What is the Matrix

In my opinion, The Matrix films provide the best metaphor our society has
for understanding why organized evil and oppression are allowed to exist,
and so I will use it for this purpose. While my interpretation isnt the
only possible one, I believe it to be valid, comprehensive, and most
importantly, illustrative of the message I am trying to convey.

So lets begin by discussing what the Matrix is not. The Matrix is not
the physical world. As far as Im concerned, the physical world is
actually real and is in fact governed ceaselessly by the laws of physics.
Conversely, the Matrix is also not the Internet, despite what many seem
to believe. The Matrix spans and transcends both these worlds. It has
existed since the dawn of civilization, and it will continue to exist
until its collapse.

So then, what is it? Well, thats complicated. Much like in the movie,
its nearly impossible to convey the size and scope of the Matrix to
someone who doesnt already see it for what it is. However, unlike the
movie, I believe it is an ethical imperative to try to convey it in a
literal sense, even to those who are so dependent upon the Matrix that
they would fight to protect it. At worst, they wont understand or
believe and will continue on about their business. In a sense, I believe
Cypher was right to resent Morpheus for what he did, because Morpheus
engaged in flat out trickery and deception to free people.

But I digress. The Matrix is the social structure that subordinates
Humanity to its will. It is the machinery of society that exists solely
to perpetuate itself, its influence, and its power independent of any
human need. It insulates us from each other and ourselves through
deception, and essentially transforms us into servile engines of economic
and political output (power). The machines that live off this power are
institutions: large corporations, governments, schools, religious
institutions, and even non-profit orgs. Every institution will reach a
point in its existence where its primary function becomes self-
preservation and perpetuation, instead of serving human need. At this
point it becomes a machine of the Matrix. For example, when they become
machines, governments cease to serve people and instead seek to extend
their power over them; corporations prioritize increasing shareholder
value over producing quality products or otherwise serving the public
good; schools view students as a means and not an end; religions equate
membership with salvation (and actively oppose other teachings and even
independent practice); and non-profits and charities spend more budget on
fund raising activity than on their original focus. Inevitably all large
institutions eventually become machines. They become too big for
Humanity.

In addition to the independent self-perpetuating machines that write most
of our paychecks, the Matrix has several major cooperative and more
actively sinister groups of machines subsisting off of its power and
directly contributing to the structure of the Matrix itself. These groups
are the Military Industrial Complex, the Political Industrial Complex,
the Prison Industrial Complex, the Surveillance Industrial Complex, the
Media Industrial Complex, the Academic Industrial Complex,
theAgricultural Industrial Complex, the Medical Industrial Complex and
the major organized religions. All machines in these groups either
actively oppress humanity, or enable the oppression to persist. It is
through their combined efforts that the Matrix takes on some of its more
distasteful qualities.
Resisting the Matrix

Resistance is a mental state. The Matrix is designed to make it easy to
accept what it tells you, and to make it hard to filter the Truth from
the lies. Resisting the Matrix requires understanding its operating
principles and assumptions, rejecting them, and helping others to do the
same.

The Matrix is fascist, the Matrix is deceptive, and the Matrix is
bureaucracy. The Matrix is essentially the rule of the institution over
the individual, and in it, the rights of the individual are subordinate
to the rights of the institution. Individuals have to believe (or at
least not actively oppose the idea) that large corporations have the
right to protect their profits above all else, and thus dictate policy
and law. They have to believe that this law is just, moral, and seemingly
based upon reason. Or, they have to feel unaffected by the law on an
individual level. They have to accept the program, and be satisfied with
the rewards given for doing so. They have to do their jobs, pay their
taxes, and be content with their salary (at least to the point where
their salary and the stability it provides are appealing enough to deter
risking leaving the Matrix). Rejecting these beliefs is the first step in
resisting the Matrix.

Furthermore, people must be insulated from the creative process. They
have to forget that they are able to produce craft as individuals
independent of large institutions, and they must feel entirely dependent
upon the system to provide them with what they need. It is mostly through
the violation of this principle that many who work with computers come to
free themselves, or at least come to see the Matrix for what it is.
Despite being products of the Matrix (for the most part), computers and
the Internet enable humans to create individual works on a global scale:
independent media, self-publishing, Free Software, computer music,
computer art and graphics, and so on. Computers also enable independent
people to communicate and build human-serving social structures outside
of the Matrix.

However, note that computers arent the only means of accomplishing this,
and this time period isnt the first one of Exodus. In the 1960s, for
example, people departed from the Matrix en-mass and independently
created art, culture, and music, largely catalyzed by psychedelic drugs.
Unfortunately, much of this structure collapsed due to a number of
reasons, the main one being the hasty, ill-considered and unsustainable
manner of its construction and the subsequent institutional and legal
backlash. Miraculously, however, many of the core ideas have persisted,
and their proliferation is largely the reason I am Aware and able to
write this document today. It would seem that the present catalyst is a
combination of the Internet and againpsychedelics. Both of these
phenomenon provide a way of disconnecting yourself from the programmed
reality and assumptions of the Matrix and taking your perceptions into
your own hands.

To persist, the Matrix requires control, and in democratic societies it
maintains this control by filtering peoples view of reality through
corporate-owned mass media and television. In essence, the Matrix
requires a form of thought control, but not in the science fiction sense.
Instead, it achieves an effective enough manner of thought control by
manufacturing consent. The large majority of the public has to buy in.
They have to believe that the news media give them an accurate picture of
the world. And by and large, they do believe this. Everything the general
public knows about the world, they know through the Matrix. The symbols
and images the Matrix presents to them have become more real than reality
itself. Hence the popularity of the ungodly abomination that is Reality
TV.

Note that while some media outlets do actively promote a political agenda
of domination and control, on the whole it is not through some grand
conspiracy that this process (or any process of the Matrix) functions. It
is simply the way mass media is organized. Mass media is a machine that
exists as a profit maximizing entity, and the most profitable news (and
the cheapest news to produce) is recycled soundbytes and pre-packaged
press releases from corporations and government. Furthermore, in the
interest of preserving its revenue stream, news media cannot allow the
public to hold any opinion that may threaten the authority and policy of
government or the profitability of their sponsors, which are also
machines of the Matrix and almost always directly involved in the
business of domination and control. Thus the media must perpetuate the
status quo. No news is good news.

Understanding this bias in the media is key to undoing the filter it
applies. Consider who the advertisers and sponsors are. Beware of press
releases disguised as investigative reporting. When possible, confirm
mainstream, corporate produced stories with coverage from places like
IndyMedia (go local), Wikinews, GNN, Politech, Free Speech TV, Democracy
Now, Free Speech Radio News, and FAIR. A lot of the time these sources
also cover many eye-popping items that for some reason dont even receive
mention on corporate news media.

Last, and most assuredly not least, the Matrix seeks to identify and know
its members at all times, in a misguided attempt to maintain control. It
demands total surrender of your privacy to function in it. It is by
breaking this last property of the Matrix that we come to truly free
ourselves from it; to create economies, communication, and culture
independent of its control.

Of course, the ultimate form of resistance is to fully disconnect from
any and all dependence upon and allegiance to government and institution;
to remove yourself from the power structure of the Matrix, and contribute
your economic output to resistance economies. It is this form of
resistance that faces the most violent opposition from the Matrix, since
providing this economic power is the primary function of Humanity, as it
sees it.

Unfortunately for many this form of resistance is simply unattainable due
to family and social ties, especially starting from your first
realization of the size and scope of the Matrix. However, unlike in
movie, it is possible to liberate yourself gradually instead of
immediately, and in some cases this can prove easier than an all-at-
once attempt. It starts with disconnecting. Cut out TV from your life
entirely, especially TV news and Reality TV shows. You should be able to
get all your information and entertainment from the web, or from real
reality (or from the occasional movie). Avoid chain stores where
possible, especially for food. Supporting smaller (especially
sustainable) business keeps entrepreneurial and independent business
spirit alive. Getting and staying out of debt (especially debt without
equity, or rapidly depreciating equity such as car loans) is crucial, as
debt is a primary mechanism the Matrix uses to ensure your obedience.
Also, if you are a salaried employee, working a 40 hour (or perhaps even
35) hour work week can be a big start to declaring your freedom from the
machine and the corporate American peer-pressure to be a diligent slave.
It also frees up huge amounts of mental energy which is then available
for resistance.

From here, a limited form of resistance whereby you leave the Matrix for
short periods of time (long enough to conduct purchases, business
transactions, and communications with the underground) is well within the
reach of all computer literate individuals, and functioning as a consumer
is sufficiently supportive of the Anonymous Economy for it to be
sustainable. Moreover, the probability of discovery of this sort of
activity can be reduced as much as you choose. Doing this effectively is
the subject of this HOWTO.

As you progress, you will notice yourself developing one or more separate
identities, or pseudonyms. It is best to build as much insulation between
these nyms as possible. They shouldnt appear to know each other,
shouldnt really talk about the same stuff or buy the same things, and
above all should be diligently separated from your original physical
identity. Maintain different wallets, bags, user accounts and possibly
even computers. In short, develop one or more Tyler Durdens, except
without all the insanity, self-destruction, and sociopathic behavior. Or
with it, if it helps.

The adept and the entrepreneurial will find it an easy step from here to
total freedom. The next stage is to go into business for yourself. It
doesnt have to be an anonymous business, but those who manage such an
achievement do enjoy the satisfaction that they are directly subverting
the Matrix and helping to weaken its hold on everyone.
Subverting the Matrix

While resisting the Matrix is an act of mental rebellion, subverting the
Matrix is an act of social revolution. It requires understanding the
types of human communities that exist outside of the control of the
Matrix. It also requires understanding what sustains them, and if and how
they directly or indirectly weaken the structure and control of the
Matrix. Once you understand this, it is possible to intelligently align
yourself with communities that actively weaken the control of the Matrix.
Gift Culture

Gift Culture (also known as Free Culture, or the Gift Economy) is a
social structure where your status is determined by how much you are able
to give away. It is not mutually exclusive to any other economic system,
and examples of gift economies exist on top of capitalist, communist and
socialist economies.

Gift culture has brought forth some of the most astounding recent
achievements of the human race, including the scientific research
community, much of the World Wide Web, the entire Open Source movement,
vulnerability and security research, and Wikipedia, just to name a few
examples. Gift economies tend to function best in the digital world,
where something can be given without reducing the inventory of the giver.

However, the Burningman project is a massive experiment in bringing Gift
Culture back into the physical world, and quite successful at that. Well
over 35,000 people populate Black Rock City in the middle of the desert
every year to give as much as they can to each other. The event serves in
part as a model for the time when energy becomes abundant and human
beings are capable of interstellar space travel. Obviously the burning of
The Man is the climax of the event.

This is no small coincidence either. Gift culture does subvert the
primary mechanisms of the Matrix. The Matrix subsists by transforming
human endeavor into economic output which it uses to maintain its
control. Gift culture, on the other hand, releases human endeavor for the
good of all who would receive it. When items are given instead of sold,
the power and control obtained through ownership is eliminated.
Furthermore, in the case of Open Source Software, the fact that full
freedom over the source code is also given means that code that the
Matrix would never willingly create is readily available for the purposes
of this HOWTO.

It is interesting to note that even machines of the Matrix are motivated
to participate in gift culture especially in the Open Source movement.
It benefits many corporations as well as governments to have a common
reference platform upon which they can build their individual products
and infrastructures. Their cooperation in building this common platform
vastly reduces the cost they would have paid to develop their own
platform in-house, and is also inevitably cheaper than paying a single
entity to do the same. The combined experience and widely distributed
expertise, as well as the flexibility of modifying the common platform to
perform a wide variety of tasks, yields a better system for all, and
cheaper. In the digital world where copies are free, capitalism compels
Gift Culture.

Unfortunately, some companies, such as Amazon.com, reap tremendous
benefits off of Open Source Software, yet have a company policy of zero
contribution back to the community. Other symptoms of this problem
include Microsofts war on the security research community, and the
tendency of (even State funded) University Professors to refuse to
provide Open Source reference implementations of their work. There are
mechanisms discussed in this HOWTO that enable this trend to be reversed,
which leads us nicely into the next cultural segment.
Information Anarchy

A closely related social structure to Gift Culture is Information
Anarchy. The idea behind Information Anarchy is that all information
should be as widely and freely disseminated as possible. The cultural
ethos is vehemently at odds with Intellectual Property, and refuses to
recognize any such law (or suffer any code) that abridges free exchange
of information.

Needless to say, the machines of the Matrix dont take too fond a view on
this ideology. Unlike gift culture, which is an indirect subversion of
the mechanisms of the Matrix, Information Anarchy directly challenges the
Matrixs perceived right of ownership of human ideas. The past decade has
seen an unprecedented decline in the freedom of information due to some
of the more rabid elements of the Matrix. The machines of the Matrix now
draw tremendous power from ideas and digital content/information. Recent
examples include the DMCA, extension of copyright duration, the harsh
criminalization of copyright infractions, and the resulting side-effects
which lead to the criminalization of certain forms of technology. The
legal climate for free speech and innovation has never looked darker.

However, hope is not lost. The future looks so dark precisely for the
reason that Information Anarchy poses a such grave threat to a major
power source for so many parasitical machines. On some level, the Matrix
knows its hold is tenuous. At every opportunity, the Matrix will tell you
that protecting Intellectual Property encourages creativity. It has even
developed an amusing array of propaganda to promote this idea, even going
so far as to begin the brainwashing at an early age. (Yes, the National
Counterintelligence Executive is in fact a real office of the US
government, apparently one of its major propaganda arms. Their stuff is
hilarious. I recommend printing some out at your local copy shop before
it becomes classic.)

All of this nonsense is observably false. Societies have always been most
successful when communication and ideas were open to all. It is important
to remember that the world didnt always operate this way, it was only
when the ruling elite of the Matrix realized that ideas and creative
expression are easily converted to economic power that they took claim
over them. Economic systems can and will adapt to a form that is more
profitable for human creators instead of their machine owners.

Five chapters of this HOWTO are devoted to protecting your digital
identity and are easily applicable to contributing to the goal of
Information Anarchy and providing even more economic incentive to move
towards alternate revenue models and/or Gift Culture. In every
opportunity possible, do not support the system of Intellectual Property
that the Matrix has created. Naturally as its power wanes, it will become
weaker and less relevant, as content creators seek their pay through
other means. The cancer starves, and dies.
The Anonymous Internet Economy

So as of late, a major source of the erosion of civil liberties stems
from the fact that casual economic transactions are becoming increasingly
difficult to conduct without permanent, identifiable information being
associated with them. With the advent and increase in the volume of
Internet commerce, casual purchases of personal items, books, software,
and even medication are now irrevocably tied to your own personal
identity. Bookstores such as Amazon now build complete dossiers of sorts
on their customers reading habits, and much of this information is
available publicly.

As a result, the natural reaction to these circumstances is to find
methods to make Internet commerce behave more like physical commerce,
where you have the option of anonymity by using cash or cash-backed
identity free payment methods. An Anonymous Internet Economy.

The Matrix is providing massive economic incentive to create this economy
as well. It has recently been revealed that the FBI writes over 30,000
National Security Letters in the US each year. Consider how easy it
would be for them to demand records of everyone at Amazon who might like
to buy a particular book, or who has ordered indecent materials from
websites? Amazon already does classification of consumers interests for
marketing purposes. Their engine can perform this classification
instantly. What would they have to say about what books you like to read?
How about Google, and the types of adword sites you are typically
presented on the search website/via gmail? Google and many other search
engines maintain indefinite logs of who searches for what keywords, along
with lots of other data. These are prime targets for National Security
Letters or just general government subpoena.

I provide the basics for conducting anonymous transactions cheaply in
this section. You can use these techniques to get yourself started and
comfortable with interacting with the Matrix anonymously. From there, the
entrepreneurs in the audience may wish to start a business to start
making some money in this new economy, and thus begin to fully escape
from the control of the Matrix.

Markets of interest might include items in online games, anonymous web
hosting, certain types of medicine, or even illegal electronics. For
example, many people are too lazy to build a MythTV box, but personally I
sure as hell would buy one over acrippled and ad-infested TiVo
subscription service any day. If I watched TV, that is.

As you can see, most of these things go on above ground today, but for
how long? And why at such high risk for consumers living in less
accepting legal climates? What about those who would pay more for more
protection? For example, some customers may be attracted simply to the
ability to free themselves from marketing and government profiling. Those
who purchase certain types of books might prefer if Amazon and whoever
else didnt have this information tied to their physical identity.

Yet another possible white/grey market to tap might be a physical
anonymous remailer service for people who would like to conceal their
street address from someone mailing them something in order to avoid
becoming listed in a database for marketing spam and/or to avoid general
profiling and surveillance, or to be able to order a product that wont
normally ship to their geographic location. Basically the way the system
could work is through a website where you create a temporary account
number or unique pseudonym. The package is then shipped to a relay point
where the account number/pseudonym is read off, and a new label printed
onto the package. It is then mailed to its new destination, and any
electronic and paper records are destroyed. It also has the advantage
that extremely paranoid users can potentially chain multiple locations
together for extra security, so that competition does not necessarily
compete for market share, but instead cooperates for it. You might
consider marketing this as a Virtual Office Solution to avoid
liability, if done above ground. A useful technique for verifying that
packages have not been opened/examined en-route is to create a unique
multicolored wax seal swirl using two or more candles, photograph the
seal, and transmit the photograph electronically via encrypted email.
Delivery/payment can be ensured using normal UPS/Fedex/USPS tracking
numbers, which can be encrypted to the senders public key and then
destroyed.

The demand for such a system might not be immediately visible now, but
once the next Patriot Act or similar legislation removes all anonymity
from the mail, the demand should skyrocket. This business has the
advantage that it is extremely low setup overhead and is very easy to
start small with low capital, just to test market demand. Once the
business is proved worthwhile, FedEx and possibly other major carriers
offer bulk shipping rate accounts to merchants that could be taken
advantage of, bringing the overhead work and cost to your customers
potentially very low.

Taking this idea a step further yields a ghost walker contract market,
much like the ones described in Toward A Private Digital Economy. Most of
the P2P token-based nonsense there can be ignored, but his key idea could
be transfered to a ebay-like auction site. Basically the idea is that
people would contract the services of someone who is skilled at staying
off the radar to conduct transactions that for various reasons they do
not want linked to their identity (again, buying books, vitamins,
medicine, regionally available items, web hosting, illegal electronics,
and so on). Sort of like the inverse of a Private Investigator, these
people would do anything from purchasing items, mailing and delivering
packages, donating to charities, acting as couriers, business
agents/representatives, mail forwarders, and so on. This can already be
carried out in a guerrilla fashion on community/local city classified ad
servers such as the nearly universal Craigslist (where it is possible to
contract people from different state and country jurisdictions quite
easily). In the ideal situation, a dedicated website would be created.
Each ghost walker would have a nym (possibly paying a fee to do so,
both to support the site and to discourage morphing), complete with
ratings and reviews, prices per task/risk factor, and so on. Contracts
would be posted by clients containing a generic description of the task,
and interested ghost walkers would contact the buyer with prices. The
buyer would then select a particular ghost walker to reveal the complete
details of the contract to, and terms of payment. Given the tendency to
increased total surveillance, lots of regular people may be interested in
using this service.

So there are numerous markets that can be potentially very lucrative
while at the same time helping to build a social structure independent of
domination and control. In general, any mechanism of state control
creates markets for equipment or components that can be used to
circumvent this control. Keep your eyes open for opportunities. If you
have any suggestions or ideas, please feel free to contact me so that I
can update the HOWTO for all to benefit as we work together to free
ourselves.
Freedom Seekers are Not Terrorists

Essentially this HOWTO represents the hacker community truly claiming
independence for itself from national and institutional rule. While many
the ideas and techniques present in this document can be found elsewhere,
I believe this is the first time such a coherent, consistent, and focused
collection of these ideas has been assembled for a single purpose. 10
years ago, we made our Declaration of Independence. This body of code-law
represents a manner of Constitution of Cyberspace. A basic set of rights
we claim for ourselves through our use of technology.

Because the accusation will inevitably be made, I would just like to
emphasize the distinction between freedom seekers and terrorists. The
type of resistance and revolution discussed here is non-violent, and
singularly focused upon allowing an individual to have real freedom
through privacy and anonymity. While reactionary individuals might argue
that the knowledge presented in this HOWTO could aid actual terrorists,
the reality is theyve already had much better training which has proved
to be quite effective in practice. Furthermore, were talking about
people who are willing to give their lives in their quest: people whose
families, friends, and their own lives have already been destroyed by
Empire. These people will stop at nothing. They dont need this HOWTO to
create new identities for privacy purposes when perfectly valid ones can
be stolen readily. Nor do they care much about surveillance, since
surveillance cant stop a suicide mission. Whats worse, is that on some
level the police state must know this. Even being generous with the
reasonable doubt, all evidence seems to indicate that at best it simply
used the tragic events of Sept 11 as an excuse for a long awaited massive
power grab, with the resulting legislation doing far more to target the
average citizen than any particular terrorist network.

I recently had a discussion on Usenet where it was asserted that taking
action to protect yourself and withdraw from the Matrix might generate
even more excuses for introducing oppressive legislation and policy. I
believe this will not be the case, and that moreover this thinking is in
fact defeatist and even dangerous for a few reasons.

First, the Matrix will not and can not overtly fight this behavior, as
any public attention given to it will only provide it with more energy
and momentum. The Matrix media filter wont even allow the individual
pieces of information that lead to the conclusions of this introduction
to be discussed for this very reason. There is no way it would willingly
publicize this ideology in its entirety, even to attempt attack it.
Furthermore, there is no need to. The Matrix already has more than enough
material to drive through as much oppressively restrictive legislation as
it likes in the name of fighting kiddie porn, the War on Drugs, the War
on Terror, and in the name of protecting corporate profits. As stated
above, it is already taking full advantage of this fact, to Orwellian
ends. The interesting phenomenon is that the more ridiculous the
regulations become, the more commonplace it will be for the public to
want to circumvent them, which only serves to strengthen resistance
economies.

Second, if you look at all of history, freedom has never been given to a
populace. Left to its own devices, the state only ever grows more
powerful. It never surrenders power over citizens freely. Take any
instance in history where people have established rights for themselves,
and you will see it was the result of a long, drawn out battle that the
state simply lacked the resources to continue to fight effectively.
Prohibition wasnt abolished because people acted good, honest and sober,
it was because they got falling down drunk and alcohol consumption soared
to new heights while the Puritan state was powerless to continue to
oppress the newly criminalized middle class. Likewise, Civil rights
werent won because Africans obediently stayed in their designated rolls,
complicitly accepting separate but equal facilities and politely
tolerating discrimination. It was because they practiced civil
disobedience and active resistance against injustice.

I believe in civil disobedience, and more importantly, the clear
distinction between morality and law. I believe that it is defensive,
defeatist thinking to say that if we just be good, they will reward us
and repeal laws. The laws the DMCA, the Patriot Act, the REAL ID act,
recent supreme court decisions and the now entirely conservative
dominated court are already essentially fascist and will only continue
getting tougher on crime and terror, stripping away the rights of
citizens in the name of safety with little real gain except the
hoisting of that Floating Eye on the dollar bill ever higher above the
base. The total surveillance state has been a goal of the current cabal
for time out of mind.

Third and finally, once again Im not advocating violence here, or even
any sort of crime that has a victim. Im advocating creating a social and
economic structure based on anonymity (not necessarily illegality) that
drains the corporate state of power and thus weakens its ability to
enforce fascist law and practice.

In my view, the only thing that will cause the state to rescind is the
realization that much like in the 1920s with prohibition, it has
criminalized a vast portion of its population that it is now powerless to
control, and furthermore that its fascist law has done nothing to
safeguard against the true monsters that its foreign policy has created.

Continuation on its current course of action will lead the Matrix to
experience ever increasing instances of identity theft, repeated
infiltration of data warehouses, massive underground surveillance rings,
and so on. These actions are not advocated in this HOWTO, but they will
inevitably become more commonplace as the Matrix continues to make it
easier to steal an existing identity than to create a new one or
otherwise escape from ceaseless surveillance.

At this point in time, the Matrix faces two options. It can either choose
to allow us to be free, and create official sanctioned means for people
who wish to free themselves from endless surveillance and total control
to operate anonymously within the system, or it can choose to fight war
after costly war on civil liberties and basic human rights until enough
people are fed up with its behavior that they begin to depart en-mass.
Again.

But we already know the choice the Matrix will make. Already I can see
the chain reaction of propaganda, the sound-byte media precursors that
trigger the onset of an emotion, designed specifically to overwhelm logic
and reason. An emotion that the Matrix will use to blind the masses from
the simple and obvious truth: We are going to be free, and there is
nothing it can do to stop us.
Spreading the Word

Initially I had planned for a small distribution of this document to only
a select few, to attempt to stay under the radar. But as I indicate
above, I now realize that is a flawed approach. Much like in a mixed
network, the more people working to protect themselves and their
identities, the better off the end result is. The stronger the support
economies grow, the better able the resistance is to function
autonomously.

An IRC friend of mine has designed some slick business cards that can be
distributed at functions, protests or wherever. Online print shops will
typically print 200-500 of these for around $20. If youre itching to
give me some kind of donation for some reason, you can direct your funds
towards that instead. It even works on a sliding scale. For example, you
can buy some sticker paper for like $5 at your local office supply store
and print out some stickers to put up at coffee shops, clubs, bars,
Internet cafes, bookstores or anywhere intelligent people might be able
to jot down or quickly visit a URL. If anyone wants to create another
design, send it to me and I will post it here also.
Target Audience

This document is written at a technical level appropriate for power
users people who like to tinker with their computer configurations to
get the most out of their experience. Novice computer users who are
uncomfortable tweaking settings, editing configuration files, and
occasionally using the command line probably will struggle with much of
the material regardless of OS, unfortunately (though at least one person
has offered to help elaborate the more technically involved sections to
help novices along well see how that pans out).

I try to be as operating system agnostic as possible, providing
information for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, but due to the open and
readily customizable nature of the system, the Linux material probably
will be the most well developed.

As far as demographics, I expect this document to be useful to a wide
variety of people from several walks of life. In particular, some of the
major categories are:

Civil Libertarians
Those who are concerned with the gradual erosion of their personal
freedoms will probably find nearly the entirety of this document useful
and interesting, since it is intended to provide techniques and
countermeasures to restore nearly every right that has been lost due to
the Wars on Drugs, Porn, and Terror. It is now possible for the anyone
(the US government, frivolous civil litigants, P.I.s, and so on) to
enumerate just about everything in your home, without warrant, simply by
subpoena or a National Security Letter directed at your credit card
provider. Somehow I doubt this situation was exactly what the Framers of
the Constitution had in mind This document can help you to keep as much
of your personal belongings and reading habits actually private and out
of numerous commercial databases (which are readily availably to law
enforcement).
Whistleblowers
Whistleblowers who are interested in exposing wrongdoing, corruption,
cover-up, or conspiracy at their workplaces will find this document
useful for protecting their identities while contacting the press, or
otherwise disseminating evidence over the Internet. When you are
jeopardizing your job (and possibly your life) to expose wrongdoing, you
must assume that NO institution will be able to protect your identity
from someone who is determined to silence you. Your only option is to
make sure no one knows who you are in the first place until such time as
your safety from retaliation can be guaranteed. If followed carefully and
diligently, this document will show you how to accomplish this.
Bloggers and Independent Journalists
Similar to whistleblowers, bloggers and forum posters often find
themselves the target of harassment, especially when reporting on
controversial material, or even when people who comment on their pages
choose to do so. While it has recently been ruled that bloggers are
afforded the same rights and protections as journalists, in cases where
the blogger is exposing corruption or negligence at their workplace,
additional measures of protecting oneself may be desired. In some cases,
it may be desirable to publish pseudonymously simply to avoid the stress
(and expense!) of having to deal with frivolous lawsuits such as these.
Political Dissidents and Inquisitive Minds
Forget about China, even in the USA its no secret that the FBI has
consistently harassed those who have dared to speak out against the
status quo. Targeted groups include vegans, Catholics, Quakers, peace
activists, environmental volunteers, 3rd party candidates and campaign
workers, independent journalists and bloggers, and even members of the
mainstream press. What should be most disturbing to the average citizen
is how easily it is to become mistaken for one of these trouble makers
simply for buying (or being recommended) the wrong book on Amazon,
posting on the wrong blog, buying certain types of food on a credit card,
donating to certain charities, etc. With the advent of aggressive data
mining and aggregation, it is all too easy to be lumped in with the
wrong crowd. If followed properly, this document will help you to retain
your freedom to investigate alternative views and information without
leaving an electronic trail of this activity to open yourself up to
harassment. It should also help you minimize the damage a determined FBI
agent (or vindictive ex-spouse or other enemy who has hired a PI) is able
to do to you.
People with Enemies
As hinted at above, its not just dissidents who need to be concerned
either. Surveillance and draconian law can be used as dangerous weapons.
All it takes is for one motivated enemy to hire a PI with access to the
major data warehouses to dig into your life, find something that they can
use, and then phone in to report you, or simply blackmail you. Anyone
with a vindictive ex-spouse, political adversary, or even a feuding
neighbor can be the target of this abuse.
Programmers and Security Researchers
Due to the DMCA and insanely broken patent law, programmers have
found their freedom of speech horrendously restricted in the USA. Many
security researchers have been afraid to discuss the privacy implications
of copyright protection technology that is essentially spyware. Others
are afraid to publish vulnerability assessments of cryptographic systems
that may be tangentially related to copyright infringement, or even
simply software in general. This document can teach such programmers and
researchers how to conceal their identities and thus assist peers who are
operating in legal climates that still respect the freedoms of speech and
innovation.
The Video Game Underground
The DMCA has also been used to harass video game hackers and
cheaters. Some gaming companies will ban you from their online services
if they discover your involvement or subscription to cheat forums. Most
will not hesitate to issue bogus DMCA takedown notices to cheat/mod
websites that operate in the USA. Software that modifies online games to
provide additional features, cheats, or automation is also the target of
DMCA harassment. Furthermore, programmers who publicly reverse engineer
and re-implement open source game servers find themselves the target of
lawsuits. This document should assist these people to continue to play
and modify games how they see fit without fear of persecution.
Moonlighters, Double-Shifters, and Consultants
In a similar vein, those who are working multiple jobs may wish to
conceal this fact from their employers due to fear of retaliation. I
expect the most typical use case of this document will be programmers
working as consultants, or who wish to contribute to Open Source projects
in their free time.
Potential Victims of Identity Theft (Everyone)
This document can also help those who are interested in protecting
their identities and/or financial information from being stolen due to
their commerce online and elsewhere. As mentioned above, data warehouses
such as Choicepoint are essentially making identity a commodity. It is
inevitable that this data will be leaked and stolen again and again. With
identity becoming an increasingly integral aspect of functioning in
society, black markets that sell this data will continue to be extremely
profitable. Just like the War on Drugs, the War on Terror fought through
the politics of domination and control will lead to ever escalating
levels of waste, destruction, and chaos. The best way to protect yourself
is to minimize your digital footprint: Use anonymous forms of payment
online, and conceal your name and mailing address.
Entrepreneurs
The last major category of people who are likely to find this
document useful are those who are interested in providing privacy and
anonymity services and software to others. Privacy and anonymity are
difficult problems. There are many holes to be filled in, usability
issues to be addressed, and markets to be built. To this group of people,
every privacy problem and legal restriction should represent a potential
market to get involved in. However, DO NOT SELL SNAKE OIL. If you cannot
stand up to legal or other pressure, you need to inform your users of
this fact clearly, so they are sure to take appropriate precautions while
using your service (especially if you are located within the USA). Very
few, if any, privacy services are capable of operating as stand-alone
one-shot solutions. What is needed is a series of tools and components
that can be combined arbitrarily. Focus on one component, and do it well.