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Fine. We're Proud of You Zuck - Wary, but Proud

3/12/2019

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It's just a picture of Mark Zuckerberg.Zuckerberg emoting. Credit to NBC.
​We are VERY hard on facebook.  

And for good reason.  

This organization started because of the Facebook Real Names Policy in early 2013 and to this day we harp on Facebook’s refusal to protect LGBTQ+ people by providing alias names, securing data and information better, not catering to peoples’ privacy, and generally sucking at community anonymity when we ask them to.  

But something changed recently in Mark Zuckerberg’s little scrooge heart (possibly robotic?).

A week ago Zuckerberg published a near 3,200-word blog about a shift from public information social networks to private networks.  And that’s VERY good for all of you. 

In this blog, Zuckerberg admitted to the security problems with his platform and announced he will be pivoting to a security-based social platform that we feel holds a lot of promise for your safety, security, and anonymity on the web.

So in this blog, we’re going to go over his letter to let you know what may or may not be “troubling”.

A quick summary of his Blog

Now fortunately for you, there is no need to read all 3,200 hundred words of the CEO’s admission of guilt because it’s all pretty technical.  

Zuckerberg starts out by suggesting a few ideas about what the future of the internet will entail and we are VERY proud of him here.  He is championing from here on out:
  1. Private interactions between people without any “eyes” on your conversation,
  2. Encrypted Data so no “eyes” are watching the mail process in the first place,
  3. Temporary & Secure Data Storage so they’re not holding info longer than needed,
  4. Safety for everyone involved as they interact on the platform and,
  5. Platform Inter-operability that rolls these changes out to every platform they own.
As for why he has changed his views on the future of social media,
We’ve super-cut all the parts that are important to you in a way that makes sense*:
(also check the P.S for more below!)

“I believe a privacy-focused communications platform will become even more important than today's open platforms. Privacy gives people the freedom to be themselves and connect more naturally, which is why we build social networks. [...] But people should be comfortable being themselves, and should not have to worry about what they share coming back to hurt them later. ” [...] Now, with all the ways people also want to interact privately, there's also an opportunity to build a simpler platform that's focused on privacy first.

[...]  Frankly, we [Facebook] don’t currently have a strong reputation for building protective privacy services, and we've historically focused on tools for more open sharing. [...] There is also a growing concern among some that technology may be centralizing power in the hands of governments and companies like ours.

​[...] But in WhatsApp, for example, our team is obsessed with creating an intimate environment in every aspect of the product. [...] I believe we should be working towards a world where people can speak privately and live freely knowing that their information will only be seen by who they want to see it and won't all stick around forever.​"
 ~ Mark Zuckerberg; Wed. March 6th

​So can we trust him?

Picture: Read the full infographic at: http://onlineprivacydata.com/Read the full infographic at: http://onlineprivacydata.com/
​That sounds all well and good but how is he going to make the current Facebook Juggernaut of platforms (that run on modern marketing companies abusing customer metadata in surveillance marketing) into a safe privacy first, encrypted network that we feel safe using?  

Right now, according to the Online Data Privacy survey, a whopping 83% of Americans believe that too much of their personal information is being made public without their consent and virtually all of them are worried about that information being stolen or abused.  
​
So in my opinion...

It’s too soon to tell when these features will be rolled out, if they’ll be useful, and whether they are going to be made in your interest.  Plenty of politicians submit well-meaning population focused bills to Congress that turn into money-grubbing industry-focused laws and that’s no different for technology.  

So we suggest

​Take your safety security and anonymity into your own hands.  Follow our 5-steps to your anonymity and join our already implemented social communities on known safe platforms:
Picture: 5 easy ways to stay safe on the internet Link: https://www.rescqu.net/blog/5-easy-steps-to-stay-safe-anonymous-on-the-internet
Protect yourself Online
Picture: sign up for our anonymous weekly digest!
Get our Anonymous Weekly Digest
Picture: Sign up for our Private Whisper Community!
Join our Whisper Group
Picture: Samantha with Suzanne Dibble

Samantha V Logan

Samantha is the Executive Director of RESCQU.NET as well as a full-stack digital marketer.  She struggles with both of these roles as her primary job asks her to collect  as much information as the internet will allow, while she also actively fights that surveillance marketing for you here at RESCQU.NET.  

Samantha's Bio
View my profile on LinkedIn

*​P.S: We C/P'd some interesting quotes from his blog below:


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Meet our new Resource Coordinator: Ricki Palmisano!

11/29/2018

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When I first worked on RESCQU.NET’s resources database as a temporary volunteer, I had no idea what I was in for. 

There we were, in the Lair of Abraxas, for an event to build a database of over 150 LGBTQ+ resources, and I was looking over several weeks worth of work, matching organizations with their contact information.  There was a long way to go, but I approached it as a logic game.

The night was full of tea and friends, and I even got a T-shirt at the end! Weeks of work beforehand started to come to fruition. At the end of the night our leader, Samantha, approached me. She complimented me on my work in the database over the prior few weeks and asked me how I felt about it. 

And then she asked me if I'd like to join the team, curating this database permanently—the rest is history. 

I’m Ricki Palmisano, and this is the resource database. 

A main feature of the database is the ‘vetting’ process. We will call and email each organization to make sure we have the best anonymous contact for closeted and out folks alike. Automation is something we can look forward to, but for now, I’m working out the kinks, and enjoying the one-on-one time I get to have with some of our founding partner organizations.

So What's on the Database?

Picture: Contact Northern Colorado Eclectic if you're local to Colorado. Link:https://nocoequality.org/ Contact Northern Colorado Eclectic if you're local to Colorado.
Two organizations immediately jumped on board the database project with me.

Northern Colorado Eclectic:

Eclectic was kind enough to share their resources with us from day one and largely contributed to the volume of resources our database has now. Eclectic is a local group that organizes events, support groups, and programs in the northern Colorado area to support and educate people in and around the LGBTQ+ community.  Eclectic also doubles as an advocacy group associated with CO state representative Dr. Joann Ginal, who focuses on health care and public issues for the LGBTQ+ and intersectional communities. Check them out on our database!

Picture: Beyond the Mirror is an awesome resource. Check it out if you are in Fort Collins. https://www.holistichealingandtherapycenter.com/Beyond the Mirror is an awesome resource. Check it out if you are in Fort Collins.
Beyond the Mirror:

Is an identity counseling service flew through the vetting process and I’m proud to have them on our list! They are useful for folks questioning, still in the closet, or at any point in their journey. They provide services specialized for teens and those with eating disorders. Look up their name or ‘counseling’ on our database to find their anonymous contact or your own local equivalent LGBT+ counseling services.

Take a look at our database to find these resources and more. Type in the organization’s name into the search bar on the upper right-hand corner of the database window.

What’s Next for the Database?

Now I have a new task in front of me: How do we make this database easy to navigate? 

Together, Samantha and I came up with a solution: a way to tag each organization with searchable keywords that you would use to find that resource. That way people could easily find the resources most useful to them at the time they need it. 

Over time, spearheading the database has become a bit more organized.  I brought a friend of mine with me to volunteer and now I have a partner in crime.  Together our goal is to make the database as full and accessible as possible. 

If you have any questions on how to use the database or have a suggestion of your own, you can email me anonymously at Ricki.Palmisano@rescqu.net! (I’m closet-friendly, too)

About the Author: Ricki P.

Ricki is the Database coordinator for RESCQU.NET. She vets and establishes partnerships with organizations to ensure closet-friendly resources are in the database.
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Let's Discuss Cookies!

11/6/2018

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Sorry for the click-bait.  It's not the food kind.  But, this is important so keep reading! 

​You’ve probably heard the term “cookie” thrown around while browsing the Internet. Recently, there’s been a big change to these “cookies.”  And that change is vital to your net-safety. 

When you go to a website, a new European Law called GDPR now requires companies to inform you that it uses these "cookies"to track some of the things you do on their site (and afterward).

So we’re going to briefly discuss in this blog, what a cookie is when they can infringe on your privacy and then we’ll show you how to avoid the dangerous ones.  
Since the new Law passed you've probably been seeing several popups on different sites: https://www.cookiebot.com/en/gdpr-cookies/
Since the new law passed you've probably been seeing warning like these on several sites.

Let’s start with the basics - What are Cookies?

​ The term originated as a “computer nerd” expression describing a set of data that is sent from a site’s server to your computer, and that comes back unchanged, called a “magic cookie.”

Technically speaking, the cookies saved to your web browser create a dictionary of all kinds of information related to you; what you’ve browsed and information that helps web pages give you a better experience on their sites. Websites use cookies for all kinds of things, and not all of them are bad.  Indeed marketers use them to make website advertising a kinder place for you.

But, you can think of cookies as a collection of membership cards.

When you navigate to a site, it provides you a cookie that says “I’ve been here and am interested in these things.”  The sites then request them back from your browser to verify who you are, what you’re on the site for and then they custom-tailor their information for you based on the cookies you have.
A beautiful infographic from Vertical Measures describes this more in-depth: https://www.verticalmeasures.com/blog/digital-marketing/cookies-a-guide-to-understanding-data-driven-morsels/
For those who want to know more, here's a beautiful Infographic from vertical measures!
​For example...
When you log in to your bank’s website, the site will “start a session” for you and that session is tracked with a cookie. This cookie cannot be accessed by other websites, but when you log into your bank again, there's no need to provide a password because the cookie already "verified" you.  This cookie is helpful.

But when you browse a shopping website and click on an item, many shopping websites will track that item in a “recently viewed” area of the shopping site by giving you a cookie that tracks what items you’ve viewed. This one could be used to out you.

After leaving that shopping site, you may also notice that same item shows up in an advertisement on another website because it requested your “Amazon Products” cookie. That’s where things start to feel a little unsettling for most people.

Is there an easy way to 'see' the cookie?

Frankly speaking, No. There's not really an easy way.

But there are two ways if you're willing to do it. (If not, skip to what you can do to prevent cookies).

1. "View Page Info" 
​In Firefox, you can see if a website is using cookies by right-clicking any inactive part of a web page (for example, away from all the links and pictures) and select “View Page Info.” 

This provides a dizzying amount of information. We’ll likely discuss this view in a later 201 blog, but at least some of it will probably make sense to you. 

If you look under the “Security” tab, you’ll find things like the website identity, how many times your browser thinks you’ve visited the site, and whether it uses cookies or not. 

At this point, you can clear the cookies just for the site you’re on if you want. This is a "reasonably" simple way to see if cookies are in use on the site you’re looking at, but it's really not ley-person friendly.

2. The Storage Inspector
You can also see all of the cookies your browser has recorded in Firefox using SHIFT-F9 to bring up the “Storage Inspector.” From there, you’ll see a menu on the left for different ways the site can store information. One of those is “Cookies.” If you expand and highlight the site you’re interested in, the grid will then contain all the cookies that are currently active for the site.

What you're probably going to be most interested in are the “Name” and “Value” fields.

Clicking on a cookie record will bring up the details, but to get a good look at a cookie, you have to expand the “Data” window on the right side of the SHIFT-F9 window.
For Example:  Using the Wikipedia Cookie Page
Just to give you a little taste of what you might find, I tried the Wikipedia cookie page. And, guess what? 

It saved the location I’m browsing the page from in a cookie called “GeoIP.”

Why does Wikipedia need to know where I am to provide the information I requested??? 

See how this works? Imagine if you’ve been doing personal research at the library, and you log in to a site you’re using. That site may put your location data in a cookie. Some cookies stick around – so later another website you visit can capture that cookie. So, now, two websites can figure out that you’ve visited this other site from the library.

Yikes! What do I do?

1 - Clear Your Cookies!
Make it a regular practice to clear your cookies before you move onto or away from sites you don’t want people to know you’re on. 

This does delete helpful cookies like session logins but we feel it’s worth the inconvenience.

2 - Use Private Browsing Modes
Another approach is to use the incognito mode available in most browsers when doing personal research on LGBTQ+ related things.  Be sure to start a new incognito session every time you want to go to a new page (easier said than done). 

To do this, you can copy the link you want to go to next by right-clicking on the link and selecting something like “Copy Link Address.” After you’ve copied the link, you can close your incognito session and start a new one.  Then copy that link in the new incognito session. 

This prevents the sites from talking to each other through your browser.

Yeah, but how???

Picture
Here’s more information on how to view and delete cookies on the top used browsers:
  1. How do I see and control cookies in my web browser?
  2. More on the Firefox Storage Inspector.
  3. Get to know how different cookies work using this awesome Infographic!

The “View Page Info” feature in Firefox is relatively unique to that browser and can really help you just get to know some of the basic things that are going on when you browse websites – knowledge is power :)

"Why are these invasive cookies a thing in the first place?!?"

Why the internet is built to out you

About the Author: Jerry P


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Why You May Not Vote, and How You Can Change That

10/23/2018

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Hi, there!

I'm Erin, the Weekly Digest - and if you choose to volunteer - Volunteer Coordinator here at RESCQU.NET!

In lieu of a regular blog post this week, I feel like it’s important we discuss something that is happening at the beginning of next month: voting.

These days, everyone is talking about voting as "why you should vote." The language of “motivation” going around seems to assume that people don’t vote because they're lazy or they don’t care.

What about those of us who find voting extremely difficult for other reasons?
I have anxiety. Really bad anxiety. Especially in highly charged crowds.

So, the polls seem VERY scary to me.

It’s so much more than just getting off of the couch and waiting in line to me. The idea alone nauseates me and makes my muscles twitch.

There are millions of other reasons one may not be willing or able to vote from anxiety to active voter suppression.  If you’re closeted or have any reason whatsoever that you are afraid or hesitant to vote, we want you to know that that feeling is valid, but workarounds have to be found.

​
But I am lucky enough to live in a state that allows me to mail in my ballot every year. Not everyone has that resource, and if they do, they're often not aware it exists.  

This blog provides you the resources needed to work around your hurdles & cast that vote!

How to vote in Every State, and Whether You Can Mail it in!

This below state voting database includes 3 pieces of information for each state: 
  1. The link to the state's voting page to receive information for and register to vote! 
  2. Can you vote by mail? 
  3. Can you vote online?
I sincerely hope that the chart above offers you some voting assistance, but if you need more, we've also embedded a very helpful channel from the VlogBrothers and DFTBA about how to vote in each state.  You'll need to go to the youtube channel to find your state.
​ 
​If you're in a state that does not allow for mail-in or online voting, you will have to report to your designated location.  While that is a significant hurdle though, we have a few more options for you as well.
Go to this channel and find your state!

Do you Work on Voting Day?

Picture
Though I'd mentioned anxiety as a hurdle of mine, it's certainly not the only or most prominent hurdle.

​Many people work on election day and cannot take time off due to financial restraints.

​​If this applies to you, you can visit
Vote411.org and enter your address to see if your employer is legally required to give you paid time off to vote on election day. Every area varies a little in their terms, so make sure that you're looking at the correct precinct that you’ll be voting in!

How to Fight Voter Suppression

Last, and the certainly scariest of the hurdles, is the blatant voter suppression tactics that are running amok all over the country.

I'm not going to expand on all of them, simply because it is a hot topic right now and there are a lot of people who are saying it better than I can right now.  For more information head over to this
 New York Times article that discusses themost recent tactics in the "age of Trump".  

Knowing about these tactics is vital to getting your vote cast, but if you find yourself oppressed, you find people telling you your vote doesn't matter, or you are physically barred from voting,  here's the number 1 thing you can get that will fight this: 

Know How Your State Provides Voting Information

Every state is required to inform the federal government how they plan to educate their citizens on the issues most prominently displayed during the voting process. 

Some of them are easy, like Colorado which provides a "bluebook" or voter information ballot mailed to every home and provided online.

Other states put it in harder to reach spots, but they can ALL be found on the federal registry.  
  1. Go to to this link at the state legislator's site.
  2. Scroll down to your state and check the section it's in.
  3. and it tells you where the state must have the information.
  4. then search google for "[state] [voter information source]"
  5. and it will be within the first 5 links! 

Know What's on Your Ballot, Well Before You Vote

We're also going to leave one last tool for your toolbox to make sure you can get around any hurdle you have to voting.  The internet.  

More spectifically, the internet has deemed your vote important, so they've created a wikipedia specifically for your local, state, and federal elections over at Ballotpedia.org.  

This site has literally everything you need ot know about the candidates, policies and more.  all you have to do is navigate to the local page you're interested in, hit search, and read! 

​https://ballotpedia.org/Main_Page
Picture

About Erin Tschudi

​Erin is the volunteer with the largest tenure here at RESCQU.NET because it allows her to keep connected with the LGBT+ community.  As a bi woman who is soon to be getting married to her future husband she feels deeply for the community and wants to keep that connection.  So she works to train our volunteers, welcome our new community members, and keep the wheels turning.
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Net Safety 201:  How to Mask Your presence with ToR Browser

10/2/2018

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Picture
At RESCQU.NET we service people who could be cut off from their family, hurt, kicked out, ridiculed, or worse, if it's discovered that they're accessing LGBT+ resources.

We often have to help people who, as a result of these situations, must be so far under the radar that no 5-step Infographic to internet safety will cut it (you should still start here though).  

So to help those of you in this tough spot, we have a living blog post, How to Keep your LGBTQ+ Identity Hidden Online. that we constantly update once per month so you can learn more about keeping yourself safe.

We've added a summary of this post to it, but here, we're talking about Net Safety Class 201:
ToR browser and erasing your "net presence". 

Before we can talk about ToR Though, we need to talk about your "IP address" or how the internet knows what computer you are accessing it from.

Your Address is Like Caller ID

Picture[Infographic] IP addresses and internet structure.
The Internet is generally a very open place.

Internet Protocol Addresses or IP addresses are like envelopes for your "data" that are used to get it from its starting point (your computer) to the end destination (where the information is) and back. 

IP addresses carry necessary data that the receiving device can authenticate you with, much like a caller ID. If you seem legit, they'll reply back, or save you into their "contacts" and "call you" later.


If someone can read all the places with your IP Addresses, they can piece together who you are, and what you see on the internet.

​While the average interested person, school, or company, doesn’t typically want to go through the hassle of putting all those pieces together, there's a point
where you might find someone who is that interested. 

Like say, if you're 
a Bisexual teen with very "strict" parents and with strict parental control services.

So How Do You "Erase" your IP Address?

There are several ways to prevent IP addresses being linked to you and your information.

​Systems or devices that don't require a user name and password to gain access to the Internet are reasonably untraceable, but this isn’t always an option.  There could be time limitations, or people will catch on because systems are 
too public, or web filters block certain sites at libraries.

Anonymous proxies and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are other ways to hide IP addressees, which we'll save for later blogs, but even then, these are difficult to set up and get access to, may cost money to use, and initial access is usually tracked.

The easiest way to mask your IP Address is using Tor browser, “The Onion Router”.

What is ToR browser?

First, a quick definition of Tor Browser and then we'll explain:

Tor is a browser that inefficiently sends and repackages your data through several relays and special encryption hubs on the internet, before arriving at it's final location.  S
ending your data through several extra stops makes it difficult to link the originator of the data request (you) to the target of the request (The site's servers with the information you wanted).

Whew, that’s a mouthful – let’s break that down a bit.
  • Routing is how data is directed through the Internet.
  • Packets are the bundles of data you sent out and their routing information
    (the from and to addresses on an Envelope). 
  • Encryption is a technique that scrambles information so no one, but the sender and receiver can understand it.

So basically, instead of sending a letter straight to your aunt:
  1. You send it to someone that takes your envelope and scrambles the to and from information.
  2. They put it in a new envelope and send it to someone else who does the same thing.
  3. Several times after this is repeated the last person holds on to all of those envelopes, removes your letter, repackages it, and sends the letter in a brand new envelope to your aunt. 
  4. That new letter can't be opened without the old envelopes and the new data, but to your aunt, it looks like it came from that last person in the chain.
  5. She responds to the letter back to that last person, they shove the return letter into that old envelope and do a “return to sender
  6. Each person in the chain repeats the process until your aunt's reply gets back to you.
  7. If the letter was intercepted by a nosy third party somewhere in the middle, or even at your aunt’s house, they wouldn’t know where it came from or where it was supposed to go. 

    Side Note: There’s real mail services that do something like this, if you'd like to have some fun.
    ​ ​
ToR browser's primary strength is that it’s easy to download and use, and designed precisely to mask IP addresses without extra configuration (in most cases), It's pretty good right out of the box as that's exactly what w'ere trying to achieve here.

​​Tor’s primary weakness however is that you have to download it. It has to be on your system.

​If someone else is monitoring you or your system, just having the software may raise some suspicions. Tor downloads are often completely blocked on some sites and they will not allow you access via Tor browser.

Okay Cool.  So How Do I Start Using It?

Tor is best utilized via the “Tor Browser” which is available for free from http://www.torproject.org.

Basically, you download the browser, and start using it, it’s that simple.

However, there are some caveats and limitations on what Tor can do for you. There are a list of warnings from the download page that you should definitely read and consider. 

For example;
"Tor does not protect all of your computer's Internet traffic when you run it. Tor only protects your applications that are properly configured to send their Internet traffic through Tor.
So, if you use the Tor Browser, it’s easy.  If you want to use other network services (say Skype), there's a learning curve.  Aaand you've got some work to do.
​

So, I use Tor, and Then I’m Totally Safe, Right?

No. it’s not that simple.  

What we can say is, "Tor will ensure that your IP address isn’t recorded on the other end of your internet exchange." That’s it. 

There are a few problems.

1. Sticking out like a sore thumb
It’s similar to using a fake name when you go to a hotel a lot. After a while, if you're the only one using an alias, they can tell you're the one signing your bills Mary Winchester of Lawrence, Kansas.

if you’re the only one using Tor in your physical location on your Internet Service Provider's (ISP’s) network, eventually, with enough monitoring, the person you’re trying to avoid, will figure it out and you'll just stick out like a sore thumb.

The network administrator or authorities can pinpoint traffic right back to you.   Using services outside of Tor, alongside it is like using your real credit card to pay for the hotel under your fake name.


2. The Content is Still Readable
This also doesn’t immediately prevent your local network administrator from being able to see what you’re trying to send or what you get back (which is why Tor isn’t enough!).

You still need to follow the 101 tips we offered you in prior blogs to really utilize Tor’s benefits.

3.  The origin and destinations are still the same
Those first hops out to the Tor network have to go through your local network and ISP. Tor isn’t magic!

There are ways to provide extra security to help hide from local system administrators like using Tor bridges if your network administrators or your ISP block direct access to Tor, 
and obfuscation; doing things to make figuring out your data and where you’re sending it mor difficult.

The Bottom Line: This is a Wrench. You Need a Tool Box.

Tor is only one tool of several you can use to protect your online identity.  Over the course of the next several months, we hope to give you more tools that you can use in concert to keep yourself safe.  

Be on the lookout for them, and join our local support groups, and weekly email digest so we can give these resources to you manually - no digital paper trail.  

Simpler ways to keep your identity hidden onlnie
Why the web is built to out you in the first place

This Article is curated by Jerri P (updated monthly)

Jerri joined RESCQU.NET to assist in attaining secure and safe technological systems.  Jerry did their masters in computer technology on computer languages and enforcing SSL documentation.  They now help us with the closet-friendly partner organization program, and inform you of the dangers of searching the internet unprotected.

Guest Author: Jeffery Kenworthy

Jeff is an avid user of Tor Browser and a "hacker in training".  He specializes in finding weak points in internet security for sites, databases, servers, and devices so software engineers can plug them.  He contributed a good deal to this article and hopes for LGBTQ+ safety to become a bigger issue in the Net Neutrality and Security debate.
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5 Easy Steps to Stay Safe & Anonymous on the Internet [Infographic]

9/25/2018

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In the past month we've discussed the internet's pension,
​both technologically, and culturally, to out you.   


But the internet's not doing this because it's bad.  It's because all the people who architect the websites and social channels you frequent think they're being helpful.  If they learn everything about you before you talk to them, they can better serve your needs.

But we know here at RESCQU NET, that your number one priority as a questioning, closeted, stealth, or under-resourced LGBT+ person is to be safe, secure, anonymous and in control while searching the internet for LGBT+ resources that are vital to you.  

So today we've whipped up a handy Infographic that turns our current blog, How to keep your LGBTQ+ identity hidden online, into 5 steps. 

Quick Note Though: be sure to check in on the blog because we continually add to it and put a few more tricks up your sleeve (lookin' at you, teens). 
Picture

1. Create A Separate Email Address  

With all of the personal information the internet can view, the safest place for a closeted individual is in their private email inbox, but even that's worrisome.  

Create a seperate, secure, non-gmail related email to collect resources.

2. Use Private Browsing Modes 

​The second you leave your inbox, visit a website, or fill out a form, the internet uses data-tracking systems to record your presence. 

To prevent this, find and use your browser's private or "incognito" mode. 

3. ​Remove Yourself From History

Even in private mode, people can peak at your computer's search history if they gain access to it.  Remember to always log out, clear files you've downloaded...

...and delete your search history with a program like CCleaner. 

4. Find The Right Times AND Places 

The old adage, "hide a tree in a forest", applies here.  If your spaces are not safe, consider using library computers, cafe Wi-Fi, or public resources, to access ours.

Interact with us when you feel safest, and know you're ready.

5. Anonymously Collect Resources 

Learn more about the community and safely acquire information, support, &  LGBTQ+ resources on the living, blog post below; How to keep your LGBTQ+ identity hidden online.
Learn more Cool Tricks to Stay anonymous

Author & Illustrator:  Samantha V. Logan

Samantha is the Executive Director of RESCQU.NET, an online Community Manager, and full-stack marketer.  She launched Trans* Youth Channel in 2013 to record her transition and help other transgender people online transition safely.  She saw a need to protect people who weren't out yet, and transitioned the organization to make the site you see today.
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Why the Web is Built to “Out” you, and How You Can Avoid It

9/6/2018

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Since the internet discovered how to monetize social media, websites have become increasingly focused on you - the consumer - and your data as the product.  

This has put capturing your data front-and-center for business and the ways it captures that data is rarely clear.  

Still, the Facebook real-names policy and the Cambridge Analytica scandal have proven that blindly providing data without consent, is extremely dangerous if you’re an LGBTQ+ person who hasn’t come out yet.


In this blog we’ll explain why the internet is so hungry for your data and at what point capturing your data becomes intrusive. And of course, we wouldn’t be responsible if we didn’t offer some ways for you to handle it at the end.

Before we start, I’d like to say we are not focusing on the technical aspects of your safety.
We have an entire blog dedicated to keeping you safe online.  

Here, we’re gonna focus on the marketing tactics that convince you, to hand over your identity.

Most data is actually fine. It’s just used wrong.

To start off, let’s say it straight.  Not all data collection is bad - far from it - but you need to know how and when your identity gets into the hands of people who can “out” you.  

This starts with intent.


The first thing that pops into people's heads when they hear about others abusing their online data, is the hacker.  Humped over their computer, looking at their screen in a dark room, with your bank account information in their “sites”. This is a stereotype, and it’s very wrong.
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The notion of a hacker collecting and abusing your data is a stereotype.
In reality, it's really well-meaning companies trying to cater to your consumer needs.
Hackers serve a lot of different roles on the web.  Their intent is defined by the "hat" they are wearing when they work.  There are white hats, grey hats, and black hats (and yes, you can think of them like Jedi, Grey Jedi, and Sith Lords).  Marketing is the same. ​
Virtually all online fields break down into these categories. 

White hat marketers are people who are trying to market to you online with good intentions and ethics at the top of their mind.  These people tend to prescribe to the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) who believe that ads done right, mean ads you care about and want to see, are all you see.  

These marketers, and the programmers who build their sites, are geared toward helping you seamlessly attain what you need to go from point A - you need something - to point B - you have it.

To do that, marketers use a variety of “tactics” to get what they need from you without being annoying. Most of these involve the "collection" of “harmless data” called 
“behavioral tracking”.


To understand how this works, let’s consider the Marketing Funnel. 

This is a strategy that suggests you need time to understand what you’re buying.  You need to feel comfortable with who your purchasing it from, and make the decision to purchase it.  
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The idea is:
  1. They will first get your attention,
  2. Then offer a way to stay in contact in exchange for an email or subscription.
  3. They’ll provide a low-ball offer to get you on board and excited,
  4. And hen they’ll provide some information on what they sell.
  5. If you want it, you’ll buy it.  And then, hopefully, you'll talk about it.

Each step of the way you provide just a little more data and they'e getting consent to have your data every step of the way.  ​

​And this isn't bad.

Our Bisexual/Pansexual support group requires enough information to ensure security for others when you join the group. We have to prove you are who you are, but you are anonymous.

So instead we:
  1. Get your attention to let you know you're traceable online, and show you how to hide,
  2. Offer a weekly digest that provides you all of our resources in exchange for an email,
  3. Publish blogs and deliver content to you with suggestions to join our support groups,
  4. And eventually get you to come to one, enjoy it, and share it with others as a resource.

This works for us as a vetting process for us, and it gives you resources you need without feeling negative about it.   

Much of the information websites collect involve this “white hat” level of marketing.  A lot of it improves your user experience on the internet, but things get dicey as people begin to follow you around, either to personalize your ads or more devastatingly, sell information about you to ad agencies.

You don’t have control over data collected or it's use

Now let's back up a second.

​There’s nothing inherently bad about a website installing a cookie on your computer. 

​But if that cookie is used by other agencies to identify you, it can be devastating.  

A 2014
Time magazine article identified a pregnant woman whose ads discovered she was pregnant before she could tell the father.  This is daily life for closeted LGBTQ+ people now, and even with the greatest of precautions...

The internet’s current architecture is built to out you.  


In that same Time article, the author tried to remain anonymous on the web about her own pregnancy for all nine months.  She didn’t succeed because companies who were tracking her data, were providing that data to companies who had nothing to do with her.  She “opted-out” of data collection for one business, but the other businesses she had no idea were watching her, outed her anyway.

This woman was careful.  She took greater precautions than we ever recommend, and still, the marketing practices attempting to sell her products she would need, over-zealously outed her as an expecting parent to her friends and family.

According to Andy Yen, “the business model of the Internet today really isn't compatible with privacy. Just take a look at some of the biggest names on the web, and you see that advertising plays a huge role. In fact, this year alone, advertising is $137 billion dollars, and to optimize the ads that are shown to us, companies have to know everything about us.”

So what can you do about it? 

So what’s to be done about it?

The answer to what we can do about this is hard. RESCQU NET has been working since 2013 to keep you safe on the internet, but those efforts could only be found in “technology”.  

It made sense because it was the only thing you as a closeted, stealth, questioning, or under-resourced LGBT+ person had control of - the device in your hands.  You can keep yourself safe by following these rules on our blog about anonymity but we're quickly finding, that's not enough.

As with the reporter who failed to stay anonymous, even after making herself look like a criminal,
this is not everything we can, should, or even must do.  
​
 “The business model of the Internet today really isn't compatible with privacy. ​To optimize the ads that are shown to us, companies have to know everything about us.” ~ Andy Yen
If we are to ensure your safety 

we need to be a website that helps you remove your presence from the internet,
by reducing your reliance on the internet.  

We will help you move your interactions with LGBT+ resources away from websites, marketing funnels, and emails, and toward unrecorded private channels.


Our online support groups allow you to attain resources in an unrecorded environment.  We just started our bisexual/pansexual group, bittersweet, availble September 18th, and it's working well.

We are also committing to changing the way people collect your data by working with our partner organizations to make them more closet-friendly and amenable to anonimity on our resources page.

If you feel lost, need a little extra help, or someone to talk to, consider joining one of our support groups at support.rescqu.net!  

​Our facilitator Lane created Bitter / Sweet because she was tired of Bi-erasure throwing her into the closet constantly, and she wants to support you too.

​
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Author: Samantha V Logan

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Samantha is the Executive Director of RESCQU.NET, an online Community Manager, and full-stack marketer.  She launched Trans* Youth Channel in 2013 to record her transition and help other transgender people online transition safely.  She saw a need to protect people who weren't out yet, and transitioned the organization to make the site you see today.

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