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Obfuscating your identity
The principles section applies to everyone.
Pick and choose new habits according to the first principle: convenience, as well as your risk level.
This guide is a work in progress.
If you use a password manager, many have a "form fill" option that you can use to essentially manage identities. Make it easy for yourself. The form fill feature will make it an easy, one-click process. Using false data requires some discipline and you should absolutely build in safeguards and assume you will mess up from time to time. Use form-fill profiles. If you're forgetful, ask a couple low-risk / privileged friends if you can use their addresses, just in case you mess up and need to actually get a delivery from a false address.
To get false data to look plausible and get it to propagate through data brokers, it's best to maintain two or three consistent profiles of false data. Prepare a few plausible profiles in advance and use them consistently.
Most data brokers don't take submissions, but if you sign up for a CVS card that data will definitely find its way into a data broker. Sign up for discount clubs, edit your profile in the services you use. Even in services where you want to have something shipped to you, you can "remember" a false address in your profile and edit it when you place an actual order.
Here are some templates:
- Real address, fake name: If you're ordering things online you may need to have them delivered to your real address. You may also have to use your real name for the "billing address" if you are using a credit card, but you can use a different "ship to" address. If you're paying with PayPal, you may not even need to use a real name.
- Real name, fake address: For services where you want to be identifiable to, say, friends and family, but you don't need anything delivered to you, use your real name but don't use your address.
- Fake name, fake address / phone: For things like paid online services or anything where delivering things to your house is never an issue, there's no reason to enter real information ever.
Consider your risk level. If you are a low-profile activist, choosing real addresses at random is probably fine. If you are high risk and think you may be swatted, choose a plausible but false address such as a large apartment building but with no apartment number. Map the address and make sure it looks real. Providing a fake address is also a great way for privileged folks with not a lot of free time to contribute to movement work. Find a friend who lives near you.
Choose a few birth dates that give you approximately the same age (but a few years off is actually helpful if you can look the part) and use them consistently. Using them as part of a false profile will help ensure that the data appears valid and gets propagated through online data aggregators. Many data brokers will bin people by age group (i.e. 20's, 30's) so if you can straddle a boundary and get yourself in more than one bin (I'm 28 and 34!) that's a plus. Keep in mind that when people are attempting to identify activists, they will be guessing your age from photos or seeing you in person, so if you look older or younger than your true age, lean into it!
A couple of long-term google accounts set up as "burner" accounts (i.e. not linked to your true identity and location) will serve you well. Think of these like your spam email, just a little more of a hassle to set up. You can also use the names from your false identity profiles. Use these accounts for services where you need an email to log in, or for registering other google services like Google Voice.
Google Voice is a VOIP / call forwarding service that is free to use. If you register a google voice number using a false name, that name will propagate to data brokers. This is a convenient and very legitimate-looking way to get false data into data brokers. Phone numbers are also an excellent unique identifier with a direct connection to your finances, which are difficult to use false names for. This layer of obfuscation is critical for activists who need to be able to give out their phone numbers for organizing purposes.
Getting a PO box or using services like Amazon Locker will allow you to receive mail without disclosing your home address.