Guide: Digital Security and Privacy Manual

Tactical Tech's security project is developed in collaboration with Front Line Human Rights Defenders. Front Line published a manual which is now used in conjunction with the security toolkit. Read more about the manual or access it directly here

The work of human rights defenders is increasingly intertwined with technology. ICTs facilitate communications and allow advocates to store and process large amounts of information cheaply. Technology enables even a small and remote organisation to acquire a global voice. An electronic conversation that took place a couple of years before can be recalled within seconds, and a perpetrator of a human rights violation, say, could receive thousands of angry emails and faxes from around the world. In short, computers and the Internet have become essential and inseparable parts of human rights work.

However, Governments are also developing the capacity to manipulate, monitor and subvert electronic information. Surveillance and censorship is growing and the insecurity of digitally stored or communicated information is becoming a major problem for rights defenders in some countries.

The purpose of the Digital Security and Privacy manual, publised by Frontline, is to give human rights defenders a better understanding of the digital environment they are working in and the related vulnerabilities the need to be aware of. It aims to help them make their own decisions and suggests solutions to increase their privacy and security on computers and the Internet. The manual aims to complement the security edition of NGO-in-a-Box, a toolkit of software, guides and self-training materials designed to meet the specialised technology needs of rights advocates and independent journalists.