This is a check list of security actions you can take to keep yourself and our community safer. It is prioritized based on community safety. For more context see our full guide.
Messaging Security
Text and other messaging platforms are insecure. Most companies store lots of data, it’s easy for authorities to capture this information.
| Download and set up Signal (5 minute) | Signal is run by a non-profit and stores the least amount of data with the highest amount of encryption. It’s free and supports text, video and voice. |
| Message someone on Signal (1 minute) | Using the product increases comfort |
| Get someone else on Signal (10 minutes) | Convince someone else to use Signal who isn’t, help them if needed and message each other |
| Normalize using Signal (ongoing) | Try and use Signal for more and more communication. Help make it the main form of communication of any groups or organizations you’re apart of. |
Email and Cloud Awareness
Communicating on most email platforms is not private. Companies like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL can read your emails and share them with the authorities.
| Don’t email anything sensitive (ongoing) | Assume your email is being read. Don’t email anything sensitive, especially if it is about any groups or people under threat |
| Don’t store anything sensitive on the cloud (ongoing) | Google, Microsoft and Apple have all shown they will share their data if asked. Have a conservative view of sensitive information and don’t store anything on the cloud. |
Devices and Security
Our devices are bright spotlights of insecurity and surveillance. If someone has access to our devices, they can access nearly our whole lives. We are tracked across websites and applications.
| Turn off biometric unlocking (2 minutes) | Turn off the ability to unlock your devices with your faces of fingerprints. This prevents someone from unlocking your phone without your explicit permission |
| Use passcode with auto delete trigger (2 minutes) | Use an six to eight digit passcode to unlock your phone, setting it to auto disable after ten failed attempts (warn family about this so they don’t accidentally trigger it) |
| Use a password manager (5 minute setup, ongoing) | Use a password manager with all websites. Your password manager password should be strong, long, and hard to guess. Lesspass is, free, opensource and inherently secure. Here’s a list of others. |
| Turn off location sharing by default (5 minutes) | Almost no applications need to be able to always access your location. Turn off location sharing by default, don’t let apps like Maps always use your location. Make websites ask you to share your location. |
Social Media
Corporate social media companies like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok X/Twitter all track you across the web and other applications, etc. They store huge amounts of information about you and will happily share it with authorities.
| Turn off location sharing with social media applications. (2 minutes) | Turn off location sharing with social media always. |
| Be aware of your posts (ongoing) | Don’t post sensitive things, especially about others. Social media companies can and will share lists of people with authorities. Don’t out other people. |
| Don’t post about meetings (ongoing) | If you’re part of organizing or helping others, don’t post about meetings. Don’t post photos even if they look benign. |
| Decrease social media time (ongoing) | Corporate social media has shown to increase anxiety and depression, decrease feeling of community, foster addictive tendencies, hurt our health, etc. Minimize your time with corporate social media. Imagine not using it. |