How to secure your phone before attending a 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.
-
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/
Yes the article says to leave your phone if you can, and to use a burner phone otherwise.
-
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.
-
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
-
This post did not contain any content.
how to secure your phone: leave it at home. Done
-
how to secure your phone: leave it at home. Done
Stil secure it, in case the pigs search your home after arresting you. But don't take it to a protest
-
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.
You'll need to make sure you encrypt your radios which might be illegal depending on your country.
-
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
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.
-
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!
-
how to secure your phone for a protest.
don't fucking bring it
LAAAND OF THE FREEEEEEEE
-
if the government is using printer tracking dots to track you down for participating in a legal, democratic protest, you should not be protesting, you should be doing civil war.
-
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.
If black people had joined police forces in large numbers for a variety of very complex historical reasons, would you be defending "N****r Wagon" as a perfectly acceptable term right now?
-
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
-
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?
-
how to secure your phone: leave it at home. Done
Restart it before you leave but don't log in when the restart completes. That'll make it harder to break into.
-
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?
-
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.
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 lock it down 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.
-
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.
Not to mention sometimes a protest starts peaceful and then goes to shit.
That usually means there are infiltrated agitators.
-
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.
-
What happens if you click manage settings?
You get to choose even more companies to share with.
