The right to assemble and protest is enshrined in American law, but it can still be dangerous to hit the streets to make your voice heard. Your devices are a treasure trove of information about you, and you may not always know who’s collecting that data. Take a few minutes before you go to assess your digital and physical safety. Even if you have nothing to hide, you don’t want to accidentally give law enforcement officials any information you didn’t intend to share. Follow these tips to lock down your phone before a protest or other peaceful assembly.
Just don’t bring it. Bring a digital pocket camera instead to document stuff.
Nowadays, you can’t use a mobile phone without signing in to some Google service or Apple. It’s mandatory. Giving them access to every data you own.
GrapheneOS or KaiOS?
With the SIM completely turned off, maybe. But it’s still a bad idea.
I would like to bring the attention to LoRa.
Meshtastic is a good example of leveraging LoRa.
This might be relevant for following ICE around or direct action, but at this point there’s almost zero personal risk from attending something like a rally or a march.
My relatives and even friends my age are afraid to go to protests. They read stuff like this, and it acts as demobilization messaging. In my experience, once you get them to go once they’re no longer afraid to engage, but there’s an initial fear and anticipatory obedience that has to be overcome.
inb4 protests do nothing: getting people to stick their toe in the water helps build commitment that will one day be necessary to gain critical mass for more organized disobedience.
Faraday bag all electronic items; phone, smartwatch; hell, I’d even bag my car keys. Cover your face, especially the eye area. Make your voice heard, but don’t be a data point.
Going to a Protest? Don’t Bring Your Phone
FTFY
Someone’s gotta record the fascism.
Then use… a camera??
cameras exist.
Pretty easy to take video on an old phone without a SIM, or with a cheapo burner sim.
Are there “burner sims” you can get nowadays that don’t require online activation (i.e. they can easily trace the sim back to you)?
Phreeli, if you pay using crypto that can keep you anonymous
Someone will (and probably better). There are more cameras at protests than ever in history. What’s missing is mass action by complacent people.
Also calling help if/when they shoot you might be helpful.
I bring my phone, and my wallet, and my keys, and a $7,000 camera, and my lawyer’s phone number in my head.
they can suck my balls
always film cops
Don’t bring your phone period. Any and all devices can be broken into by law enforcement. Buy a burner with cash if you need some kind of communication.
Its not the device cracking that’s the problem; its the “your device was identified at the protest we have labeled a riot and has been tracked to your home, which we will now raid in the middle of the night”.
And bring a separate video camera
No, , this isn’t the 90s. You want a many copies as possible immediately, later might not happen.
IMO just having your personal device on you in the presence of a protest puts you in danger. They have ample tools to track cellular devices that basically cannot be guarded against without disabling the function altogether, such as with a Faraday bag. They will catch and log that you were at a protest, and use that against you later.
don’t leave out the fact that they’ll just shoot you in the face for no reason, and then get “absolute immunity”
And then go on TV and call you a terrorist 15 minutes later.
Shut off and leave your phone at home, buy a pay-as-you-go to bring with you for emergency contact/coordination
Shut off and leave your phone at home, buy a pay-as-you-go to bring with you for emergency contact
/coordinationLeave the pay-as-you-go phone powered off too, and only power it up if you actually have to use it. If you have to use it once, you need to get a replacement for a future event.
I’m thinking perhaps something like Meshtastic transmitters and receivers should be used for coordination instead.
Meshtastic is exactly what needs to be implemented
I ran across that instance the other day and immediately thought about coordination.
It’s like sneaker net for piracy.
Fuck yeah, hack the planet
Meshtastic is just as susceptible to listening and isn’t perfect at encryption or anonymity but should be another tool to consider when cellphone towers are down or otherwise unusable.
It’s alright for non-critical stuff. Ok for getting help, not the best for coordinating action.
Reticulum is an alternative network/protocol that focuses more on security and interconnection of different networks
leave your primary phone ON at home.
I believe there are Bluetooth network protocols that mesh that would work for messaging and not require cell service. It would be smart to organize using something like that and just use any cell phone without cell service turned on. That still gives you the ability to call 911 in case of emergencies as well.
Cell service is always turned on on a phone, even with no SIM card and the phone in airplane mode, and for most phones, even when the phone is “off”. They still ping the local towers semi regularly; they just don’t ramp up transmission power ir try to establish a full connection.
Anyone got a list of Bluetooth devices without a cell antenna where the BT MAC is regularly scrambled?
Does it matter if that cell service isn’t connected to a name?
It’s connected to your name when you go home
Unless you stop at a coffee shop, upload content to a secure server, ditch the SIM and power off the device.
So, turn it off before you go home?
No, because it will spend most of its time after leaving the store in your home.
First, don’t buy it from a store. Second, turn that sucker off before you go home.
You can use Briar, BitChat, or Bridgefy to communicate, without having internet connections. I’ve only tried Briar, which works with cell networks, wifi, also bluetooth.
True, but if surveillance is your concern, they are monitoring Bluetooth devices too.
Does that matter? If it’s a device that you bought used just for this? There is no name attached to that device at that point. Buy it used on Craigslist, use it for the event, throw it away. It can be any cheap, crappy phone.
Right? It’s like these guys have never seen The Wire.
That show finished airing 18 years ago…
Thinking about it, that show is a terrible reference. Modern phones didn’t exist in it, as they hadn’t been invented yet. The first iPhone was released while the last season of The Wire was filming, and the App Store didn’t come out until a few months after the final season had aired. It’s from an entirely different era.
If it makes you feel better, go nuts.
But they have Face ID, gait ID, they have the signal from your cellular-equipped car, on and on. Even if your phone is “off” it’s transmitting an ID for antitheft purposes. Your smartwatch is leaking your location, and your smart tags.
Leave the car at home? They can track your public transit card via the credit card you used to fill it.
Stay home and post online? Palantir has Reddit posts from deleted accounts they will dig up to torpedo your future political ambitions as they did with Graham Platner.
We are all on the regime’s naughty list. Might as well make the most of it and demonstrate peacefully. And without a mask so you don’t look like an agent provocateur.
It’s Spartacus time.
there are less antagonistic looking ways to mask yourself, such as cute inflatable animal suits.
Good look running when you need to in that, the way it’s looking lately, the need will be there.
100%. Love the frog suits.
Even if your phone is “off” it’s transmitting an ID for antitheft purposes.
Faraday bags!
Would an old school walkie talkie be a better solution? You want to be able to communicate within a group in case shit happen
I think FRS is the only thing legally available without a license. You can buy GMRS radios on Amazon that will communicate with FRS radios on all of the FRS channels, see here:
https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/FRS/GMRS_combined_channel_chart
However, these radios are VERY limited in an urban area with lots of concrete towers. In my experience the GMRS radios on “high power” really only go one little valley over out in the woods. In the city you might get two or three blocks because of all the concrete. You are required to have a license to use GMRS and identify your station every 15 minutes but almost nobody does it. Hell, I listen to the local walmart using GMRS and you’re not even supposed to use it for commercial purposes.
Maybe Meshtastic? That’s a radio I haven’t messed with and I don’t know about it’s performance in an urban environment.
Ear piece highly recommended. The audio is not like a phone call and in a loud environment you will not be able to copy. Practice beforehand because radio is not like a phone call, you need to have some experience.
That depends what you’re trying to solve. For a lot of people, they’re still gonna need their phone. I don’t think “Just use a walkie talkie bro” would read as very helpful advice to the average person.
If, however, you are the sort of person organizing a protest or other similar activity, yes, absolutely, walkie tallies are great. A lot of people who do serious political activism talk about how radio is still the most resilient communication method. Not fool-proof, you definitely need to study up on the limitations, but an invaluable tool to be aware of.
If you are going to a protest as a group, and you have the resources to invest a few hundred bucks, getting a set of walkie-talkies for the group plus a dedicated burner one responsible person to carry (maybe someone who will be in radio range but clear of the actual happenings) is also a solid strategy, but we also shouldn’t be acting like “Going as a group” and “spending a few hundred dollars” are prerequisites for being politically active. There need to be solutions for everyone.
Yes. You can get them cheap online and they have a built in “encryption” function that isn’t well protected but might prevent people from listening in realtime.
What’s the plan for having your phone at home? They’re going door to door and shooting innocent white American citizens.
What’s the plan for having your phone at home?
#00 inserts for my pump action wireless hole punch.
No no, you’ll need slugs if you want to hole-punch any body armor.
Not that I would know what you aim on using your wireless hole-punch for.
