- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
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Remember, when iPhones are off, they just become Airtags. Most modern phones are sending/receiving BLE signals even if you don’t expressly intend them to. I wouldn’t go anywhere near a protest with anything besides degoogled Android, because its the only OS where you can actually disable the radios. Even then I would probably opt for a Faraday bag.
Other considerations… Apple (and probably Google) devices are doing client side scanning of images and turning on GPS to geotag images unless you specifically disabled that features. In other words, there are ways you can be correlated to locations and activities after the fact. Just ask all those J6 rioters.
I want to see articles about attending revolts!
What a boring dystopian article. It’s sad, but necessary.
purchase and use a burner phone instead, and only turn it on when you’re at the site of the demonstration
This should be the de facto response. In addition, I’d suggest not using your personal phone for any protest related communications and stick with burners no matter how much you may trust the organizers.
Buy a burner, keep the battery out until you arrive at the protest, remove the battery when you leave the protest. Don’t store any phone numbers in that phone.
Not that protesting will do anything anymore, that time has come and gone
I disagree about saving numbers, you should add your emergency contacts and anyone you went with in case you get separated or shit goes down
Or just… memorize them?
(Does nobody do that anymore?)
I have 1 number committed to memory, and it’s the only one I need if I get arrested. Until that happens I prefer to stay in touch with my people
I still remember some of my school friends’ phone numbers form 30+ years ago, but I have difficulties remembering new people I meet. My brain is weird.
That’s long term memory for you. Normal when you get old.
but also because it isn’t practiced anymore. it’s always surprising what human beings are capable of.
Then I’m afraid I started getting old way too soon.
There are forms of protest beyond just going on a parade through town
remove the battery
Don’t forget a portable heat gun, suction cup and prying tools. /j
Please execute in a dust and static free environment.
What, you don’t have a portable clean room with you all the time? Amateurs…
This is the answer.
There’s just no fucking way you should go to a protest with your daily driver, secure or not.
I also wouldn’t go without any form of communication. You need to be able to receive information from organisers. Maybe go with a buddy who has a burner and not take anything yourself, but expect to get separated if you’re in a larger group.
I personally wouldn’t be too spooked beyond that, but of course it depends on the level of “activism” you’re going to be involved in. As in I wouldn’t dick around taking the battery out, and I’d save relevant contacts in the phone.
They’re not going to go all CSI miami on your device and your contacts. If they ask you to unlock your phone they will just be looking for selfies of you doing something incriminating.
Epoxy the usb port or otherwise eliminate any usb communication so they can’t get in that way. And only use wireless charging
Get in to what exactly?
The police have a device that they can plug into your phone and see everything on the phone, cellbrite is the company name.
Plug in to my burner?
Sure - time they spend there is time not spent on something more incriminating!
No offense but obeying in advance is fucking pathetic and it is what your last comment is doing.
Any civil disobedience does matter and changes alot more than you think. They also want you to think it doesnt matter, it does.
It is also dangerous to tell others protesting wont do anything, you are spreading fascist fears and you dont even know it.
how to secure your phone: leave it at home. Done
Not buy one?
Also any other personal electronics like your watch or fitness tracker.
Stil secure it, in case the pigs search your home after arresting you. But don’t take it to a protest
Restart it before you leave but don’t log in when the restart completes. That’ll make it harder to break into.
Step 1: Dont take your phone
Please accept this cookie before learning how to not be tracked :/
how to secure your phone for a protest.
don’t fucking bring it
This so much!
Leave all Bluetooth devices at home as well as they have unique IDs that can be tied back to you as well.
And if you’re worried about your stereo you can always pull the fuse so it gets no power then put the fuse back when you get home.
Need directions? Print them and DO NOT LOSE THE PAPER!
I wouldn’t bring paper directions unless they lead to and from a place that ISN’T related to you. Somewhere you know you can get to and from by heart but is a public place, for instance. Don’t give away a beautiful map from your home address To the protest.
I heard prints are unique and have a hidden pattern which can be mapped to a single printer. Not sure if this is true.
Print at a public library?
if the government is using printer tracking dots or your phone to track you down for participating in a legal, democratic protest, then the time for protest is long over.
LAAAND OF THE FREEEEEEEE
Start protecting your privacy by not visiting the Verge and the 876 partners they share your personal data with.
What happens if you click manage settings?
Not much better.
They let you reduce it to 540 partners they somehow deem “essential” most of which are ad networks.
You get to choose even more companies to share with.
ever heard of Microsoft?
The EFF also has an article: https://ssd.eff.org/module/attending-protest
Back when I had Amazon smile, the donations went to the EFF. This makes me happy it went to a worthy cause.
Smile only existed to bleed referral revenues away from search engines. Once enough people started using their app directly they no longer needed smile to make them skip referrers.
Which search engines would do that?
I was going to complain in the comments that the article doesn’t mention anything about lockdown mode on iOS, but thankfully this eff one does. Thanks for sharing a superior article!
Do not bring your phone with you to a protest.
If you really need a phone on you, get a burner phone with a prepaid card not linked to your person. But remember, MITM attacks are possible and the police can intercept your traffic and in some cases even compromise your E2EE services (if the key exchange takes place on a compromised spoofed network, see stingrays [1]).
If communication is necessary, get a meshtastic device. It’s not the most reliable, and the channels can be jammed, but no one will bother with that. Because they work on usual IoT/smart home appliances frequencies, there is so much interference in cities that triangulating your position in a crowd of people isn’t very realistic.
[1] https://theintercept.com/2020/07/31/protests-surveillance-stingrays-dirtboxes-phone-tracking/
Bringing extra meshtastic nodes to a protest could be really helpful. Extra nodes would allow information to more easily find a clear path out of a hot zone to routers in safer locations, and it’d do so without using any telecom infrastructure. The encryption’s pretty good too.
I’ve been using my old(cleaned installed) pixel 1 & 3 with my R1 meshtastics during this recent protests. Very helpful.
I’ll have to look into this. I have an old Pixel 4a I use occasionally, and it’d be nice to make it more useful
Clean install that bad boi (those 4a were done really well), update everything possible and then turn off as much settings/features as possible. It’s like reviving a 7 year old PC with Ubuntu 24.04.1(coming from an emotional standpoint than logical),the thing is badass again. It’s a great offline device. Meshtastic, music player, eReader, remote, (use local non-two-way VPN) GPS, etc etc. to keep that device living longer for another 7-10 years, buy a replacement battery sooner than later.
Yeah the battery is pretty well shot, but it’s otherwise in perfect condition.
Yes the article says to leave your phone if you can, and to use a burner phone otherwise.
The Hated One is another good resource on these topics. The guy is a paranoid and has an extreme threat model, but the information is still on point. Worth watching and sharing.
Got a specific video you could suggest from them?
How To be Anonymous In A Protest | Burner Phone Tutorial
I think this one is pretty good. Pretty good explanation of how a protester might leave digital information and what to do about it.
Write down your name and ICE information with a sharpie on your body. Use a rugged phone case.
Don’t bother going to peaceful protests, they don’t work against post-truth authoritarian governments.
Going to peaceful protests are useful because it can help you meet some more like-minded folks.
Not to mention sometimes a protest starts peaceful and then goes to shit.
I participated in plenty of protests but haven’t made any acquaintances. I think internet is a better space for meeting people.
Not to mention sometimes a protest starts peaceful and then goes to shit.
Taking a look at the Tesla protests it’s just no-impact feel-good thing. Liberals have too much of disdain for non-economic violence.
I think internet is a better space for meeting people.
You have no idea who you’re “meeting” online. F2F isn’t perfectly safe, but connecting with people you know, or who are at least known by people you know, is far better than some rando online. Even then, you need to learn to compartmentalize and operate on a need-to-know basis. If you want your group to be infiltrated, at least make them work for it. I wouldn’t enter into a financial transaction with someone who approached me on the internet, so why would I bet my freedom or even my life on such a person?
I’m not exchanging financial information with strangers regardless of whether it is online or offline. You’re not IRA, you don’t need this kind of precautions anyway.
Not to mention sometimes a protest starts peaceful and then goes to shit.
That usually means there are infiltrated agitators.
I’ve been involved in peaceful protests and in other actions. Get out there and attend peaceful protests. It helps develop your situational awareness, you learn what it’s like being at a protest, and often you’ll get to find out what happens when the police and/or counter-protestors run amok. And even when the corporate media suppresses reports of protests, there are other ways of getting that information out.
As for non-pacifistic direct action, operational security and comms security are even more critical. This thread is probably not the place to discuss it in detail. Just be aware that the few normal constraints on the behavior of the authorities have been relaxed or lifted entirely.
I participated in the biggest protests since the fall of Russian occupation in my country. I helped people organise and prepare, I joined a political party and ran in local elections. Results? None, because there was no path to those and leadership up top is mostly concerned about their position. It was actual virtue signalling even though I hate everyone who uses this term.
What is your plan exactly? There is raising awareness but are you actually convincing anyone? Is someone unaware of what’s happening? What I’m seeing is that libs assume everything Trump supporters say is wrong and vice versa, there’s no discussion so how can any of you convince each other? It was similar here and we’re still stuck with this setup. In a polarised world people picked their sides based on criteria that were important to them and then pulled into a boxing match between liberals and fascists. You could have even agreed on some things but you hate each others guts to the point where you assume all positions of your political football team. If you engage in those ineffective ways of political activism you’re just going to have people run out of steam for nothing.
Don’t take your phone to a protest
Bring an old point and shoot digital camera though. Pics and video might keep you from getting locked up.
If it came to that, the SD card would be confiscated and/or the camera smashed.
Send data to a remote location and don’t tell them anything about it. No comment to everything before you get legal advice.
Burners
