The regime of invisibility

How to speak anonymously on the Internet so that you are not tracked by special services? Experts explain

Over the past few years, the number of criminal cases for post or repost on the Internet has grown significantly. There is no legal opportunity to protect themselves from the deadlines for a post on the network-lawyers shrug their hands and say that "if the security forces wanted to plant someone, then they will put them." One way to continue to speak is to write anonymously. Novyevropa talked with experts in the field of Internet security and made up instructions on how to do it right.

1. How to create a truly anonymous account?

Experts from the “In touch” project, which advises for free on security issues on the Internet, explain that such an account should be signed with a pseudonym or nickname not related to you, not to use it for work, not subscribe to groups for their interests. Ideally, there should not be a single sign in the account by which it can be associated with you.

The Executive Director of the Internet Protection Society Mikhail Klimarev also advises not to upload photos or videos from this account that you yourself have made. If you want to publish any media file, clean its metadata -they have each photo and can contain, for example, information where the frame was made.

For complete anonymity, you need to use a “clean” browser in which you have never worked before,

Experts say “in touch”.

“Do not check social networks, other email and don’t buy anything at all,” the project advises. Experts recommend using the Thor browser for this , which encrypts the Internet connection and does not show the provider the sites that the user has entered. “A clean browser is a pure conscience. Use a browser without trackers and Kukis, ” experts say.

In addition, you need to “protect” your device , advises “in touch”.

“Be sure to check the settings and rights of the application that you use the“ sensitive account ”: it should not have access to geolocation, contacts, photographs. Only access to the Internet. And you always need to understand that information about you is collected constantly; Most often, advertisers do this to sell the maximum number of services. And these data are not always stored reliably, ”the experts write.

Naturally, you need to use a reliable VPN. It should not always be paid.

“VPN is just a master HEV if you somehow follow your safety. It is not even just what gives access to blocked information, it is a concealment from the surveillance of your traces and actions. You will be tracked without VPN, ” Klimarev recalls.

The expert explains that you do not need to be afraid of free VPN.

“Free VPN services are not such a business model when they sell your information specifically personally. They sell your information as an advertising consumer. VPN knows what Internet resources you walk on. According to this information, you can draw some specific conclusions about you. For example, if you go to Pornhub, then you are most likely a man. If you go through resources that are devoted to raising children, then you are most likely a woman. If you walk on sites about cars, then you probably need to show car advertisements. Such information is sold by VPN services. But, of course, if rumors have leaked that some VPN sells information about a particular person, this immediately puts a cross throughout the business and on this service, ” explains Klimarev.

However, it is also not worth it to take the VPN selection. At least some of them are very slow down. There are many instructions on the Internet on how to choose a good VPN. It is worth viewing them.

Another point is a “ clean” device.

“Use a separate phone that you will use only to confirm accounts for anonymous statements. He should not be associated with you, do not insert your other SIM cards there. <...> And do not use your home access point or modem mode on a personal phone ! ” - Experts “in touch” advise. It should not be an expensive phone. To confirm the accounts, the “brick” will also come.

2. In what social networks can you speak anonymously?

In Russian social networks, it is absolutely impossible , Klimarev believes.

“Close all these Soviet services and never use them. The words that there is some kind of audience for which it is worth writing something, and they will understand is not true. Firstly, all this will be blocked and removed by the first complaint, secondly, you are at risk, and thirdly-all people who could understand something have long left.

In all Russian services there is SORM, they know your IP address, you left your phone there when registering. And they will pass it on all the police, ”the expert says.

Journalist-investigator Andrei Zakharov believes: in order to create an anonymous account in Russian services-VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Mail.ru and Yandex-a lot of strict rules must be observed.

“There must be left SIM cards, left devices, VPN, Thor, and still you can pierce somewhere. The left -wing accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are more difficult for them to monitor, because if they do not have access to internal information, all that they have is social engineering or a name. If it is not real, then it is difficult, ”he says.

In addition, the State Duma recently approved an amendment prohibiting registration on Russian services with foreign e -mail . From December 1, 2023, the owners of Internet resources will have to authorize Russian users using one of the four ways: the phone number, “public services”, a single biometric system or an existing account on another Russian service. After that, it will become technically impossible to write anonymously in Russian social networks , says Sarkis Darbinyan, a cyber ourselves and lawyer of the Roskomsvobod public organization.

“The system will either not allow you to register and get access to the platform without passing authorization, or block your account until you make changes,” he explains.

Internet security experts from the project “greenhouse of social technologies” also say that in Russian social networks to security officials is very easy to calculate the author of the message.

“Any Russian service on request will issue complete information about the account , including IP addresses, account connections, personal correspondence, visiting pages of other users, and so on. Nevertheless, even using “extremist” social networks, do not forget about anonymity and security measures, ” they say.

Darbinyan claims that foreign social networks are now definitely not inclined to provide the Russian authorities with any data, but you should not fully rely on them.

“The security forces have some of their own software for collecting metadata and deanonymization in the channels (“ hunter ”), which can be used to identify the owner of the account and its further persecution,” he says.

Netbeholder is one of the digital observation tools that the security forces use. He is able to show whether two phones were nearby during the day, which could indicate a potential meeting between people. In addition, this tool can determine “when someone sends a file or connects to the voice network in encrypted applications, such as VOTSAP, SIGNAL or Telegram,” the NYT publication previously reported . At the same time, the content of files and conversations remains unknown to the security forces.

“Hunter” is an instrument for deanonymization of accounts in a telegram, which was bought by the Rostec State Corporation and is going to sell his services to security forces.

3. Is it possible to write anonymously in messengers?

If you have only a phone number designed for you, you will not be able to write anonymously in Votsap, Signal, Vaiber , Klimarev says. “These messengers are not anonymous. Therefore, Signal is not as safe as they say about him - he shows the phone number in the same way as VOTSAP, ”the expert notes.

“Regarding Telegram , there are a lot of guides on the Internet, how to make your account safe. Firstly, you need to hide the phone number, do not show it to anyone, do not give the messenger access to your contacts. For example, “in touch” and the Belarusian partisans have good guides about this. In general, telegram can be made anonymous, even if you write in it from your own SIM card, ”Klimarev said.

However, Andrei Zakharov notes that, for example, in Belarus they learned to find chat participants in Telegram, even if the number is hidden.

“The gigantic bases of the ID -Telephone were collected at a time when any user could be found by number. Such an opportunity appeared in 2019. It is not clear what volume of those bases, but potentially any user can be found if his account is created until 2020, ” writes the publication of our Niva.

Experts of the “In touch” project note that even a hidden phone number has vulnerabilities in Telegram, for example, thanks to chat boots.

“Some bots (especially bots of data breaks), when they interact with users, can access not only IDs, but also to the phone number. This is the peculiarity of Telegram. This “feature” was used by attackers, ”the project said.

You can buy for cryptocurrency a separate number for registration in a telegram on the Fragment Actions website , Klimarev advises. But it is now very expensive and will act only for Telegram. Zakharov offers another option- you can buy a virtual SIM card of any other country through Virtual SIM services. The "greenhouse of social technologies" also says that you can buy an ESIM foreign provider. On the project’s website you can see a detailed instruction about how to do it.

At the same time, in Telegram it is also impossible to neglect the basic safety rules of the account, reminds Darbinese.

“Do not forget about the use of VPN tunneling, and, of course, there should not be any affiliation with the main account (common friends, groups, channels), because by indirect signs you can also identify the owner of the account,” he says.

***

Now in Russian legislation there are only 23 articles by which you can judge for posts on the Internet, lawyer Dmitry Grustatov considered it for Novo-Europe. Among them are articles on “discrediting” (Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code) and “Fakes” (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code), about undesirable organizations (Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code) and even a violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules (Article 236 of the Criminal Code).

“The tactics used by the political police have been known since the 30s and has been used throughout the entire period of Soviet history.

Its essence is to prevent the horizontal unification of people around the general problem, ”the capture believes.

He claims that tactics to prevent the unification of society consists of two parts. The first of them is repressions against random people, that is, those who are not an experienced political activist.

“Such people are beginning to be involved in posts on the network. After that, the information that Petrov’s conditional Vasya was detained for the comment “Putin - Thief” begins to spread over the Internet. Vasya Petrov is scared, does not know how to behave, it looks all sorry, because he does not understand how to tell him with the police, with propagandists, he begins to get lost. Everyone who expressed the same position as Vasya immediately begin to be afraid, because the same thing can happen to them, ”the lawyer explains.

The second part of the strategy of punitive units - the persecution of public opinion leaders, says captures.

“Why didn’t they immediately put Navalny or Yashin? Because in those years when they formed and strengthened as politicians, civil society was stronger, and the arrests of opposition leaders created a serious reputation threat to the authorities. Therefore, power came for them not when they caused her maximum damage, but when it became safe for her. And it became safe, because sufficiently repressions were made against middle -level activists and “ordinary” activists. The society was intimidated, so the likelihood that people would demand the restoration of justice were greatly reduced, ”the lawyer says.

In addition, the Internet simplifies the process of pursuing oppositional people for security forces.

“Recently, a huge amount of software has appeared, with which the information on the Internet is filtered in automatic mode. First of all, we are talking about unsafe social networks - “Odnoklassniki” and “VKontakte”, ”says the lawyer.

Another way to monitor Internet resources is to do it manually. “Employees of the“ E ”center identify groups of opposition citizens on the Internet, a register gathers for each of the participants,

After that, a cloud of network publics arises, which the security forces regularly monitor, ”the lawyer explains.

In addition to simplifying the tracking mechanism, it also became easier to intimidate people in the era of the information society.

“Previously, it was necessary to carry out more repression so that they were visible. The ratio of repression and information about them was 70 by 30-during the Great Terror, the newspapers printed only one article that said: “Pests to answer,” Pravtov explains. “In the days of the information society, the opposite is true: repression - 30%, information about them is 70%, because it spreads instantly, with the speed of writing a message in social networks.”