How would you write a journal/diary with the adversaries being both the people you live with AND your government?
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I'm not sure if I have a legitimate concern. I have never attended a protest (too scared) and I never had any large online presence. I don't even show my name or face on the internet. I don't have any wikipedia pages.
So... maybe I'm just over-cautious...
️Starting your Wikipedia page now
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You’re probably not so important that they’d target you.
Not actively, of course. I'm talking about when the authorities one day want to retroactively dig through stuff to find dirt.
The threat would be that they do a targeted attack for 72 hours before they apprehend me.
(Not that the lack of evidence would stop them from trying, but the less info they get, the better chance I have)
If they're on your device, you've already lost. To protect against that, you'd have to keep an offline device, either physical or digital. Digital encrypted, physical in a made-up language and script that only you know.
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if you have legitimate concerns about the government coming after you, you simply do not keep a diary. At all. Not even one where you promise not to write anything incriminating.
I don’t have these legitimate concerns, and I STILL keep stuff like that as thoughts in my head. The only reason I’d journal my thoughts is if I eventually wanted someone to read them.
I keep my journaling for things I actually do in real life that I want to keep track of.
What is the purpose for writing it down? When you know that answer, then you look for the safest way to accomplish that purpose, which probably isn’t a diary.
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A paper-only journal would defend against the state, but not against people you live with. A digital journal can be encrypted, but an intelligence agency could potentially gain access (like, them reading your anti-government rants that may involve violence... that sort of stuff).
So... how to defend against both threats?
(Also, I just realized, paper journals cannot really be easily backed up...)
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A paper-only journal would defend against the state, but not against people you live with. A digital journal can be encrypted, but an intelligence agency could potentially gain access (like, them reading your anti-government rants that may involve violence... that sort of stuff).
So... how to defend against both threats?
(Also, I just realized, paper journals cannot really be easily backed up...)
sorry, but, why are you living with people you call "adversaries"?
veracrypt ☞ http://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Home.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VeraCrypt
diary vault ☞ https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/me.sankethbk.dairyapp
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Digitally create an encryption method.
Hand write the journal using that encryption methodYeah let me just do some AES in my head real quick
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Yeah let me just do some AES in my head real quick
Wasn't saying it'd be easy, just that it'd work.
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A paper-only journal would defend against the state, but not against people you live with. A digital journal can be encrypted, but an intelligence agency could potentially gain access (like, them reading your anti-government rants that may involve violence... that sort of stuff).
So... how to defend against both threats?
(Also, I just realized, paper journals cannot really be easily backed up...)
Paper jounal may not be backable up, but they are not affected by bit rot, cannot be tracked or detected by any means, they are partially or totally destroyable, and helps freeing the pressuring throughts from your head, so you would be less vulnerable under torture.
Also, one can log what you type on a device even before it is encrypted (if we assume the worst scenario).
So i think keeping a paper diary, even with the comfort flaws, stay the safest option (if you hide it well and doesn’t reveal its existence). -
sorry, but, why are you living with people you call "adversaries"?
veracrypt ☞ http://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Home.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VeraCrypt
diary vault ☞ https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/me.sankethbk.dairyapp
So here's the thing.
My country is being taken over by fascists.
Economy is already fucked up before the fascists took control, now the economy is even worse. Cost of living is too high. Moving out is not an option. It's either shitty toxic family, or some random strangers as roommates (I have no friends) in order to split the cost of rent, like it's literally impossible afford to rent alone. People are getting fired all the time, any small issue with income would mean being homeless, and that would guarantee ending up snatched by the gestapo.
There is no choice.
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A paper-only journal would defend against the state, but not against people you live with. A digital journal can be encrypted, but an intelligence agency could potentially gain access (like, them reading your anti-government rants that may involve violence... that sort of stuff).
So... how to defend against both threats?
(Also, I just realized, paper journals cannot really be easily backed up...)
Ontop of the various good suggestions already mentioned you could also keep your choice of medium in a safe
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Ontop of the various good suggestions already mentioned you could also keep your choice of medium in a safe
Make sure it's fireproof though.
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So here's the thing.
My country is being taken over by fascists.
Economy is already fucked up before the fascists took control, now the economy is even worse. Cost of living is too high. Moving out is not an option. It's either shitty toxic family, or some random strangers as roommates (I have no friends) in order to split the cost of rent, like it's literally impossible afford to rent alone. People are getting fired all the time, any small issue with income would mean being homeless, and that would guarantee ending up snatched by the gestapo.
There is no choice.
veracrypt then
a hidden volume with at least one backUp ☞ https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Hidden Volume.html
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I don’t have these legitimate concerns, and I STILL keep stuff like that as thoughts in my head. The only reason I’d journal my thoughts is if I eventually wanted someone to read them.
I keep my journaling for things I actually do in real life that I want to keep track of.
What is the purpose for writing it down? When you know that answer, then you look for the safest way to accomplish that purpose, which probably isn’t a diary.
Some people just process these things better by forcing themselves to put them into words. Journals, for some people are not written to be read, but to be written.
I was like they in high school. Wrote out my thoughts. Lose-leaf paper in my binder with me other school stuff, so they didn't survive more than a few months. But the writing was the point. No-one was ever going to read them, not even me.
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A physical journal written in a secret code
This was my first thought as well. The code doesn't even have to be very secretive to beat most people from figuring it out. Torture would be the only way and it still would have plausible deniability.
So eventually no decipherable, nor understandable decryption easily succeeds. (The previous sentence has a secret message.)
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I don’t have these legitimate concerns, and I STILL keep stuff like that as thoughts in my head. The only reason I’d journal my thoughts is if I eventually wanted someone to read them.
I keep my journaling for things I actually do in real life that I want to keep track of.
What is the purpose for writing it down? When you know that answer, then you look for the safest way to accomplish that purpose, which probably isn’t a diary.
I tried it for a while. Going back and reading it later just made me cringe so I stopped.
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Some people just process these things better by forcing themselves to put them into words. Journals, for some people are not written to be read, but to be written.
I was like they in high school. Wrote out my thoughts. Lose-leaf paper in my binder with me other school stuff, so they didn't survive more than a few months. But the writing was the point. No-one was ever going to read them, not even me.
Then instead of encrypting it, just delete it after it has been written?
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Then instead of encrypting it, just delete it after it has been written?
Unless you have a keylogger installed.
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A paper-only journal would defend against the state, but not against people you live with. A digital journal can be encrypted, but an intelligence agency could potentially gain access (like, them reading your anti-government rants that may involve violence... that sort of stuff).
So... how to defend against both threats?
(Also, I just realized, paper journals cannot really be easily backed up...)
Veracrypt hidden volume attached to an air gapped system. Unless someone kicks down the door and grabs you faster than you can click once, no one is getting at, or will realize that data exists.
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A paper-only journal would defend against the state, but not against people you live with. A digital journal can be encrypted, but an intelligence agency could potentially gain access (like, them reading your anti-government rants that may involve violence... that sort of stuff).
So... how to defend against both threats?
(Also, I just realized, paper journals cannot really be easily backed up...)
There are no shortage of encryption software in the market, use one, any one, Veracrypt is fine, so is million other software for this.
Use a note taking app like Joplin, Obsidian, though not open source is just as fine. Sync its data folder to the encrypted vault created with encryption software of your choice, and you are good to go
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Unless you have a keylogger installed.
True, but then you have bigger problems than just the journal.
