Martin

@mshelton
2.3K Followers
497 Following
336 Posts

Security therapist. Deputy Director of Digital Security @freedomofpress. Journalism, digital security, research.

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Websitehttps://mshelt.onl/
freedom.presshttps://freedom.press/people/martin-shelton/
Digital security newsletterhttps://freedom.press/newsletters/
PronounsHe/him
I found this discussion with the @eff's executive director, Cindy Cohn, really inspiring. Whether fighting for free speech or against surveillance, underneath is a fight about optimism. What kind of Internet do WE want? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkC1aK7jfLo
Cindy Cohn - Fighting for Digital Human Rights in “Privacy’s Defender” | The Daily Show

YouTube

"It depends."

— Ancient Security Proverb

If you are a journalism instructor and want to get started teaching digital security for your students, we'd love to show you how. Sign up for our training for journalism educators. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdxFwfKJkj6zNlJTvVwev-w1HvMmuaXxqnulkDeivWcpxhsmw/viewform
Registration: FPF's J-school digital security training program

Register here for Freedom of the Press Foundation’s free, virtual training program designed to help you directly deliver critical content from our U.S. J-school digital security curriculum. Led by FPF’s digital security experts, the program offers a unique opportunity for professors to gain technical knowledge, practice digital security training techniques, and build a plan to directly equip your journalism students with an essential digital security foundation. Focusing on the curriculum’s digital security 101 module, we’ll cover topics including risk assessment, account and device safety, and internet and communications security. No prior digital security experience is required! The streamlined program will include four sessions tentatively taking place from 2:30pm to 5:00pm ET on July 28th, August 4th, August 11th, and August 18th, 2026. We’ll cap the program at 15 participants to ensure we can provide direct follow-up support to everyone, so register to lock in your spot! Questions about the program? Email us at [email protected].

Google Docs
🚨 Warning: New FAKE website offering FAKE KeePassXC downloads! Do not fall for it. The correct domain is https://keepassxc.org without hypens!
I'm a bit late to the game on this one. But I work with a lot of journalists who use CapCut for video editing and their terms of service says you are giving them an "unconditional, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully transferable (including sub-licensable), perpetual, worldwide license" to use your content and… I have to imagine most journalists are not aware of that. https://www.capcut.com/clause/terms-of-service
CapCut Terms of Service

I'm a bit late to the game on this one. But I work with a lot of journalists who use CapCut for video editing and their terms of service says you are giving them an "unconditional, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully transferable (including sub-licensable), perpetual, worldwide license" to use your content and… I have to imagine most journalists are not aware of that. https://www.capcut.com/clause/terms-of-service
CapCut Terms of Service

Just a reminder, when federal actors want cell site location information, they usually need a warrant. On the other hand, they simply purchase the data from commercially available services that don't require a warrant.

Come on. What are we doing here? https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/18/fbi-buying-data-track-people-patel-00834080

FBI is buying data that can be used to track people, Patel says

This is the first confirmation that the FBI has resumed actively buying people's data for investigations.

Politico
It takes engineering hours to remove a feature. Even if few people use it, why go out of your way to remove it? Meta’s hurting its users. And for what? https://www.theverge.com/tech/894752/instagram-end-to-end-encryption
Instagram is getting rid of end-to-end encrypted DMs that ‘very few’ people used

Starting on May 8th, Instagram will no longer offer end-to-end encrypted messages.

The Verge
Well I got all bent out of shape about Proton Mail. There are valid use cases for these tools but users should know what the service can and can't protect. https://freedom.press/digisec/blog/proton-mail-is-not-for-anonymity/
Proton Mail is not for anonymity

A recent story of a Proton Mail user unmasked for Swiss authorities highlights what the company can and can’t protect

Freedom of the Press
Signal's recent disclosure of how little it could share in response to a grand jury subpoena is pretty telling. Its defaults are very strong. But if you want to go further, we have a guide on really how to really maximize its privacy settings. https://freedom.press/digisec/blog/locking-down-signal/
Locking down Signal

Also available in Spanish.

Freedom of the Press