Most of you who are reading this are not spies, you’re not on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, and (sadly) you are not an international man/woman of mystery. You’re probably a lot like me…you go about your day doing your thing, minding your own business. And you don’t want your pattern of life to be monitored, captured and cataloged in some data-center and used to target you and your family.
I would like to share with you, through a series of articles, on how to recapture some of the privacy we’ve all lost in the digital age.
I recently traveled out of town for a business trip and I tried to stay under the radar as much as reasonably possible. I wanted to prevent my mode of transportation, my accommodations, my communications and my payment methods from revealing too much information about me. I also wanted to make sure my rental was secured while I was away.
NOTE - These tactics are not likely to help you hide from .gov agencies (FBI, NSA, DEA…), someone with unlimited capital, or anyone with a legal subpoena.
Transportation
For this trip, I drove to my destination. And if you live in, or are traveling through, a large metropolitan area your activity is going to be captured by numerous traffic cameras and license plate readers (LPRs).
If your vehicle is titled in your real name then the location activity of that vehicle is easily tied to you. We all realize government agencies have access to this information, but did you know private companies, like LexisNexis-Accurint, have access to LPR images? And, not all LPR cameras are owned by law enforcement, as there are privately owned LPRs too.
Create a Trust with a non-personally identifying name, such as Old Dominion Automotive Trust. You can hire an attorney to draft your trust, or you can do some research via the internet and books on the topic and draft it yourself. Then contact your insurance company and advise them of the changes. Next, you’ll need to head to the DMV to re-title the vehicle in the name of the trust and obtain new license plates, as your current plates are connected to your real name.
On this trip, I chose to use my car’s GPS for navigation, which will record a history of the trip. However, you would need to steal my car, or obtain a subpoena, to retrieve that data without my permission. This car does not have On-Star or any internet connectivity, so I am not worried about the vehicle broadcasting my location to a server somewhere.
I could have also used a stand-alone Garmin GPS I have and deleted the trip from the event history when I got home. However, I’m not knowledgeable enough on how the Garmin operates and I don't know if the unit actually deletes the data, or if it’s just removed from the user interface. Just like with my car...bad actors would need to steal the GPS and everyone else would need a subpoena, to retrieve the trip data without my permission.
What did I accomplish with these tactics? Since my vehicle is titled in the name of a non-descript Trust, this makes connecting my real identity to the ownership and whereabouts of the vehicle much more difficult. I also used passive GPS to navigate to my destination and did not live broadcast to some service, like On-Star or a cellular carrier, my whereabouts.
Most people in law enforcement take steps to make themselves digital hard targets; however, I believe everyone can live a safer life by implementing these same privacy tactics.
Next Up: Anonymous Accommodations
■ Mike @ True-SPI.com
