In the current era most digital activism is surveilled, we need to understand better the balance between open and closed security. If you’re doing anything politically sensitive or “#spiky,” the safest option is to organize offline. As government analysts, corporate spies, and bad actors easily map connections inside the #dotcons and gather intel through the #openweb.
The challenge is that, while secure communication tools exist, relying on them requires an almost impossible level of tech literacy and trust. Maybe 0.001% of people can confidently lock down their systems, but the remaining 99.99% can’t, or won’t. And even for the most tech-savvy, there’s always the risk of compromised firmware, backdoors, or other people error.
Historically, the danger isn’t just theoretical. Police spies have infiltrated activist circles for decades, as detailed in resources like Police Spies Out of Lives. Activists who relied on #closedsecurity were often devastated when trusted comrades turned out to be state agents, the real-world equivalent of someone copying and pasting your encrypted chat to their handlers. This is not a small problem, for every state spy, there are likely ten corporate and private agency spies, each with their own motivations.
Understandin this for our safty we need to clearly say that from a social point of view the #geekproblem path to perfect privacy is an dangerous illusion. So where does that leave us? The truth, there’s no hard tech fix to te needed human social networking. Yes, tools can help, but social solutions are much more vital. If you are on the #fluffy path or only on the edge of #spiky, working openly and embracing the #4opens model can mitigate harm by removing secrecy as a vulnerability. If there are few secrets to steal, spies lose much of their power.
At the same time, digital skills are essential. People, especially current generations, are organizing online, and the line between online and offline is non-existent to them. Telling them to “just organize offline” will likely get you a dismissive “OK boomer” in response. But just with the police spy history, there will be a cost to people who dismiss this history, we do need to understand better both the possibilities and the risks.
The goal, then, isn’t to choose between open or closed security, but to build a hybrid path. Use the #openweb to find each other and share public information, to become the media. Use secure tools for truly private discussions, but with the awareness that no tool is socially foolproof. But then, most importantly, build strong social bonds and resilient offline communities, because, in the end, trust is the only real valuable security layer we have.
Let’s embrace the mess, not try to block it, recognize the dangers, and navigate this landscape with care #KISS
#openweb #4opens #security #privacy #activism #digitalresilience #OMN
