Tuesday, September 22, 2009
from
http://snitchwire.blogspot.com/2009/09/warning-about-gun-new-social-netw...
According to posts on Indymedia sites:
'The Guerrilla Underground Network (GUN) is an autonomous & rhizomal
co-mutiny of resistance, & is open to all who seek social change from below.
You can customize your page, share photos, post your own videos and
music, post blogs, start your own groups, CHAT, and much more! Feel free
to invite your friends.
Obviously social networking (mapping) sites are sketch as fuck and
should be approached with caution and the utmost security culture (see
our Online Security discussion for tips on internet anonymity), but hey,
it's better than facebook or myspace.
Hope to see you there.
guerrillaunderground.ning.com"
SnitchWire STRONGLY cautions people to NOT USE this site. Here are our
reasons for doing so.
1. It is hosted on a third party host (ning.com) (like Geocities or
Blogger for social networking sites). This means that ALL information
gathered by this site is viewable by a third party.
2. The domain registration information for Ning.com does not list any
real names, only their postal address (735 Emerson St. Pal Alto, CA).
3. The property listed in the domain registration is owned by "Strategic
Decisions Group" which sounds like an intel collection firm if we've
ever heard of one. According to their website "Strategic Decisions Group
is a strategy consulting firm renowned for its expertise in strategic
decision-making, risk management, and shareholder value creation." On
their website, they list their allies and customers. Among the list is
Nuclear Power, known gentrifying forces, and pretty much anybody evil
you can think of. They were targeted by Santa Cruz activists for their
association with military recruiting centers.
4. The advertising on ning.com will hand over your IP address to
advertisers such as Google and anybody who chooses to buy an ad (as they
must be displayed to you, causing you to connect to them). If you have
javascript enabled, these banners can grab your browser history. If you
have javascript and flash enabled (if YouTube works for you), even using
the "clear private data" function on your computer/browser won't protect
you from things such as flash cookies.
5. Ning.com has a horrible privacy policy, allowing them source
information about you from external sources and release your personally
identifiable information if "we have a good-faith belief that doing so
is required by a subpoena or other judicial or administrative order or
otherwise required by law". In other words, they don't require a warrant
or other legal process, only the threat that it will be enforced.
"Additionally, Ning may disclose Personal Information where we, in good
faith, deem it appropriate or necessary to prevent violation of the Ning
Terms of Service, or our other agreements; take precautions against
liability; protect the rights, property, or safety of Ning, any
individual, or the general public; maintain and protect the security and
integrity of our services or infrastructure; protect ourselves and our
services from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses; investigate and
defend ourselves against third-party claims or allegations; or assist
government enforcement agencies." SO, they'll be giving your information
to anybody in a suit who asks for it if they aren't the suits
themselves. They will also give your information to any entity who buys
Ning. It's worth nothing that many such services and organizations have
been set up by spooks in the past for the purpose of gathering information.
6. Social networking in general is a bad idea. There's no reason to use
it given the privacy you're giving up.
7. Tech collectives that have a long track record in the activist world
such as Riseup.net already have social networking platforms such as
crabgrass (we.riseup.net) if you really must use social networking.
8. Unlike Riseup and other activist-run services who encrypt the data on
their servers and have vowed to protect their user information (and only
gather it when absolutely necessary), Ning does not encrypt their
information or at least I couldn't find any proof of it.
9. In their posts advertising their site, they encourage people to check
out the "security advice" on their website, which suggests that people
use a one-hop proxy to "protect their anonymity" but these proxies are
completely worthless. They also provide non-https links to
https://www.torproject.org and other legitimate anonymity/encryption
systems, allowing an intermediary (such as the NSA) to see what you're
doing on those sites with ease. It also allows an intermediary to inject
a fake program in place of the real program without your knowledge.
Anybody with additional interesting information is encouraged to contact
SnitchWire (at) gmail [ dot] com. If you get down with encryption, use
our PGP key.
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Comments
GUN no worse than FB or Myspace
September 27, 2009 by Rebel Insurgent, 8 weeks 1 day ago
Comment id: 4045
hey everyone.
i created GUN
many thanks to snitchwire for bringing these concerns to my attention. i guess i'm just a novice at these things.
i contacted snitchwire to see what they suggest. abandon the project?
but one thing is certain, GUN is no worse than myspace or facebook when it comes to the concerns listed above, so...
the reply to my email from snitchwire, shared w/their permission:
hey there!
I hope you didn't take our post personally or perceive it as a slam against
you or Dirty Hands. We actually love the work you guys do and want to visit!
Commends as well for reaching for accountability, which really I hope you're
not concerned too much about because GUN seemed well-intentioned, not as a
trap for young, internet-savvy activists to link up with informants (which
is what we see anarchists on the internet in danger of).
Generally, we recognize that facebook/myspace/ning/whatever is just bad
security culture. It can be nice to find friends online (hopefully that
translate to real life), but when a third party can literally trace back
that whole web of communication back to certain liable individuals, it
becomes a hazard to struggle.
I don't deny that it could be convenient for radicals to link up securely on
the web. I wish crabgrass was more. Unfortunately, doing it through free
services like ning or facebook (they are all the same, really) isn't secure
and it could put the more naive or young at unnecessary risk. Not to
mention, a little muckraking lead us to some gnarly conclusions on who might
own ning and thus revealing possible horrible scenarios that could arise
through using the service.
If you are really interested about facilitating this kind of project, why
not contact the crabgrass team and see if they could use some help? As for
the future of GUN, we would recommend addressing the points brought up in
our article on site and warning users of potential consequences. The idea
that a radical social networking site could merely facilitate introductions
between new friends and encourage communication between old friends far away
from each other is something that makes us excited. However, taking a look
at the site now, it appears there's people talking openly about tagging fed
buildings and shit. Educating people about basic security culture (NO WAR
STORIES/BRAGGING!) could help GUN be a positive tool rather than a haven for
agent provocateurs and spies collecting data.
Thank you for your concern, I hope we can meet on better terms soon!
in solidarity
snitchwire
On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 9:34 AM, wrote:
> hey there snitchwire.
>
> i created GUN, and guess i'm an internet novice, because i was unaware of
> the problems you bring up.
>
> i want to be accountable to my community and am wondering what advise you
> have. just abandon the project?
>
> and shouldn't snitchwire make similar statements about the more popular
> social networking sites (myspace, facebook, etc.) before a project by and
> for anarchists?
>
> i was unaware of ning's fucked up nature and thank you for bringing that
> to my attention.
>
> i am also trying to learn about internet security which i know nothing
> about so forgive me if i've fucked up somehow.
>
> soidarity,
>
> -Ab Irato
GUN's security warning
September 27, 2009 by Rebel Insurgent, 8 weeks 1 day ago
Comment id: 4046
"For now GUN is hosted on Ning, a third-party host which provides a free and easy platform with lots of features, but comes with serious security concerns. GUN should thus be considered about as secure as Myspace or Facebook, which is to say, not secure at all. For an introduction to security culture, which should be utilized at all times on and off the internet, click here."
snitchwire runs on google
September 27, 2009 by Anonymous, 8 weeks 1 day ago
Comment id: 4047
"1. It is hosted on a third party host (ning.com) (like Geocities or
Blogger for social networking sites). This means that ALL information
gathered by this site is viewable by a third party."
wait snitchwire is on blogspot and they rock gmail? those are both google systems.
spam
October 17, 2009 by Anonymous, 5 weeks 1 day ago
Comment id: 4175
this last comment is spam. They have left spam in the comments on some of the other articles too. The editors should remove these.
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