Upon scanning the catalog I noticed that, while there is a little bit of discussion of lockpicking and physical security bypasses, there is not much talk in securing your identity as you traverse meatspace, so I have brought to you a slew of questions and propositions relating to exactly that.
The main goals of this thread are:
- Especially, to determine the most cost-effective, stealthy means of exterminating threats to your physical anonymity. This can range anywhere from the humble sling and slingshot, to spraypaint, to paintball and BB and water guns, to plastic bags and tape, to ropes and blunt objects, or even to cheap lasers or computer cracking.
- To determine the most efficient way to move from point A to point B while remaining unseen for a contiguous stretch of at least 20% of the journey. This is focused mainly on distances of less than a kilometer.
- To determine how to best conceal the originating point of your route in highly surveilled locations. This may involve wearing draped clothing like a cloak, dipping in and out of backyards, entering a crowded spot from a surveilled point and exiting at a less surveilled point, or just taking as long and roundabout of a route as possible to make it difficult to follow you back in time- etc.
Let us use the United States as a prime example of the prominence of surveillance cameras.
According to this article from The Verge[0], there is one camera for every 4,6 people in the United States, amounting to 70.000.000 cameras.
There are 330.000.000 people in the USA, of which ~270.000.000 have 15+ years of age. If as many as 1 in every 500 of those people were displeased enough to destroy those cameras, each one would have to destroy 207 cameras in order to eliminate them all. While this does not seem infeasible (a fun weekend project, at most), given that the French managed to rile up enough people to destroy 60% of all speed cameras in their country with ease[1], it is likely that the ratio of annoyed citizens to panopticon devices is much more fortunate than 1/500.
If any movement towards a systematic destruction of the surveillance state is to be accomplished, there is one barrier remaining- widespread knowledge of proper OPSEC and effective stragies.
That is to say, when an individual comes to the conclusion that they ought to do something about this problem, they are forced to individually think through the details of moving about the world without being traced, to anonymously obtain the clothing and basic items necessary to do the deed, to avoid leaking timing information (i.e. you are the only person who purchased spraypaint in this local region during the past week), to understand the ramifications of digital surveillance (don't carry your phone!), to understand secrecy (it's not a secret if you tell somebody), to properly compartmentalize, to start at a random location unrelated to themselves, to have situational awareness, and other extremely basic concepts that they are likely to be completely clueless about.
An idiot-proof guide ought to be constructed that contains strategies for exterminating surveillance cameras and just general OPSEC tips, that is simple enough for the lowest common denominator to comprehend and follow. It should be short and to the point, containing only tips that guarantee an increase in safety when followed.
It would also be useful to gather some intel on surveillance camera companies. Finding what the most common models are and their physical constraints and capabilities, as well as which companies or entities control the infrastructure where their footage is streaming to- in many places, a significant fraction of these cameras upload their footage to company servers, which can be exfiltrated by agencies via legal means very easily.
Some generic advice I can think of off the top of my head:
Wear gloves.
Wipe fingerprints off of any item you carry.
Do not carry any electronic device that has embedded wireless capabilities, like your phone. Not even if it's "off".
Do not tell anybody about anything you're doing, except those who you are doing it with.
Do not collaborate with more than 7 other people at the absolute maximum.
Ensure that no one does anything without everbody else coming to a conensus on precisely who will do it and how.
Do not talk to the police. Talking to the police can only harm you. Ask for a lawyer and zip it. (advice for Americans only)
Never assume that authorities are too lazy to pursue you. Instead assume that all of their focus is on you alone.
Do not keep records. If any papers are produced with incriminating information on them, burn them.
Meet in person with any collaborators, and distribute propaganda in paper leaflets.
To enter a surveilled space anonymously, first enter a sizable stretch of non-surveilled space carrying different clothing (shoes, dark pants, dark hood, dark mask, sunglasses, ideally a cloak), and use them to approach a more surveilled space.
Be mindful of making uncommon purchases with your real identity. If your face or name can be connected to a purchase of some uncommon item, and that item is soon used in a crime, you will be traced.
'Public key cryptography', 'threat modeling', 'defense in depth'. If you do not recognize the concepts behind these words, avoid using the Internet for anything sensitive. When your life or freedom is at stake, attempting to wield a tool that you do not understand will only harm you.
[0] -
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/9/21002515/surveillance-cameras-globally-us-china-amount-citizens[1] -
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46822472