The FSB is watching everyone. How Big Brother is watching us: experts explained the working methods of the intelligence services. What to do if someone is secretly stalking you

**Battles on the topic of anonymity on the Internet have been going on for years all over the world, and Russian legislators are not giving up attempts to regulate the Internet. It's very easy to become paranoid if you think about it often. At the request of GQ, journalist Andrei Kaganskikh studied how the state actually spies on you, what messengers officials themselves love (and you should love them), and why we are still far from Orwell’s world (spoiler: they steal). **

How they monitor

In Russia, the most famous way of spying on citizens is the System of Technical Means for Ensuring the Functions of Operational Investigative Activities (or simply SORM). The principle of operation is simple - repeated creation of copies of our Internet traffic and recordings of our telephone conversations for subsequent dissection by FSB agents. In theory, this system should be installed at their own expense by absolutely all operators and “organizers” of communications – from Rostelecom to the caretaker of university Wi-Fi routers.

It sounds impressive, but there is no need to be afraid. According to journalist Andrei Soldatov, who wrote a book about SORM with a colleague, this system is too cumbersome to be effective. Security forces prefer targeted espionage, and urban legends about searching for threats using keywords remain modern folklore.

As for targeted wiretaps, intelligence services can carry them out only with the permission of the court. In 2015 (the most recent statistics yet), courts issued 845,631 such permits. It’s better not to guess whether you are in these statistics. You won’t know anyway, because such orders, as a rule, never become public.

What messengers do officials like?

The most convenient way to bypass government wiretapping and the main headache for voyeurs in uniform is encrypted messengers like WhatsApp, Viber and Telegram. Officials themselves love them. Due to constant civil strife in domestic law enforcement agencies and fear of surveillance by Western colleagues, some civil servants have mastered the art of secret correspondence. There are enough rituals, traditions and tales for a small ethnographic reference book, and you have a lot to learn from them, remember.

First of all, the choice of messenger depends on where the official works. Most government agencies use Telegram. But there are also originals. According to one businessman close to the FSB, there is a group in the Moscow department of the special service that prefers FaceTime to all other messengers. The choice is explained simply - the video calling application is also encrypted, the interlocutor’s face is always in view, and compromising video chats are not saved anywhere.

According to a GQ source in the State Duma, police leaders allegedly prefer the Signal messenger, which relies on grants and donations. In parliament itself, things are worse - most deputies still prefer meetings in bathhouses and offices to secret chats.

The Administration of the President of the Russian Federation monitors information discipline more actively. The list of internal requirements in one of the departments, among other things, includes written reporting on social networks (including anonymous accounts) and connections via VPN (Virtual Private Network). VPN technologies allow you to create encrypted connections on the Internet, including encrypted telephone lines. You just need to carefully choose a VPN server or even get your own: after Yarovaya’s law, not everyone is suitable anymore; now they are also actively trying to hang SORM on them.

“An amusing thing: microphones, which are usually used for speakerphones, have been mechanically removed from office equipment,” says a Kremlin official. While you were sleeping, refrigerators, TVs and video cameras equipped with vulnerable software marched onto the market, making the Internet of Things a reality. In 2016, the first massive DDoS attacks were carried out using household appliances, and WikiLeaks leaks already include technologies for turning Samsung smart TVs into expensive bugs. In the spring of 2016, on a Vice media holding show on HBO, Edward Snowden started opening the phone of journalist Shane Smith. After removing the microphones and video cameras, the former NSA employee declared the device secure, so the technical exercises of Russian officials do not seem so paranoid. Sophisticated caution sits alongside traditional apathy. “To be honest, many civil servants are complete ignoramuses. Nobody really organizes their security. In Roskomnadzor, in general, email addresses are on mail.ru - and all protection comes down to veiled phrases,” one of the interlocutors complains about his colleagues.

Strangely enough, people from the Prosecutor General's Office can be considered the most advanced in information security issues. Allegedly, prosecutors categorically do not accept documents from flash drives and do not discuss their secrets by email and popular instant messengers. Moreover, they are not shy about encrypting traffic through TOR - a reliable way to avoid SORM and data interception. “They are also interested in various devices for anonymizing mobile communications. A recent example is a mobile phone with a constantly changing IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity - Note), which connects to any nearby cellular data antenna and, using this network, allows you to make anonymous calls,” says a source in the State Duma.

Unlike officials, ordinary Russians seem to have little time left to use affordable telephone encryption. Back in the fall of 2016, one of the SORM supplier companies, Con Certeza, was looking for contractors to hack encrypted messengers, but apparently they were not able to break them. At the beginning of 2017, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Roskomnadzor issued a set of regular amendments to the Law “On Communications”. The main goal is to put messengers under control. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, companies that own instant messengers should provide security forces with software to identify users. In case of disobedience, officials expect a repeat of the story with the blocking of LinkedIn in the Russian Google Play and App Store. One can understand the security forces: in addition to gossip lovers and authors of anonymous telegram channels about politics, terrorists also communicate in encrypted chats. Compared to other messengers, Telegram generally looks like the “wild West”, in whose channels you can easily order a prostitute, drugs, or organize a money laundering startup.

If desired, our intelligence services can hack Telegram even now, albeit crudely. For example, by the method of intercepting SMS messages with authentication codes by the MTS technical security department. They have a lot to learn from their Western colleagues. According to the latest batch of WikiLeaks documents, the CIA can read your secret chats using special viruses. However, they failed to break Telegram: the agents used weaknesses in mobile operating systems that were undetected by the developers, rather than in individual applications.

How you are tracked on the darknet

You can still safely scroll the Internet in Russia. Even though VPN providers are almost under control, there is still a reliable onion TOR. At least until the Russian government decides to imitate the example of Ethiopia and Turkey, where TOR is blocked. In principle, the shadow sector of the Internet is still reliably protected from the attention of security forces, but it is still not difficult to get caught. For example, if you are stupid enough to turn off the antivirus or not deactivate scripts in the browser. This is exactly how Australian police caught child pornography enthusiasts en masse from The Love Zone website. The catch with TOR is this: ISPs know you're accessing it, but they don't know what you're doing there.

In the winter of 2013, Harvard University sophomore Eldo Kim used TOR to send a letter from a temporary Guerrilla Mail account to the campus administration, the local police department, and the university newspaper. The letter threatened two bombs on campus. Of course, there were no explosives at the university; Kim was simply trying to evade the exam. Two days later, the student was caught without any decoding of the codes. Having found a trace of the “onion” IP address in the letter, the feds decided to check records on university Internet networks for access to TOR nodes. The careless student quickly admitted to what he had done. The capture of Kim is a typical example of a correlation attack, when operatives compare the time of an action on TOR and access to darknet entry nodes and look for matches. These appeals are stored in SORM for many years, so it is easier for Russian security forces to carry out correlation attacks.

“If necessary, you can find anyone. All TOR output nodes listen. Imagine, they are interested in you and listen to your traffic, and you turned on TOR, torrents, and from the TOR browser you go to your VKontakte,” says a young civil servant working in the field of IT analytics. Last year, he talked about safe ways to buy drugs on the dark web, while filling a bong with weed and blowing smoke into the room. Apparently, he strictly follows his own precepts: “There is a set of signs by which you can determine which sites on the external Internet you have visited. And these signs include, for example, the size of the browser window. If you stretch it and it becomes non-standard, this will immediately set you apart from millions of people. Accordingly, the more cheeky you behave - the more sites you visit during one session and the more actions you perform - the greater the likelihood of getting burned. But for a simple drug addict, no one will bother like that.” These electronic fingerprints are collected, among other things, to provide contextual advertising to the user. According to GQ’s interlocutor, in special cases, leaked data from advertising aggregators can also be used to de-anonymize darknet users.

Why total surveillance is a fiction

The reign of Orwellian technocracy in Russia is hampered by bureaucratic dreams of buying their own villa in Tuscany and banal technical illiteracy. As practice shows, the Russian police do not even have to look for the criminal. It is enough to imprison the owner of the TOR exit node, whose IP address remained at the compromising post. This is precisely what apparently happened to Moscow mathematics teacher Dmitry Bogatov, who was arrested for inciting mass riots. Having looked through the list of IP addresses in Vladivostok, Norway, the Netherlands and Japan, from which a sysadmins.ru user, a certain Airat Bashirov, who was allegedly campaigning for a rally in Moscow, allegedly came from, investigators found a single Moscow IP address. Bogatov held this knot. According to media reports, while Bogatov is in prison, the user “Ayrat Bashirov” continues to campaign on the website.

More thorough attempts to surveil everyone in Russia fail due to everyday corruption. In February 2013, the company Integrated Security Technologies (CTB) entered into a contract with the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the supply of the Spartan 300 complex for external surveillance cameras installed in Moscow. According to the developers, the system used a neural network that can determine a person’s intentions by his facial expressions and behavior. The declared functionality aroused suspicion among everyone except employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - in fact, the complex turned out to be a contactless Kinect controller with the Spartan logo pasted on top of the Microsoft logo. The original device allows you to play Xbox using hand movements. The controller proposed to the police did not cope well with its functionality, even with the absence of facial recognition tools. The situation might seem like an evil joke if it weren’t for the broadcast about the miracle box on the Moscow 24 TV channel and subsequent claims from Microsoft. Lawsuit from Zack Snyder and Warner Bros. it didn't seem to follow.

“Two years ago, at the Infoforum conference, one team proposed adding microphones to cameras in transport,” says journalist Soldatov. – The developers say: “Some drug addicts will run into the bus and start robbing someone. The driver will not be able to react - he must look at the road. Microphones will help the driver hear what is happening and react.” In practice, expensive microphones will most likely relay the noise from the interior of a seventeen-meter Ikarus to drivers who are not very keen on exploits. For many years now, officials have been planning to replace CCTV cameras, which are lavishly hung in the Moscow metro, with “smart” cameras with software for recognizing the faces of criminals and detecting fights and other obvious offenses. In 2015, the cost of the entire system was estimated at 3.7 billion rubles. The current deadline is the 2018 World Cup. In public, representatives of the metro and police are skimpy on details, so the technical details of the project are still completely unclear.

A GQ interlocutor from the field of IT entrepreneurship expressed doubts about the performance of these cameras. If there are only a couple of cameras on a 150-meter platform, then the blurred pixel captured by the lens may remain a blurry pixel, similar to millions of other foggy passenger spots. Current data on government procurement does not provide a specific idea of the total number of “smart” cameras at stations and the technical equipment of the system. Although systems for tracking queues at ticket offices and forgotten bags in the subway are already being tested, and it seems to be successful.

What awaits us in the future

Instead of beeps, a recording plays on the receiver: “I [raped] you.” All together. Khachuyan, you don’t decide...” I’m calling Arthur Khachuyan. He wears dreadlocks, mixes his own ringtones, and his company Fubutech supplies officials with facial recognition software. What distinguishes Khachuyan’s company from its money-grabbing competitors is at least the presence of commercial clients and a functioning website. Fubutech algorithms storm the Internet every second in search of available photographs from open sources. Upon first request, another algorithm places checkpoints on the found face and searches for matches in the collected database. To, for example, find terrorists in random photographs from hookah bars or look for students in photographs from a rally on Tverskaya and deprive them of their scholarships. Like FindFace, but with a completely different technical filling.

According to Arthur, the future belongs to anti-terrorist drones that recognize faces and circle in flocks over Moscow in search of unreliable citizens. Answering my question about ways to deceive his algorithm, Arthur does not hide the irony: “Simple: glasses for half the face and a scarf to the floor. I also saw in a couple of TV series face sprays with paint that emits light in the infrared range. Quite realistic." Perhaps, instead of Arthur, art will suggest the correct answer. In 2013, artist Adam Harvey published his take on the paranoia-inspired fashion of the future. The project was called CV Dazzle. The program includes half-face bangs, bold unisex makeup and accents on asymmetry, which together effectively make the face invisible to algorithms. Now the artist is working on creating a new (and fashionable) type of urban camouflage. Cameras will unsuccessfully search for faces in camouflage patterns, turning face search into a rudiment. Perhaps someday this will really come into fashion. Perhaps even among officials who will appear at meetings and plenary sessions in camouflage three-piece suits, with playful bangs and colorful makeup.

Private security firms make good money by investigating cases of covert surveillance. Conspiracy to commit fraud, suspicions of a loved one's infidelity, and even simple voyeuristic entertainment at the expense of complete strangers encourage people to invade the privacy of others for personal gain.

Knowing that someone could be watching you at any moment, the question becomes relevant: “How do I know if I’m being watched?” More on this later in the article.

Don't be so predictable

We must understand that acts of violence are not random. People who kidnap overseas don't just wake up and say, "Let's grab someone today." They spend a lot of time observing. What time does the victim leave? Where is it going? Is there anything predictable about the movements? Try to make your movements less predictable. Sometimes take the stairs, sometimes take the elevator. Come back at different times. Don't always follow the same path on the street.

How to recognize an unwanted admirer?

It happens that a girl says: “I noticed that I was being followed.” How did she understand this? Let's look at the signs of an unwanted suitor:

You see the same person or car throughout the day.
A customer in a restaurant who sits not far from you who gets up and leaves without eating.
A runner who runs nearby.

Always trust your intuition.

How to overcome fear?

The fear of being watched can be easily overcome. Here are some simple ways to prove your intuition is correct:

Use mirrors or windows to watch people behind you.
Make unexpected stops, go places you wouldn't normally go, change your pace or route. Is it possible that someone who regularly walks his usual path will appear in these random places?
Take a taxi one block and come back. Did someone do the same thing behind you?
Walk the normal path, then do the "forgot your keys" show, turn around and come back. Has anyone started going the other way too? This method makes it possible to look at the face of the guy who is behind in order to describe him.
Miss the turn. Look who else will do it. Then just keep going straight. Did they continue walking straight?
If you suspect that you are being followed, report it to the police immediately. Don't wait to return home. This can only accelerate the violence.

Each detail, regardless of size, can be extremely useful in identification.

There's a maniac behind. What to do?

What to do if a maniac is following you? Here are some tips:

Move to an area with a lot of people to get as many witnesses as possible. This will reduce the likelihood that he will attack. Therefore, if you suspect someone of surveillance, you can confirm it this way. Increase your confidence in being escorted to different places at different times. If you see the same person, no matter the time or place, you can be sure that he is following you.
Change your walking pace. If someone is watching you, they will most likely try to match your stride. When accelerating, it will speed up. If you slow down, it will slow down. If you stop, he will stop. So change the pace and watch how the suspected maniac reacts. If his movements match your pace, chances are he's following you.
Stop and turn. An effective tactic for identifying who is spying. While you're walking, just stop, turn around, and pretend you want to do something, like check your phone, tie your shoelaces, or turn around as if you're looking for someone. Then look directly at the person who you think is following you. The typical amateur who follows will get agitated and leave. He may act unnaturally. Because he was caught off guard. In other words, someone who is following you will not exhibit the same natural behavior as someone who is simply walking down the street.
Change direction. When walking, stop and turn 180 degrees and start walking towards the person you suspect is following you (this is only done in a public and crowded place). If the suspect also turns around and starts walking behind you again, you can be sure that person is watching. The following describes how to act after detecting a “tail”.

Rules

So, you have confirmed that you are being followed. Now what? To do this, follow the general rules, as well as recommendations specific to whether you are eating or walking.

Rule #1. Don't go home. It's natural to want to go home and lock your doors, but if your tail doesn't know where you live, don't reveal that information. Moreover, you risk meeting him there.

Rule #2: Stay in public, well-lit and populated areas. If you are in a car, stop on roads that are well lit and do not intersect with country roads or secluded streets. If you walk, stay in public places where there are a lot of people. Don't walk down lonely alleys. The pursuer may wait in the parking lot or follow to the house.

What else can you do?

What to do if you are being followed? Try this:

Gather information. If it is confirmed that you are being escorted in a car, write down the details of the car in order to study the pursuer and go to the police. Determine the model, try to indicate the license plate number.
Call the police. If you feel threatened, call the police to report what is happening. Or simply go to your local precinct and report surveillance. Give the officer information about the car that is following you.
Use roads with plenty of traffic lights and signs. Pursuers may get stuck at a traffic light or behind in a traffic jam. This is a chance to get rid of them.
Be prepared to maneuver. On roads and at traffic lights, keep your distance so that you can maneuver if necessary, if necessary. If you can see the tires of the car in front of you, the distance is sufficient.
Return home only after you feel that the stalker is no longer accompanying you.

On foot

What to do if you are being followed? What to do if you are walking and notice a stalker? Here are some recommendations:

Call the police. If you think that someone with malicious intentions is accompanying you, then call the police. Stay on the phone with a law enforcement representative for as long as possible. If the stalker is nearby, speak loudly so that he or she can hear. If there is a police station nearby, go to it.
Use public transport to avoid surveillance. You can get on a bus or subway at the very last minute and lose those who are watching you.
Recognize the person who is watching. One tactic recommends simply letting your follower know that you know they are following you. Turn around and look directly at them. If you're feeling brave, ask, "Can I help you?" Or: “What do you want?”

Showing overconfidence will cause a potential criminal to back down. At least if their behavior is associated with social aggression, and not with the antisocial type. If the latter, you need to be prepared to retreat yourself.

Again, this is a tactic you can practice if you are in a well-lit and well-populated area, in case the pursuer is advancing rather than retreating.

Federal services

What to do if the FSB is watching you? If for some reason you find yourself involved in international, high-level espionage, it is possible that the FSB will be watching you. In this case, the above tactics will not work.

Firstly, it will be very difficult to even determine that illegal surveillance has been installed.

Highly trained, professional FSB officers will use teams of people to coordinate surveillance of you. There is a whole team there to do surveillance. It will follow you wherever you go, if one person follows you in one area then another will follow you when you arrive at another place.

How to monitor correctly?

How can you spy on a person? If you dream of becoming a professional spy or just want to pass the time, learn how to spy on other people and decipher the sequence of events, then use the tips below. To be a spy, you need to improve your mental and physical abilities, learn to remain unnoticed in a crowd. A basic protocol should also be created to make missions as safe and successful as possible.

If you're monitoring indoors, try wearing socks on your feet to keep your movements quiet.
If your memory is poor, use your phone or voice recorder to record the conversation.
Give each person in the group a specific job (reporter, bodyguard, and scout).
Develop hand signals, learn a body language that only you and your team can understand. But don't make them too complicated or noticeable.
Everything must be left exactly as it was originally. If you turn on the light, turn it off when you're done, and so on.
If you take photos, make sure it's not obvious.
Study the area where the surveillance will take place, and plan your way in and out well. This will come in handy. Don't forget the security cameras if there are any.
Write down the information you need in a notepad, copy it onto your computer, and throw away the original documents. Remember that a PC can be stolen or seized, so consider digital archiving elsewhere.
Learn to pick locks.
There should always be a bag for carrying gadgets.
When taking pictures, turn off the flash.
Do whatever is necessary as long as it is legal. Make sure to keep all secrets to yourself unless they are something the government might need.
If you are spying on someone who is moving, stop when the subject stops and move when they move. Also, try to leave some distance between the subject of your tracking, but be close enough that you can hear what they say and see what they do, or read their lips.

Precautionary measures

Remember that if you are likely to face serious legal consequences for engaging in illegal surveillance, you could be charged with stalking, for example.

Even with your closest friends, you still need to be careful. Don't trust anyone too much. Always obey the law. The phrase: “I tried to help” will not save you from prison.

Reasons for spying on your spouse

If a man is watching you, how can you understand this? What are some reasons why a man might spy on his wife? Let's look at them.

Reasons why a husband might spy:

Suspects of deception.
Cheating is a thing of the past.
He lies.
He needs control.
He's a sociopath.

Signs your spouse is spying

If a husband spies on his wife, what are the signs of espionage? You should be wary:

Your husband regularly asks about the people you talk to.
He always unmistakably knows and can tell what his wife is doing, where and with whom.
Mentions some details that were not told to him and were not discussed in front of him. Categorically denies that he is doing anything wrong and assumes that the spouse is paranoid.
Your phone or tablet displays excessive activity and requires frequent charging.

The man is a sociopath. How should you behave with him?

It turns out that many men are sociopaths and exhibit corresponding tendencies. In this case, your husband will demand that you give him access to the devices and all passwords. Of course, he will convince you that it is only because he loves you and wants to keep you safe.

When trying to protect confidentiality, he will make sure that it is not hidden from him. He will talk about all your conversations with obvious glee. It will appear where you least expect it. May withdraw money from bank account, hack Facebook and post messages that embarrass or make you look stupid. He will want to know where his woman is, with whom and why.

It is possible that a jealous person may install a hidden video camera or listening device. Therefore, pay attention to:

lamps and chandeliers;
shelves;
the lower part of the furniture;
spots on the walls - may be the location of the camera;
audio equipment;
decorations, paintings and flower pots - everything that is a permanent piece of decor;
check the vehicle for tracking devices.

Prevent phone hacking and tracking

How to prevent this?

Always use or fingerprint recognition for your devices.
Avoid template passwords. They are easy to hack.
Make sure no one is looking over your shoulder when using the password.
Pay attention to any strange coded messages. They may indicate that the phone is transferring data, or the app is updating itself.
An increasing rate of battery drain may indicate data transfer.
Install antivirus software and run the cleaning application regularly.
Set your phone to airplane mode when not in use.

If you are sure that your phone is hacked, then reset it to factory settings and first create backup copies of all contacts.

New technologies

How to understand who is following me? This is not always easy to do, because sometimes they operate remotely. That is, they are watching from afar. The developers have successfully created the most modern surveillance devices so that the average person has no idea how to identify them with the naked eye. Wireless hidden cameras and eavesdropping devices are as tiny as a shirt button and easily penetrate vents or light fixtures, functional knobs, cell phone chargers and plumbing fixtures. From there, a device no larger than a pencil can transmit audio and video information.

This is a wireless connection. She can broadcast a crystal clear HD feed across a stunningly wide range, all the while hidden inside completely innocent objects.

Most often, individuals and businesses hire professionals who have a deep understanding of spy equipment and its modern technologies.

What to do if someone is spying at home?

Determining who is following me can be very difficult. But what to do when you suspect that someone may be spying at home? Try this:

Handle suspicious devices correctly. It's best to turn them off immediately. A broken piece of equipment that you've never noticed before in your home could be a camera.
Wi-Fi signals detect your smartphone, tablet, computer or other devices. A previously unknown network that suddenly appears on these lists with a strong signal inside a home or office may be a dedicated circuit. Wireless spy equipment transmits information through it. Once or twice a week, review your browser history and scan your system for viruses. If your computer is running too slowly and sites that you don't visit have been detected, or certain programs are running that you haven't opened, a hack may already have occurred.

By the same logic, investigate any electronic device that still draws power when turned off.

A little conclusion

Now you know how hidden surveillance can manifest itself, how you need to behave in a given situation when someone is watching you. We hope you will be able to get out of any difficult situation safe and sound.

You have an unpleasant suspicion that someone is watching you, be it a person from a car or an ordinary pedestrian. Here's how you can really find out for yourself whether you're really being monitored. Dear citizens, friends and motorists, we offer our detailed “life hack” that will help you find out whether this is actually happening, that is, you can actually find out and establish for yourself by reading our article who is walking behind you or moving and specifically monitors you in your car.

Why is someone watching me? I’m a simple person and I haven’t done anything bad to anyone..(?)

This is one of the very first questions that a citizen asks himself when he feels in his gut that he is being spied on. And all this stems from the fact that in our country most people suspect and feel that they are being secretly monitored and therefore believe that they are specifically being watched by law enforcement agencies. And what is characteristic, the paradox lies precisely in the fact that such suspicions usually arise among those people and citizens who are not guilty of anything to anyone. The main thing is not to panic and just calm down. If you haven't actually done anything illegal, you're unlikely to be followed (by law enforcement). Usually they have nothing to do with ordinary citizens.

Unfortunately for our citizens, law enforcement agencies are not the only ones who can conduct surveillance on citizens. In reality, the list of persons who can monitor a person is not small at all. For example, you can be spied on by a detective hired by someone, or former colleagues (subordinates) who are angry with you, as well as criminals or your spouse (bride or groom, etc.). You can be directly observed and followed even by the driver of the car whom you accidentally cut off while driving your vehicle. Perhaps this driver turned out to be too aggressive and decided to teach you a lesson, perhaps even using his fists.

One conclusion can be drawn from this: do not underestimate the people around you. After all, you can really be watched from the outside. No, no, we’re not talking about that, you don’t need to constantly check and determine whether you are being monitored. Let us, dear friends, not treat this paradoxically and hysterically. Although, if you really have reason to suspect that you are being watched, then we hope that we will help you really find out and establish for yourself whether such surveillance actually exists or is it just your imagination. In order to find out, you need to use and apply some methods that will help identify surveillance, and you also need to be sufficiently informed in this area. That's basically all the rules.

What to do if someone is secretly stalking you

Let's first clarify for ourselves, thereby dispelling suspicions of surveillance, namely, first of all, we will establish whether the “secret intelligence services” are watching you. So, if you notice a suspicious person or several people, then most likely these people do not belong to the special services or law enforcement agencies, since such departments employ professionals who have ideal tricks and skills for discreet surveillance, which you are unlikely to detect.

As a rule, with such surveillance of specific law enforcement agencies, several operatives take part in the surveillance, who take turns watching you, thereby changing with each other so that you do not pay any attention to them. For example, one operative follows you to a pre-agreed point.

Then another employee of these law enforcement agencies gets involved. Their actions are also controlled by a coordinator, who uses the radio to guide all their actions. What could this actually mean? For example, if you are walking and an operative is following you, then the moment you go into a cafe to drink a cup of coffee, the operative in this cafe will definitely be replaced by another employee. And if you suspect that you are being followed by turning your attention to the person who was following you, then being in a cafe and making sure that he (this person) has left, as a rule, you will definitely calm down and thereby lose your vigilance. But in fact, this surveillance will continue and you will have almost no chance of identifying the next (another) person assigned to monitor you. Thus, you and I now know that when surveillance by special services, one operative never takes part in surveillance for a long time.

There are several ways and techniques to answer this question: - " ". Namely, you can find out for yourself whether a professional or an ordinary amateur is watching you. You will also be able to find out for yourself for certain, in the event that you begin to suspect that you are being followed (or it simply isn’t there), whether the very person you noticed is suspicious, or whether he actually turned out to be a random passerby. Here's what you need to do:

- Pay attention to those around you. Start paying attention to the people around you who pass by or pass you. You will be pleasantly surprised when you see that most of these people are walking along the sidewalks and chatting enthusiastically on their mobile phones. None of them pay any attention to the world around them, including you, they all just walk with their heads down and look blankly at the asphalt.

Keep your head straight and pay attention not only to the people walking, but also to the cars you pass along the way. You must know and study the familiar world around you and at the same time what the mass of people on the street that surrounds you looks like, and at the same time you must also notice the massive flow of cars. Without knowing what the world around you actually looks like, you will not be able to identify the person who is watching you.

- Don't have the habit of looking over your shoulder. Remember, friends, that all these actions must be performed imperceptibly and as if naturally. If you behave suspiciously, then the one who is watching you will be able to quickly understand that you suspect him and have discovered that you are being followed, then this secret observer can simply change tactics. For example, special agents for external surveillance know “like our father” that if you turn over your shoulder every three steps, thereby looking back, then most likely they will immediately think that the object suspected something and began to behave suspicious, and this can only mean that you felt you were being followed. Most likely, after such behavior on your part, the special agents will stop surveillance completely and resume it later.

- If you feel you are being followed, start watching immediately. Turn your attention to a car in your yard that you have never seen before. Write it down on your phone. If you are driving a car in a stream of cars, then pay attention to those cars that repeat the same actions as you on the road. For example, for cars that change lanes behind you several times.

It usually happens that if someone is following you in a car, then as a rule he or they should or should drive past you several times, and then, having reduced the speed of the car, again stand behind you in the same (your) lane. Pay your attention to these same cars, since in ordinary everyday life you will rarely see a car on the road that, having overtaken you and slowed down, will then again enter your lane. Also pay attention to those cars that you have already noticed, whether they follow you when approaching the queue lined up for a turn.

Also, if you are moving on foot and notice that you are actually being followed, i.e., you are being inconspicuously followed by an inconspicuous pedestrian who may overtake you in a stream of people on the sidewalk, and then may deliberately lag behind you in order to continue the surveillance, then the main thing at such a moment is not to panic and behave as if nothing had happened, you need to continue moving along the intended route. In addition, often the observer can even cross to the other side of the street in order to follow you part of the way completely unnoticed. But as a rule, such a person will sooner or later come over to your side again and continue his journey behind you.

During surveillance, many professionals use the method of changing outerwear. They need this so that the object does not detect the outdoors. But still, you have a certain chance of identifying even such a professional(s). Start remembering those citizens (people) who seem suspicious to you. But the thing is, let’s say that changing coats and hats is not difficult, but shoes are usually a problem. After all, as a rule, there is simply not enough time for this, since time spent changing shoes can lead to the loss of an object from the field of required visibility. Therefore, remember, friends, that even the same professionals usually do not change their shoes during surveillance.

-Check if you're being followed by changing your pace. For example, take it and slow down. If you are moving by car, then approximately twice. If you are walking, slow down your walking speed. Usually, with such actions, you will create enormous difficulties for those people who are watching you, since your slowdown may give you the opportunity to detect surveillance or an outdoor agent. If you are driving a car, then after reducing your speed, change into the right lane and, while continuing to drive, try to watch for other cars.

Typically, this method is excellent at identifying unprofessional surveillance. Namely, after reducing the speed, you will actually see the very car that is following you, if there is one, and this will mean that you are most likely being watched not by intelligence officers or police officers, but by other people.

You should perform similar actions when moving on foot. You should also slow down or pause briefly (for example, taking your cell phone out of your pocket) to pretend that you are looking for something in your pocket or as if you are looking only at the phone, but at this moment your eyes should look around and observe situation. Pay attention to those who pass by you at the moment when you stop or continue to move at a very slow pace. Remember those people who passed by you. Next, turn your attention to the person who passed you and then appeared behind you again as you accelerated again.

In fact, this method of detecting professional surveillance will not help you, since the intelligence agent or agents will not speed up behind you (especially if you are moving in a straight line), as a rule, they or he will speed up the movement of the object only in cases where there is a certain risk that the object he or they are observing will disappear from their sight. Thus, with the help of such an increase in the pace of movement, you have a chance to identify only an amateur amateur, and not a special agent(s).

Above, dear friends, you can watch the video, which contains several specific ways to detect surveillance.

What to do if you think you're being followed

If, using the methods described above, you find out for yourself that someone is really watching you, then you have several options. namely:

- Call the police. Do this first if you think you are in real danger. This is your best action, which you need to think about first. Secondly, if law enforcement agencies are watching you, then you can simply check this by calling the police. There is a high probability that the surveillance agent will stop monitoring you further, as he will quickly find out about your call to the police.

There is, of course, a possibility that you are being monitored by intelligence services or law enforcement agencies from another area, in which case such surveillance may continue. But as a rule, such a call to the police almost always helps to change the course of action of that same outdoor device. If, after calling the police, you see that such surveillance has stopped, then you will once again be 100% convinced that you were being monitored by law enforcement agencies.

But when you are specifically being watched by civilians, then the best solution in this situation for you would be to call the police, since this concerns your personal safety. After calling the police, stay in a crowded area. If you are, then stand right on the road and turn on your hazard lights, and then you can wait out the police.

In addition, without making the same call, you can go to the police yourself by contacting the nearest department with this problem.

- Go to any public place where there are always a lot of people. Having noticed and figured out that you are being followed, you can go straight to a public place. For example, to the same restaurant. Or you can visit any shopping center, and always remember that a public place is your personal safety. If you sit at a table in a restaurant or cafe, then order tea or, for example, for yourself. While you are waiting for your order, take out your phone and pretend that you are looking for something on it. At this moment, look around and at the same time look for your pursuers. This way, you will be able to take a closer look at exactly the citizen who is following you, and this will certainly help you give the police a detailed, clear description of your pursuers.

- Never panic. Having noticed and, with a high probability, having figured out that you are being followed, do not under any circumstances speed up your movement, do not try to hide in an alley or sharply turn in the other direction. Also, you shouldn’t suddenly start running in order to have time to jump on the departing train. This method of evading surveillance only looks good in the movies. Remember the following for yourself, if this is done by professionals, then at the very moment when you try to quickly or run towards the metro, most likely another person (a professional agent) will already be waiting for you on the platform, who is just like you, but already calmly will enter the same train or carriage in which you will board.

Remember, friends, that the same acceleration in a car will also lead you nowhere. If you are being watched not by amateurs but by professionals, then it is unlikely that you will be able to stupefy them in this way. Remember that professional outdoor surveillance employees, as it happens, simply will not follow you all the time, usually and mainly they are only interested in your residential address, your place of work, or the places that you most often visit, etc. d. Therefore, for competent surveillance, professionals usually use (use) no car. Even if you accelerate at some point, another car will almost immediately start driving you, which you won’t even notice.

- Change your behavior to confuse the person who is following you. Let's say you are driving a car and understand that you are most likely being followed, although you are not yet completely sure. In this case, you must deliberately break the rules of the road (of course, not rudely), in order to see and see for yourself how the car that may be following you will behave. For example, you can ignore the “give way” road sign, or while driving on the highway you can take a short time to see who is following you from the side.

There is another way to figure out the car that is spying on you. This can be done by driving your car along a circular route. For example, you can drive in a circle along two parallel city streets. Agree with us, it is unlikely that during this time you will see a random car that will move in a circle and along the same route as your car.

- Change your actions regularly. If you are afraid that those who are watching you want or want to harm you, then constantly change your actions so that they are always unpredictable. Do not walk the straight route home, especially in those moments when you feel in real danger.

If you constantly return home along a certain planned route, then try to change this route. For example, go to the same restaurant or cafe that you have never been to before. The thing is, if you are really being watched, then there is a high probability that you have been being watched for several days and, accordingly, these people have already learned all your rules. Also, do not forget that if you drive and get to work (or from work) usually by subway and along a certain route, then change it (the route) too. Make it more difficult for yourself, for example in this way, increase the number of transfers on the route.

But if you still think that the person who is watching you can really harm you, then, as we have already indicated above, it is better in this case to call the police and be in a public crowded place before they arrive.

Always remember that if you are being watched by professionals (it doesn’t matter whether they are law enforcement agencies or a detective who is watching you on the order of some person), then in this case, as a rule, there is no point in them interacting with you directly. These people usually want to know for themselves who you are dating, what places you are visiting, etc. information.

Although there are also options when you can easily confuse even the same professionals. Then follow our advice. It’s another matter when they are watching and want to specifically cause harm. Your safety in such cases is of paramount importance. Therefore, under no circumstances should friends “play” with those who are watching you for a specific intended purpose, without trying to escape surveillance, etc. Your main task is to identify those people who are watching you, remember their signs and then call the police. Moreover, it is advisable to do everything so that your pursuers do not suspect anything, then you will have a concrete chance that the police will detain these “detective pursuers.”

In most cases, as we know, many citizens never experience surveillance. But still, not a single person is immune from this. Therefore, friends, you must clearly remember for yourself how you can find out and calculate those moments when you are definitely being monitored, and at the same time you must be able to establish who is conducting such surveillance on you. We hope that our advice will help you, friends, to protect yourself in the unpleasant situations that we described in this article. Good luck to you all!

There is no more personal space on the Internet.

Many of you are probably wondering: “Can intelligence agencies read my correspondence on the Internet?” The peak moment was the situation with the whistleblower of American intelligence services, Edward Snowden, who, through his example, opened the eyes of the whole world to the fact that personal data, correspondence and calls can be viewed and wiretapped by intelligence services without any permissions or court orders.

Let's sort things out in order.

Mobile phone

Snowden showed everyone that a telephone is a “tidbit” for the intelligence services of many countries. They can easily gain access to the phone by sending an encrypted text message to it, which, of course, will not be noticed by the user. After that, the “Smurf suite” – a set of secret interception methods – will work on your phone. Each “Smurf” performs its own functions, as a result, intelligence agencies can track who you called, what you wrote in a text message, what sites you visited, who is in your contact list, what places you were, what wireless networks your telephone. And the most interesting thing is that intelligence agencies can take a photo from your phone and turn on the microphone to listen to your surroundings at any time, regardless of your desire.

It is worth saying that these same “Smurfs” are a joint development of the intelligence services of several leading countries. Of course, not all countries use exactly the “Smurf kit,” but intelligence services in absolutely every country have their own methods for tapping phones and can use them at any time. Generally speaking, it turns out that by gaining access to your phone, intelligence agencies gain access to your entire personal life.

Of course, all states unanimously assert: “Surveillance activities take place within a strict legal regime and principles that ensure that these activities are authorized, necessary and proportionate.” And, most likely, they really use this technology only in relation to certain individuals, and it is your phone that is not being tapped. But I assure you, if they start tapping your phone, you won’t even suspect it.

As for correspondence on social networks, of course, not all intelligence services can openly read them, but they definitely have access to publications not hidden in personal messages, as well as information about who sent the message to whom and at what time . And in the UK, for example, correspondence on social networks was officially recognized as “external communications”, which made it possible for the intelligence services of this country to literally read all messages. Other countries may follow this example.

However, do not forget that the owners and administrators of the resource itself have access to all correspondence on any social network. And they can already provide your personal communications to law enforcement authorities under a court order that states that the release of such information is necessary for an investigation. At the same time, it is the social network that makes the final decision about what confidential data can be disclosed in each individual case.

Therefore, for now, you don’t have to worry about the safety of your personal correspondence on social networks, if you don’t break the law and haven’t been targeted by the intelligence services. As one of the VKontakte press secretaries says:

If you sell weapons or drugs, distribute child pornography, or are involved in organized crime, do not use our site at all.

The administration of Facebook and Instagram will prohibit posting messages about the sale of firearms and ammunition.

This decision was made in connection with confirmed information that some users use Facebook as a platform for illegal arms trade.

Related articles:

Messengers

A similar situation is with messengers such as Viber, WhatsApp, ICQ, Telegram. The owners of these applications provide information to intelligence agencies upon their request and court order. Also, all correspondence goes through a filter of “undesirable” words, and the collected data is sent directly to the intelligence services.

In this plan Telegram is the most protected messenger from wiretapping and surveillance, because it has the additional function of private chat with end-to-end encryption.

As creator Pavel Durov stated:

Telegram does not store unencrypted messages, and if they are deleted from phones, they are lost forever.

Due to the fact that the authorities cannot completely control correspondence on Telegram, it has already been blocked in Iran and some regions of China.

With the Skype program, the situation is radically different: Microsoft, which bought Skype in May 2011, equipped the service with legal eavesdropping technology. And from that moment on, any subscriber can be switched to a special mode in which encryption keys are generated not on the user’s device, but on the server. And anyone who has access to the server can, accordingly, listen to your conversation or read your correspondence. Microsoft provides this service not only by court order, but also simply at the request of the intelligence services of many countries, not just Russia.

The Skype distribution also includes a “keylogger” that monitors the presence of “unwanted” words in messages, and sends the collected data to intelligence agencies. Truly, communication using Skype can be called the most accessible for the intelligence services of each country.

Related articles:

Mail

As for email, we can say with confidence that all email services initially scan mail in one form or another, sorting emails from spam or selecting contextual advertising for you based on your interests. The transfer of information to intelligence services occurs in the same way as in social networks, upon request and with a mandatory court order. However, the user is still not warned about this and will not know when law enforcement agencies begin surveillance of him.

By the way, owners of postal services in different countries consider requests from intelligence agencies differently. For example, in 2013, interesting statistics were published: in six months, Google received 97 requests for user data from Russian intelligence services, but partially satisfied only one!

For comparison: during the same time, 7.5 thousand requests from American services were satisfied, which is 88% of requests.

P.S. It is worth noting that if your traffic passes through the territory of any state, then for security purposes the intelligence services of that state can gain access to your personal information without any requests or court orders.

In any job, safety always comes first, writes the Anonymous website.

Safety means protection from harm and other undesirable consequences. Everyone in the world needs security. Even smartphones.

We use smartphones for games, calls, chats, etc., but do we think about the security risks?

Don't panic! We will help you!

These codes will help you determine if your data is secure and if someone is spying on your smartphone.

*#21#

This combination of numbers and symbols allows you to find out whether call forwarding, SMS and other messages are enabled on your smartphone. Dial this code, and the screen will display the number to which the data is transferred, and the statuses for different types of forwarding.

Remember: have you ever lent a mobile phone to strangers, even if only for one call? If so, there is a risk that information about your place of residence, daily routine, and social circle could leak to strangers. The funds in your electronic wallet are also at risk if you use it by logging in via a password from your mobile phone.

*#62#

This code shows where incoming calls and SMS are redirected from your phone when other subscribers cannot reach you. In the best case, calls will be forwarded in voicemail format to one of the numbers of your mobile operator.

##002#

By dialing this combination, you can disable all types of forwarding that were previously configured on your phone. The code is universal and valid for all smartphones.

We highly recommend that you remember this before traveling to another country or region: then, once you are in roaming, you will not lose money that will no longer be charged for calls that are transferred to voicemail by default.

*#06#

A code that provides information about the phone's identification number, the so-called IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identifier).

Knowing the numbers of the international identifier, you can, for example, find a phone that was stolen from you: after all, the device automatically transfers its IMEI to the mobile operator’s network whenever it is turned on, regardless of whether your SIM card is in the smartphone or someone else’s.

Special codes:

There are also codes that allow you to track your location and find out which specific station your phone is connected to. True, for this, a special utility must be installed on the mobile phone - netmonitor.

To start checking, enter one of the codes:

for Android: *#*#197328640#*#* or *#*#4636#*#*

for iPhone: *3001#12345#*

How to use it?

Step 1:

Go to the UMTS Cell Environment tab, and from there go to UMTS RR info. You will see the values of the so-called Cell ID, that is, the numbers of base stations located near you. Rewrite the Cell ID values.

Step 2:

Return to the main menu, go through the MM info tab in Serving PLMN. Write down the Local Area Code (LAC) values.

Step 3:

Now, knowing the two categories of codes, you can go to a special website (4th tab on the left) and, by entering data on it, determine on the map the location of the base station where your mobile phone is registered.

Using an antivirus, you can regularly scan your phone for viruses and remove them.

How to protect yourself from the FSB and other spies:

1. Use instant messengers that are completely closed to outsiders: Telegram, Chare, Wickr, Signal.

2. Do not install unfamiliar programs on your phone, monitor all installed applications and, if possible, use multi-stage locking systems. Do not click on suspicious links or charge your phone from suspicious “free” points.

3. Only your mobile operator has the right to track phones, and then only with your consent. Websites and apps that offer you the opportunity to track other people's locations are owned by criminals. Be carefull!