Colorado Springs Anti-FascistsMar 6

A lot of people talking about dumping Proton right now are misunderstanding what actually happened.

Feds were able to coerce the Swiss government to coerce Proton to hand over whatever data they had on an anonymous Stop Cop City email address, that was being investigated for terrorism.

That metadata included credit card details information for the account, which is very difficult to anonymize.

Proton offers cash payments to work around this obvious security flaw.

If you must pay for a Proton account for a radical project, pay with cash (you can mail it) or washed crypto (Monero -> Bitcoin).

All credit card payments are traceable, even to a privacy-focused company.

Your security model should not rely on a business to fight the state on your behalf.

Your email or VPN provider is not going to risk prison time for your $5/mo. It's just not going to happen, at least for anything commercial. Tuta and every other email privacy-focused email company will comply with court orders.

Trying to find the perfect email provider is a fool's errand. It doesn't exist.

You can however anonymize your useage of privacy friendly services like Proton, Tuta, or Mailbox by not entering your credit card number, phone number, name, personal email, or IP to that account.

Show threadKnut 🏳️‍🌈 🇳🇴🧸Mar 7
@COSAntiFascists Proton isn't $5/mo. I paid almost $200/yr for the luxury have having private e-mail. I don't really care if they know who I am. I just don't want them in my business that is nunya theirs. I'm a actually a very private person. Being totally anonymous is a fool's errand. I suppose you could use a pre-paid Visa card from Walmart though...
Show threadLukefromDCMar 7
@praetor @COSAntiFascists Don't stand directly in front of the register at the self-pay while paying that cash, or Wal-Mart will have a good photo of your face tied to that transaction. Stand to the side of the register about shoulder width "downstream" of the scanners.
Show threadKnut 🏳️‍🌈 🇳🇴🧸Mar 7
@LukefromDC @COSAntiFascists Walmart Money Center. They serve the underbanked. I once knew a guy who had been to federal prison who said you can find everything you need to commit a crime at Walmart. Probably not the best criminal if he got caught...but...I can see the premise. Burner phones, cash cards, etc.
Show threadLukefromDCMar 7

@praetor @COSAntiFascists and guns too for that matter.

A bank robber could buy a gun,ammo, a ski mask, a bike, and a prepaid phone all at once at Wal-Mart. That combination of items all bought at once at the same Wal-Mart then seen on the bank's own security cameras would probably get them identified almost instantly though.

The gun sale would involve ID, and that would be enough to prove the identity by photo comparison on all the other purchases even though guns are handled separately at teh sporting goods counter.

A killer who used an iron pry bar was once identified by a UPC sticker left on that tool. It was a brand sold at Home Depot, and cops took that sticker to all nearby Home Depots. Home Depot shoots a photo of whatever is in front of the register (don't let it be your face) with every item scanned. All photos taken when this item was scanned were examined and from them the killer was caught.

Remember this could just as easily have been for "killing" a bulldozer at a pipeline site as for a murder!

Show threadKnut 🏳️‍🌈 🇳🇴🧸
@LukefromDC @COSAntiFascists Wow! By a UPC alone?! That's kinda scary actually.
Mar 7 at 9:31pmWeb
Show threadLukefromDCMar 7
@praetor @COSAntiFascists Never underestimate your enemies
Show threadKnut 🏳️‍🌈 🇳🇴🧸Mar 7
@LukefromDC @COSAntiFascists It's a mixed bag for me. I'm not a criminal. I'm too damned boring. But, i am notoriously private. And I don't necessarily consider the state the enemy. I consider the state a flawed invention of a flawed species. I exist, you exist, people in federal prison exist. It's hard to not exist. But what you do while your existing is nobody's fucking business.
Show threadAlatheaMar 7
@praetor @LukefromDC @COSAntiFascists "I'm not a criminal" babe you aren't the one who's deciding that.
Show threadKnut 🏳️‍🌈 🇳🇴🧸Mar 7
@Poljack @LukefromDC @COSAntiFascists That's probably true. I'm on a list. I just know it. I'm too grumpy to not be.