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1mo ago

How Do I Prepare My Phone for a Protest?

How Do I Prepare My Phone for a Protest? (Updated 2024) – The Markup

EFF Guide.

Shared here for public benefit.

Before going to a protest, demonstrators or observers should note that their cellphones may subject them to surveillance tactics by law enforcement. If your cellphone is on and unsecured, your location can be tracked and your unencrypted communications, such as SMS, may be intercepted. Additionally, police may retrieve your messages and the content of your phone if they take custody of your phone, or later by warrant or subpoena.

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BrikoX @lemmy.zip

1y ago

How Do I Prepare My Phone for a Protest?

themarkup.org /the-breakdown/2024/05/04/how-do-i-prepare-my-phone-for-a-protest-updated-2024

126 comments

Leave it at home.
- thats my plan. im not taking wallet or keys or anything. just a transit card.
  
  Having an ID can help if you do get arrested. But that's about all I carry.
  
  Also bring an ID and some cash. E.g. to buy some snacks/meal/water if the day goes longer than you planned for.
- And take a burner phone if you must absolutely bring one.
- Literally clicked to comment this
- Or get a burner
  
  And get a burner.
Burner phone ... leave your main one at home ... ABSOLUTELY DO NOT BRING YOUR MAIN PHONE
Set up your burner phone with one or two accounts to things you might want to upload to ... encrypt as much as you can. Do not load all your social accounts ... only log into the bare minimum. If you are organized, log into temporary or fake or secondary accounts if you can.
Start the day without any prior history, photos or content on the phone and keep as few contacts as you can ... memorize numbers that are important to you.
Always be prepared to give up or lose your phone.
And as always ... SAFETY GLASSES .... bring a pair of industry rated CSA approved safety glasses (try to get a pair with a tint so you can pass them as sunglasses). Look for safety glasses with anything marked ANSI Z87+, sometimes written Z87.1+ (note the plus) rated or CSA Z94.3 rated are ensured to safely withstand a direct high energy strike.
.... additional things if you want to do more
Bring a small new blank paper note book you can keep in a pocket with a small pen or pencil ... you might be taking notes like license plates, name tags or names of people or places ... its always faster to just write something down than in taking a shaky photo or tapping away a note on an app
Wear a big scarf ... for guys or girls ... a scarf comes in handy for all kinds of emergencies including using it as something to cover your mouth, dress a wound, tie something or cover something up.
Wear a good pair of running shoes ... be prepared to run and be on your feet all day.
Bring a small backpack and bring a couple bottles of water and some energy bars ... keep it light because you'll be on your feet all day and if things go bad, you might be targeted if you have a large pack ... plus an empty pack can be used to carry things later if you need to.
Dress for the weather ... if its going to be hot, wear light clothing but if things go bad and you have to stay out over night or longer, bring a light jacket ... if rain is forecast within a day or two, bring a small poncho
- To add onto the phone section: (1) Disable any biometric authentication, and (2) turn/keep it off whenever there's a chance that it will be siezed.
  While the first amendment protects you from being required to give up your phone's pass code, there's no protection against someone just holding the phone up to your face or fingerprints to unlock it.
  While your phone is never totally impenetrable, it is significantly harder to access in its BFU state (before first unlock). Most commercially available cracking tools will only work if the phone is in it's AFU state (after first unlock).
  
  I've seen plenty of videos of cops holding a suspect down and forcing a fingerprint unlock...
- Ideally, that burner phone never goes anywhere near your home or any place you frequent from the time it is acquired until the time it is destroyed.
  Briar is a good messaging app for you and your group. It will work (to some degree or another) over bluetooth even after they shut down the cell towers. Keep posting information about law enforcement deployment numbers and locations.
  Airplanes.live provides unfiltered ADS-B data, useful for identifying and locating law enforcement aircraft, including drones.
  For uploading media, choose overseas fediverse instances for your account, which are not subject to US law, and won't get shut down or raided by US law enforcement if you upload something they don't like.
  I've been suggesting this everywhere: pick a dozen different protest locations, and share your list with everyone you meet. If and when law enforcement deploys in force at your current location, leave for another. Force them to constantly redeploy to multiple locations.
  
  Do not use Smartphones. For the scarf use an unmarked tubescarf, its easely hidden in any collar. Cary bandages and lightsalt solution, like you use for contacts, to treat teargas and light wounds. If they get you you want nothing outside oft your memory that has any link to others. Depending in the effect of carrying your passport with you in your country decide wether to take it along.
- We're so focused on electronics here, but this part can save your ass:
  Bring a small new blank paper note book you can keep in a pocket with a small pen or pencil
  The following is translated from the meager tactical training I've received: Emphasis on the pencil being small. You definitely don't want a full size pencil in your pocket if shit hits the fan and you get tumbled.
  Maybe get a waterproof notepad. But make sure that you can easily rip out pages. Use a single sheet for all the info you don't want the police to have (like all the other burner phone numbers and such) That way you can rip that sheet out and swallow it, if you're about to be captured.
  Also, about the scarfs. I don't know about the US, but at least in my own country, it's illegal to use a mask at protests. Meaning a mask would get you singled out and targeted by law enforcement.
- Wear a big scarf ... for guys or girls ... a scarf comes in handy for all kinds of emergencies including using it as something to cover your mouth, dress a wound, tie something or cover something up.
  Everyone should look up what a shemagh is, and all multitude of uses it has. Pretty sure there are plenty of colors that aren't tacticool, which is inevitable when you search for it. If it works for the grunts the US sent to the Middle East, and actual Middle Eastern cultures, it'll work for you. Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy describes how useful it is to carry a towel across the galaxy; this is it.
  Edit: something more that I recalled of when I was in the prepper phase years ago: Marines swear on this thing called a woobie. It's their safety blanket, figuratively and practically. It's basically a quilted fabric liner under a poncho for insulation. Works just as well as blankets if you're going to be crashing somewhere overnight.
- Bring a pair of foam earplug as well. They weigh and cost nothing, and could be useful of they try to use sonic deterents against you.
Turn it off and leave it at home.
- Leave it on at home.
  "Your honor, as you can see from my mobile device location history, I never even left my house that day."
  Not that that'll actually work or that they'll care, but still...
  
  "I let my landlord borrow my car, though. He said it was important."
  
  They likely have the data to show it didn't move at all. Eg it wasn't on your person.
  
  Even better, have your tv on the whole time, so if the tv sends telemetry data that's also linked to the phone, it'll show you were at home the whole time.
- Most modern devices track the phone even when it's turned off. If you can't remove the battery, leave it at home.
  
  When I shut the lid on my work computer I assumed it was "off" or at least inactive. My home network showed me it was continuing to "check in" throughout the night.
  
  Oh, this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Find_My
  You can turn that off, I'm pretty sure.
Leave it at home for a protest if you care about being tracked.
Pretty much all cell phones can be tracked even when turned off.
- yes, even with all the foss software and radios turned off.
  it will still ping radio towers. the only exclusion are phones with physical switches for disabling hardware.
  
  I feel like it could still get damaged or used as evidence in court if you get caught up in a crackdown.
- Could you not wrap it in thin foil to make a faraday cage? If done well it should prevent any signals for going in or out.
  puts on thin foil hat
- Source? EFF says airplane mode is sufficient per the article
Leave it at home lol
Leave it at home.
I can understand the wish to film things; I recommend buying a cheap camera, maybe one to strap on your forehead (starting at $20) or an old compact digital camera. Something without any sort of connectivity. Something you can leave behind if the going gets rough.
- Also multiple SD cards, swapping out frequently so even if they grash the camera you still have something.
- maybe one to strap on your forehead
  They make much more practical chest straps for things like GoPros - you can sort of forget it's there and just let it capture everything. I did that while white-water rafting and it worked very well.
people on the internet love to talk about all these great security smart things that they will definitely never do.
leave valuables at home, wear unremarkable clothes, and write your lawyers number on your arm with a sharpie.
personally i bring my phone and a leica. ive been to jail for protesting before and in my current situation i just don't care.
- Its important because you endanger not just yourself but anyone who is possibly linked through your activities. Your actions are your own responsibility. If you are able to protect others in this Situations you should. And i hope you only document voilation oft power with your leika and not others protesting.
  
  i don't know what you just said but the whole point of a protest is to disrupt in order to be seen.
  I went to jail for trespassing. same as everyone else. its bullshit.
- Leica digital or chemical film?
  
  m10p with a 28mm and a flash
Don't bring it?!
- Also be aware that the Georgia attorney general has declared that not bringing your phone to a protest will be considered criminal intent. They’re now trying to punish people for not having their tracking devices with them.
  https://georgiarecorder.com/2024/02/12/georgia-ag-claims-not-having-a-phone-makes-you-a-criminal/
  
  This can probably be argued that places that deny phones, like courts, could be charged with criminal intent against you.
- Go old school and bring cameras instead.
- correct
- This.
- I mean that's the easy answer but:
  Documenting and sharing the events is part of the protest
  You may need it in an emergency.
Here is the simple trick: leave your phone at home. Get a burner.
- Side note, leave the burner in a Faraday bag when it's going to be near your daily driver.
  
  Wow, I hadn’t even thought about that. Excellent point!!
  
  Faraday bags do not work with modern phones anymore, specifically 5G
If your phone is powered your location can be tracked. Secured or not: your location can always be tracked.
The rest is doubtful, always assume law enforcement has access at will.
Just don't bring it.
- doesn't have to be powered on.
  unless you can remove the battery, it should stay at home.
  
  Source? EFF says airplane mode is sufficient per the article
Your car's GPS is also tracking your movements. If you have a newer car then your phone is only part of the problem.
- To be specific, it's not the GPS receiver, it's the fact that the car may be communicating via cell network or satellite, right?
  
  Correct. Yeah, if you have a newer car with GPS, it will likely also have built in communications to the car company.
  There are benefits to older, "dumber" cars. Besides enjoying knobs and buttons 😁
  
  Right, but most modern cars have that communication built in, because they use it to update firmware remotely. You can't turn it off even if you wanted to. Many car companies justify it by saying it is needed to give your location to emergency services if you use their alert button.
YOU DONT BRING IT.
You leave it at home. Take an old factory-reset with a prepaid sim. Keep it off unless you 100% need it.
Jesus Christ, this conversation is scary. I wish y’all good luck that none of these precautions are necessary.
As someone in a blue state where governance is sane, I’m “raw dogging it” (effing offensive slang term but now I’ve used it once in my life and can rest easy) and bringing my kids (teens). M also going to the local demonstration rather than go into the city for a big one - to some extent it’s a numbers game: ICE can’t raid them all and police aren’t legally allowed to help them
…. And hopefully my optimism is well founded
—-
Edit: huge success! Entirely peaceful. While a few cops drove by, there was no police presence. Thousands of people of all ages lining both sides of main st, and three sides of our town common. Constant honking from supporters driving by. It was very inspirational. I’m proud of my fellow citizens and hope our voice for restoring sanity and democracy is heard.
For those pessimists,a bit more context why I was so optimistic….. a few years back, our mayor and police were participants in a local BLM rally. Also a big part of local outrage against fascism was a city counselor getting assaulted and arrested for videoing an illegal raid on one of his constituents.
- I’m in one of the bluest. Our police and FBI are not “blue.” American spy forces and “committee on anti-American activities”-ass motherfuckers are not kind or just, no matter the voting tendencies of the populace.
  How many decades have we seen far right terror groups overlooked for anti-capitalist leftists? The left threatens the status quo, the right fortifies it. The blue and red dichotomy is the status quo. The democrats support the genocide in Palestine. Going against that status quo makes you not safe from government crackdowns, the party in power is completely irrelevant.
  
  If your "blue leaders" are any good, they enforce psych profiles on police recruitment that ensures you don't have a force full of racist authoritarian law in their own hands radicals, at least for the forces they control - feds may be a different story.
- Doesn't matter of the state is blue, the police force is going to do everything they can to fuck you anyways.
- You say kids. Youve rawdogged more than once probably
  
  Nowadays millennials and Gen Z use raw dogging to indicate going either without protection to their electronic devices, or foregoing the use of devices like on a long plane ride.
- The fact that this conversation is even necessary is to me more scary.
  I used to think the Bush era was bad. I’d gladly trade that for now.
  
  Bush was just a goofy lil war criminal compared to this shit
- I'm happy that you felt safe in a peaceful protest, but keep in mind that stingrays can be operated from airplanes at 10,000 ft. you likely would never hear them at a noisy protest and it would be the size of a grain of rice in the sky.
Set your phone on top of a Roomba that has scheduled cleaning throughout the day.
- Pointless, unless you leave the roomba running outdoors. Indoors you don't have GPS coverage, and your phone is logged onto the same cell tower anyway. Might just leave it stationary at home, same outcome.
  
  You definitely can get GPS coverage inside. It's entirely building dependant but I'm inside right now and if I open GPS it'll just work.
... Goes to a protest to support gaza, get's phone unlocked because police is using Israeli cellebrite software...
You get a burner for the protest and give your phone to a friend or family member for the day so that it still pings towers at the usual places.
- Or at home. It’s not unusual for me to spend several hours at home on a Saturday.
Some very cheap phones with minutes included, here:
https://www.qvc.com/electronics/phones/tracfone/_/N-mlt0Z1z1393y/c.html
OTOH they can probably be traced back to you since you have to order them with your presumably real name. You can buy phones and prepaid cards anonymously in phone stores but it will cost more.
- OTOH they can probably be traced
  Well, they are called TracFone 🙃
Stolen from another post:
"you need around 6 layers of tin foil you can test this if you have a bluetooth device start playing some music or any audio and start wrapping in tinfoil until it disconnects id also say to leave your phone at home sk it pings the cell towers that you are at home and bring a burner if you can and make sure the burner is private so use cash prepaid sims and dont put the sim in at home or work make sure its all a mall away from cameras"
Be safe tomorrow everyone
By leaving it at home.
The powers that you are necessarily taking these precautions against are all funded by your taxes.
- Yes, that’s why they are protesting.
I learned this recently: if you have an iPhone, pressing the lock button five times rapidly will lock it so that you need to enter a passcode, not just FaceID. Useful if you think somebody might forcibly use your face to unlock it
- Yes, but this will also call emergency services after, I think, ten seconds.
  Make sure you cancel that call right away unless you actually need them.
  
  Honestly, it would be kind of funny that your phone calls emergency services when you get pulled over and you don't want them to force you to unlock your phone, having a 911 operator recording the entire interaction's audio.
Don't bring it
Buy a Burner.

126 comments