Don't use a search engine to look for it either, or visit websites related to it from a browser or location that could be tracked back to you.
And don't leave voicemails about it to someone with google voice, or talk about it to someone using google to call you. Don't talk about it internationally on skype, and don't visit untoward locations with your smartphone in your pocket. Don't drive there using gps, either.
Is there a plausible way to spread disinformation about your activity, such that if anyone ever brought up your past electronic activities you could show that there's no way to tell what's a true record and what's just random shit created by some service?
I wasn't thinking about secrecy, but about false openness. For example, having eight Facebook accounts, and (somehow) making sure your trusted friends knows which is the real on, while each of them present a different personae. Decoy sites, suppose.
No, it's not open to government monitoring, unless of course they have the ability to break "unbreakable" encryption. And, if they do manage to magically brute force a single key, they only get a single message decrypted. Each message uses a different key, so compromising a single message doesn't compromise the whole conversation.
For a school project I (sorta) implemented this on Android 1.5 two years ago. I stopped before finishing the key rotation stuff, so ended up with just a encrypted text messaging client. Another company just recently announced an OTR text message program for android, you should look it up! Textsecure by Whisper Systems.
If the call was already being recorded (say for voicemail) it can simply be subpoenaed. In the eyes of the law the defendant wiretapped themselves.
Of course the actual GPS service, involving beeping atomic clocks in space and a passive receiver in your device leaves no trail. But everybody appears to use 'GPS' to refer to "directed navigation" applications running on small computers that like to keep logs of waypoints and intended destinations. The iPhone's Maps app even takes a screenshot when you switch away from it to make it feel snappier when you return, and these pictures can be recovered forensically.
I don't really see any qualitative difference between that and logging IMs, it's just that the latter is technically much easier to do. But as a record of a private conversation between two people, I feel it ought to be subject to the same evaluations of admissibility.
Not really, since IMs are expected to be logged they can even be subpoenaed, but a recording made outside of a warranted wiretap would not be admissible evidence.
Ditto email, log files and so on, basically any textual communication is subject to subpoena, but the 'spoken word' is expected to be transient unless you have a microphone stuck in your face or have been warned very explicitly that one is present.
No that's not true. A private person can privately record any conversation he or she wants. (Remember Monica?)
Warrant requirements only apply to government action, meaning the government itself or someone acting on the government's behalf. If you talk to someone on the phone and that person records you on his own, without government inducement, then the court will consider the recording hearsay but admissible at trial under a few exceptions to the hearsay rule.
Do you know whether those prohibited recordings would be admissible as evidence in court, despite being non-consensual? Or is the weight of their prohibition that they are inadmissible?
That's absolutely true, after all, IM messages are more on the level of 'brainfarts' than a carefully considered letter would be.
But since people are being sued and fired over tweets it seems safe to assume that those kinds of communications now carry the same weight as every other written form.
We agree about that - I'm just concerned that our technological ability is outpacing the responsiveness of our legal system. Like, imagine you were in court and someone pulled out a scrap of paper from 2004 saying 'gone 2 lunch, back in 15 minutes - Jacques' and then argues that you were actually gone for a full half hour, and that this calls your entire character into question. You're not wrong about people needing to be more careful; I just have reservations about the ramifications. I rather like the European approach that internet companies have a responsibility to wipe the data they host after a certain time rather than keep it online perpetually.
ps Ephemera, not ephemeral. Damn auto-correcting phone :-)
The issue here is that Zuck's IM buddy probably logged the conversation and then released to the media or as part of the law suit later. So calling is nice but there is plenty of equally efficient skype plugins for recording voice. duh.
Ok then - sorry for the duh if it offended anyone. It's really not that insulting you know. Plus I had a humorous smirk on my face when I replied. So much for my joking mood! Now, what in the name of Elvis does "sullying comments" mean?
Some buddy! In my naivety I was thinking of a third party.
Thanks for the 'duh'. This is not a term I use or have heard used by anyone I know (well, that's how the world can be sometimes for English speakers outside the US) but I have now looked it up and have therefore learned something.
I was referring to something I had heard a while ago about the NSA requiring keys to skype encryption because it can cross international borders. Don't know how true it is.
And don't leave voicemails about it to someone with google voice, or talk about it to someone using google to call you. Don't talk about it internationally on skype, and don't visit untoward locations with your smartphone in your pocket. Don't drive there using gps, either.