Magic Money: How “Pump and Dump” Picks Your Pocket

- By Kimberly Carter Gamble - September 19, 2015

I used to live with a great magician. He did magic tricks for parties, and for impromptu gatherings we’d have around the house. When guests would clamor to learn how he tricked them so well, he always declined to answer, saying to do so would violate The Magician’s Oath. The Oath, which was introduced over 2,400 years ago by the Greek Father of modern magic, Charlatates, was an agreement among magicians not to divulge the secrets of their trade, a way to collectively protect their art and in many cases their livelihood.

Even though my friend never told me how he did his tricks, by virtue of proximity and repetition, I was able to figure out a few of the sleight of hand moves he made. I realized first and foremost that to unpack the trick, I had to stop looking at what he was showing me, and instead look for what he was doing while I was distracted by his show.

Thirty years later I’m reminded of these sleight of hand techniques as I sit in the airport terminal on my way home from visiting with my daughter, reading headlines that proclaim a strong economy, a stock market boom (prior to the recent Dow Jones drop), and the value of the dollar at an all time high.

The gentleman next to me, with whom I strike up a conversation, asks,

“How can there be a financial collapse when the economy is booming?”

I start to wonder, if this man had been alive during the Depression of 1929, would he remember the “booming economy” that preceded that fall? Then again, he is old enough to remember the boom that preceded the tech bubble that burst in 2000, and the boom that preceded the housing collapse in 2008. Come to think of it, I can’t recall a single financial collapse that wasn’t preceded by an inflated bubble. So why is the pattern so elusive? My memory catapults back to my years with the magician, and how easy it was for me to be mesmerized by his skillful sleight of hand.

If it were just the entertainment of magic, I’d happily stay quiet and not bother with the awkward conversation likely to ensue if I venture to keep this conversation going. But I feel sad about how many people get screwed in these collapses, how the whole boom and bust cycle that we’re entrenched in seems to be a calculated “pump and dump” scheme of which this nice man and millions of others are going to bear the brunt.

So instead, I dive in:

“Do you know what a pump and dump scheme is?”

He suggests we look it up on our smart phones, to get a “real” definition.

“Pump and dump” is a form of fraud that involves artificially inflating the price of an owned stock through false and misleading positive statements, in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price. Once the operators of the scheme “dump” sell their overvalued shares, the price falls and all but the initial investors lose their money.

How Legalized Fraud Works Imagine you can: Use borrowed money (buying on margin*) to purchase enough of a stock to ensure that the price will go up (buying long) Successfully hype the stock’s value to the public Make a profit by selling all your stock when the price is high Then sell additional stock you don’t actually have, betting it will go down in price (short sale**) When the price is low (as a result of having caused the value to drop by dump selling all your shares) you buy back the stock to cover the short sale, making even more profit In this scenario, you make money on the way up, and on the way down. The pumping up creates a bubble that bursts when the stocks are dumped onto the market. * Margin means buying stocks using funds you borrow from your broker. When you buy a stock on margin, you are amplifying the effect of the investment, whether good or bad. When you own enough or bet on enough to influence the price, then it functions as a rigged way of “playing the odds.” ** Short selling is the sale of a security that is not owned by the seller, or that the seller has borrowed. Short selling is motivated by the belief that a security’s price will decline, enabling it to be bought back at a lower price to make a profit. Again it’s not just a belief if you can control it — it’s insider betting.

“Pump and dump” is making money on creating and bursting financial bubbles. According to my research, this practice is not only legal, it’s rampant. And this manipulation is not just happening with stocks, it’s going on in all kinds of markets, including with currencies themselves. Meanwhile, the economic sleight of hand reels in vast numbers of believers, risking their retirement funds, their homes, and their lives.

What’s the evidence that we’re in the midst of a pump and dump cycle?

Here’s what occurs to me as we sit talking, waiting for our plane:

Despite all the “Quantitative Easing” (printing money, the pump part of currency pump and dump) and low interest rates, there is no substantive indicator that the dollar has any value other than what the Federal Reserve simply says it has. A strong economy? The actual purchasing power of the U.S. dollar has declined by 98% in the 102 years since the Federal Reserve was established.

So what are substantive indicators we can look at to determine what kind of shape the economy really is in? How about jobs? Unemployment as it’s currently reported is completely skewed. What now qualifies as unemployment has been redefined so that official statistics exclude people not actively on record for seeking jobs in the past four weeks (termed “marginally attached” to the labor force). Official statistics also exclude those “employed part time for economic reasons” which means those who need to work full time to make it but who are unable to find full time employment. When these functionally un-and-under employed people are counted, the unemployment rate is closer to 10.3%, more than double the 5.1% the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics would have us believe.

Manufacturing is also down. The ratio of wholesale inventories to sales in the United States just hit the highest level since the last recession. What that means is that there is a lot of manufactured stuff sitting in warehouses that can’t be sold because people are buying less.

As a CNN article explained, approximately one-third of all U.S. households are living “hand-to-mouth”. So jobs, manufacturing, and spending are all down.

Even subprime lending is making a comeback. That’s the practice of making loans to people who are high risk — and not as likely to be able to pay them back. The New York Times’ Deal Book estimated that 27 percent of the auto loans issued in 2013 were subprime. And it’s also making its way back into the mortgage business. Wells Fargo is now once again making subprime home loans.

The bond market is also telling. Bonds that are not generating revenue worthy of high investment have traded at all time highs, indicating that their value is being externally “pumped” up. This indicator is determined by what’s called the cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio, or CAPE ratio. Right now the CAPE ratio is the third highest that it has been since 1890. The only times it has been higher than this were in 1929 (!!) and just before the dot-com bubble burst…

Major global trade is bypassing the U.S. dollar for the first time since the dollar was established as the global reserve currency after the Bretton Woods agreement in 1944.

Russia and China now do their deals—including oil trades—without the dollar, and it is the same with South Korea and Japan. The UK joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) despite the U.S. “telling” them not to, as did 57 other countries. These moves both strengthen China’s global power and communicate a widespread lack of confidence in the dollar and U.S. primacy.

Rigging everything from gold and silver markets to currencies is no longer the domain of conspiracy theories; it’s been documented and reported by many sources, although usually described as the result of isolated incidents.

Even George Soros predicts an economic crash, if tracking his investments shows any indication of his confidence. According to SEC filings, he has lowered his investments in all stocks by billions and bolstered his holdings of gold.

Speaking of gold, how are other countries relating to it?

China, Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa are all basing their economies on gold. The U.S. is not, and has failed to demonstrate that it even has much physical gold left. When Germany’s central bank tried to repatriate their 300 tons of gold from where it was supposedly stored in Manhattan, they came away with 5 tons and no visible proof that the rest was anywhere to be found. Needless to say, this prompted renewed questions on whether Germany's gold still exists in those Manhattan vaults or if it has been melted down, leased, or even sold.

After more than an hour of friendly conversation, my temporary travel buddy said, “It sounds like we’re paying off credit card debt with a credit card. Like a reckoning just waiting to happen.”

It sure sounds like it to me.

Does all this prove that we are headed for a collapse?

No, all this doesn’t prove we are headed for a collapse. But it is a sure indication to me that there is some pumping up going on — of our bonds, our currency, our self-proclaimed international primacy, and our national self-image. And historically speaking, when there’s a pump, there’s a dump.

I’m certainly not alone in my concern. Nearly every financial forecaster who saw the 2008 collapse coming is predicting one now. Some of their links are attached below.

What’s the best thing to do in the face of such instability?

To the best of your ability and circumstance, I’d say:

• Get free of personal debt
• Cultivate close and collaborative relations with your friends and neighbors
• Get and stay physically healthy
• Find whatever practice most reliably returns you to a place of inner peace and practice it regularly
• Tune in to various sources of information, think critically and use common sense rather than defer to so-called authorities
• Support and cultivate urban food gardens
• Follow up on the links below that are of most interest and relevance to you and share them and this blog
• Support alternative currencies
• If you can afford to, purchase and personally hold real commodities like precious metals and real estate
• If you can afford to, donate to or invest in projects that are creating holistic energy, food, communication, education and ecological alternatives to the collapsing, corrupt systems of today

What are forecasters saying?

• Financial Experts Warn of Impending Economic Collapse - Infowars.com
• Martin Armstrong
  • Predicts Major Sovereign Debt Crisis Beginning October 1, 2015
  • Turning Point — Civil Unrest & Riots
  • Forecasting The World
• Ron Paul
  • Warning of Economic Collapse
• Paul Craig Roberts
  • 2015 Predictions
  • Economic Collapse
• Max Keiser
  • Greatest Economic Collapse Is Coming
  • Global Meltdown
• Catherine Austin Fitts
  • Solari Report Blog
  • Economic Crash
  • Coming Changes
• Gerald Celente
  • Trends Research
  • Economic Crash Prediction
• Peter Schiff
  • Radio Show
  • Why Economic Crash Is Coming
  • Real Financial Crisis About to Hit
  • Impending Dollar Collapse
  • How to Protect Yourself Before Collapse
• Harry Dent
  • Predictions
  • Why Global Economy Is About to Crash
  • 2015 Crash Has Begun
• Zero Hedge
  • Preparing for Potential Economic Collapse
• Global Research
  • The Banksters Did It

Resources

• Secrets of the Federal Reserve
• None Dare Call It Conspiracy
• Morgan and Rockefeller: John Kenneth Galbraith. The Great Crash, 1929. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2009.
• Ellen Brown. Web of Debt.

Where is Germany’s gold?

• The Real Reasons Why Germany Is Demanding that the U.S. Return Its Gold — Global Research
• No ‘gold rush’: Germany keeps reserves in the US — RT
• Swiss, French call to bring home gold reserves as Dutch move 122 tons out of US — RT
• Precious Metal Abroad: Why Germany Wants to See its US Gold — Spiegel Online

Beyond Left and Right - Where Do We Get Our News?

By Foster Gamble - Sat, 11 Apr 2015

People are often asking us at Thrive, “Where do you get your news? And how do you sort out what’s true?” Following is a commentary on political tribalism vs. ethics and critical thinking, and at the end of this blog is a partial list of the many sources that we continually review.

I spend about 40 hours a week researching the current state of the world, both the problems and the solutions. I track the funding of the sources I rely on, as well as their political affiliation. One of my favorite ways to learn and to hone my critical thinking is to expose myself to “expert” sources that disagree with one another. Rarely do I end up agreeing 100% with any source of news or analysis. But agreement is not what I’m after. It’s understanding the patterns that underlie the events, and culling out the principles from which to generate lasting solutions.

When considering any source of news, I ask a few fundamental questions:

• What are they saying?
• What do they want me to believe?
• What is their proposed or implied solution?
• Does it rely on violence and coercion/political power or ethical principles?
• What strategies and tactics are offered to achieve their stated goal?
• Who funds the research or the outlet?

SHARED VALUES — DIFFERENT FAILED STRATEGIES

Other than the small number of banking elite who seek total global domination, almost everyone I’ve met shares a desire for a world that has thriving people and a robust and healthy environment. The disparity comes in when figuring out how to achieve these shared values.

One thing that most people from both ends of the political spectrum are good at is shining a light on the weaknesses, the contradictions, the corruption and the immorality of “the other side.” And that is one of the main reasons why I listen to so many of them. Another is that listening to corporate and foundation-funded news shows me not so much what is happening, but what the big institutions and the financial elite want me to believe is going on and how they want me to think about it.

At the grand scale of highly visible and highly funded political news, we have people like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Fox News on the right. On the left we have CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, Rachel Maddow, Amy Goodman, Thom Hartman, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher and Jon Oliver. (I know…I haven’t been able to find right wing humor shows either… I think they balance that out with the domination of AM radio by very serious Religious Fundamentalists.) Then there are some whose commentary and philosophy lifts off the plane of partisan politics, and while they are often unaware of transition strategies or other important distinctions, they get into the realm of rational, universal ethics and their practical application — people like Stefan Molyneux, Lew Rockwell and Larken Rose.

The biggest commercial players, including the nightly news and the Sunday TV talk shows are punctuated by a blitz of commercials from: the pharmaceuticals (Merck, Pfizer, Bayer…), the banks (Chase, Citigroup, B of A…) and the military industrial complex (Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, Halliburton…). So whose drum do you think they are marching to?

I see the headlines in various online newsletters that I receive, as they expose abuses of power by the Fed, FDA, NSA, CIA, Big Pharma, Ag, Media, the military and the government… the schemes, scams, corruption and wars being cited are almost identical. Often a newcomer would not know what political viewpoint was being represented until usually, near the end of the article, when it’s time to say some version of, “And the solution is…vote in our enlightened leaders. They’ll fix it.”

Except that they never have…and when looking logically, I cannot see that they ever will. When the Right is in charge, we get more war, more consolidation of corporate power and more patriarchal restrictions on social freedoms. And, of course, more wealth and power to the bankers and politicians.

When the Left is in charge, we get more taxes, more people rendered dependent on welfare, more inept, disempowering government control of healthcare, education, the media, etc. And, of course, more wealth and power to the bankers and politicians.

THE BOTTOM LINE

In fact, partisan politics has taken us to the brink of nuclear, financial and environmental catastrophe. Almost every region on Earth has been broken into “nation states” and those which have moved beyond dictatorship all have “parties” which battle each other through propaganda, bribes and votes (often rigged) to claim the power to rule. For some period of time a collective of individuals with a name, a slogan and an ideology tell us what we have to and cannot do in our lives. After the resulting dissatisfaction, another group eventually gets “voted in” and the rules change a little.

Meanwhile the suffering of people, the depletion of resources, the elimination of species and languages, and the degradation of the environment all grow, and yet most people continue to think that if they could only get their party in charge, things would get better. But it doesn’t. Throughout history it gets worse as the deceptions, the weapons and the tyranny grow.

The bottom line is that adhering to political party dogma undermines critical thinking. It pits individuals against each other — to trap them inside a never-ending game of “I’m right and you’re wrong” so that we don’t see what is really going on and create the true, lasting solutions.

I believe it’s time to step back and take a profound transpartisan look — into and beyond politics itself, if we want to survive and thrive. The word “transpartisan” is not yet in most dictionaries. That’s a telltale sign. It should be. Let’s help launch its widespread use.

The military uses the word “partisan” to describe someone who is “a member of a party of … troops engaged in harassing an enemy.”

The civilian definition is “a person who shows a biased, emotional allegiance to a group, party or cause.”

After literally decades of nearly full-time research and analysis, I am convinced that partisan politics is designed to distract us from a fundamental question: How did some people get the power to rule others? I realize that having some group in power is supposed to be a given in our global culture, but so is fiat currency. That doesn’t make it legitimate, or good for people.

THE BIRTH OF OUR CURRENT SYSTEM

How did it happen? Most often people just assume that because we’ve always had parties, this is the best we can do. Certainly democracy is better than the royalty-based tyranny and subsequent dictatorships it has evolved from, but that doesn’t mean it’s the endpoint. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” The Norman conquest of England and the key Battle of Hastings in 1066 is what resulted in King George of England having authority over the colonies, which later became the states, which later became the nation. This whole ‘power over’ paradigm stems from the conquering of a people and region by force of arms.

In essence, violence is at the very foundation of government and the partisan politics that support it. As Stefan Molyneux said, “It’s not just the abuse of power that’s the problem, it’s the power to abuse.”

Involuntary power over others has always been achieved by force, and to this day is maintained by the threat of violence. You will be imprisoned if you do not agree to the terms imposed by those who claim power. I believe unequivocally that this can and must change. With the level of weaponry and the dangerous ideology that supports its use, it seems high time to consider solutions that are truly non-violent.

NON-AGGRESSION PRINCIPLE

This is where the Non-Aggression Principle comes in, and why we at Thrive are devoting our time and resources to the further discovery and implementation of what Gandhi referred to as Hind Swaraj — self-governance — based on the principle that no one can violate another against their will. This provides a system for accountability, where those who assault, deceive, and steal from others or pollute the resources upon which we all depend are personally liable for the violations they cause. This, rather than more partisan politics, is what we believe can and will bring lasting peace and further our true conscious evolution.

History has proven that results reflect the means of any action. We may achieve temporary control through coercion, but we never achieve lasting peace. And yet Left and Right so-called solutions are equally responsible for coercive strategies that leave individuals fundamentally disempowered. On the Left, it’s by consolidating domination over education, finance, media and everything else related to personal well being into the hands of government at the expense of individual rights. On the Right, they want to control us in the boardroom, the bedroom, and on the battlefield — by supporting unfair advantage with crony corporatism (with its subsidies and bailouts) and war-mongering on behalf of the multinational corporations, as well as religious and social intolerance.

THE DRAW OF THE LEFT AND THE RIGHT

It seems many are drawn to be on the team of Certainty on the right. The dismissive condescension and righteous anger of a Limbaugh, O’Reilly or Hannity is like a safe haven for the uninformed. Be on the Red team and avoid their disdain.

On the Left, Social Acceptability is an especially subtle but mighty club. A good chuckle feels great in the face of on-going disasters, and siding with the biting sarcasm and partisan irony of new comics like Stewart, Maher or Oliver is comforting, as long as you agree with their view that Liberals should rule. Be on the blue team and you’re both in on the joke and obviously superior to the stupidity and evil of the Right.

So what is the advantage of reading and following so many of them? Why do I put myself through the discomfort and ordeal of wading through a ton of propaganda to find the kernels of truth and value? Because in addition to benefitting from their analyses of what is lacking from the other’s perspective, I believe each worldview offers something of great significance in helping us transition to a truly free world.

The Progressive ethic leans toward helping those most in need and bringing more integrity to current systems. Some examples of actions that align with the Liberal agenda AND help move toward personal empowerment are getting rid of corporate personhood, ending the Federal Reserve’s ability to make up money out of nothing and charge taxpayers interest on it, and introducing the Precautionary Principle, where corporations and governments are required to prove the safety of a new development rather than that being the responsibility of those impacted by their policies — GMOs being a good example.

As for traditional Conservatism, (as distinguished from Neocon deception and coercion), they have important ideas about shrinking government to the protection of individual rights and the commons such as water, air and fisheries. They often support a return to sound currencies which would help return real wealth to the people from which it has been stolen, through taxes and inflation.

BEYOND LEFT AND RIGHT

Beyond left and right there is a means, an end, and an insight, called Liberty. This is not about nationalism, patriotism or dominating others through some hallowed State. This is where people care for themselves and each other through voluntary associations that operate with nonviolation as the core principle. Complete Liberty, or Voluntaryism, refers to a society of free association. It does not argue for the specific form that voluntary arrangements will take, only that the initiation of force (except in true self-defense) be abandoned so that individuals in society may flourish. In this model of Liberty, the means determine the end; people cannot be coerced into freedom. No institution controls a monopoly on a single currency, so wealth stays in the hands of actual people, which allows them to support the services they choose.

On April 18^th, 2015, in our ThriveTogether event, we will take a look at some of the compelling mouthpieces from the left and right that I believe keep the masses so enthralled and deluded. We will unpack the philosophy and strategies of figures like Russell Brand, Amy Goodman, Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Chris Hedges, Ron and Rand Paul, Bill Maher and others to help highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each, and ultimately shine light on the path to individual sovereignty and the process of wading through news sources that can help us get there.

As requested, here is a partial list of resources that we read and watch regularly. Please remember we are neither saying any of these sources are absolutely reliable nor that we agree fully with any particular person or organization. We believe they are all useful to gaining a full picture and strategy from which to forge the new future we believe is possible.

Feel free to recommend other sources and tell us why you find them to be of value. Thank you!

Sources for News and Perspectives — In America

In addition to this list, we are grateful to have well-informed and courageous contacts who share important news and trends with us confidentially, before they become mainstream news. For reasons of privacy and security, we will not be sharing their names.

LIBERTY

• Stefan Molyneux
• Larken Rose
• Mises Institute
• Lew Rockwell
• The Daily Bell
• Reason.com
• Kaiser Report — Max Kaiser
• Unfiltered News — G. Edward Griffin
• The Dollar Vigilante — Jeff Berwick
• Trends Research — Gerald Celente
• Corbett Report — James Corbett
• The Stossel Report — John Stossel

GLOBAL DOMINATION AGENDA

• David Icke
• Infowars — Alex Jones
• Project Camelot — Kerry Cassidy
• No More Fake News — Jon Rappoport
• Fred Burks
• The Intercept
• Project Censored
• Natural News — Mike Adams
• Naturals Solutions Foundation — Dr. Rima Laibow
• Brasscheck TV
• Global Research
• GeoEngineering Watch — Dane Wigington
• Institute for Responsible Technology — Jeffrey Smith
• Freedom’s Phoenix — Ernest Hancock
• Protect Your Family from EMF Pollution — Jeromy Johnson
• Veterans Today

LIBERAL

• The Guardian
• Democracy Now
• The Nation
• The Center for Media and Democracy
  • PRWatch
  • SourceWatch
• The Center for Public Integrity
• Common Dreams
• Truthout
• Yes! Magazine

CONSERVATIVE

• The Drudge Report
• Foreign Affairs
• Breitbart
• National Review Online
• Glenn Beck
• Heritage Foundation

FINANCE

• Bloomberg
• Peter Schiff Radio
• Solari Report — Catherine Austin Fitts
• Jim Willie
• JC Collins
• Zero Hedge
• David Morgan
• Ellen Brown

NEW SCIENCE

• Arthur M. Young
• Buckminster Fuller
• Walter Russell
• Resonance Project — Nassim Haramein
• Cosmometry — Marshall Lefferts
• Global BEM
• Future Energy News — Tom Valone
• Infinite Energy Magazine
• Revolution-Green — Mark Dansie
• Peswiki — Sterling Allen
• Spirit Science
• Forbidden Knowledge TV
• Next World TV
• Crop Circle Connector
• Scientific American
• Discover Magazine

CONSCIOUSNESS

• Institute of Noetic Sciences
• Gaiam TV
• Shift Network
• Conscious Life News — Ross Pittman
• David Wilcock (also covers finance, science, ancient and extra-terrestrial cultures as well as current events)

MAINSTREAM NEWS

• RT (pro-Russia bias, but good source of candid international news)
• CNN (Left)
• Fox (Right)
• MSNBC (Left)
• ABC (Left)
• NBC (Left)
• CBS (Left)
• New York Times (Left)
• Wall Street Journal (Right)
• Washington Post (Bi-partisan but not transpartisan as we define it)

Comprehensive Understanding

• Thrive Movement
• Alternative News Project

- By Rob Leslie and Goa Lobaugh - March 28, 2015

In today’s world, digital information is pervasive. Nearly every detail about our lives and our communications is processed, transmitted, and stored digitally in some way. This is both a technical marvel that allows us to share knowledge and ideas in unprecedented ways across boundless distances, and also a challenge to us to ensure the privacy and integrity of the things we choose to share.

As was stated in the movie THRIVE, and in a previous blog on surveillance, and as Edward Snowden’s revelations confirmed, there are some people who want to have access to all our personal digital information and eavesdrop on all our conversations, and they have the resources and are willing to go to great lengths to do it. Ostensibly they want to do this so they can protect us from others who would harm us, but in doing so they also disrespect us by violating our privacy and in some cases violating the integrity of our communications without our permission.

In a thriving world, it is our responsibility to protect the privacy and integrity of our own digital information, just as we take steps to protect our physical property from thieves, vandals, or prying eyes. As with physical security, there are a variety of threats to our digital information, and accordingly a variety of tools we can use to mitigate those threats. Technology and policy are both moving targets, so it is important to stay vigilant in order to keep current with best practices. Below are some of the best practices we’ve found to secure our digital information.

Threats to Our Digital Information

In THRIVE, it was said that “every phone call and email we send is collected and archived, and can be inspected at any time.” Snowden explained that this wholesale collection of information is not necessarily reviewed immediately or used to build dossiers on specific people, but rather is archived in long-term storage that can be queried at any time in the future.

Snowden also showed a variety of the methods used to collect this information, from wiretapping various Internet connection points, to working directly with technology companies that have access to information, to interdicting the shipment of hardware and implanting custom software that will aid in the collection, and many others. While some of these methods are targeted at specific individuals or groups, others are not. The threats to our digital information, then, can vary depending on who has it, and how badly someone else wants to get it.

The fact that some technology companies are so easily willing to release the information entrusted to them shows us the value of choosing the companies we share our information with, reviewing the privacy policies of those companies, and of carefully selecting the information we ultimately share. This is of course easier said than done, and in many cases we simply want the service more than we want to hassle over finding an alternative, if there even is one. Clearly, few enjoy reading privacy policies or terms and conditions, even though they form an integral part of the agreement between you and the company providing you a service, and often reveal the level of respect you can expect the company to have for you and your personal information.

There are, of course, threats beyond these. Some people are interested in obtaining your personal information or intercepting your communications in order to contact and persuade you to buy their products, or to trick and defraud you. Other people are interested in gaining control over your computers and will attempt to spread malware (in the form of a computer virus or rootkit) so they can use your hardware and Internet connection for their own purposes, including sending spam, launching denial-of-service attacks against others, capturing keystrokes and passwords, mining or stealing bitcoin, collecting all of the personal information on your computer, or just trying to prevent you from copying a CD.

You may also have personal adversaries that are interested in you or your communications for some reason—maybe a competitor, a jealous lover, a paid troll, or a rogue actor intent on sabotaging your inventions or perhaps just your point of view. There are many reasons to want to protect the privacy and integrity of your personal information. Even if you do not feel personally at risk, it is useful to recognize the levels of surveillance that are happening. The 2012 National Defense Authorization Act made it illegal and punishable by imprisonment with no access to legal defense to speak out against government policies, and recently a report funded by the Department of Homeland Security named sovereign individuals as the number one domestic threat in America. Awareness of this is an important step in taking responsibility to stop it.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there are threats to our digital information in the form of public policy decisions. Some people would like to make it illegal for anyone to use encryption, and fear a world in which encryption prevents them from accessing information they are not a party to. Others would like to force all companies to give up information about their users. Still others might try to use so-called “net neutrality” regulations as a Trojan horse to impose additional surveillance. Vigilance is essential to keep what little privacy we do have from disappearing completely.

Best Practices for Securing Digital Information

The good news is that there are concrete things we can still do to improve our personal digital security. The very things that threaten our digital information have also motivated privacy-conscious individuals and companies to differentiate themselves by developing and offering products and services with high standards for privacy and security. Organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Thrive, and people like Snowden, Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald, and Julian Assange as well as others have brought the issue into mainstream discussions where we have an opportunity to influence and shift belief systems toward a world in which no one’s privacy is violated against their will.

No solution is 100% guaranteed, and all require some work to employ. The first and easiest thing you can do is to be mindful of what you agree to, and the information you share in the first place. You may be surprised by the amount of privacy you agree to give up in exchange for the services some companies and apps offer to provide, and might want to seek alternatives when the terms feel unacceptable to you.

The next thing you can do is to use encryption wherever possible. Snowden informs us that when implemented and used properly, encryption can help secure information against practically all known forms of eavesdropping and tampering. That’s a big help, but also a big condition—encryption is fundamentally complex, and easy to get wrong. There is even speculation that some cryptographic algorithms may have been deliberately and surreptitiously weakened to reduce their effectiveness. It’s also important to realize that even if implemented and used properly, encryption is not a panacea. For example, the fact that you used encryption may be utterly obvious to outside observers (and attract their interest as a result), as may be the source, destination, size, or frequency of your messages or data. Furthermore, encryption can only ensure privacy if performed in an environment that has not already been compromised. A computer virus, or other malware disguised as an otherwise useful app, might still be eavesdropping on the information you’re trying to encrypt. Even so, encryption is the best option we have when we want to ensure our privacy.

Finally, we believe it is important for us all to speak up about the importance of digital security and the violations caused by misguided public policy. Together we can make it clear that it is not acceptable to spy on, intercept, tamper with, or misuse the private communications and personal information of others, and we can support the pioneering efforts of those who are both developing solutions and taking on the public policy issues.

Tools and Technology Tips

Here is some specific advice on the kinds of tools available to help secure your digital privacy:

Instant Messaging

OTR stands for “Off-the-Record Messaging” and is an encryption protocol made specially for instant messaging. It provides “deniable authentication” which allows you to be sure of the authenticity of the messages you receive from the other party in a way that can’t be proved to anyone else.

There are several reasonably priced, free, or subscription apps that use OTR, including TextSecure for Android, ChatSecure for iOS and Android, and Jitsi for Windows, Mac, and Linux, among many others.

Silent Circle is a paid service that offers a suite of tools for state of the art encryption for text, as well as voice and video communications. Phil Zimmermann, a pioneer in the field and creator of PGP and ZRTP, is one of their developers.

The Silent Circle source code, as well as TextSecure is available for review on GitHub, adding another layer of protection with the transparency of their system, increasing the likelihood of vulnerabilities being exposed and patched quickly.

Telephone Conversations

For smartphones, as mentioned before, Silent Circle offers an encrypted voice and video option. Another option is Open Whisper Systems’ Signal for iOS and RedPhone for Android.

The folks at Silent Circle have also partnered with a smartphone manufacturer to create the Blackphone, an entire smartphone built for secure communications. It includes its own privacy focused operating system, PrivatOS, which prohibits backdoor access, and other common hacks.

Online Searching and Browsing

Here are some tips to improve your online privacy:

• Instead of Google, use search engines offering strong privacy protection, such as StartPage, Ixquick or DuckDuckGo.

• Connect to sites using HTTPS whenever possible (e.g. using HTTPS Everywhere), and always when transferring personal information. HTTPS refers to a standard for encrypting communications with web servers, also known as TLS or SSL. (HTTPS imposes certain costs on web servers to support it, so not all do. Some sites, including our own at Thrive, use HTTPS when submitting or transferring sensitive personal information.)

• Use Tor when you want or need to browse the web in complete anonymity.

• For additional privacy (especially when traveling), use Tails to start almost any computer from portable media and leave no trace when you are done.

• If you regularly communicate with colleagues in multiple locations, consider setting up a virtual private network (VPN) to encrypt all communications between the sites using OpenVPN or IPsec. This is an advanced but effective technique for taking direct responsibility over the privacy of your communications. Some commercial services also offer VPN tunnels you can use to connect privately to the Internet.

Email

Probably the most widely used encryption standard for email is PGP (also GPG) which can be used both to sign and encrypt messages. PGP relies on a decentralized “web of trust” to provide confidence that the key you use to encrypt messages to someone (or to verify the signatures of someone) actually belongs to the person in question, and is not a decoy or forgery. In practice this usually means meeting in person once to verify the other person’s key fingerprint, or relying on the judgment of others you trust who have directly or indirectly confirmed this themselves.

You can find software available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Computer Security

Unless your computer is never connected to the Internet, there are always risks to the information stored on it. Often the worst risks come from trusting software of questionable origin — for example, free apps that you can download from the Internet. While operating systems are getting better at insulating your private information (like your address book contacts and your calendar) from random apps and require your permission before allowing access, there may still be loopholes. It is always better to err on the side of caution by not running software you don’t trust completely. This is why it is good advice never to open email attachments you don’t recognize or from people you don’t know, and also why open source software is preferable to closed-source: you benefit when the software source code can be reviewed for integrity by anyone.

It’s worth noting that any time you are asked to enter an administrative password on your computer, you are essentially giving the app making the request complete and unrestricted access to do anything with your computer; consider whether you really trust the app in question before granting such permission.

Assuming you trust your computer and all the software it runs well enough not to be compromised, here are some tools you can use to encrypt your files:

• Mac: Encrypt your entire startup disk with FileVault (System Preferences… > Security & Privacy > FileVault), or create an encrypted image for a smaller set of files using Disk Utility. In recent versions of OS X, you can also use Disk Utility to encrypt an external disk (see Help > Disk Utility Help for details).

• Windows: Until it was discontinued last year, TrueCrypt was a popular option for encrypting files on Windows. VeraCrypt and CipherShed have been identified as current alternatives. Some recent versions of Windows also include built-in encryption facilities, and Windows 8.1 may automatically encrypt everything on your hard drive by default.

• Linux: Encrypt disk partitions using dm-crypt (e.g. cryptsetup/LUKS) or encrypt individual files with GnuPG.

Passphrases

Any time you rely on encryption, it is critical to use a good passphrase, or the effort will be for naught. It turns out this is not as easy as you might think. Fortunately, we can recommend a simple and reliable technique to generate extremely secure passphrases.

Cloud Services

While the ubiquity of “cloud” services like Dropbox, Google Docs, or iCloud makes them attractive and convenient, it’s important to realize that we give up several layers of control (both physical and digital) when we use these services. Be conscious of the power you give away to the cloud operators, and understand their policies. If privacy is essential, encrypt your files before storing them in the cloud, or consider using a service with higher standards for privacy.

Devices

Be aware that many devices today want to connect to the “cloud” to store and retrieve data, whether they are mobile phones, tablets, game systems, “smart” TVs, or other “smart” appliances. Often this data contains personal information about you, even a recording of your voice if you make requests that way. It may be disconcerting to realize the TV in your living room may be listening to you and sending what it hears to a remote third party, so if this bothers you, consider turning such features off if you can, or vote with your wallet and don’t purchase devices with these capabilities. Also let the companies know that you chose not to purchase their device for this reason.

Additional Resources

• VIDEO: Documentary film — Terms and Conditions May Apply

• VIDEO: Jacob Appelbaum & Laura Poitras — Reconstructing narratives

• Privacy Project — Blackphone

• You Can Now Easily Send Encrypted Texts to Anyone, and the NSA Is Gonna Hate It — Motherboard

• The Best Cloud Storage Services that Protect Your Privacy — Lifehacker

• Passphrases That You Can Memorize — But That Even the NSA Can’t Guess — The Intercept

• Cisco is Shipping Equipment to Fake Addresses to Protect Customers; Meanwhile Amazon Refuses to Provide Any Transparency — Liberty Blitzkrieg

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a staunch advocate of digital civil liberties, including personal privacy.

• Bruce Schneier is a well-known security researcher who has had direct access to the Snowden documents. (See a recent interview he gave after the release of his latest book, Data and Goliath; you can also read an excerpt from the book.) He offers good analyses of a wide range of security issues, but also tends to endorse collectivist (violating individual rights for the “good of the group”) solutions to the problems he identifies.

  Here’s our challenge to you: can you identify better solutions that also adhere to the principle of non-violation?