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lefttoourowndevices.blog
Left✊ to Our Own Devices
@lefttoourowndevices.blog
2.8K followers 1 following 40 posts
A blog about preparedness and survival in a time of fascism.

Administered by @emily.gorcen.ski
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lefttoourowndevices.blog
Preparing for authoritarianism means making data reduction an everyday habit, regardless of how benign your actions are.
November 25, 2024 at 10:06 PM
lefttoourowndevices.blog
Did you know if you take your trash out to the curb, police can search it without a warrant in many cases?

You do now!
However, if you're an organizer or if you're worried about state surveillance, you might want to step it up a notch to a P-5 level device.[7] This extra bit of security can't be stressed enough: courts have ruled that trash set out to the curb can be searched without a warrant.[8]
November 25, 2024 at 10:05 PM
lefttoourowndevices.blog
Did you know that almost every modern laser printer is assumed to be printing nearly invisible tracking dots on every page? Have you ever wondered why your printer drivers make you log into the internet to print a page on a printer physically attached to your computer?

You do now!
In seriousness, paper has a major downside: it's that it's very difficult to encrypt anything on paper.[1] There's another risk. In the mid-2010s, the Electronic Frontier Foundation did research on printer microdots,[2] eventually concluding in 2017[3] that (emphasis theirs): IT APPEARS LIKELY THAT ALL RECENT COMMERCIAL COLOR LASER PRINTERS PRINT SOME KIND OF FORENSIC TRACKING CODES, NOT NECESSARILY USING YELLOW DOTS. THIS IS TRUE WHETHER OR NOT THOSE CODES ARE VISIBLE TO THE EYE AND WHETHER OR NOT THE PRINTER MODELS ARE LISTED HERE. THIS ALSO INCLUDES THE PRINTERS THAT ARE LISTED HERE AS NOT PRODUCING YELLOW DOTS.
November 25, 2024 at 10:04 PM
lefttoourowndevices.blog
The ETIAS/ETA thing is not to be overlooked. US travelers next year will have an additional hurdle they have to go through, and additional fee they must pay, before traveling to the UK or in the Schengen Area.

Though the vast majority of decisions should be instant, it can take 30 days.
November 21, 2024 at 11:00 PM
Reposted by Left✊ to Our Own Devices
Most states Welcome Centers (when crossing one state to the next) in the US offer free paper maps.
November 18, 2024 at 11:54 PM
lefttoourowndevices.blog
Great tip!
November 19, 2024 at 12:02 AM
lefttoourowndevices.blog
Another community-oriented tip is to pool together some money to buy some non-connected GPS devices for a community tech library. This is especially useful for communities doing e.g. abortion care logistics support, where traveling with a smartphone can carry elevated risk.
GPS devices are also sharable among a community, unlike smartphones which are usually linked to a specific person and mobile plan. It's possible to pool together a few hundred dollars to buy a couple of these devices and keep them in a sort of community tech library. That way, when you need one, you can check it out and return it when you get back.
November 18, 2024 at 11:44 PM
lefttoourowndevices.blog
I'm a road geek and definitely geeked out in this one. But there's an important survival lesson in all of this: if you know how the highway system works and you need to get out of wherever you are in a hurry, then you can get on any interstate and visually navigate to wherever you need to be.
But that's not the point. The point isn't to convert you into a road geek. The point is to teach you an essential survival skill: if you get on any interstate, even if you don't know where you are, you can determine where you are heading just from the numbers. If you find yourself in a situation, any situation, where you need to just go, you can just get on the nearest interstate in any direction and be able to figure out where it takes you. This is an enormously powerful feature of the system—among other things, the system was designed to be able to move massive amounts of people, troops, or goods quickly across the country even if they didn't know the local terrain. That design can help you get to where you need to be (or at least, to the right city) without navigational aids.
November 18, 2024 at 11:31 PM