Top Ten EFF Digital Security Resources for People Concerned About the Incoming Trump Administration

In the wake of the 2024 election in the United States, many people are concerned about tightening up their digital privacy and security practices. As always, we recommend that people start making their security plan by understanding their risks. For most people in the U.S., the threats that they face and the methods by which they are likely to be surveilled or harassed have not changed, but the consequences of digital privacy or security failures may become much more serious, especially for vulnerable populations such as journalists, activists, LGBTQ+ people, people seeking or providing abortion-related care, Black or Indigenous people, and undocumented immigrants.

EFF has decades of experience in providing digital privacy and security resources, particularly for vulnerable people. We’ve written a lot of resources over the years and here are the top ten that we think are most useful right now:

1. Surveillance Self-Defense

https://ssd.eff.org/

Our Surveillance Self-Defense guides are a great place to start your journey of securing yourself against digital threats. We know that it can be a bit overwhelming, so we recommend starting with our guide on making a security plan so you can familiarize yourself with the basics and decide on your specific needs. Or, if you’re planning to head out to a protest soon and want to know the most important ways to protect yourself, check out our guide to Attending a Protest. Many people in the groups most likely to be targeted in the upcoming months will need advice tailored to their specific threat models, and for that we recommend the Security Scenarios module as a quick way to find the right information for your particular situation. 

2. Street-Level Surveillance

https://sls.eff.org/ 

If you are creating your security plan for the first time, it’s helpful to know which technologies might realistically be used to spy on you. If you’re going to be out on the streets protesting or even just existing in public, it’s important to identify which threats to take seriously. Our Street-Level Surveillance team has spent years studying the technologies that law enforcement uses and has made this handy website where you can find information about technologies including drones, face recognition, license plate readers, stingrays, and more.

3. Atlas Of Surveillance

https://atlasofsurveillance.org/ 

Once you have learned about the different types of surveillance technologies police can acquire from our Street-Level surveillance guides, you might want to know which technologies your local police has already bought. You can find that in our Atlas of Surveillance, a crowd-sourced map of police surveillance technologies in the United States. 

4. Doxxing: Tips To Protect Yourself Online & How to Minimize Harm

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/12/doxxing-tips-protect-yourself-online-how-minimize-harm

Surveillance by governments and law enforcement is far from the only kind of threat that people face online. We expect to see an increase in doxxing and harassment of vulnerable populations by vigilantes, emboldened by the incoming administration’s threatened policies. This guide is our thinking around the precautions you may want to take if  you are likely to be doxxed and how to minimize the harm if you’ve been doxxed already.

5. Using Your Phone in Times of Crisis

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/using-your-phone-times-crisis

Using your phone in general can be a cause for anxiety for many people. We have a short guide on what considerations you should make when you are using your phone in times of crisis. This guide is specifically written for people in war zones, but may also be useful more generally. 

6. Surveillance-Self Defense for Campus Protests

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/surveillance-defense-campus-protests 

One prediction we can safely make for 2025 is that campus protests will continue to be important. This blog post is our l