We're back! Sorry for the delay. Life got busy. Here's a new post.
Keeping your home secure is easy, but there's a lot of things that are easy to overlook. Improving your home security is an important part of preparedness.
Sorry for lack of posts! I got sick and I am also in the process of moving and wrapping up the year. New post today or tomorrow!
J20 minus 55 — help ensure access to medication and medical supplies for yourself and vulnerable community members
Don't expect stable access to medical supplies in the near future: climate disasters, fascism, war, tariffs will all disrupt supplies of medical needs. Start preparing now.
Did you know your local library may have community paper shredding events? @ypsilibrary.bsky.social
Preparing for authoritarianism means making data reduction an everyday habit, regardless of how benign your actions are.
![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]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:tsjnif7cpewjw4r76k25ax7r/bafkreiczvc6xfmt6xdi6p7jknnxdf73ufe4zojaccdrch5bbldxcyhu7nu)
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]
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!
![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.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:tsjnif7cpewjw4r76k25ax7r/bafkreid4yobj4huhxnmch4lk6yon4evt26ca7azqejfzl7uegrzhyjimkq)
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.
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!
J20 minus 56 — buy a paper shredder
Paper is great. But to use paper safely, you have to know how to destroy paper effectively. Investing in a good shredder for yourself or your community helps keep everyone safe.
lefttoourowndevices.blog/j20-minus-56...
J20 minus 59 — learn how to build indoor-safe space heaters and prepare for cold weather
It's getting colder, energy is more expensive, and storms are disrupting power grids. Invest now in some easy DIY projects to help keep you and those in your community warm.
We’ve hit 100 subscribers to the daily newsletter! And 1000 followers! Thank you all!
Spread the good word and sign up. It’s free and I’m giving practical preparedness advice almost every day. It’s actionable and I always try to add community-oriented tips and ideas, too.
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.
J20 minus 60 — check your passports and renew them if needed
Now's the right time to check your passports. Beyond the expiration date, there's a lot you need to look for, including:
- number of blank pages
- ensuring you know where it is
Plus, info about ETIAS and ETA. Read more here!
J20 minus 64
Today's techno-authoritarians depend on our willingness to sacrifice privacy for convenience and connectedness. Don't give it to them. Practice disconnecting by habituating a digital sabbath.
lefttoourowndevices.blog/j20-minus-66...
J20 minus 63 — buy a road atlas and practice map reading
Smartphones help us get around the world. So how do we navigate when we can't take our phones with us?
J20 minus 61 — install a password manager
Black Friday can be good, sometimes: with a lot of deals on password manager subscriptions right now, it's a good time to harden your digital presence and secure your accounts better.
If you have one already, gift someone a sub who can't afford one.
J20 minus 61 — install a password manager
Black Friday can be good, sometimes: with a lot of deals on password manager subscriptions right now, it's a good time to harden your digital presence and secure your accounts better.
If you have one already, gift someone a sub who can't afford one.
Yay, the newsletter is working again!
Mailgun finally lifted the lock.
Sign up now if you haven't!
J20 minus 62 — build a phone tree
Group chats have taken the place of phone trees, but the old networked communication structure still has relevance today.
Just the other day I wrote about how very little about the capabilities of Graykey devices was known. Now we have some idea how effective they are.
Key action: update the operating system on your phone.
New from 404 Media: we've obtained and published the list of iPhone and Android devices secretive phone unlocking tech Graykey was able, or unable, to get data from recently. Unprecedented leak, we've never seen this granularity from Graykey before www.404media.co/leaked-docum...
Most states Welcome Centers (when crossing one state to the next) in the US offer free paper maps.
Great tip!
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.
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.
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.
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.
J20 minus 63 — buy a road atlas and practice map reading
Smartphones help us get around the world. So how do we navigate when we can't take our phones with us?
This happens to be both a timely and excellent post. Recommended reading during your "sabbatical": The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" by Shoshanna Zuboff".
J20 minus 64
Today's techno-authoritarians depend on our willingness to sacrifice privacy for convenience and connectedness. Don't give it to them. Practice disconnecting by habituating a digital sabbath.
lefttoourowndevices.blog/j20-minus-66...
Having a car means having a very valuable community mutual aid asset. But you have to keep it maintained if you want to use it to help people stay safe, and with tariffs coming, it's going to get more expensive.
The terrifying possibility of RFK Jr. being in charge of our vaccine supply starting in 68 days is a good excuse to start preparing by gathering medical records and refreshing vaccinations while they're still available.
In researching this post I found a very recent study on the success rate of Americans applying for asylum abroad.
Of around 14,000 cases between 2001 and 2021, around 400, or less than 3%, were successful.
Asylum is a horrible experience and it has a very low success rate for USians.
