In a world of increasing technology use as well as censorship and surveillance, it’s critical to learn about beefing up our cybersecurity and what digital safety can look like through an anti-oppressive lens. Below you’ll find resources for the following:
- Tips to Get You Started
- Basic Tools and Techniques To Know
- Resources for Organizations
- Know Your Rights
- Assorted Security Guides
- If You Get Doxxed and/or Harassed
- If You’re Experiencing Domestic Violence
- Technology Safety While Protesting
Tips to Get You Started:
- Cover your laptop and phone cameras when not in use with a sticker, a piece of paper or a specially designed product.
- Delete/uninstall apps you aren’t using regularly.
- Photos taken on a mobile device often have a lot of information attached to them, including the location of the photo. While there are tools available to remove information from photos, the easiest way to do so is to take a screenshot of the photo.
- Turn off automatic geotagging of photos on Android and iPhone/iPad.
- Use a password manager to generate and keep track of unique complex passwords for every site you have a login to.
- Know when your passwords have been breached. You can sign up for a free service from the makers of Firefox to get e-mailed, or you can manually look up breaches associated with an email address.
- Protect your personal data. A User’s Guide: 10 Ways to Protect Your Personal Data
- If you use a digital assistant (Google, Alexa, etc) delete the recorded conversations regularly.
- A great bite-sized, interactive, easy-to-follow guide that walks you step-by-step through securing your online presence is COACH – Crash Override’s Automated Cybersecurity Helper.
- Prevent online harassment before it starts by following the free 16-step Digital Hygiene Course. There’s also an infographic to help figure out which step to focus on first.
Basic Tools and Techniques To Know:
- LastPass and 1Password are password management systems where everything is stored in a centralized place owned by the companies. Firefox Lockwise is an open source password manager with passwords stored in a free Firefox account.
- KeePass is open source technology that allows anyone to take their passwords with them instead of a company storing them for you.
- Cryptpad allows private, encrypted online documents for collaborating and sharing. Only those with the keys can see the documents (not even Cryptpad can see the documents).
- Messaging and calling apps:
- Signal (messaging and 1-on-1 calls) has strong encryption, it’s free, it works on every mobile platform, no ads or tracking. Also contains a face-blurring tool.
- Wire (group phone calls up to 10 people)
- Threema (text/voice chats, 1:1 and groups). Only chat and group members know who’s in the chat, not even the company knows due to decentralization and end-to-end encryption.
- Or check out this flowchart to get the chat/conferencing tool you need.
- Use a VPN (virtual private network) for some security and privacy, especially if connecting on a guest/unsecured network. Use one on your phone, tablet, and laptop. Companies like Windscribe and NordVPN often come up on information security threads for VPN suggestions on Twitter.
- The Smart Girl’s Guide To Privacy, by Violet Blue.
- How to secure your email using a PGP key
- How to securely delete files on MacOS, Windows and Linux.
Resources for Organizations:
- Developing an Anti-Online Harassment Infrastructure to build preventative, reactive and supportive processes for staff and volunteers who experience online harassment.
- Last-minute GDPR checklist – Make sure you are compliant with EU laws for your donors, volunteers and employees.
- Safety Net Project – has a summit, a resource library and several trainings on digital security.
- https://hackinghustling.org/blog/ is a collective of sex workers who work at the intersection of technology and digital rights and social justice. They have a blog as well as several trainings both on and off line.
Know Your Rights:
- Know your rights if the police want to search your devices, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
- Know your rights regarding online harassment – what to know about involving lawyers, police and making a legal case
Assorted Security Guides:
- Guía de Seguridad Digital para Feministas Autogestivas
- Eine DIY Anleitung für feministische Cybersicherheit
- Cheat Sheet for the DIY Guide to Feminist Cybersecurity
- Video: How to Protect Yourself Online Digital Safety Tools & Strategies Against Abuse
- Social Media Safety Guides – specific guides for each platform
- Cibertransfeminismxs, Autodefensa y Cuidados Digitales Colectivxs
- Coridefensa Digital para nuestras comunidades LGBTTQIAP+, trabajadoras sexuales y sobrevivientes
- Technology Safety & Privacy: A toolkit for survivors
- Basic Security Precautions for non-profits and journalists – includes widely applicable travel precautions.
- Cassandra Perry’s “Playing It Safe(r)” guide – includes ways to make physical items such as phones safer, as well as making internet use and content creation safer
- Tactical Tech‘s Security In A Box is a super comprehensive guide covering basic principles, step-by-step instructions to help you get and use essential digital security software and services, and more
- Tactical Tech’s The Holistic Security Manual
- Send {Safer} Nudes zine by Coding Rights, a think-tank led by Brazilian women
- Surveillance Self-Defense: TIPS, TOOLS AND HOW-TOS FOR SAFER ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS by the Electronic Freedom Foundation
- DIY Online Security Guide for Every Woman
- Locking Down Your Digital Identity by FemTechNet
- The Mega-Spreadsheet of Resources by FemTechNet
If You Get Doxxed and/or Harassed:
- So You’ve Been Doxxed – a guide on what to do next. Practical tips for figuring out what to do, how to react and the risk to you of the harassment/doxxing.
- Speak Up & Stay Safe(r): – A Guide to Protecting Yourself From Online Harassment. Contains tips for how to limit what others can find out about you.
- صوتك عالٍ و أمنك محفوظ: دليلك الشخصي للحماية ضد التحرش على الإنترنت
- Alza la voz y ten cuidado: Guía para autoprotegerte del acoso online
- Equality Labs has an Anti-Doxxing Guide for Activists Facing Attacks, which includes how to secure your mobile devices and network, how to keep an incident response log, how to find out what others can discover about you and how to opt out of public records.
- How to report nude images posted without consent to the major technology platforms, and what to expect.
- Video: Harm Reduction: Doxxing Prevention Training and Resources
- Bad Ass Army – nonprofit dedicated to providing support to victims of revenge porn/image abuse, and eradicating the practice through education, advocacy, and legislation.
- Tech Without Violence, resources to help prevent, respond to and support individuals experiencing online gender-based violence or harassment—known as cyberviolence.
If You’re Experiencing Domestic Violence:
- DIY Cybersecurity for Domestic Violence – a compilation of articles on what do with different cyber stalking or harassment situations.
- Technology Safety & Privacy: A Toolkit for Survivors – a toolkit that contains safety tips, information, and privacy strategies for survivors on the use of technology.
- Cyber Safety for Survivors of Domestic Violence
Technology Safety While Protesting:
- The Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) has a guide to digital protection before, during and after protests and a corresponding pocket guide.
- How to hide faces and scrub metadata when you photograph a protest
- CV Dazzle – used as camouflage from face-detection technology
Acknowledgements:
Header image by geralt / 21919 from Pixabay.
And thank you to Sheeri Kritzer Cabral for her invaluable help in organizing and beefing this resource list up.