philpo @ philpo @feddit.org

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1 yr. ago

Gosh, how many people here, who are proposing that people leave their phones at home have actually been to a protest in real life?

My strong guess is: None. Neither has the author of the article been to one.

As someone who attended my fair share protests,including ones in fairly oppressive countries: Take a fucking phone with you, but please use a designated burner phone.

Reasons to have a phone:

• Communication is necessary and paramount - from reorganisation (we are blocked here, so we meet there)to warning (the cops are coming from there and block us off here) people communication is the major aspect that has enabled people to protest effectively and not fall into traps. We can only protest effectively if we are united. And that requires information.
• Let's face it: Pictures and videos are important. Not only in a "the cops are beating us to pulp situation" (their use there is limited), but also to mobilise others, show the extend of the mobilisation (the other side will usually downplay the size of the protests), feed social media (which is important), etc. As long as basic precautions are taken (no faces/identifiable information, no crimes, change position after you post it) this actually helps the cause and maintains the narrative (it's mighty hard to brand protests "full of rioters" when social media shows 100k people protesting peacefully). Mainstream and foreign media relies on this as most media outlets to not have actual coverage of critical protests (and if they do, they usually are behind police lines).
• Especially for larger protests you will often work in uncommon areas. Cities you have never been before. You will need reliable map services and geo location (where is the next hospital? Which shops are open? Are there any shopping malls we can slip into if needed? Where can we sleep? Is there a metro station we can use nearby?) This information is not only vital,it can be time critical. A friend of mine is only alive because his peers knew the way to the next hospital - neither of them was from the city, the ambulance stopped responding hours before that,etc.
• Phones are good transmitters - the cops will find any media you have on you if they really want (and they will search very well if they want), don't think you can hide a micro SD card somewhere. Some countries(including the US) have started to x-ray their new inmates to make sure they don't hide media within their bodies. (Official excuse: Drug packaging and "welfare") So often the best bet is to get all evidence, all media the other side doesn't want to see out before they have access to your phone. (Which I wouldn't count on to get back)
• They can also be a liveline to get one out of prison. The fact that relatives and fellow activists "know" that their loved ones are being arrested is essential for getting them out and prevent charges. Even in very democratic states the cops will be overstretched for days after a mass protest and people will be locked up without much identification and records. And none will know if Person A is locked up, in hospital, vanished due to something else (e.g. hiding or being a victim of something completely different - I know a girl who got offered a place to sleep after a protest and was locked in their basement for two days with their desire to make her their sex slave communicated), etc. Additionally,in the more oppressive countries,the other side will often use the "we don't know anything, the person didn't even attend" excuse to prevent people from getting legal help in time.

Now,the article has a bit of bad advice:

• It is a horrible idea to simply wipe your old phone after backup. Storage doesn't work that way. It is a easy task for any forensic expert to restore most if not all information on the phone. And as it was not used with all data privacy considerations before,there is a good chance they will find leads.
• It can be problematic to use VPNs, especially in a situation like this and if people use public VPNs. Remember,people know that VPNs exist and the other side usually has control over the telecommunications infrastructure. In at least two cases I know of, the use of a popular VPN within a certain cell tower range was used to differentiate between protestors and average citizens. People therefore should make an informed decision if they rather use normal "semi encrypted" communication (nothing unusual in using Signal,Bluesky,Twitter or Facebook in most countries) or if they want to use a VPN to tunnel their traffic but also are more susceptible.

Some better advice:

• Get a burner phone - do not get a used phone,do use your old phone - I literally bought a old phone from a radical neo Nazi on eBay once - the restored data showed massive illegal activities. You can get new phone with a reasonable secure OS for around 100 bucks these days.
• If possible get a prepaid card that is not linked to your name. Bonus if you can use a roaming card - a card from a different country. It is far more difficult for a country to access identifying information then. Do not use that card for anything else and do not set it up at home.
• Create designated social media accounts for protesting and do not use them from home (unless proper precautions are used) and only use them for that.
• Never log into any private accounts with the burner.
• Do not store anything incriminating on the phone - in your mind you must always be treat it like a device the other side might have full access to. Because if they want to,they will. (Yeah, I know, some countries still protect that information - but even there I saw cops overstepping their borders and simply force people. And once they are in,they are in)
• Degooglefy/Desamsungfy your phone as much as possible and make sure things like location based tracking,etc. are off.
• Consider using Briar and make it popular amongst your fellow protesters. Briar can be used without any mobile phone coverage, as it works with WiFi or Bluetooth only (via ad hoc connections). A single phone hidden in a public place can be used as a relay and inform thousands. But it requires a certain amount of users to work effectively.
• Once the other side got their hands on it consider it burned. Because that's what it is.
• Keep your phone on, charged as much as possible,, but in full(!) airplane mode (unless you use Briar,then keep BT on) but keep your GPS activated (again: remove location tracking services). Preload the relevant maps onto the device, ideally with satellite picture if available, these can be helpful). Keep relevant documents (e.g. timetables, partner organisations,etc.) in another encrypted file.
• Keep a reasonably encrypted file with a minimum number of contacts - lawyer, some civil rights organisations. If you want to have the number of a loved one find one of the countless online SIP providers(ideally in another country) and forward from there.
• Most phones allow a number of numbers to be accessed without unlocking the phone. Save a lawyer/protest organisation number in there so you can access it without unlocking.
• If you can,use an app that allows verifiable proof picture taking - there are various options that are FOSS available on F-Droid. This can later prevent the opposite side claiming that pictures were manipulated.
• Please confirm everything I wrote from other source. First because there is no proof I am not a bad faith actor (I am not,but you don't know that), second I might have made a mistake.

_Edit to add the last two points. _

Yeah,but please don't use Proton unless you are aware of their drawbacks and marketing lies. (I am not counting the tweet here...)

Or go through my post history,I have explained multiple times here why proton is not an ideal choice.

Infomaniak or mailbox org might be worth a consideration as well

Yeah. Sadly rectovaginal fistulae are a huge issue in the developing world and there are millions of woman suffering greatly from them. The consequences are severe,often include things like massive infections, incontinence, infertility, labial fusion(yeah,that is exactly what you think it is - happens due to ongoing infections) and sepsis/death.

They mainly happen during childbirth with sufficient medical assistance and to a lesser extend as a consequence of rape. (Due to the "unattended birth" movement we see a raise in the case numbers in the industrial nations as well recently)

Most woman die untreated but shunned from their communities as the required surgery is complicated, requires extensive aftercare and is expensive. There are whole nations without a single surgeon providing these surgeries.

Currently a huge percentage of these surgeries have been cancelled anyway, thanks to the orange. I know of cases who literally got send home from the hospital due to that.

Yeah, that's the problem - none has. Sadly I also only read about it here in a previous post about discord a few months ago.

Vomiting...

and

Vaginal.

Both things are sadly are medical reality

It's a shame that spacebar and revolt did not really take off so far.

Reminds me off a friend who was made to lay off his entire team. Himself included.

He basically got his team in a meeting room, told them that everyone in this room is being fired. People of course were shocked and some shouted at him how he could do such a thing to them. "Again: Everyone, I mean literally everyone in this room is being fired.Understood?"

He rehired half his team soon after for the company he created with his severance package.

I have no account logged in and use FF private mode,but yeah. It's annoying.

They seem to not only use IP based techniques - they block me if I use wireguard to my dedicated server (who's public IP range has been mine for longer than wireguard exists and almost as long as Reddit exists) while I can access it directly from that IP without issues. And if I dial back into my home network it's basically 50/50 if it works or not.

As the EU mostly does not decide population based but with equal votes per country that wouldn't be an issue.

The larger issue is the fact that the European and US regulations clash in a lot of things so it would be harder for Canadian companies to export to the US then.

But otherwise: We would absolutely welcome you.

But the government does not use SQL per ELMO.

I am waiting for this idiot to come up with something like EIQL (Elmo's idiotic query language).

Yeah,it will come to that. It very much depends on what you look for. Qidi is currently an alternative - amongst others. The other big question is how long BL will take. The longer they take to release the better - simply because the competition then has more time to refine their options.

You can also simply copy the current install on a USB stick and boot from there - once you have the SD card running that's also an option. Tutorial: https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-boot-from-usb/

The Pudenal nerve block,as mentioned before, is used to block the nerves of the pelvic floor. It is actually not that uncommon but I have never seen it being done on someone with a penis - it's sometimes used for episiotomy or to stitch up tears that already happened in woman that did not get a epidural. The old,non sonography based method is actually used quite often in countries with less accessible modern healthcare.

Besides the specialist PV solutions node red might actually also be an alternative for what you want to achieve - but I also cannot understand the issues with HA. Is it possible that your SD card is slow/detectiv?

As a dad I am feeling anger towards the dad as well, though. If you don't believe your child (happens) and be proven wrong you have to at least try to make things right. I would definitely be at school the next day and have a chat with the teacher. Which very likely would lead to nothing but give me a cause to go to the administration the very next day and unleash hell there.

Possibly they think of themselves as unlovable,are so incompetent in relationships (any, not just a partner/SO)? Or because they just want a slave with a vagina&a silent mouth attached.

When I was younger a friend of mine, for some reason I will never understand, fell for a Incel. They knew each other from Uni. She was/is cute, intelligent, witty, definitely not someone who is unable to find another partner. But wherever loves falls,right. She basically woed him for half a year,was treated shitty (dates ignored, multiple ghosting phases with idiotic reasons like "he didn't like what dress she wore in class",etc). The later confessed that they actually had sex once and it was beyond horrible because he literally told her he did not care for her wellbeing (not pleasure)at all.

After that she thankfully decided to pursue other options. He had a long online rant about how she is a slut for leaving him, etc.

(While our friendship didn't last I know that she is happily married with kids now)

In theory maybe? But...I don't know why one should.

Yeah, that's sounds solid. Just make sure your next of kin know where to look and that there is something to look for.

External HDs are good for short term backup - I do use them for that myself.

But they are not suitable for long term backup, they are susceptible to damage, sector errors,bit rod and interference.

If you leave them unpowered for longer times the chances that the mechanical components are gonna fail are actually increased.

Some of these issues can be reduced,but never fully.

Additionally there are ransomware viruses that directly attack them - they intentionally encrypt the backups first when the drives are connected before they attack the live data. And in at least one case I know of the attackers bricked the HD firmware.

Therefore for long term storage of really important things WORM (write once read many) media is to be preferred - even if the attackers can access the disk for some reason they cannot alter the once written data.