If you are living in a country that is not save and free from politically motivated prosecution or other dangerous pursuits, all activities, messages and so on, that are critical of that country could be seen as dangerous to said system and therefore illegal. So making them public puts you in great danger. By “public” I don’t mean publicly available, but readable for state actors.
If you are living in a currently safe system, the internet does not forget things. So when it flips to an unsafe country, all your previously save thoughts, messages and so on are now illegal and are already out in the net. That puts you in great danger if you ever in your past had interactions which are now seen as illegal. And you can never know which topics could be illegal or dangerous by then.
Another example would be traveling to unsafe states that you were ever critical of.
All of those (and possibly more) scenarios are dangerous for you as the actor, but for any family member of yours in the future (or past) as well.
So would it not always be in your interest to hide as much as possible, not just depending on your current situation or the assumed threat level? I have a hard time wrapping my head around statements like securing oneself depending on one’s threat level.
Was wondering about that stuff too! I don’t live in my (safe) county of origin, but my VPN provider is from there (and I’m like 80℅ sure that provider is a CIA front, but anyway) and it’s the only country I ever got arrested once or twice, where they have a file about me and whatnot.
Whenever I visit, I immediately get phone calls and letters about some kind of “military tax” that I never paid. Takes like them like 30 minutes to understand that I’m aware and don’t plan to pay anything, even tho I actually need to and will land in military prison!!! (for an afternoon lol, sure pick me up, waiting, will be here all week).
Then I also don’t seriously care about hiding anything from the country where I actually live, yet I do it all the time and insist on “anonymity” when e.g. defending that countries policies online or simply share my love for that country.
Am I stupid for using that VPN provider? Probably, but I just want my Apple Music to be streamed lossless, which only works with that VPN.
In the end I think my biggest stupidity was to start to believe that I even have something like a treat model, or that its worth to invest 2 afternoons only so creep JS cannot remember me anymore, wow, what a success! 🙄
Uh, sorry for the ramblings, it’s holiday and I already had a beer. If you actually do have a treat model of any kind – take care, stay safe, and never ever put your safety into anything from 🇨🇭
What you’re doing is saying, “What if things get worse?” To which I say, “What if they get better?”
Saying “it is possible, so it is therefore likely” is an appeal to probability, a logical fallacy; we don’t know what the future holds, and so while you might win in terms of privacy with either outcome, there’s always a tradeoff between security and useability. Additionally, few enjoy living in a state of constant paranoia.
Some people can be reasonably certain that being targeted by the government(s) is a low threat. Others cannot. That’s why threat models should be assessed on an individual basis. Are you white, cis, and male? Probably a low priority target overall. Do you engage in piracy? High priority for ultracapitalists but low for religiously motivated actors, so what kind of government do you have?
In every case, you will be giving up something, like the ability to connect with as many people, the ability to use networks without obfuscation, the ability to go out in public without a disguise, etc. It’s everyone’s right to have privacy, but not everyone is required to exercise that right in the same way.
The best we can hope for is that everyone is able to make informed decisions, so they can decide if they want to accept certain risks and aren’t surprised should negative consequences befall them.
I think there’s a balance, in that if everybody suppressed that speech and refused to take that risk of criticising then those corrupt and powerful state actors would be unchallenged.
They can then become even more powerful and may continue to encroach into private life and speech. While it may be necessary to defend yourself on the one hand, hiding entirely may also present additional dangers.
