Handbook for anonymous

From Telecomix Crypto Munitions Bureau

You are not alone. Anyone needs to be anonymous. Please add your best tips and advice.

[edit] when?

The target of this project is to produce an easy to use, straight forward ~20 page booklet for the Book fair in Göteborg on 22 September.

[edit] why?

Distribution of power is the basis for democracy.
If you have the power to control who can know what you say and when you say it, nobody else has that power.
Priests, doctors, psychologists, lawyers and journalists all provide protection for individuals who have special needs in special situations. Anyone can end up with such a need.
Internet's node-to-node architecture allows for distributed services, which is a capability that is sorely under-utilized. This potential has not yet been fully explored. Use it before it disappears!
A real computer can do whatever you tell it to do, which means you can instruct your device or application to accompany all network requests with an indication that you do not wish to be tracked - the EU Commission even says that "Service providers need to react to such explicit requests"[1].
A democracy is only true if its members are accurately and fully informed of the problems the democracy was installed to solve.
The world needs internet systems under the control of the people and not just governments and corporations. This would help to lessen the divide between the upper class haves and the lower class have-nots.
The big questions are who owns the data, who controls access to that data, and who controls what can be done with that data?
In order for whistle-blowers to communicate without fear of being identified, anonymity is crucial. Whistle-blowers are critical to avoid corruption in any society. Whistleblowing is not a crime, it is symptom of and a logical reaction to corruption in any level of society.
The Federalist Papers arguing in support of US Constitution were written anonymously.
Amelie i Montmartre hjälpte en massa människor anonymt

[edit] videos answering the question

in Swedish: 1,
in English: 1,

[edit] how?

[edit] when connecting

change the MAC address of your wireless card every time before connecting.SMAC for Windows
use unregistered/anonymous prepaid SIM cards
use pre-paid cellphones and cellmodems, bought with cash
use public wifi hotspots Interactive wifi network map (and help others by opening up your own)
if you work someplace that offers public wifi, "forget" to turn off the access point when the store closes at night
compile a list of public proxy servers.
use proxychains to route your traffic through a number of different international jurisdictions.

[edit] when browsing

use many browsers and browser profiles, like one browser profile per purpose and one tunneling solution per profile
use a preconfigured i2p profile and another preconfigured for use of e.g. google services
use seeks nodes for search (e.g. search.telecomix.org)
use advertisement and tracking cookie blocking software to minimize the amount of data leaked by your browser.Ghostery Firefox Addon|Adblock Plus|NoScript Javascript Blocker Better Privacy Share Me Not
consider using Torbutton in each browser profile even if you don't use Tor because it helps to lock down Firefox's security settings by selectively deactivating aspects of JavaScript.
use only browsers which have a privacy mode (e.g. Incognito on Google Chrome; and Private Browsing in Mozilla Firefox and Safari).
use "HTTPS Everywhere", a plugin for firefox. Similar ones exist for other mainstream browsers. EFF.org https-everywhere FAQ
use Tails. [1] It is an attempt at directing all traffic through the Tor network, using a live CD on USB.

[edit] when mailing

Don't host your email "in the cloud" unencrypted. Even encrypted, you're revealing your contacts/people who have emailed you to a 3rd party that will potentially hand over that information to government authorities, or sell it, or lose it. If you're using webmail, Firefox has a plugin called FireGPG that could use some love but is apparently working for FF5 (I believe it is no longer being supported by the developers, and this could lead to security issues.)
Use pgp or gnupg (gpg)
Don't make the assumption of thinking your email is safe at any hosting provider. Even in western democratic countries, authorities can walk into datacenters and hook up mirroring devices that make bitwise copies of harddrives, and can legally do so without your knowledge. Whether or not they tell you, they will have your data. EFF details raid of indymedia servers

[edit] when networking

use different nicks at different sites
use different passwords.
- Governement might be able to retreive uncrypted passwords and do some analysis to match logins with same password.
identi.ca/statusnet
use anonymous url shorteners like http://zat.im or http://uleak.it

[edit] when installing

Download all software needed to a fresh inserted USB stick using some linux liveCD Image and then reinstall your favorite System without Network connection. (means plug off network cable, turn off WIFI)
Think about using Virtualisation software (Xen, Virtualbox, Vmware or another)
Think about crypting your data. Cloak it.
Use Local Firewall. Set up restrictive outgoing firewallrules - if paranoid turn on reporting to detect unknown Connection attempts! Think about using some OpenSource BSD Firewall between Router and your local network. Unwanted network outgoing traffic should be reported.
Install every tool and technique that hide and crypt your network trafic (see above)
install no commercial software, be restrictive with "Tools" and Helpers. Open source is not a label 4 security! It´s maybe manipulated and opens unknown backdoors.
After basic network setup (crypting, Tor, browserplugins and profiles) start testing your connectivity and build your new Web identies. Fire and Forget all your old nicks.

[edit] cloaking

Install a normal Windows without Security.
Set up jobs (better wget, Sitedownloader or greasemonkey with adblocker) generating "normal" traffic (newspapers, Products of interest)
Build a liveCD with your security setup and save better no files, even less to USB Sticks.

[edit] live distros

Distributions of Linux already exist that are built specifically to enhance security. Two suggestions:

[edit] links

[edit] fun

I Know You're Listening

[edit] references

[1] SPEECH/11/461 by Commissioner Neelie Kroes