(By Brian Hofer)

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On November 8, I had the privilege of speaking on a Smart Cities themed panel at a PIT-UN Conference held on the San Jose State University campus. At our panel’s conclusion, I may have grabbed the mic for the final word and allegedly said in my usual Brian Hofer-charming manner something along the lines of “If you’re not using Signal, you’re a terrible person.” The response was the best return on investment I’ve ever had to a one sentence statement. In addition to my own 40 minute Q&A that statement led to afterwards, I was able to confirm that folks had downloaded the correct app, or I did it for them on the spot, for 23 individuals.

This past Thursday evening, I spoke to an important east-bay political organization compromised of …well, there was a lot of white hair in the room. When I brought up Signal, only one person in the room (our District Attorney) knew what I was talking about, despite Signal’s release in 2010 (originally called TextSecure, by Open Whisper Systems; “Signal” became a thing in 2018).

Keep in mind, these two audiences are the “well-educated, tech-savvy coastal elites”, and at San Jose State, a significant number of those I helped were undergrad students barely in their 20s.

If you’re here, or received this via our newsletter, you are likely aware of and hopefully even using Signal. I won’t name names, but I still can’t wrap my head around the number of activists I work with that won’t move to Signal, despite its no-cost, and no real learning curve status. It works similar to iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram - all the other products you should not be relying on. I did bring this concern up to the above audiences - if you refuse to take your own privacy settings seriously because you believe you are in a privileged demographic, you’re placing everyone in your network at risk. Encryption on my end is useless if my text message or phone audio is unencrypted on your end.

As we anticipate intensified federal actions targeting marginalized communities under a second Trump administration, our privacy self-defense workshops will provide participants with essential legal and practical technological self-defense strategies. Our goal is to safeguard privacy and equip participants with the tools necessary to protect their rights, in both their private affairs (reproductive rights, gender affirming care), concealing one’s immigration status, and limiting the risk of participating in public actions such as protests and movement building.

With federal financial support for increased surveillance, including data sharing with private companies, we believe that targeted communities—immigrants, environmental activists, LGBTQ, Muslims, journalists, women, civil libertarians, and racial justice advocates—are at heightened risk.

Did you know your car is spying on you (and how to disable those functions)? Which companies are building and funding the surveillance state? Identify license plate readers in your hometown that are tracking your every movement, including to locations like your local mosque, Planned Parenthood, or a gay bar? Are you about to buy a smart home appliance as a holiday gift? Do you prefer to keep your sex toy habits private? Are you concerned that a stranger might be communicating with your newborn or toddler, through a baby monitor? Ladies, are you aware that your period tracking apps have led to an exploding new profit center for private data brokers, menstrual surveillance? As the definition of “crime” evolves to include gender affirming and reproductive care choices, miscarriages, and immigration status, your data and digital footprint is being used against you.

We will host workshops featuring expert-led trainings from Secure Justice and local allied experts and groups, on privacy settings (online, smartphone apps), encrypted communications, alternative products with better technical privacy guardrails (“use this, not that”), and Know Your Rights information including immigration, LGBTQ, reproductive, civil rights, and privacy law.

These workshops will also provide connections to vital local resources, including immigration, privacy, and civil liberties lawyers, rapid response networks, mutual aid groups, and other allied organizations with a presence in each city where we host a workshop. Our current proposed list of cities to host these workshops: Sacramento, Oakland, Fresno, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, Bakersfield, and Los Angeles. Check back for a forthcoming “Events” webpage for specific information as we confirm dates and facility space. We’ll be leading off with Oakland and San Francisco in January & February 2025.

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These events will accommodate up to 100 participants and offer translation services, childcare, and refreshments. The workshops will be held in an accessible location with easy public transit and affordable parking options, and run from 10am to 4pm on a weekend date.

Engagement with state and local government representatives and law enforcement is vital for marginalized communities to understand the specific actions being taken to protect at-risk individuals. We will extend invitations to relevant officials like California’s Attorney General, and local State Senators, Assemblymembers, city council/county board of supervisors, and City/County Attorneys. We will examine the local Chief of Police and Sheriff on a case-by-case basis for invitation purposes, as several have openly opposed SB 54, California’s state Sanctuary law, and participate in the “sovereign citizen” or “constitutional sheriff” far right movements. Although I personally place little faith in California’s Democrat party elected officials to oppose Trump’s hate filled agenda in a meaningful manner, I’m very much on board with our champion and Attorney General Rob Bonta’s aggressive and vocal media presence lately as the face of California resistance to Trump 2.0.

Secure Justice is uniquely positioned to deliver this training due to our history of successfully advocating for sanctuary city laws and privacy rights, including enactment of multiple sanctuary city and sanctuary contracting ordinances, bans on racist predictive policing analytics, biometric surveillance, facial recognition, and restrictive data collecting and sharing policies.

We are committed to ensuring accessibility at these workshops by providing translation services and childcare. Participants will leave with practical and legal knowledge, materials that enable them to defend themselves and their loved ones, and support for broader movement-building efforts.

If you might want to help with a workshop component (including translation services), please email us at contact@secure-justice.org, identify your area(s) of interest (e.g. Know Your Rights law - immigration, LGTBQ, reproductive, civil rights/liberties); online/smartphone privacy settings, general privacy best practices) and which of the above cities you are located in.

If you are part of a mutual-aid or rapid response network in one of those regions and would like to share your group’s information with local participants, please contact us at contact@secure-justice.org.

Although our workshops will be free and open to all, we do need to secure additional funding if we are to host a workshop in each of the above listed cities. If you would like to “sponsor” a participant by earmarking a donation, you can do so in the manner shown below: 1) check the box for “Write us a comment”, and 2) in the text box, type Self-Defense Workshop. Donations made in this manner will be earmarked for these workshops.

We’re projecting a cost of $9800 per workshop of 100 participants, just under $100 each, per our budget below. Of course, any amount donated will be greatly appreciated and of benefit to the participants.

To receive alerts about these upcoming workshops in your email inbox, sign up for our newsletter. You may also check back here for our forthcoming “Events” page, which will provide specific time/date/location information as we confirm the workshops.