As you may be aware, Americans' electronic communications (including telephone, e-mail, and Internet usage) are the target of pervasive, warrantless surveillance by our own government. This is no paranoid fantasy. NSA whistleblower William Binney, the former technical director of the Agency's 6,000-person World Geopolitical Military Analysis group, recently told Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman that he believes the U.S. Government has copies (https://www.democracynow.org/2012/4/20/whistleblower_the_nsa_is_lying_us) of most e-mails sent and received by people in the United States. Phone conversations and Internet traffic are also being collected on a massive scale.
What this means is that if you have ever communicated with AntiPolygraph.org or me personally by e-mail, text- or voice chat, phone or SMS, or even just visited this website (as you are doing now), the U.S. Government likely has a record of it.
To communicate electronically with AntiPolygraph.org securely, you must use encryption. An easy way to do this is to create a free e-mail account with ProtonMail (https://protonmail.com), a free service (with a paid tier) based in Switzerland. ProtonMail encrypts messages between users on your own device and stores mail in encrypted format on its servers such that the admins cannot read it. AntiPolygraph.org's ProtonMail address is antipolygraph.org@protonmail.com.
As you see in my signature block, I'm reachable through a variety of encrypted messaging apps, including Signal Private Messenger, Wire, and WhatsApp.
Bear in mind that privacy (through encryption) does not guarantee anonymity. Even when e-mails, text, voice and video chats are encrypted, it may still possible to see who is communicating with whom. If you wish to communicate with AntiPolygraph.org anonymously, then I suggest using an encrypted proxy such as Tor (https://www.torproject.org/). The Tails (https://tails.boum.org/) live CD/USB, discussed here (https://antipolygraph.org/forum/index.php?topic=4881.msg36251#msg36251), provides a handy implementation of Tor. Create any e-mail/chat accounts you use for anonymous communications through Tor, and only access those accounts through Tor.
This is a very scary subject. Technology is a double-edged sword.
George
This has been going on for a long time. Remember the Bush Administration was illegally monitoring phone calls from a very large phone bank in Washington State. I have it from a very good source that this corrupt administration has been biulding dosiers on Obama's adversaries ever since he took office but, it has been greatly upgraded since the FCC took over the internet on Nov. 20, 2011. And, btw, I'm sure you know that the feds has the best encryption breakers that there is.
I haven't brought this sort of thing up before because I didn't want to be responsible of turning the focus of your website into a political forum. However, I am glad that you posted this because a lot of people simply does not believe this can happen in this country. They are either naive or actually believe in it.
What a shame. I never thought I'd see the day Americans would have to use cyphers and encryption to safely communicate with one another. Reminds me of those old WWII movies about nazi occupied countries. But it shouldn't be surprising, since one can legally be put through an interrogation while strapped to a device called "Lie Detector" in order to get a job. Orson Wells was indeed a prophet.
QuoteThis is a very scary subject. Technology is a double-edged sword.
Fortunately, I have nothing to lose! :)
You can now contact AntiPolygraph.org securely and (optionally) anonymously via ProtonMail, a Swiss-based secure e-mail provider. ProtonMail offers free accounts with 1 GB of storage. All communication with the server is via HTTPS, and QualysSSL Labs gives ProtonMail an A+ rating (https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=protonmail.com). In addition to using a password, ProtonMail further encrypts your email on their servers using a login key that you alone control. Android (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.protonmail.android) and iOS (https://itunes.apple.com/app/protonmail-encrypted-email/id979659905) apps are available.
If you would like to try ProtonMail, you can use it to contact AntiPolygraph.org at our ProtonMail address, antipolygraph.org [at] protonmail [dot] com. Contacting us in this way eliminates metadata that could be used to establish the fact that you communicated with AntiPolygraph.org.
You might also consider using a ProtonMail account when registering on the AntiPolygraph.org message board. You can sign up for a ProtonMail account via the mobile app, or on the Web here:
https://protonmail.com/
You can now text or call AntiPolygraph.org via WhatsApp (https://www.whatsapp.com/). Communications sent via this mobile app (which also has desktop clients for Windows and Macintosh) are end-to-end encrypted. While we prefer to use Signal Private Messenger (https://whispersystems.org/), WhatsApp has a much larger installed user base (over one billion).
You can now text or call AntiPolygraph.org via Threema (https://threema.ch/en), a secure messaging app that allows you to create user identities that are not connected to an e-mail address or phone number. Threema is not free (it currently costs $2.99), but it may suit the needs of some who wish to communicate with us.
If you would like to contact us via Threema, our user ID is A4PYDD5S (https://threema.id/A4PYDD5S). You can add us as a contact and confirm our identity by scanning our QR code:
(https://antipolygraph.org/graphics/threema-qr-code.jpg)
Threema (https://threema.ch/en), a Swiss-based, private messaging app that AntiPolygraph.org has been using since last year, is now open source (https://threema.ch/en/blog/posts/open-source-discount).
One advantage of Threema over other messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp is that you do not have to associate a telephone number with your account. If you would like to communicate with AntiPolygraph.org but do not want us to know your phone number, Threema is a good choice. Our Threema ID is mentioned in the previous post in this thread and is also available on our contact page (https://antipolygraph.org/contact.shtml).
Details on Threema's encryption scheme and source code are available here:
https://threema.ch/en/open-source
Warning to those who wish to remain as anonymous as possible: Protonmail may still be storing your IP address and could hand it over to law enforcement. If you really want privacy with Protonmail, delete your current Protonmail account and create a new one through the TOR browser. From now on, only access your Protonmail account using TOR. Never login with your real IP address.
https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/07/protonmail_hands_user_ip_address_police/
ProtonMail has posted a commentary on the recent arrest of one of its users here:
https://protonmail.com/blog/climate-activist-arrest/
ProtonMail accounts can be created and accessed more privately by using ProtonMail's onion server, which can only be accessed using Tor Browser (https://www.torproject.org) or an alternative browser configured to route traffic through the Tor network:
https://protonmailrmez3lotccipshtkleegetolb73fuirgj7r4o4vfu7ozyd.onion
You can now reach AntiPolygraph.org anonymously and securely using the Session (https://getsession.org/) app, which is available for iOS, Android, Macintosh, Windows, and Linux.
Session is designed to minimize the collection of metadata. No phone number, email address, or other identifying information is required to set up an account. Messages are end-to-end encrypted and are routed through a decentralized network, protecting your IP address.
To reach AntiPolygraph.org via Session, install the app, create a profile, and add our ID to your contacts:
05ff2a8dcd22f7e3c52ccb5c6dfa47d146cd2893b1edde6abeadf1a485ba27072b
You more easily add us to your contacts by scanning the following QR code:
(https://antipolygraph.org/graphics/antipolygraph-dot-org-session-qr-code.png)
Let's say I'm a bad guy who wants to use Session for naughty purposes.
If I download Session through the Google app store, through my real personal Google account, and then login, will Google know my Session user ID and then can link it to me?
Then say I send a message to someone that contains info that could connect me to a crime, that person gets their phone seized by the FBI, and the FBI sees my user ID as part of a criminal conversation. Can the FBI contact Google and match my user ID with my true identity?
If these things are true, bye bye anonymity.
QuoteLet's say I'm a bad guy who wants to use Session for naughty purposes.
If I download Session through the Google app store, through my real personal Google account, and then login, will Google know my Session user ID and then can link it to me?
No. Session user IDs are generated on-device. Google will only know that you have downloaded the Session app.
QuoteThen say I send a message to someone that contains info that could connect me to a crime, that person gets their phone seized by the FBI, and the FBI sees my user ID as part of a criminal conversation. Can the FBI contact Google and match my user ID with my true identity?
No. However, if, say, you (or someone else) have sent someone your Session ID via Gmail, or saved it in an unencrypted text document in Google Drive, or stored it in Google Contacts, that might come up in a PRISM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program)) search.
Signal now supports user names, so you can contact AntiPolygraph.org via Signal without disclosing your phone number and without adding our phone number to your contacts. Note that your chosen display name in Signal will be visible to us, so don't use your real name if you prefer not to share it.
Micah Lee has a good article on this new feature in The Intercept:
https://theintercept.com/2024/03/04/signal-app-username-phone-number-privacy/
After creating your own user ID, you can contact us either by manually adding our user ID (ap_org.01) or scanning the QR code below:
(https://antipolygraph.org/graphics/ap-signal-qr-code.png)
You can now reach AntiPolygraph.org anonymously and securely using SimpleX (https://simplex.chat/), a free, open source, encrypted messaging service that requires no user information and has no user IDs. The app is available for iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and Linux.
To reach us via SimpleX, download the app, create a profile, and then add our profile. You can do this either by clicking the link below or by using the app to scan the QR code below:
https://antipolygraph.org/s/simplex
(https://antipolygraph.org/graphics/simplex-qr-code.png)