Avoiding self-incrimination means not giving information to an adversary that could be used to incriminate you or your comrades. An enormous number of convictions are based on information obtained through self-incrimination.
If you are arrested by a State adversary, do not talk to the police. Any communication could be used to incriminate you or your comrades.
Exceptions to this rule include:
- In many contexts, you may be forced to provide the police with some form of identification (often your name, date and place of birth) to avoid arrest or other negative consequences.
- In some contexts, you may be forced to provide the police with your biometric information (face photograph, fingerprints, DNA).
See How the police interrogate and how to defend against it (in French and German) on how to defend against police interrogation techniques.
Apply the need-to-know principle. In particular, do not brag about crimes to friends, comrades, or cellmates — even if you have a solid foundation of trust, the knowledge unnecessarily endangers the person you're telling and could be overheard by an adversary.
Follow digital best practices. In particular:
- Do not let anything incriminating go through your phone (text messages, photos, etc.), even if you are using end-to-end encrypted messaging applications.
- Do not use social media, or at least do not post anything incriminating on social media. Social media is a treasure trove for State adversaries.
- Do not take photos or videos during riots. Taking photos or videos during riots incriminates people and should be considered a form of snitching[1].
Techniques addressed by this mitigation
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Door knocks | If an adversary knocks on your door, you can avoid talking to them: instead, alert your networks and consider making the event public. | |
| Forensics | ||
| Digital | An adversary can use digital forensics to retrieve self-incriminating information from a digital device. To mitigate this, you can avoid storing such information on digital devices except for very deliberate reasons (such as writing and sending an action claim while following digital best practices). | |
| ID checks | If possible, you can avoid answering questions or providing biometric information (face photograph, fingerprints, DNA) during ID checks. | |
| Interrogation techniques | You should not talk to an adversary under any circumstances: this is the best way to resist their interrogation techniques. | |
| Mass surveillance | ||
| Mass digital surveillance | An adversary can use mass digital surveillance to retrieve self-incriminating information from a digital device. To mitigate this, you can avoid storing such information on digital devices except for very deliberate reasons (such as writing and sending an action claim while following digital best practices). | |
| Network mapping | An adversary can use information obtained through self-incrimination to endanger not only the individual from whom the information was obtained, but also the rest of their network. To mitigate this, you should not talk to an adversary under any circumstances, and you can avoid providing biometric information (face photograph, fingerprints, DNA) if possible. | |
| Open-source intelligence | An adversary can use open-source intelligence to collect information that you publish voluntarily. To mitigate this, you can avoid using social media and generally avoid making any information about yourself or your networks public. | |