I've been designing algorithms and new ways to visualise such networks for the past 10 years. It is good to see awareness of this being raised. Lets just say that i2 is not as advanced and is a good decade behind the cutting edge ;)

I would say, unless you´re organising something properly illegal, the solution to this kind of police interest is counter-intuitive: Reach out, rather than contracting into a clique.

Organise an anti-cuts group in your workplace, not just through a squatted social centre type space.
Get your family and random non-political mates involved.
Carry on organising non-hierarchically in the knowledge that they can´t just grab the "ringleaders" any more. Avoid de-facto leaders emerging by sharing jobs and information around.
Use PGP for emails that you don´t want read, and get mates to set it up too. It´s not hard.

i2 identify the following weakness in network analysis


• Issues around data deluge – Users are having to deal with ever-growing data sets, which
means that they need capabilities that can help to filter network information faster and more
efficiently

• A need to better understand target networks - Due to the dynamism of target networks, they
need to quickly identify potential key individuals/groups for better prioritization of often limited
resources.

• Having to look beyond the network structure into its dynamics - To identify characteristics of
networks that are not immediately apparent and to also analyze how those networks change
over time.

• Finally, our users recognize that in social networks not all connections are equal, and they
need to be able to use methods such as weighting relationships between entities to take
account of how such links affect a network.


So a counter-intelligence tactic could be based on exploiting these weaknesses

1. Creating massive data deluge that defies filtering within crucial periods of time (the twitter effect)

2. Recognition that Key individuals/groups are a liability, empower the margins, the unidentified are the most powerful.

3. be aware of apparent group character and avoid social fossilisation , make sudden paradigm leaps, be unpredictable

4.shift your weight between connections, keep moving, again avoid creating important people

perhaps not using technology could help avoid these issues!? just an idea.ffs.
PS. im only on here on someone elses computer and they are not politically active and there is no 'tech' link to me through them. id have to have a CHIS on my ass to really know what im upto...........stop using the tech and you automatically reduce the risks when you're active..........just a thought.

You are right, being able to 'identify' someone is key and is difficult. Although i2 does not have the capacity, if we turn to linguistics we can find algorithms that have a reasonable success rate of identifying individuals by the language they use i.e. grammar, idiosyncratic typos and phrases etc.

ive often thought the anaylists could use programmes to 'figure out' who is saying what. i even notice activists i know by phrases or 'stances' on particular subjkects. particularly violence Vs non-violence type of arguments.....

as a supposed-primitive, thats how i would like to be living, i often think i make big errors by even accessing IM or other sites and even having any tech on my person or in my house. i only recently got a phone as a gift and hate having it on me or even turned on in the house/roomthat im in...........it is hard as well to avoid CHIS as they turn up if they really want to know what you're doing.

without giving to much away, i used to play a little game with them when i had a mototrbike and often travelled hundreds of miles per day with my full time job. to cut a long story short, i would travel a well known and well used route for a couple of days or all day, and then on some days id play a little game of 'see how long it takes the cops to appear' whereby i would suddenly change route, sometimes entering entirely different counties, cities, towns and villages, expecially tiny little villages in the middle of nowhere...low and behold, often within ten minutes, a cop car, helicopter or other cops would appear. this game is also playable abroad, particularly when i visit places at the same time as demo's have been called for, even if i wasnt attending, in a belguim place once i swear i was 'monitored' every street and road i went down. i have now concluded that i cannot go anywhere in europe without cops showing up and 'just driving past' or turning up. they always, or 'usually always' make eye contact with me. i yearn to visit some place where the cops only turn up when a local has reported a crime as surely some of the tiny - and i mean tiny- villages ive suddenly turned up in have not had a crime reported for donkeys years........i also know im a paranoid person anyway, so i have to way it up. but ive also asked 'non political people' if they see cops everywhere they go, night or day, and they shrug and say 'no i dont see them or no i dont notice'. but i see them every where, literally and it doesn't ever stop. how could it be that an 'activist' and a cop could always be in the same place at the same time, ALWAYS, for the last five or six years?? even tiny places or in the middle of the countryside?
its puzzling and i dont get to het up about it, i more often than not just laugh when they cuirse past, for all intents and purposes 'pretending ' they dont me from adam.
in all seriousness though, i think the reason they 'monitor' me is because they know im a genuine threat and have been known to them before - people who know me know im serious about change - so it would make sense to always know where i am, ie. an action happens, even in a remote village in the middle of nowhere, but the cops have seen me so stayinh undetected wouldnt last long.
is it just me? or do others see cops evry where they end up, even the middle of bastard nowhere???

id like to hear from anyone who has expereince of this..........thanks.

It is not just good enough to turn off your phone... you need also to remove both the sim card and battery. Personally I think coincidence plays a large role in your experience of encountering police. I am not saying that this is the case for all incidences that you have experienced.