Community physical and digital safety

A group’s security is not just the sum of each person’s phone. A raid on an office, a street attack, or a stolen bag can expose several people’s devices, papers, and contact lists at once. Reporting from different countries — including documented violence and raids against LGBT people in Uganda in the mid-2010s — shows how physical and digital risk travel together. The lesson is not to retell those events in detail; it is that a group plan has to see both layers at once.

Desk locks and paper handling are covered in physical information security. If detention is a real risk for someone in the circle, line up that person’s plan with planning for detention risk, and do not push anyone into help that puts them in danger.

What makes a group fragile

A shared password everyone knows, a device left unlocked in the office, a membership list on one sheet or in one large chat, and the assumption that “if something happens to me, the others will know what to do” are common holes. When one member is detained or threatened, others may wipe accounts in a rush or post publicly and make the harm worse.

1. Decide in advance which data must be shared and which data should not live on everyone’s device.
2. Keep admin access small: only a few people should be able to change the official account or the shared files, not everyone.
3. Keep a shared backup somewhere that will not disappear with the same office.
4. Name one person and one alternate path for emergency contact that does not depend on the same building.

Cut shared passwords and shared access down

1. Instead of one password written in the group chat, use controlled sharing in an organizational password manager or separate roles in the service if that is available to you.
2. When someone leaves the group, change the passwords and access they knew; do not leave that for next week.
3. Do not leave the official social or email account signed in on everyone’s phone.
4. Leave office devices locked, and use a guest or limited account for temporary work.

Keep membership and supporter lists small

A full list of names, numbers, and addresses on one synced file or one sheet on a desk puts a large circle at risk if that one thing is taken.

1. Ask who actually needs to see the whole list; everyone else should see only the slice their work requires.
2. Remove old copies of the list from the shared computer and from the chat.
3. Do not send the list in a large messaging group or put it in a public channel description.
4. Lock paper in a drawer at night rather than leaving it on an open desk.

Agree a crisis plan before you need it

The group plan should be simple enough to follow: what you do first if the office or a device is lost, who notifies whom, and what you will not say in public.

1. Hold a short meeting and answer those questions out loud.
2. Write down who may speak publicly on behalf of the group.
3. Write that rushed wiping of accounts will not happen without coordination, unless that step is already in the written plan.
4. Test one out-of-building notification path once — a call, a message on another network, or a second person somewhere else.
5. Do not mix each member’s personal plan into the group plan unless that member wants it mixed.

Limit rushed “help”

After a threat or an arrest, the temptation is to wipe everything or to write details on social media. Either step can harm other people or destroy records that the person involved wanted kept.

1. Move from the written plan, not from the first emotional message in the chat.
2. Do not sign into other people’s accounts without permission and without understanding the risk to yourself.
3. Do not put technical details of devices or people’s locations in a public channel.
4. If legal help is needed, follow the group’s trusted path rather than an anonymous advertisement.

Do not mix identities and roles inside the group

Separating identities for one person is covered in its own guide. Inside a group it should also be clear which account is official and which accounts are personal. Mixing the two moves pressure on one person onto everyone.

1. Do not open the official account in the same session as someone’s personal gallery.
2. Do not write members’ real names where they are not needed.
3. If someone works under a separate name, do not reveal it in unnecessary lists.

Treat a shared office unlike a private home

A room where several people work, receive visitors, and sometimes leave it empty overnight is not the same as a home desk. An open laptop or a board with members’ numbers is enough for someone who walks in.

1. At the end of the day, lock the screen and clear sensitive paper from the desk.
2. Do not put a visitor on the full work network if you have, or can make, a separate guest network.
3. Cover or switch off the camera and microphone on a shared device when they are not needed.
4. Treat the physical key to a drawer or door with the same care as an account password, and tell the group if it goes missing.

See new members and departing members as a process

Most holes stay open when someone has arrived or left and access has not changed.

1. Tell a new member which data they should not sync onto a personal phone.
2. On the day someone leaves, review and, if needed, cut access to email, the cloud folder, the chat group, and the official account.
3. Take back a loaned device and reset it before giving it to the next person.
4. Change shared passwords they knew even if they “might come back in a few days.”

A short practice beats an unread long file

A twenty-page guide nobody has read will not help in a crisis. A few short agreements everyone has repeated are more useful.

1. In that same meeting, say that a screen lock, unique passwords, and not writing passwords in the group chat are the minimum.
2. Walk through the alternate notification path together once.
3. Set a date to review the plan; people and tools change.

Do not treat group chat as the official archive

A large chat is a convenient place to coordinate, and that convenience is why documents, addresses, and names pile up there. If one member’s device is taken or their account is opened, that history widens the circle.

1. Put lasting documents somewhere with limited access, not only in chat history.
2. From time to time, remove old sensitive files from the chat if they are no longer needed.
3. Do not add a new member to years of prior history unless they need it.
4. For urgent news, use the path written in the crisis plan, not the first group that comes to mind.

Keep photos, boards, and metadata away from visitors

A group photo, a picture of the planning board, or a screenshot of the chat can do the same work as a paper list if names or numbers are visible. Removing file metadata is covered in removing identifying metadata; the point here is what you put on the wall and in a public gallery in the first place.

1. Before you publish a photo of the office or a meeting, clear names and numbers from surfaces or tighten the crop.
2. Do not send the raw file in a large chat if a cleaned version is enough to publish.
3. If you travel as a group, do not put the movement plan in a channel that opens the whole history to a new member.

Look at physical and digital risk in the same meeting

If you talk only about antivirus and ignore the office door or the paper list, the plan is incomplete. If you look only at the door lock and leave the shared password alone, it is still incomplete.

1. In that short meeting, talk about devices and about paper and place.
2. Ask whether a shared account was signed in on a member’s bag if that bag is stolen.
3. Do not post photos of the board and the desk on a public network if a number or a name is visible.

Common mistakes

• The group Wi-Fi, email, and social passwords written on one shared sheet on the wall.
• A very large chat that holds the full membership list and sensitive files.
• No plan for the day the office or a device is lost.
• Rushed wiping after bad news, without coordination.
• Assuming each person’s digital security is enough for the whole group.

What to do today

1. Hold a short meeting and say what you will do first if the office or a device is lost.
2. Cut shared passwords and access down, and close access for anyone who has already left.
3. Keep membership and supporter lists in as few places as necessary.
4. Test one notification path outside the building where you work.
5. Put the shared backup somewhere that will not disappear with the same office.
6. If a member works under a separate identity, do not reveal it in unnecessary lists or photos.
7. Read this page next to separating online identities and reducing social media disclosure when the group’s official role and members’ personal roles have become mixed.

This text is not legal advice and not a covert operations plan. Its aim is that a group, before a crisis, make access, lists, and notification lighter and clearer so one physical event does not expose the whole circle at once.