You’ve probably seen it all over the news lately. In an effort to “curtail terror” all over the globe, there have been some serious infringements of privacy by governments all over the world. Secret wiretaps, blogger arrests, internet data mining, the list just goes on and on.

It’s tough for the little guy to sit by and see all this horrible stuff happening and not know what the hell to do about it. So, without further ado, here’s a list of 10 ways to fight back against big brother. Lovers of freedom of thought and information need only apply.

1. Make a donation to the EFF

Yes, the Electronic Frontier Foundation mainly does work in the United States, but most of its projects have reprocussions around the world. For instance, their Freenet project created an anonymous discussion area on the net, and their TOR project helps people behind big firewalls (China) see an unfiltered internet. The TOR software also anonymizes visits to websites, so people inside of the US can keep their website visits secret from a snooping employer.

2. Set NaplesIsHome.com/freedom as your homepage

For every computer that sets the NaplesIsHome site as their homepage, $7 is donated to charities working for freedom of information around the globe. This really is the easiest way to do the greatest amount of good. It’s a frontend to Google, and so you get the same results as you normally would.

3. Become a TOR exit node

This is really a great use of computer resources if you’ve got them. Becoming a TOR exit node helps make the TOR network possible. You’ll be helping ensure people all over the world have equal access to information, regardless of what their government thinks is dangerous.

4. Encrypt your e-mail

This is a big one, and most people will never do it. Start by encrypting emails with your friends, if only for the novelty. Each encrypted email is another letter less easy for a government to read. If everyone encrypts their email, it becomes impossible to track every single letter sent, and whether the ideas in those send up red flags.

5. Use open source software

Closed source software is impossible to audit and prove effective. By using open source software, anyone can check and make sure that the code does exactly as said. Companies providing privacy software have been forced by their government (Germany) to provide backdoors. Open source software is global, and beyond any government control.

6. Spread the Word about the DemocraKey

Walk up to any computer, plug in a USB key, and you’re surfing the net anonymously and securely. The DemocraKey puts TOR and other encryption on a portable key you can take anywhere. Best of all, the directions on how to build them are free, and they’re available here. Can’t afford one? Sign up for the DemocraKey mailing list and you’ll automatically be entered to win one.
7. Get an EFF Badge for your Blog

Putting up an EFF badge for blogger’s rights helps get the word out about the need to protect freedom of speech. Everywhere.

8. Stay Educated

Pay attention to the independent news sites. Read blogs. Make sure you keep yourself up to date with the latest technology designed to track your every move, both on the net and otherwise.

9. Vote

Of course, voting assumes that the new voting machines aren’t rigged, and that the politicians haven’t been bought already, but do it anyway, it’s tradition. And it might work someday.

10. Pass it on

Spread the word about how to fight back. That with a little work, anyone can protect themselves from snooping and regulation of thought. It’s not that hard.

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So as you’ve probably guessed by now, the last attempt to make $10,000 in one day failed. There was no promotion of the cause other than just posting it onto digg and waiting. It was more a social network experiment then anything else and wasn’t really expected to work. So today, we do the dirty, underhanded thing - get a community of people fired up to support our cause.

Only we’ll do it the blackhat way.

This will probably feel a bit immoral, so put your seatbelt on.

We start by creating a blog. Put up pictures of someone from istockphoto.com, set up a little bit of a blogging history, maybe a few candid looking shots, and then the post saying something about financial trouble. All he needs is $10,000 to save his home, or 100 people to buy webhosting.
Then it’s time to promote the cause.

Greyhats would start by creating a few fake Myspace profiles and requesting to be friends. This can be automated, of course, and if you’re really blackhat there’s a list of 3,000 Myspace logins and passwords floating around the internet. The majority of them still work, and a few of them have thousands of friends. So you know which we’d use, don’t you?

Selecting 10 accounts from random on the hacked Myspace account list, we come up with just over 11,000 friends. Where are we going with this? A Myspace bulletin to all of our friends (using a DemocraKey, of course). About a cousin who is going to loose his home. All he needs is 10 seconds of your time to save his family. A link to a page asking to digg the article and mail three friends asking for more help.

Now, coming from some random myspace friend, the chances of response would be slim. But coming from close, real friends the Myspace response will probably turn out really well. Around 1% well. And that’s enough to get to the front page of Digg and be seen but at least 70,000 viewers.

And that’s where it starts to get interesting…

It’s no secret that reporters pay attention to what makes front page on Digg. What’s a better story than a guy making $10,000 in one day and saving his family home? Of course it’s going to make the mainstream news. And $10,000 was just the beginning.

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