Second, research on digital threats against civil society has made important strides in understanding the technical underpinnings of attacks targeting journalists, human rights defenders, and political activists across countries and diaspora communities.9 It has also shed light on the role of private companies that help governments build intrusive systems for communication monitoring and surveillance.10 Less is known, however, about the ways in which potential targets perceive and respond to these complex risks, and how they are affected by digital threats.11 This report explores these critical areas. Third, the report builds on practitioner-oriented research into the security of human rights defenders. Of particular value are the holistic understandings of security that take into account the sociopolitical context, as well as the physical integrity and well-being of activists, to accurately identify risks and map out potential responses.12 To better address the risks associated with a reliance on digital technologies, it is important to widen the scope beyond mere technical responses and consider the broader human and behavioural factors shaping practices of privacy protection and digital security. RESEARCH METHODS In preparation of this report, interviews were conducted with 52 respondents from Syria, Egypt, and Iran, living in 12 different host countries. Respondents included human rights defenders, journalists, digital security experts, and other civil society activists living and working in exile or diaspora communities (see table, below). While acknowledging the conceptual ambiguities between “diaspora” and “exile,” the report uses both terms interchangeably to give consideration to the diverse identities and experiences of respondents. Most interview partners would certainly qualify as “exiles” as they recently left their homeland for political reasons and are engaged in “political activities directed against the policies of a home regime, against the home regime itself, or against the political system as a whole, so as to create circumstances favourable to their return.” 13 Whereas exile refers to a more individual experience that is often perceived as temporary, “diaspora” focuses on communities maintaining a collective cultural or national identity across borders based on ties with the homeland. The term therefore also encapsulates migrants of the second and third generation who are engaged in activism directed at their original homelands. 14 9 Amnesty International (2018, December 19). When Best Practice Isn’t Good Enough: Large Campaigns of Phishing Attacks in Middle East and North Africa Target Privacy-Conscious Users. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2018/12/when-bestpractice-is-not-good-enough; The Citizen Lab (2014). Communities @ Risk: Targeted Digital Threats against Civil Society. https:// targetedthreats.net. 10 Marczak, B., Scott-Railton, J., McKune, S., Abdul Razzak, B., & Deibert, R. (2018). Hide and Seek: Tracking NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware to Operations in 45 Countries. The Citizen Lab. https://citizenlab.ca/2018/09/hide-and-seek-tracking-nso-groups-pegasus-spyware-to-operations-in-45-countries; Marquis-Boire, M. et al. (2013). Planet Blue Coat: Mapping Global Censorship and Surveillance Tools. The Citizen Lab. https://citizenlab.ca/2013/01/planet-blue-coat-mapping-global-censorship-and-surveillance-tools; Privacy International (2016). The Global Surveillance Industry. https://privacyinternational.org/sites/default/ files/2017-12/global_surveillance_0.pdf. 11 For an exception highlighting this research gap see: Marczak, W., & Paxson, V. (2017). Social engineering attacks on government opponents: Target perspectives. Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (2), 172-185. 12 Hankey, S., & Ó Cluanaigh, D. (2013). Rethinking risks and security of human rights defenders in the digital age. Journal of Human Rights Practice 5(3), 535-547; Kazansky, B. (2016). Digital Security in Context: Learning How Human Rights Defenders Adopt Digital Security Practices. Project report. https://secresearch.tacticaltech.org/media/pages/pdfs/original/ DigitalSecurityInContext.pdf; Tactical Technology Collective (2016). Holistic Security: A Strategy Manual for Human Rights Defenders. https://holistic-security.tacticaltech.org. 13 Shain, Y. (2005). The Frontier of Loyalty: Political Exiles in the Age of the Nation-State. University of Michigan Press, p. 15. 14 Koinova, M. (2018). Sending states and diaspora positionality in international relations. International Political Sociology, 12(2), 190-210. 7