Surviving Technocratic Authoritarianism: Your Profile

Whether we like it or not, the emerging realities of our world are increasingly leaning towards Technocratic Authoritarianism. The merger between corporate powers and political ideologies is well under way and is producing an environment where technology is increasingly used to enforce political views and punish dissenting voices, sometimes in very real and tangible ways. 

From 2010 to 2020, I served as a missionary in China. I witnessed the rise of Xi JingPing, who ushered China back into Mao-era oppression. Under his rule, the Chinese Communist Party has not only developed a number of sophisticated mechanisms of oppression - including the social credit system - but they have begun coercing other countries into building these oppressive systems (many of which use similar technologies to those being used by FB, Twitter, Google, and AWS). 

I survived some of the most intense crackdowns in modern history both in China and in the cities that I lived by God's grace because I learned how to fly under the radar and obfuscate my personal visibility. So, in this post I want to share some tips in the hope that you will begin to think about digital privacy and cyber security. And, as you read these beginning-level tips, keep in mind that the world of technology is rapidly evolving, so you will have to constantly adapt! 

OFF GRID vs. LOW PROFILE

Your visibility is your first area of concern: decide if you are going to go "off grid" or create "a low profile"? 

There are pros and cons to both approaches. 

Going off-grid severely limits technological surveillance. I say "limits" because it does not "eliminate" such surveillance. And this is the first mistake most people make when thinking through this approach. One mistake can make you become a target (and once you become a target, game over!)

Maintaining a low profile allows you to blend in and camouflage your presence. I say "camouflage" because it does not make you "invisible". And this is the first mistake most people make with this approach. Any mistake that raises your profile will potentially compromise your "camouflage" entirely.

GOING OFF-GRID

Successfully going off-grid requires intensive training that is beyond most people's capabilities. Living off-grid is the skill-set of ghosts. And let me emphasize that "preppers" are not really off-grid. For example, most preppers still file taxes, so the IRS knows where they live; they have internet access, so Big Tech is still surveilling them; they still have banks, credit cards, or other digital payments, so they are in the financial system. Crypto-currency is very difficult to truly go off-grid with because you have to deal with the problem of uploading money to buy crypto. And even "cash", which is the most private purchasing option, is increasingly difficult to truly go off-grid with because companies are increasing their monitoring of cash purchases.  

Going fully off-grid requires going invisible. And remember, the government monitors people who try to go off-line, which means that any mistake makes you a target of the government's alphabet-soup agencies. And once you become their target, game over! 

So, going partially off-grid simply does not work. You are far more likely to become a target if you try to go off-grid but make a mistake. So, for this reason, I don't recommend trying to go "off-grid" for the vast majority of people. And I include myself in that category: I don't possess the skills necessary to successfully go off-grid. 

CREATING A LOW PROFILE

My solution is to create a low profile, which is like learning how to blend into your surroundings. In this sense, the logic of creating a low profile is much like the logic of camouflage: you learn how to blend all the non-threatening elements of your surroundings into your profile so that you can manage your visibility. You actually want to be seen, but seen in a way that doesn't attract anyone's attention. 

Your profile must have: 

• Financial activity (i.e. banks, PayPal, credit cards, etc)
• Active credit scores (i.e. loans, credit cards, etc)
• Active mainstream social media accounts (i.e. FB, Amazon Prime)
• Location tracking (i.e. phone, home IP address, ISP, etc)
• Facial recognition profiles (i.e. profile pictures, family pictures, etc)
• Active mainstream social media activity (i.e. sharing memes, etc)

Your first concern is managing your "visibility".  

Visibility is primarily (not exclusively) determined by these five points: 

1. Location
2. Device ID
3. Browser ID
4. Behavior patterns
5. Meta-data

Therefore, the key to creating a low profile is to manage how your public profile interacts with these five points of visibility. Your goal is to create a consistent profile using these elements with things that you want to be seen while obfuscating data points for activity that you do not want them to "see" (keeping in mind that all activity is technically "seen" by someone, but it is only your personally identifiable activity that matters here). 

To manage your visibility you need to do the following: 

1. Identity what location activity is already known about you
2. Identify what devices can be identified with you
3. Identify how your browser profile identifies you
4. Understand your own behavior patterns (financial, digital, and location)
5. Understand basic meta-data concepts

FIRST STEPS ARE HARD

When I was in China, I became responsible for the well-being of our church family. I was responsible for making sure that we could continue advancing the Kingdom of God. So, I had to learn how to camouflage our activity so that we did not attract anyone's attention in a world where there are more security cameras than people, guards at the gate and in the lobby of every apartment complex and building, and the world's most authoritarian and invasive digital surveillance network. 

I began by tracking myself: everywhere I went for a month was logged with time-stamps, behavior profiles, and normal activity (including how I paid for taxis / buses / transportation). I tracked all of my online usage and what my ISP was used to seeing. I paid attention to security cameras and what activities my face was being associated with. I also paid attention to the noise level around different security cameras so that I knew where my voice could be identified or blended in. 

When I crossed the boarder with my co-minister, we went in parallel lines so that we could each see the monitor of the boarder agent checking us through, and we paid attention to what information they had on us. This is how we found out that we had both already been tied together. Instead of trying to "break" that tie (i.e. stop being seen together), we focused on camouflaging our relationship. 

And we controlled our online communications, focusing on blending our relationships instead of trying to totally hide them. We made sure that our members were "seen" messaging each other to go get McDonald's or hang out and play volleyball. In China, they actually do allow people to post some religious memes (there's a fine line here), so our members who had already done that, were encouraged to continue posting innocuous Christian memes on WeChat. 

You must fully understand your environment before you can truly blend in. So, your first step is to understand your environment (which is going to be specific to you since no two people share the exact same visibility environment). 

Look for my next post where I will deal with each of these points and the tools to help you accomplish these things!