Artists at Risk (AR) recommends keeping all communications as secure as possible.
Please note that there is no ultimate guarantee of security. Usually, the weakest point in security is due to lack of care in human interactions. Who do you share information with? How easy are your passwords to guess? There are several guides on the web that help with internet security, but most have to do with who you share information with.
Applications to Artists at Risk (AR) via our Google forms has a good standard of security. The applicant must use a Google email, so all information remains within Google systems.
For highest level security, we use the secure chat Element on Matrix. This can be downloaded for mobile or desktop or used in a browser.
We use Element, as it does NOT require exchanging/sharing your phone number. Telephones / SIM-cards can be easily geo-located. That is, they can give away your location. So if you are at high risk, we recommend that you REMOVE ANY OLD SIM-CARDS. This means, you may not be able to access services like WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram that generally force you to use and share your phone number to get connected.
We currently recommend using:
- Element on Matrix
- Read this for a detailed guide to setting up Element
- If you have trouble connecting, please contact [email protected]
- Protonmail (checked far less regularly)
-
- AR/PM uses [email protected]
-
- NB: The email [email protected] is NOT owned by Artists at Risk (AR). Please report any communication from that address to [email protected]. The owner of the address is using it without our permission!
- No longer in use:
- Wire: now only has legacy status, and is being phased out.
- Signal: not in use for the above reasons
- Telegram: not in use for the above reasons
- we have a Telegram channel, however
- PGP-encrypted mail: phased out
