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• Always keep the private key secret. When you want to communicate with someone you share your public key. Messages are encrypted with the public key of the recipient by the sender and decrypted by the recipient with their private key when the message arrives. 221 • GPG4Win is an example of software that performs with PKE. 222 • It is also recommended to use privacy-focused email hosts such as Mozilla Thunderbird or RiseUp.net to protect personal information.223 Regarding online activity, consider the following issues: • For anonymity, use anonymous surfing modes to prevent your browser from saving your information automatically. However, be aware that using these anonymity modes will not make you completely anonymous. • Alternatively, use the software TOR as an accessible, free, and easy means to protect your privacy and anonymity. The main component of the software is the Tor web browser. This hardened and secured-focused version of Firefox encrypts your online activity and bounces it through computers around the world, making it more difficult to trace. • In addition, for confidentiality, to ensure that outsiders do not gather information about you when browsing online, use a virtual private network (VPN) to appear to be someone else, in a different place. A VPN secures the traffic between your computer and servers, and masks your IP address and location. Several VPNs are available, ranging from the free and simple HotspotShield to highend subscription services like SurfEasy Total. • Use a program like CCleaner to regularly remove all the information, passwords, files, and downloads that your web browser saves. As with securing electronic documents, the online platform Security in-a-box has developed a guide on safe and private online communication. 221 Dmitri Vitaliev, Digital Security and Privacy for Human Rights Defenders, FRONT LINE, 38 (Feb. 2007), available at http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/files/en/esecman.en_.pdf. 222 One can download the program from http://www.gpg4win.org. 223 Andy Greenberg, How to Anonymize Everything You Do Online (Jun. 17, 2014), available at http://www.wired.com/2014/06/be-anonymous-online/. 133

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PILPG Handbook on Civil Society Documentation of Serious Human Rights Violations Sept 2016

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Documentation Purpose

Perpetrator-centred documentation

Topic(s)

Data/Information Strategy
Preservation and Archiving
Verification

Type

Guide

Description: Increasingly, civil society actors engage in documentation and investigation processes, seeking to collect evidence against those responsible for serious human rights violations. The purpose of this Handbook is to provide guidelines and best practices for the collection and management of information on serious human rights situations for those that are not professionally trained in such documentation practices. While the Handbook strongly emphasizes the need to refrain from investigating human rights abuses and to refer to professionals, practice shows that this is not always possible. Only under such circumstances and as a last resort may civil society actors consider engaging in certain documentation practices and not in others, always seeking to include professionals when and where possible. They may however only do so by adhering to the ethical principles and documentation guidelines that are provided in this Handbook. These enable unofficial investigators to do no harm, identify security risks, preserve crime scenes, prevent the loss of evidence, and manage the information in manner that preserves confidentiality, security and probative value, with an eye to possible use in later redress processes and without jeopardizing the future work of professionally trained and officially appointed investigators.

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PILPG_Handbook_on_Civil_Society_Documentation_of_Serious_Human_Rights_Violations_Sept_2016_tcm289-785328.pdf
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PILPG Handbook on Civil Society Documentation of Serious Human Rights Violations Sept 2016

Primary Documents

Verification Handbook

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