In some contexts, in addition to or instead of other tactics an adversary may attempt to prevent or discourage you from achieving your goals. This can be because they are unable or unwilling to incriminate or arrest you, or because they believe that discouraging you is a good complementary strategy. We call this process deterrence.
Techniques
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Door knocks | Door knocks are when an adversary comes knocking where you live to intimidate you or get information. Door knocks aim to intimidate or create paranoia, to see who is willing to talk and possibly be recruited as an informant, and to gather information from the people who do talk. | |
| Doxing | Doxing is the practice of publishing a target's personal information without their consent in order to harm them or encourage others to harm them. It is most often used by non-State adversaries. | |
| Increased police presence | Increased police presence is the process by which the police increase their presence in a particular place and time for two reasons: to intimidate, and to improve their options for intervention and their responsiveness. | |
| Mass surveillance | Mass surveillance is the large-scale surveillance of an entire or substantial portion of a population. It is the surveillance baseline of our society. | |
| Civilian snitches | Civilian snitches are people who are not part of an adversary's security force, but who would inform the adversary if they saw something suspicious. | |
| Mass digital surveillance | Mass digital surveillance is the large-scale collection, storage, and analysis of the digital communications of an entire or substantial portion of a population. | |
| Police files | Police files are physical or digital records maintained by law enforcement agencies. Police files contain vast amounts of data about many things, are kept indefinitely or for long periods of time, and can be efficiently analyzed and cross-referenced using digital tools. | |
| Video surveillance | Mass video surveillance (also known as close-circuit television, or CCTV) is the large-scale collection, storage and analysis of video and audio data from video surveillance cameras. Mass video surveillance aims to capture the identity of people who pass through a space and to extend its coverage to as much space as possible. Some countries now have more surveillance cameras than citizens. | |
| Physical violence | Physical violence is the use of physical force by an adversary to intimidate a target or its network, incapacitate a target, or coerce a target into revealing information. | |
| Police patrols | Police patrols are the law enforcement practice of traversing a particular area to monitor and secure it. Police may conduct patrols either as a routine operation or in response to a perceived threat in an area. | |