Hi Organizers,
If you are posting in facebook groups or most online message boards assume the world can read what you say. That includes the FBI and the cops. "But, I'm not talking about anything illegal?" you say. That's fine just keep in mind that left organizations have historically been monitored no matter how peaceful we are. (BLM is being monitored right now) In addition, we likely have some folks from the so-called "alt-right" (Hi, white nationalists) in our groups on places like facebook posing as normal participants trying to find ways to discredit us. The latter may be the bigger issue.
I’m not saying don’t use facebook, just be aware of its limitations.
So, what do you do if you want to have conversations without being monitored? Happily, thanks to mathematics (I LOVE MATH) and open source software safe communication is available to everyone for free.
1. Encryption. Encryption is the process of converting your messages to secret code that can only be decoded by the people you choose. You could even post such codes on facebook or other public sites and they would still be safe, although it'd still be obvious who you are talking to and when. Encryption can also be used to verify that a message is really from the person who claims to be sending it. The current gold standard is PGP encryption.
2. Tor. Tor is a peer-to-peer web traffic scrambler. It can allow organizations to communicate without making it obvious or easy to tell where a message came from or where it is going. Through tor, hackers have created a parallel internet commonly called the "Deep Web" It has a reputation for being a "bad place" since drug dealers, arms dealers and human traffickers have used it, but it was designed for people like us and the fact that those people are there just shows how well it works. It is a very good way to communicate while remaining anonymous.
**When you combine Tor with PGP encryption you have the safest possible communication via the internet. **
If you have any questions about these technologies (all are free) just ask. If you have any resources to share to add to this post that would be great too.
I thought it might be helpful to outline the basics. If there is enough interest I can post more about how to set these things up and some of the most common mistakes and pitfalls. Just let me know.