Sending e-mail via a possibly sanctioned entity
Sending e-mail via a possibly sanctioned entity
Posted Nov 11, 2025 18:12 UTC (Tue) by paulj (subscriber, #341)In reply to: Sending e-mail via a possibly sanctioned entity by malmedal
Parent article: Debian to require Rust as of May 2026
We want to communicate anonymously (from the POV of others), without being overheard. We have looked at our threat model and our security requirements, and determined it is best served by obtaining phones running GrapheneOS. You lack the resources to obtain such a phone, and further the regime you are in views the purchase of secure phones as very suspicious - and you are likely to be put (at a minimum) under observation if such a purchase is detected. We have determined that it is best I purchase the phone for you (you havn't the resources), and we do so as anonymously as possible (so we have at least some plausible deniability if detected, e.g. intercepted shipment). I am known, in the wider world, to be associated with you.
One option is for me to use Tor to go to an anonymous online bazaar. Then to use an anonymous distributed payment method to buy a GrapheneOS phone, and have it shipped it to you (ideally, some drop-box or shared address that is at least not /uniquely/ associated with you). You and I know, from experience of others, that there is a minimal intercept rate on such shipments.
This is NOT an unrealistic example of how anonymous communication systems AND anonymous payment systems can be used to help protect activism in some places.
Posted Nov 11, 2025 20:12 UTC (Tue)
by pizza (subscriber, #46)
[Link]
This is an example of a quasi-anoymous communication system that sorta works (except for the glaring problem that it's a literal *phone* which means you're going to be "anonymously" tracked by $telco and/or anyone running an ISMI catcher)
Take away the "phone" part of that and you can piggyback off of public/"open" wifi, again for varying degrees of anonymity. That said, a not-terribly-repressive regime can easily require folks to require some sort of government ID and/or tied to your device [1] as a condition to grant access to said wifi. And said regime can easily require all traffic to be routed through "great firewalls" or some other classification/inspection/tracking system [2]
And sure, you can interpose middlemen, but when $oppressive_regime has no qualms about disappearing its own citizens, all you'll accomplish is a slight delay in how long it takes your door to be kicked in.
> One option is for me to use Tor to go to an anonymous online bazaar. Then to use an anonymous distributed payment method
Again, the vulnerability here is the ability to convert this "payment method" into $national_currency on either end. Those exchanges are the choke points that governments can, and do, go after.
...I keep coming back to the "what threat vector are you trying to protect yourself against" question. Because a guido wielding a gympie trounces technical handwavery... every. single. time. (see xkcd #538)
[1] I experienced this a decade ago when traveling in the Middle East.
Posted Nov 12, 2025 13:12 UTC (Wed)
by malmedal (subscriber, #56172)
[Link] (6 responses)
It's unrealistic to the point where it looks like a parody. Is it intended as one?
Phones are widely available in almost all countries, it is rarely a hard to get item. In a country where they are hard to get, North Korea, they have implemented some kind of authorization scheme so only government provided phones can actually connect to the network, an activist firing up your graphene os phone will be arrested immediately.
(I believe they do have provisions for tourists calling abroad, but an activist trying this will be noticed and arrested)
Posted Nov 12, 2025 17:08 UTC (Wed)
by paulj (subscriber, #341)
[Link] (5 responses)
1. proceeds to give an example of a country where phone purchases generally are restricted as described
If your argument really is that activists never need to buy anything that may be sensitive, where anonymity is desirable, then it is your argument that is parody.
Posted Nov 12, 2025 17:10 UTC (Wed)
by paulj (subscriber, #341)
[Link]
Posted Nov 12, 2025 19:02 UTC (Wed)
by malmedal (subscriber, #56172)
[Link] (3 responses)
> "It's so unrealistic it's a parody!"...
> 1. proceeds to give an example of a country where phone purchases generally are restricted as described
No, I'm pointing out that anybody trying to use your OS if likely to be arrested very quickly. The phone will need to authenticate itself to the network in order to prove that it is indeed an approved phone with the correct spyware installed.
> 2. fails to spot that my comment says "You lack the resources to obtain such a phone",
No, I'm saying that phones are ubiquitous, access to one is not a limitation and I'm saying that getting a Graphene OS phone is not going to help if you are physically in a dictatorship.
What activists need to do is to make their electronic signature as innocent as possible. One common tactic is to post coded messages to a popular forum that also used by normal people.
With your solution, as soon as the police finds the first activist with with a Graphene device, they will know what the traffic looks like and can use that that simply the search for the rest.
Posted Nov 12, 2025 19:28 UTC (Wed)
by pizza (subscriber, #46)
[Link]
Along those lines, the Iranian revolution in the late 70s was famously seeded via already-ubiquitous cassette tapes of Khomeni's speeches.
Posted Nov 13, 2025 10:11 UTC (Thu)
by farnz (subscriber, #17727)
[Link] (1 responses)
Thus, your goal is to not do anything that would give the police a reason to look at you; you're reliant on the fact that there's more citizens than police, and thus they cannot monitor everyone in depth. The moment you do something that marks you out as "odd", you're either fully compliant with the regime (just slightly weird - maybe you like brandy more than vodka), or you're marked out as a troublemaker and they will find a way to get you.
Posted Nov 13, 2025 11:54 UTC (Thu)
by malmedal (subscriber, #56172)
[Link]
Sending e-mail via a possibly sanctioned entity
[2] This capability continues to be demonstrated by China
Sending e-mail via a possibly sanctioned entity
Sending e-mail via a possibly sanctioned entity
2. fails to spot that my comment says "You lack the resources to obtain such a phone", so either I have to send you money somehow (anonymously) or I have to send a phone.
3. I may also be in the same restrictive regime, I just happen to have the resources to be buy the item.
4. There may be numerous other types of items useful to activism that one may wish to purchase for oneself or others anonymously.
Sending e-mail via a possibly sanctioned entity
Sending e-mail via a possibly sanctioned entity
Sending e-mail via a possibly sanctioned entity
The key to this is that "innocent until proven guilty" is an artefact of liberal societies. If you're in an illiberal society of some form, once you've been identified as a troublemaker, you will be found guilty of something; if necessary, police will plant or forge evidence to show that you've been involved with something society at large considers abhorrent.
Sending e-mail via a possibly sanctioned entity
Sending e-mail via a possibly sanctioned entity