, the nothing to hide argument ends up being a smokescreen for "I am too uninformed to understand HOW to implement these procedures and I am too lazy to learn." There's no excuse for that. Not when the lives of your fellow partisans will depend on your ability to help protect their information and movements.

Anonymous said...

Go Air Force !

Chiu ChunLing said...

Kit Perez,

I appreciate that perspective. I tend to assume that people who are in the liberty movement but say they don't need to hide anything belong to the ranks of those who actually are doing some things they want hidden and just not making that generally known to everyone that asks.

To them, I'll say, "training to use secure communications is important too (and it's a good way to explain why you are using privacy services even when you 'have nothing to hide';)."

Of course, when I really want to keep something hidden I'm leery of transmitting it through the custody of someone who's only using a privacy service for practice...then again, sometimes I do stuff just for practice myself.

pigpen51 said...

If you have nothing to hide, send me the numbers of any credit cards that you have in your wallet at the moment. crazy people.