- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
You must log in or register to comment.
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.
-
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.
How To Secure Your Phone
- Leave it at home
Why is this even an article? Do not bring your phone to protests, especially under a republican president, especially one like Trump.
You need a phone, just not yours
Please accept this cookie before learning how to not be tracked :/
how to secure your phone: leave it at home. Done
Also any other personal electronics like your watch or fitness tracker.
Restart it before you leave but don’t log in when the restart completes. That’ll make it harder to break into.
Stil secure it, in case the pigs search your home after arresting you. But don’t take it to a protest
Not buy one?
I want to see articles about attending revolts!
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/
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.
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.
Yes the article says to leave your phone if you can, and to use a burner phone otherwise.
Start protecting your privacy by not visiting the Verge and the 876 partners they share your personal data with.
ever heard of Microsoft?
What happens if you click manage settings?
You get to choose even more companies to share with.
Can we revive radios?
I mean, yes they can triangulate transmissions, but (As far as I know) they don’t have IMEIs, and you talk in code to obscure meanings.
You turn it off before going home, and there’s no tracking, don’t transmit from home and its fine.
For evidence, bring a camera.
For a good compromise, use Meshtastic. Long-range radio mesh network for texting that phones can use instead of cell networks.
Can one make a general relay meshtastic node, or are they all private relays?
One good thing about a phone over a camera is automatic backup. If you have a burner smartphone uploading all of your images to Dropbox (or whatever) as you take them, and then you think your phone is about to get taken, you can wipe it or even destroy it without losing the photos. Not so a camera.
Also, a cheap burner phone is way cheaper than pretty much any standalone camera on the market. It’s hard to find a point and shoot digital camera (or any type of film camera) these days that isn’t super pricey, because they’ve become hobbyist items.
You’ll need to make sure you encrypt your radios which might be illegal depending on your country.
how to secure your phone for a protest.
don’t fucking bring it
LAAAND OF THE FREEEEEEEE
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.
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.
Print at a public library?
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
There are forms of protest beyond just going on a parade through town
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.
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!
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…
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 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.
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
If you can, leave your phone at home
That’s it! There’s the answer!
Its a balancing act. You shouldn’t be recording tiktoks and doing the carlton.
But there is a lot of value in organizers being able to communicate. If you see a fat white kid with an assault rifle, you let people know. Same with when the patrol wagons roll in.
And there is a LOT of value in being able to make it clear to the cops that you are recording before they decide to “teach some people a lesson”.
I chat about this with my activist buddies a lot. And one thing we are increasingly realizing is that there is a LOT of value in convincing even a mid-tier IRL streamer to come out. Yeah, they are fucking obnoxious when they are trying to yell to chat. But it is someone who is high enough profile that they won’t immediately have their gear destroyed AND privileged enough that they won’t even realize that is an option until it is too late. At which point the decision as to how to handle the escalation is already happening.
Hmm if it’s a smartphone, their location can still be tracked even if they’re not recording videos for social media. Even if it’s not a smartphone, their location can be triangulated.
I’ve never attended a protest, but one of my younger siblings has. I agree with the author here: don’t take a smartphone with you. If you need to go to a protest, and it’s a charged topic (i.e. people have been fired or detained for it), take a dumb phone and make calls once you’re considerably away from the protest’s meeting site. Or, buy a burner phone for use only at the meeting site. If video footage is that big of a deal, take an old-fashioned video camera to record.
What is this “vid-eo chimera” you speak of? Some ancient technology from the Mayans? /j
But seriously, unless there’s some reason to stream live, old tricks are sometimes still the best tricks.
But seriously, unless there’s some reason to stream live, old tricks are sometimes still the best tricks.
Cops who know they are being recorded MIGHT behave slightly better. It is why they are so hellbent on never wearing bodycams ever again.
An SD card on the person of someone being thrown in the back of a van to have an “accident” on the way to booking? Not so useful.
It really just depends what shenanigans you intend to get up to. No method is perfect, and it’s good for everyone to remember that there’s multiple options available.
What is this “vid-eo chimera” you speak of? Some ancient technology from the Mayans? /j
I’ve aged myself, haven’t I? lol
At least you didn’t call it a camcorder.
Maybe. I’ve had the same thought, to the point of bringing a cheap point and click camera or even a disposable one, so you’re not alone!
The guide seems to be aimed at attendees, rather than organizers and media. If someone is showing up to add their voice to the protest, then leaving their phone at home is an ideal way to minimize their footprint.
You shouldn’t be recording tiktoks and doing the carlton.
Then why even GO to a protest??? To stand up for our freedoms? Pssshhhh!!!
does the carlton
Just an aside that Paddy wagons is pretty racist.
That’s so old-school racist it doesn’t count anymore, like Irish_Americans give a shit in 2025. You’re diluting the word, making it worth less.
This is what people mean when they say, “You can’t say anything anymore!” They’re not mad they can’t say n*****, they’re mad because of silly shit like this. If everything is racist, language becomes a minefield, impossible to keep up with and navigate.
Every sourcing I have seen comes more from the UK as a way to shorten patrol and the argument that it is an ethnic slur against predominantly Irish police forces is similar to “cracker” in that… can you REALLY be that racist against the oppressors?
But tweaked anyway. Thanks.
Irish people were actually considered “non-white” throughout most of the history of race as a concept. They were only recently recategorized by racists when they felt their numbers dwindling and decided to expand the tent a little.
Irish people have suffered from a history of explicitly racist oppression; calling them “the oppressors” flies directly in the face of history. Their skin colour may be white, but the history of their relationship with race as a power structure is far more complex.
This does not mean that it’s impossible for Irish people to be racist themselves, or for Irish people to embrace “white” as an identity. Race is complicated; that’s exactly why trying to adopt simplistic attitudes to it never works.
Irish people were actually considered “non-white” throughout most of the history of race as a concept.
That’s a myth. I’ve seen the Ellis Island records of my Irish ancestors’ arrival in the US. There’s a Race box, and what was filled in for them (and others with Irish surnames that I noticed) was WHITE.
Note that Irish immigrants could own property, get bank accounts and credit, and could vote. They held public office from early in the wave of immigration. In the Western US, the earliest English-speaking settlers included a large percentage of Irish-Americans (including several of my ancestors). There was prejudice in hiring, and in boarding houses. But these were informal, at a time when there were formal legal barriers against Black Americans and Chinese immigrants.
It’s perfectly possible to be classified as white but still oppressed for other reasons. In the US in the 19th and early 20th century, that reason was mainly anti-Catholic prejudice, followed by classism. The KKK were against the Irish because of their Catholicism, as is shown by contemporary pamphlets and records of speeches. And those were the same reasons the English were so virulently anti-Irish-- those and the fact that the Irish were living on some land that they wanted to steal.
This does not mean that it’s impossible for Irish people to be racist themselves
The Draft Riots in New York city during the Civil War provides an illustrative example of that. Also memoirs of some of my ancestors (one was quite proud of his role in making his town in New Mexico a sunset town). Anti-Chinese racism was also widespread and violent in the West.
You need to read up on the history of the Irish in the UK and how they were treated by the English very much as a distinct race, and one that they thought it was very much OK to abuse.
Here’s a quote from the Rev. Charles Kingsley, a Victorian theologian and defender of Darwinism;
I am haunted by the human chimpanzees I saw [in Ireland] . . . I don’t believe they are our fault. . . . But to see white chimpanzees is dreadful; if they were black, one would not feel it so much. . . ."
Literally describing Irish people as subhuman. This attitude was wildly popular in England. Even in the eighties and nineties it was still common for occupation troops in Northern Ireland to refer to the Irish as “white n****rs”. This attitude, that the Irish are subhuman, justified horrific acts of racial violence that happened in my lifetime, and probably yours.
The Irish have been the targets of military occupation, police abuse, disenfranchisement and genocide, all on the basis of what the English very much considered to be their “race.”
Again, America is not the world. There are whole layers of complex interactions of identity happening out there beyond your borders.
Yes, the Irish were (and kind of still are) looked down upon by “Whites”.
They historically chose to address that by becoming cops. Oppressors. The idea being that if they were useful they would at least be better than the brown and yellow people. And irish cops have caused untold horrors amongst labor and minorities.
So while I disagree that “paddy wagon” is an Irish slur so much as MAYBE it is a cop slur, it is close enough that I’ll refrain from using it. But it is still the same issue as with “cracker” where… you are gonna have to try a whole hell of a lot harder for me to care if people’s feelings are hurt that folk don’t appreciate how many skulls they cracked in the name of impressing the crackers.
But you do see how you’re very much engaging in stereotyping by saying that “They historically chose to address that by becoming cops” as if somehow a) all Irish people in America became cops, and b) the experiences of the Irish diaspora in America are somehow representative of all Irish people… Right?
Like, seriously, go ask some Irish people in Northern Ireland how they feel about cops some time. Depending on who you ask you’re guaranteed to get some wildly different answers.
Again. IF we decide that “paddy wagon” is a slur toward the Irish, it is specifically a slur toward Irish cops. And fuck the police.
Simple as that.
Like I said, I’ll try to avoid it in the future because even though there is very little evidence that it is even a slur toward Irish cops, it sounds enough like one that I would rather avoid it. But I am not gonna lose ANY sleep over oppressors getting their fee fees hurt because people don’t like them.
Yeah racism doesn’t apply to whypepo
If you aren’t communicating that a protest happened, then it didn’t happen.
It’s quite literally the entire point.
Buy a camera. Record. Then when you get back, scrub the exif, then upload.
(Hopefully you got a Tails USB ready)
Ideally also leave your car at home and take public transit while paying with cash or walk. CCTV and facial recognition are still issues, but you would be reducing your fingerprint a ton.
“But how will I livestream my protest against Elon on X with out my phone?”
Of course! It’s so obvious!
deleted by creator
The EFF also has an article: https://ssd.eff.org/module/attending-protest
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!
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?
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.
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.
