How can one stay fully anonymous in an age of mass surveillance?

[noname223]

There was a report in the NYT that the Israelis and US services were very close to getting Yahya Sinwar the current leader of Hamas. The US and Israeli intelligence services are the best in the world I wonder how they have not caught him yet.

In the article it says that Sinwar has stopped using electronical devices to communicate which is very interesting. They work with humans as messengers while staying most of the time in the extremely complicated tunnels in the underground. But sometimes for health reasons he has to leave the tunnels. Sending and receiving messenges can take several days.

Well the question in the title is slightly different. But the story gives some clues.

Not using modern technologies. And living not on the surface of the earth. (satellites)
Lol.

I think for people who post on SaSu it is already too late anyway.

 

[AbusedInnocent]

It's pretty tough but the tools are available, depends on your threat model though.

Tails and whonix OS are privacy focused with no unnecessary or closed-source software.

Tor, I2P and VPNs are useful to hide your IP.

Libreboot exists if you don't trust your computer's firmware as well.

You also have access to all the cryptographic standards in existence that can be impossible to brute-force.

Even if the feds/glowies are after you these tools could probably keep you anonymous.

 

[SpamMusubi]

idk but here's a start, avoid posting in threads like this one
Birth-date collector

 

[Agon321]

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I don't think complete anonymity is possible these days.
Privacy and anonymity are the art of compromise.

Interestingly, looking like everyone else may be the best way to stay anonymous.

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

Idk I guess if you're "lucky" you could be one of those kids who never got a birth certificate or social security number or some other identification system and then when you're grown up you simply retreat to some remote area and live off the land.

 

[moonoverthesea]

I know it may be a bit of a hard book, but I think Edward Snowden's autobiography (Permanent Record) does a really good job addressing this issue, from the pov of someone who loved the old free internet and had access to pretty much any personal information available online.

Someone else already gave you a list of really good tools, but I'd also warn you about stuff like fingerprinting - being too weird makes you unique and thus identifiable.

I think that in order to truly be anonymous rn you must be, pretty much, a software security engineer, and even then it's really hard to keep your data off the internet; for example, I remember that there was a bit of a scandal about some apps importing any new user's contact list (aka, if you were in their contact list your info would end up in some server, even if you never visited the server yourself. This might have gotten better with some privacy laws).


Personally I think the best way to find a balance is to use the tools you've been already provided and use common sense (looking at all the teen nowadays, having their Instagram profile tag be "name.surname" with their age and city in the bio....). Also, sign up petitions / be vocal about horrible laws like EU's Chat Control 2.0 and any other attempt to undermine cryptography.
Everything else is unavoidable.


Edit: oh, also, start avoiding any site that's there to collect your data - Meta, Alphabet, Reddit... Most of the mainstream internet basically. Switch to self-hostinf wherever possible. Ditch Android/Apple and go to a de-googled OS such as Graphene. Predictably, it's pretty hard.

 

[Agon321]

I know it may be a bit of a hard book, but I think Edward Snowden's autobiography (Permanent Record) does a really good job addressing this issue, from the pov of someone who loved the old free internet and had access to pretty much any personal information available online.

Someone else already gave you a list of really good tools, but I'd also warn you about stuff like fingerprinting - being too weird makes you unique and thus identifiable.

I think that in order to truly be anonymous rn you must be, pretty much, a software security engineer, and even then it's really hard to keep your data off the internet; for example, I remember that there was a bit of a scandal about some apps importing any new user's contact list (aka, if you were in their contact list your info would end up in some server, even if you never visited the server yourself. This might have gotten better with some privacy laws).


Personally I think the best way to find a balance is to use the tools you've been already provided and use common sense (looking at all the teen nowadays, having their Instagram profile tag be "name.surname" with their age and city in the bio....). Also, sign up petitions / be vocal about horrible laws like EU's Chat Control 2.0 and any other attempt to undermine cryptography.
Everything else is unavoidable.


Edit: oh, also, start avoiding any site that's there to collect your data - Meta, Alphabet, Reddit... Most of the mainstream internet basically. Switch to self-hostinf wherever possible. Ditch Android/Apple and go to a de-googled OS such as Graphene. Predictably, it's pretty hard.

In general, fingerprints on the Internet are an interesting topic.
For example, the more browser extensions you have, the more unique and stand out you are.
Sometimes, more is not better.

The problem is that in today's world, taking care of privacy is a difficult battle.
If someone does not have a lot of time, it will be difficult for them to control privacy.

People also got used to the fact that something works out of the box and always has to work.
For example, Linux is already a very good system these days (even in games), but it is still not a system for everyone.
Also, the multitude of Linux distributions, which is one of the greatest advantages of this system, may not necessarily be an advantage for the average person. Such a person will simply feel overwhelmed.

The most important thing is to take small steps.
The fewer corporations in our lives, the better.
The less power our country's government has, the better.
Unfortunately, we are going in the completely opposite direction.

It is not always possible to maintain complete privacy and anonymity.
Not everyone has to become a hermit who lives in a cave.
But it is worth having at least basic awareness.

 

[moonoverthesea]

In general, fingerprints on the Internet are an interesting topic.
For example, the more browser extensions you have, the more unique and stand out you are.
Sometimes, more is not better.

The problem is that in today's world, taking care of privacy is a difficult battle.
If someone does not have a lot of time, it will be difficult for them to control privacy.

People also got used to the fact that something works out of the box and always has to work.
For example, Linux is already a very good system these days (even in games), but it is still not a system for everyone.
Also, the multitude of Linux distributions, which is one of the greatest advantages of this system, may not necessarily be an advantage for the average person. Such a person will simply feel overwhelmed.

The most important thing is to take small steps.
The fewer corporations in our lives, the better.
The less power our country's government has, the better.
Unfortunately, we are going in the completely opposite direction.

It is not always possible to maintain complete privacy and anonymity.
Not everyone has to become a hermit who lives in a cave.
But it is worth having at least basic awareness.

Hard agree on everything!

As a note, Linux is not only less user-friendly than Windows; it's incredibly less supported, which makes it more than a simple "I'll learn!" problem. If you want a good, powerful Linux pc, well, good luck finding hardware that truly supports it.

 

[Pachuri]

How? With great difficulty, though it certainly is possible.
In my opinion it's much more practical to minimize your presence and hide through obscurity. Don't give anyone a reason to look at you in the first place and hide in the noise generated by everyone else.
If you are doing something that brings attention, the most important rule is Don't Fuck It Up!

 

[Plentiful_Despair]

You can't, at least not while using any technology connected to the internet or satellites.

 

[HarryCobean]

It's basically impossible, and this by itself is a very strong argument in favour of CTB.