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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Leave it at home.
Literally clicked to comment this
Or get a burner
And get a burner.
Yeah. And, leave the other at home. Somehow, that mutual exclusivity between devices made me write “or”. Hehe.
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
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.
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.
Source? EFF says airplane mode is sufficient per the article
Leave it at home lol
Don’t bring it?!
Also be aware that the Georgia attorney general has declared that not bringing your phone to a protest will be considered criminal intent. They’re now trying to punish people for not having their tracking devices with them.
https://georgiarecorder.com/2024/02/12/georgia-ag-claims-not-having-a-phone-makes-you-a-criminal/
This can probably be argued that places that deny phones, like courts, could be charged with criminal intent against you.
This.
Go old school and bring cameras instead.
correct
Here is the simple trick: leave your phone at home. Get a burner.
If your phone is powered your location can be tracked. Secured or not: your location can always be tracked.
The rest is doubtful, always assume law enforcement has access at will.
Just don’t bring it.
doesn’t have to be powered on.
unless you can remove the battery, it should stay at home.
Source? EFF says airplane mode is sufficient per the article
so you’re going yo trust the government funded org to tell you how to not be tracked by the government?
better yet, you’re going to trust the company that actively works with the government under national defense that wants to track you to protect national defense?
no thanks. I’d rather be safe than detained.
What government funding does the EFF take in?
Until I see a shred of evidence that airplane mode doesn’t disable the radios, yes, I’m going to trust the manufacturers, the EFF, and my background in EE
cool. you do you then.
I’ll keep doing whatever I need to ensure my freedom by not trusting government or corporate guidelines.
I tend to agree (and also an EE). Airplane mode isn’t a total panacea, though. It just disables the cellular radio. While it also disables the Wifi and Bluetooth, those can always be turned back on, even while Airplane Mode is active. A motivated state actor can absolutely track via Wifi or Bluetooth. (Possibly even NFC, but the range on that is so low that I think it would impossible to do without seeing what is tracking you).
Turning the phone off is the best solution if you want to keep rhe phone on your person. Guaranteed that all possible avenues for tracking is off, and also has the advantage that even if the phone is seized, the latest phone OSes require the passcode before doing anything at all when they first power up. Even the Police are limited in the data they can get off a phone that has just powered up and is asking for the passcode.
YOU DONT BRING IT.
Your car’s GPS is also tracking your movements. If you have a newer car then your phone is only part of the problem.
Jesus Christ, this conversation is scary. I wish y’all good luck that none of these precautions are necessary.
As someone in a blue state where governance is sane, I’m “raw dogging it” (effing offensive slang term but now I’ve used it once in my life and can rest easy) and bringing my kids (teens). M also going to the local demonstration rather than go into the city for a big one - to some extent it’s a numbers game: ICE can’t raid them all and police aren’t legally allowed to help them
…. And hopefully my optimism is well founded
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Edit: huge success! Entirely peaceful. While a few cops drove by, there was no police presence. Thousands of people of all ages lining both sides of main st, and three sides of our town common. Constant honking from supporters driving by. It was very inspirational. I’m proud of my fellow citizens and hope our voice for restoring sanity and democracy is heard.
For those pessimists,a bit more context why I was so optimistic…… a few years back, our mayor and police were participants in a local BLM rally. Also a big part of local outrage against fascism was a city counselor getting assaulted and arrested for videoing an illegal raid on one of his constituents.
You say kids. Youve rawdogged more than once probably
Nowadays millennials and Gen Z use raw dogging to indicate going either without protection to their electronic devices, or foregoing the use of devices like on a long plane ride.
Yes, very cringey slang for going without protection. Originally from pregnancy or STDs, but now also from boredom. In my case, without the protection of a mask or leaving my wallet and phone at home. I even drove and parked in a local public garage, so would be traceable in several different ways
The fact that this conversation is even necessary is to me more scary.
I used to think the Bush era was bad. I’d gladly trade that for now.
Bush was just a goofy lil war criminal compared to this shit
Only 😏
I’m happy that you felt safe in a peaceful protest, but keep in mind that stingrays can be operated from airplanes at 10,000 ft. you likely would never hear them at a noisy protest and it would be the size of a grain of rice in the sky.
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.
By leaving it at home.
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.
Buy a Burner.
