Mastodawn

Going to a Protest? Don't Bring Your Phone Without Doing This First

https://lemmy.nz/post/32954299

Going to a Protest? Don't Bring Your Phone Without Doing This First - Lemmy NZ

>The right to assemble and protest is enshrined in American law, but it can still be dangerous to hit the streets to make your voice heard. Your devices are a treasure trove of information about you, and you may not always know who’s collecting that data. Take a few minutes before you go to assess your digital and physical safety. Even if you have nothing to hide, you don’t want to accidentally give law enforcement officials any information you didn’t intend to share. Follow these tips to lock down your phone before a protest or other peaceful assembly.

Carmakazi Jan 11

IMO just having your personal device on you in the presence of a protest puts you in danger. They have ample tools to track cellular devices that basically cannot be guarded against without disabling the function altogether, such as with a Faraday bag. They will catch and log that you were at a protest, and use that against you later.

U7826391786239 Jan 12

don’t leave out the fact that they’ll just shoot you in the face for no reason, and then get “absolute immunity”

And then go on TV and call you a terrorist 15 minutes later.

suicidaleggroll Jan 11

Shut off and leave your phone at home, buy a pay-as-you-go to bring with you for emergency contact/coordination

FlexibleToast Jan 12

I believe there are Bluetooth network protocols that mesh that would work for messaging and not require cell service. It would be smart to organize using something like that and just use any cell phone without cell service turned on. That still gives you the ability to call 911 in case of emergencies as well.

Lee Duna Jan 12

You can use Briar, BitChat, or Bridgefy to communicate, without having internet connections. I’ve only tried Briar, which works with cell networks, wifi, also bluetooth.

True, but if surveillance is your concern, they are monitoring Bluetooth devices too.

FlexibleToast Jan 12

Does that matter? If it’s a device that you bought used just for this? There is no name attached to that device at that point. But it used on Craigslist, use it for the event, throw it away. It can be any cheap, crappy phone.

Em Adespoton Jan 12

Cell service is always turned on on a phone, even with no SaiM card and the phone in airplane mode, and for most phones, even when the phone is “off”. They still ping the local towers semi regularly; they just don’t ramp up transmission power ir try to establish a full connection.

Anyone got a list of Bluetooth devices without a cell antenna where the BT MAC is regularly scrambled?

FlexibleToast Jan 12

Does it matter if that cell service isn’t connected to a name?

Em Adespoton Jan 12

No, because it will spend most of its time after leaving the store in your home.

FlexibleToast Jan 12

First, don’t buy it from a store. Second, turn that sucker off before you go home.

ryannathans Jan 12

It’s connected to your name when you go home

FlexibleToast Jan 12

So, turn it off before you go home?

ryannathans Jan 12

They still talk to the tower when turned off

discocactus Jan 12

Unless you stop at a coffee shop, uploaded content to a secure server, ditch the SIM and power off the device.

ExcessShiv Jan 12

Unless you stop at a coffee shop

Now they also have you on camera

discocactus Jan 26

What kind of garbage corporate coffee shops are you going to?

ExcessShiv Jan 26

I don’t go to any coffee shops, but I have eyes and can see the cameras in every shop and café (regardless of how “corporate” they are)

discocactus Jan 28

Useless paranoia. Most of the cameras are on phones anyway.

ExcessShiv Jan 28

Then why bother commenting on the type of coffee shop, if phone cameras are the biggest issue for fancy pansy small craft coffee shops are equally big of an issue…SMH

partial_accumen Jan 12

Shut off and leave your phone at home, buy a pay-as-you-go to bring with you for emergency contact /coordination

Leave the pay-as-you-go phone powered off too, and only power it up if you actually have to use it. If you have to use it once, you need to get a replacement for a future event.

I’m thinking perhaps something like Meshtastic transmitters and receivers should be used for coordination instead.

Meshtastic is exactly what needs to be implemented

I ran across that instance the other day and immediately thought about coordination.

It’s like sneaker net for piracy.

itsathursday Jan 12

Fuck yeah, hack the planet

Meshtastic is just as susceptible to listening and isn’t perfect at encryption or anonymity but should be another tool to consider when cellphone towers are down or otherwise unusable.

floquant Jan 12

It’s alright for non-critical stuff. Ok for getting help, not the best for coordinating action.

Reticulum is an alternative network/protocol that focuses more on security and interconnection of different networks

Boomer Humor Doomergod Jan 12

Right? It’s like these guys have never seen The Wire.

Horsecook Jan 12

That show finished airing 18 years ago…

acosmichippo Jan 12

leave your phone ON at home.

resipsaloquitur Jan 12

If it makes you feel better, go nuts.

But they have Face ID, gait ID, they have the signal from your cellular-equipped car, on and on.

We are all on the regime’s naughty list. Might as well make the most of it and demonstrate peacefully. And without a mask so you don’t look like an agent provocateur.

acosmichippo Jan 12

there are less antagonistic looking wasy to mask yourself, such as cute inflatable animal suits.

resipsaloquitur Jan 12

100%. Love the frog suits.

Whostosay Jan 12

Good look running when you need to in that, the way it’s looking lately, the need will be there.

Even if your phone is “off” it’s transmitting an ID for antitheft purposes.

Faraday bags!

What’s the plan for having your phone at home? They’re going door to door and shooting innocent white American citizens.

GhostPain Jan 12

What’s the plan for having your phone at home?

#00 inserts for my pump action wireless hole punch.

archonet Jan 12

No no, you’ll need one-ounce slugs if you want to hole-punch any kevlar.

Horsecook Jan 12

12ga slugs don’t reliably penetrate soft armor, and don’t penetrate hard armor. The proper tactic for armored assailants is to aim for the groin.

GhostPain Jan 12

The proper tactic for armored assailants is to aim for the groin.

I mean, one to the chest will at least slow them down, but yea, I can get on board with blasting some dicks off. lol

Horsecook Jan 12

Post-global war of terror, ceramic armor rifle plates are widely available and cheaper than guns.

Non-penetrating hits on hard armor have a felt impact an order of magnitude less that the recoil of the firearm that fired the round.

GhostPain Jan 12

Hunh, good to know.

Head and dick shots only, then.

Thanks.

Do they make sabot rounds for shotguns?

wizardbeard Jan 12

Lol, lmao even. That’s some careful word play for the sake of unneccesary hyperbole.

They have shot innocent white American citizens. In some other places they have gone door to door. Those are independent actions, not a combined reality. We can all agree they’re god awful as a massive understatement without lying about door to door murder squads.

Inb4 “if you have to make that kind of distinction you’re already fucked” yeah, we are, but accurate information about the ground situation is vital for any forward movement.

GhostPain Jan 12

Man, that’s a Reddit-pedantic “you forgot PEDMAS” -like response to someone worrying about getting their home raided and asking a simple question.

You’re not fucked. You’re a dick. And being one isn’t “vital” to anything.

wizardbeard Jan 12

You can’t seriously be suggesting that lying to people about the sitaution is in any way helpful.

Fuck off and sow FUD elsewhere.

GhostPain Jan 12

You can’t be so dense as to think that simple minded hair splitting is actually useful when people are being dragged from their homes at gunpoint by the US Gestapo right now?

Holy shit.

You might as well be a Fed.

empireOfLove2 Jan 12

Don’t bring your phone period. Any and all devices can be broken into by law enforcement. Buy a burner with cash if you need some kind of communication.

captainlezbian Jan 12

And bring a separate video camera

No, , this isn’t the 90s. You want a many copies as possible immediately, later might not happen.

Its not the device cracking that’s the problem; its the “your device was identified at the protest we have labeled a riot and has been tracked to your home, which we will now raid in the middle of the night”.

Scotty_Trees Jan 12

Has this regime already done this or are you just saying what the next steps might be if nothing changes?

For the “already done this”:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO

For the modern technology making it significantly easier:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSI-catcher

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray_phone_tracker

TL:DR, if you’re at a protest and your signal drops to 2G, your device is being monitored and tracked. Whether or not anyone acts on that data is a whole other thing.

COINTELPRO - Wikipedia

anon_8675309 Jan 12

Yes a burner that you don’t activate. Keep it in a faraday bag. In an emergency you can take it out and call 911.

sp3ctr4l Jan 12

Yep, ding ding ding, buy a burner phone, with cash, from a store that doesn’t have many or very good cameras.

Bring your real main phone is you thinkinging you know more about cybersecurity and surveillance than Palantir.

99.99999999% chance you don’t.

jaschen306 Jan 12

Would an old school walkie talkie be a better solution? You want to be able to communicate within a group in case shit happen

Yes. You can get them cheap online and they have a built in “encryption” function that isn’t well protected but might prevent people from listening in realtime.

Jason2357 Jan 12

They are not actually encrypted (anything like that on the box is basically a lie). Just pre-arrange code words for emergencies and use a “handle” instead of a name. Old school works.

Voroxpete Jan 12

That depends what you’re trying to solve. For a lot of people, they’re still gonna need their phone. I don’t think “Just use a walkie talkie bro” would read as very helpful advice to the average person.

If, however, you are the sort of person organizing a protest or other similar activity, yes, absolutely, walkie tallies are great. A lot of people who do serious political activism talk about how radio is still the most resilient communication method. Not fool-proof, you definitely need to study up on the limitations, but an invaluable tool to be aware of.

If you are going to a protest as a group, and you have the resources to invest a few hundred bucks, getting a set of walkie-talkies for the group plus a dedicated burner one responsible person to carry (maybe someone who will be in radio range but clear of the actual happenings) is also a solid strategy, but we also shouldn’t be acting like “Going as a group” and “spending a few hundred dollars” are prerequisites for being politically active. There need to be solutions for everyone.

rc__buggy Jan 12

I think FRS is the only thing legally available without a license. You can buy GMRS radios on Amazon that will communicate with FRS radios on all of the FRS channels, see here:

wiki.radioreference.com/…/GMRS_combined_channel_c…

However, these radios are VERY limited in an urban area with lots of concrete towers. In my experience the GMRS radios on “high power” really only go one little valley over out in the woods. In the city you might get two or three blocks because of all the concrete.

Maybe Meshtastic? That’s a radio I haven’t messed with and I don’t know about it’s performance in an urban environment.

FRS/GMRS combined channel chart - The RadioReference Wiki

I bring my phone and my wallet and my keys and my $7,000 camera and my lawyer’s phone number in my head