Harm Reduction Tech Security

Link to pdf on this site: Harm_Reduction__Tech_Security__Post_SESTA_1_

Link to pdf on Survivors Against SESTA

Wording from pdf inline:

Harm Reduction Tech Security: Post SESTA

There is a lot of fear and unknown now that SESTA has been passed. We’d like to share some tech harm reduction steps we’ve taken to protect ourselves and minimize risk. Remember to always do what is best for you.
Security is going to look different for different people. Ask yourself, is this sufficiently private and
secure for my purposes? There is no such thing as being private or totally secure on the web, but building
up layers of protection makes it more difficult for someone to breach your privacy.
A longer document here is the result of an open collaboration between tech savvy folks and serves as a fairly comprehensive list of tech and security resources. This is not a 100% vetted document, and Terms of Service change often so please use this as a starting guide to do your own research.
Plan an afternoon by yourself or with community members or with yourself and see what tech best practices works for you!Security is only as good as your weakest link. Encourage everyone you communicate with to take security steps as well.
  1. BACK UP
    • Download backups of e-mails, google drive, websites, twitter, instagram, Fetlife…etc. Take screenshots of websites as well in case something happens.
    • Emailing these backups to a free encrypted mail is a potential free storage solution for smaller backups.
    • Make an encrypted email, encourage anyone you communicate with to to do the same because emails can only be end-to-end encrypted if everyone you’re communicating with also has an encrypted email service!
    • Use different emails for ad, social media, and financial technologies/payment providers. Using different emails for different parts of your life can reduce the probability of getting banned from platforms.
    • Burner phone number + signal = anonymous and encrypted text and voice.
    • Step up your phone security in general: turn off thumbprint access for logging in, set along passcode, turn off location tracking on all apps.
    • Set Signal on auto-delete, make sure you talk to everyone on Signal (or a similar end-to-end encrypted messaging app)
    • If you are able to have two seperate phones, consider it.
    • Because platforms are censoring and shadowbanning people based on keywords or content, some people are rebranding to profiles such as consultant, teacher, guide, artist, media distributor, influencer, etc.
    • Some people are removing “problematic language” from their sites/social media.
    • If you have the $$ and a website, consider hosting offshore because websites hosted on sites such as Squarespace and Wix might get taken down.
Nothing is better security than a strong community. Meeting in person to tackle these security tasks together can often make it less daunting. Meeting in person is also great for discussing any info that’s sensitive or that you’re worried about. Having multiple forms of contact for your community as well as in person connections can be really helpful if you lose access to your online communications.