403: Forbidden
By Alex Wieder
“The HTTP 403 Forbidden client error status response code indicates that the server [police] understood the request but refuses to authorize [act upon] it.
...re-authenticating [asking again] will make no difference. The access [the right to life] is permanently forbidden and tied to the application logic [institution itself]...”
-MDN Web Docs edited by Alex Wieder
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The act of protest has become increasingly reliant on high technology, which has proven critically important to movements like the Arab Spring, Hong Kong protests, and most recently the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests that are occurring across the United States and other nations. Taking a stand with your time, your dollar, your camera, your words, and your body all involve smartphones, computers, and internet connectivity; these devices all play some role in our efforts to push the movement forward. Individuals and groups can organize quickly and effectively, regardless of location. Images of police brutality and vigilantism can go viral in seconds. Boycotts and donations can be made in the same transaction. Social media creates a platform to spread, change, and coalesce information faster than ever, where resources like the Citizens Police Data Project, Broadcastify, and countless others gain traction and visibility. The power of high technology as a weapon of social change will only continue to grow, however with that great power comes great vulnerability...
Incognito mode doesn’t hide as much as you think. WiFi connections can be breached. VPNs can be hacked or steal your data themselves. Alexa is always listening. Text messages can be intercepted. Images and videos you capture can tell anybody the time and location in which it was taken. Facial Recognition. Metadata. Cookies. Biometrics. It’s all around us whether we like it or not, and this isn’t even the tip of the iceberg. And all of it can be used against you if you’re not careful.
Throughout this multi-part series, I’ll discuss some of the best practices, resources, and strategies you can use to protect yourself. You may be active in the streets, organizing behind the scenes, or you might just want to keep the prying eyes of government, corporations, and other individuals off of your digital assets.
The first installation will build the foundation for good general cybersecurity practices, things like encryption, password protection, VPNs and browsing, multi factor identification, and spotting phishing attacks. The second installation will go into considerations for those protesting on the ground, such as preparing yourself and your devices against compromise, secure methods of transmitting information, and navigating difficult scenarios with the authorities. The third will focus on managing and disseminating media that you’ve captured, with a discussion on cloud vs. physical storage, the power of metadata and why you should scrub it, safely sharing information for organizing purposes, and keeping your information safe regardless of how you choose to make use of it.
Just like our current pandemic where regular hand washing and wearing a mask in public will have a measurable impact, following good practices around cybersecurity will go a long way to keeping your information forbidden to all but those you intend.
Resources:
Last Week Tonight: Facial Recognition - John Oliver takes a look at facial recognition technology, how it’s used by private companies and law enforcement, and why it can be dangerous.
Citizens Police Data Project - CPDP takes records of police interactions with the public – records that would otherwise be buried in internal databases – and opens them up to make the data useful to the public, creating a permanent record for every CPD police officer.
Broadcastify - An online repository of government service radio streams, allowing anybody with a scanner to share live police, EMT, fire, etc streams to the public for free.