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- cross-posted to:
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- [email protected]
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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The powers that you are necessarily taking these precautions against are all funded by your taxes.
Yes, that’s why they are protesting.
You leave it at home. Take an old factory-reset with a prepaid sim. Keep it off unless you 100% need it.
Don’t bring it
Leave it at home lol
… Goes to a protest to support gaza, get’s phone unlocked because police is using Israeli cellebrite software…
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 🙃
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Smartphones are far too valuable to our efforts to be left at home. They are the difference between personally observing law enforcement atrocities, and being able to prove them. The media isn’t covering the protests. We need as much video as we can get. We need to be able to coordinate efforts, passing along troop deployments and numbers.
While our main phones and accounts are probably linked to more information than law enforcement should ever be allowed to touch, burners add too much to our efforts to seriously consider not bringing them.
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.
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.
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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.
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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…
And in all likelihood forcing your fingerprint or face unlock is perfectly legally acceptable for them to do. A password or a code is something they’d have to force you to say and ultimately you can choose not to (though they’re still fine to just try and hack out a pin/pattern on their own, or use phone-cracking tools or backdoors) but you have no defense whatsoever against your biometrics being used.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
Leave it at home.
And take a burner phone if you must absolutely bring one.
thats my plan. im not taking wallet or keys or anything. just a transit card.
Also bring an ID and some cash. E.g. to buy some snacks/meal/water if the day goes longer than you planned for.
Having an ID can help if you do get arrested. But that’s about all I carry.
Why do you need an ID? Leave it in your car if you’re driving.
I don’t think there’s a single state that requires you to actually carry documentation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_and_identify_statutes
These are the states that require you to at least verbally state your name, and only if the officer has reasonable suspicion that you have or will commit a crime.
They can ask your name. You may not have to answer.
Research your state’s law on this before you go. It’s in the link.
lookit mr can’t-get-disappeared-by-ICE over here
Regardless of the law, you can be detained by law enforcement if you cannot prove who you say you are until you can prove it.
If law enforcement was following the law I would not be protesting.
Literally clicked to comment this
What’s wrong with a grapheneOS device on airplane mode? Is firmware level tracking a confirmed thing?
Stingray been in use widely since the 90s. LEOs have much better access and tech now. Pinpoint down to which room in a multi level hotel.
So it should be safe in airplane mode, no? If I can trust my device, that is.
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They may confiscate your phone and record all data on it.
If it’s a fresh wipe with a good passcode, and you keep it on airplane mode, you’re probably fine.
Set up a duress PIN on your graphene phone
Graphene is not a good OS for this type if work. Yes it’s secure, no good backup solutions. You will lose all your data upon confiscation. Graphene again is secure but if all your data is gone what good will it do? DO NOT TAKE YOUR PERSONAL DEVICES.
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.
Put a harness on your put and put it on the harness. Boom, instant spoofing.
Most modern devices track the phone even when it’s turned off. If you can’t remove the battery, leave it at home.
