Dead mailbox
A dead mailbox is a hiding place that is used to transmit secret messages .
The dead mailbox is - in contrast to a normal mailbox - only known to the sender and recipient as such and is thus protected from being discovered by the uninitiated. It is used by people who cannot or do not want to come into direct contact with one another openly or by post, for example by employees and informants of news services , by informants of journalists , but also by blackmailers.
use
The typical transmission process is as follows: The message provider stores the message in the dead mailbox (e.g. a knothole) and leaves a sign at another agreed location, by which the recipient can recognize that the mailbox has been activated (e.g. B. on a house wall). The recipient sees this sign and empties the mailbox; if necessary, the recipient leaves another sign at an agreed third place to confirm receipt of the message. Sender and recipient are never in the same place at the same time and can even be unknown to each other.
Today's relevance
In times of the Internet and e-mail, however, hidden niches and waste bins are likely to play a lesser role as a communication medium, even if steganography has taken on a similar role in the digital world . The dead mailbox will continue to be used for the transmission of objects (transmitters, cameras, material samples, etc.) .
A modern adaptation was an artificial stone discovered next to a sidewalk in Moscow in 2006. With the help of the built-in mini-computer, the members of a British spy ring had exchanged ideas. The dead mailbox has a permanent place in the genre of espionage literature .
Digital dead mailboxes
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In October 2010, the Berlin artist Aram Bartholl initiated a project based on the principle of the dead letterbox: He built USB mass storage devices in facades or attached them to fixed objects in public spaces. In each of these USB mass storage devices there is a file that contains a manifest requesting imitation and the storage of data. The installations were then documented with photos and listed on his website with details of the position.
Artistic background
The art project wants to express the refusal to control data and information exchange. Above all, the project criticizes the increasing spread of applications which no longer save data locally, but store it in data clouds over the network , with users losing control of their data. In the concept of the digital dead mailboxes, the project sees a “liberation of [the] data”.
distribution
The project quickly found many participants, so that the project page recorded 188 such digital dead mailboxes worldwide in February 2011 and 297 worldwide in March 2011. In September 2013 there were 1,229 digital dead mailboxes with a total capacity of 6391 GB , in May 2018 1970 pieces with approximately 27,000 GB. The project has now spread internationally. It is very common in the United States and Europe . In Europe, digital dead mailboxes are particularly common in Germany , France , Italy and the United Kingdom . But even in the rest of Europe, there is a digital dead letterbox in almost every country. In contrast, the project is not very widespread on the rest of the world.
Mobile digital dead mailboxes
The dead mailboxes are also placed on public transport. This means that even more people can potentially use the delayed "network" created by the dead mailboxes. In addition, people at different points can access a common pool of data. For means of transport that cross a border, even in different countries, without having to take the risk of border control.
Geocache
In a broader sense, a geocache can also be viewed as a dead mailbox: "Material" is hidden in a place whose location (here geographic coordinates ) is made accessible to people who have access to the relevant information sources. Even if messages ( apart from proof of visits in a log book ) do not play a major role, the relationship is given.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Spiegel Online : "British admit the use of espionage stones." from January 19, 2012
- ↑ Manifest. In: Dead Drops. Retrieved September 19, 2013 .
- ↑ Fabienne Kinzelmann: USB project: trace of the pen. You have to look very carefully to discover them. All over the world, activists have distributed so-called dead mailboxes in cities: USB pens that are freely available to everyone. Is that communicative art - or a gateway for computer viruses? Spiegel Online , January 24, 2011, accessed September 19, 2013 .
- ^ Dead Drops Database. Accessed on May 21, 2018 (English, official website of the project. Overview of all registered dead digital mailboxes, their capacities and their location).
- ↑ World Map. Dead Drops Database. Retrieved September 19, 2013 .
- ↑ Aram Bartholl: The Walking Dead Drops. Retrieved September 19, 2013 .