With #IDP13 around the corner I want to discuss privacy and safety at protests.

     I'm not a hacker. I can't really help you too much with securing your identity online, but privacy is important in the physical world too especially during protests. We have an out of control police state that will actively try to identify peaceful protesters and will then classify them as terrorists. They will send that information out to all policing and surveillance agencies- this happened with occupy basically nation wide, and it likely happened to me personally at occupy Boston (before I blackbloced).

     Blackbloc is the same principle as Anonymous but applied to the physical world. You remove your identity from your actions which allows you to act and speak freely without fear of direct reprisal. We have the right not to give police and our government our IDs- we in fact have the same right to privacy in the real world that we do online. Police use all sorts of technology to identify protesters at events but it is your right- and a damn good idea- to foil them as best you can.

     We can protect ourselves and one another when we take action in public by blackblocing. Blackbloc is the simplest means of protection for all. Anyone can participate and it costs very little. Blackbloc isn't a group, an ideology, nor does it mean violence it is a tactic and nothing else. Blackbloc means dressing head to toe in black (including wearing a black bandana to obscure your face). Blackbloc hides your identity, and when a whole group is in blackbloc together they become difficult to distinguish from one another. It makes targeted tactics (such as the Oakland PD's targeted grabs- when they run into a crown and arrest a streamer or other high value target) difficult.

     When we blackbloc together we are a collective and we can protect ourselves and the people around us effectively while limiting the amount of personal reprisals that we face. In Chicago the NATO summit the Chicago PD have raided protesters homes before the event even started- this is the kind of reprisal that we seek to deter by engaging in BlackBloc and denying the police our identities. Doing BlackBloc together protects all of us because the more of us that there are the less likely any of us are to be identified.

     BlackBloc does not mean violence- this is a common misconception. BlackBloc can be used by anyone in any group including both nonviolent or violent groups. I advocate for nonviolent use of BlackBloc to protect those who are actively engaging in protest.

     I suggest that everyone uses BlackBloc when they engage in any sort of political activism- there are cameras everywhere and this is the police state. Protecting your identity and staying off of the Police radar is very key to your effectiveness in protesting for long term change. We should be prepared to continue our efforts for the long-term because change doesn't happen rapidly and if we are to be the agent of change we must be ready to play the long game.

Protect yourself and each other.
KT

  The world changed rapidly after 9/11 and we are living out the consequences of giving up our civil liberties. Privacy is integral to freedom and breaching privacy is key to removing freedom. International Day of Privacy 2013 on Feb 23 is our way of exercising the rights we used to have.

     Directly post 9/11 The Patriot Act passed into law breaking many different aspects of citizens rights and amongst the rights lost was privacy while using electronics. The Patriot Act allows the government to run dragnet surveillance of all electronic communication under the guise of searching for terrorist threats without warrants. This was followed up by the NDAA which removed the right to due process, and allows the US military to run active missions on American soil.

     Here- as it is everywhere- we are surrounded by CCTV cameras constantly, and here the government has been caught using a system called Trapwire. Trapwire is a program that scans through all the vast collected CCTV camera data to find... well anything you ask it to. The result is you can easily be tracked, monitored, and you are almost always being recorded. Again the excuse for such a program is that it finds potential terrorists. Not content with the already pervasive network of cameras at their disposal our government has cleared the way (and in some places is already using) drones to police citizens.

     The advent of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Transit Safety Authority (TSA) is the advent of the police state. TSA is part of DHS and both are justified by the war on terror. The TSA is an expanding office which restricts the movements of citizens (they maintain secret “no fly lists” for example) and at this point you must be searched, radiated, and fondled to travel by plane. The TSA is currently spreading out to include rail systems and roadside checks as well. DHS is the tarp under which all of the domestic surveillance and control programs are run. They maintain the databases that are used to track everyone, and they have retrofitted our police into a military to enforce their control (look at the over policing and labeling of occupy as terrorists). DHS, through its “fusion centers” has gone so far as to issue decrees that classify everyone as a “potential terrorist” which makes them fair game to be monitored. DHS has also instigated a snitching system for civilians to turn each other in (“see something say something”, and infraguard).

     The grand total of post 9/11 DHS run America is this: We are a police state. We are under soft martial law. We are being monitored and tracked. Our government has canceled all of our rights- especially our right to privacy.