We live in troubled times. Because there are a lot of bad people who want to hurt us, the people who say they’re protecting us sometimes seem more like bad people than good people. Whether they are or not is a discussion for another venue. The point here is that as writers, we sometimes do research into troubling topics. Fiction authors need factual info to weave into their stories. Non-Fic writers research topics of discussion. Both can stray into subjects that can get you flagged by the N.S.A. or other authorities as someone to watch.
Is this a real concern? That depends on what you’re researching and how deeply you’re diving. If you’re digging to learn everything you can about locating and joining an ISIS terror cell, you may well get put on a watch list. If you then dig into the building of bombs from domestic items like a pressure cooker, you may wind up having to explain yourself. What can you do to reduce the risk of having men in black knocking on your door?
Go To Stealth Mode
There are a number of proxy servers that claim to be able to make you untraceable if not invisible to the watchdogs of the Internet. These use multiple servers around the globe to route signals and sophisticated software to spoof originating addresses. Tor is free software that defends you against Internet surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy. Short for “The Onion Router” — which gets its name for its “layered” approach to the encryption process — Tor (torproject.org) provides online anonymity as the software routes Internet traffic through a worldwide volunteer network of servers to conceal your location or online usage patterns.
You can use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to encrypt your browsing session and keep its contents from prying eyes. There are many VPN service providers to choose from at a variety of price levels.
There are also special web browsers that hide your IP address (your computer’s home address on the Internet) and make it harder to trace where your search queries are coming from. Or you can use a plug-in such as FoxTor for Firefox to do the same thing using a web browser you already have and are comfortable with.
If you don’t think all this cloak and dagger stuff is necessary, there is another option.
Research Logs
If you are in a position to prove reasonably easily that you are in fact a serious writer/author, just maintain a log of your sensitive subject research. The log should include the date you searched, the key words you searched on, and the project you were searching to gain information for (title of book or article).
Then, if N.S.A. agents come calling on you, simply whip out your log books, show them what you were searching for and why, and give them a copy of the completed work, or the manuscript if it is as yet unpublished.
If the Feds can see that your efforts were in fact an innocent effort to write with realism, and you can establish yourself as an industry professional, they should bid you, “good day” and go off in search of real terrorists. They are busy folks, after all.
The Appearance of Evil
There is a case to be made against the cloak and dagger stuff. This is simply that no privacy measure is foolproof. While this stuff is supposed to hide you, if you stumble into a site that is under surveillance your cloaking device may make you invisible to the casual observer but that slight, wavering distortion that low-budget models produce may cause The Palace Guard, who scrutinize everything, to come and investigate. If they find foot prints in the lawn, the chase is on.
Also, should The Guard manage to trace you back to your lair and find your project to be insurrectionist in nature they may be more inclined to question you and your motives more closely. But that is a topic for someone else to debate.
