Mastodawn

Yael's post demonstrates something about digital privacy/security that I think a lot of people miss: there is no right answer, just a series of trade-offs. And every person has to make their own decisions about which trade-offs are worthwhile. https://blog.yaelwrites.com/options-for-phones-at-protests/

Options for Phones at Protests

Simply showing up to a protest leaves you susceptible to all sorts of surveillance, including cameras, drones, facial recognition, and more. There's not always a lot you can do about pernicious street-level surveillance, but you do have a lot of choices when it comes to your phone. Because there's no

String Literal

evacide 19h ago

There is a reason why most of my advice is phrased "If you are concerned about X...you may want to consider doing Y." It's not because I just love using a bunch of extra words.

Wulfy—Speaker to the machines 19h ago

THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL ADVICE

@evacide "if you are concerned about lack of privacy on your phone, you may want to consider throwing it into the sea"

(/j)

@fxchip @evacide
Keep the potato chip, though; chips are delicious

Kenneth Bousquet 19h ago

@evacide Straight to the point

@evacide Do people not understand that? jeez

ShadSterling 17h ago

@lawyersgunsnmoney @evacide apparently a lot of people use words as if they’re part of some secret code rather than having standard meanings. I suppose it’s like “virtue signaling”, but applying that sort of indirect interpretation to absolutely everything. I think that’s how some people end up making completely absurd arguments in court; they think if they say the right “signals” the court will rule in their favor. I can’t imagine living that way

Yaqub. M 18h ago

@evacide more of a belief in causation of events ;)

Michael Weiss 16h ago

@evacide conscious threat modeling takes effort.

@evacide
" no right answer, just a series of trade-offs."

this.

Disisdeguey🔻PalestineAction🇵🇸15h ago

@evacide Wow so many precautions for a democracy, eh?

RustyFreewheel 15h ago

@evacide Option 1 or 2 and a Cheap Point + Shoot Camera.

Wolf480pl 13h ago

@evacide
> even if your phone is turned off, it will still send out Bluetooth signals to broadcast its location

wtf? where can I read more about that?

🄻🅄🄽🄰 10h ago

@wolf480pl bluetooth and wifi scanning is used to get more precise location data in urban areas

while u are using ur phones location services the device doesnt just listen 2 gps signals,
but also cell towers, wifi and bluetooth signals

both google and apple have big datasets of locations "RF landscape" which on top of gps is used 2 get more accurate location data and whenever you are using their map apps u are contributing 2 that dataset

on top of that if ur logged in with ur personal icloud / google account they can build quite the dataset on u and ur life

Wolf480pl 10h ago

@44
Yeah, I know that. But what you're describing requires the phone to be *turned on*, right?

And I'm explicitly asking about the statement from OP's article that says a *turned off* phone still communicates via bluetooth.

🄻🅄🄽🄰 2h ago

@wolf480pl aah gotcha.

although most phones are going to be truly off when powered down by the user,
iphones from the 11th gen and pixels from the 8th and onward,
using dedicated hardware,
do keep emitting BluetoothLowEnergy signals for their respective find my networks,
even when the main os is shut down.

again, if these devices are connected 2 an appleid or google acc with ur real identity linked,
this could be a threat vector depending on ur threat model

Wolf480pl 2h ago

@44 I see.

Do these dedicated BLE chips respond with some unique ID to everyone who asks, or only to requests signed by some appleid- / google-account-specific key?

If the former, I think a nation-state attacker could use this to track people even if they're not logged in to their respective account :/

🄻🅄🄽🄰 2h ago

@wolf480pl tbf thats a but 2 specific 4 my dangerous half knowledge,
but as far as i can tell, even if these broadcasts dont contain themselves sensitive information and are encrypted, every device will have a unique fingerprint, which can be used 4 tracking.

even with no unique fingerprints it could still reveal patterns if mapped

🄻🅄🄽🄰 11h ago

@evacide dont get why meshtastic isnt more popular here.

Turn off ur phones cellular b4 going 2 the protest and stay connected 2 ur friends using meshtastic. the more ppl at protests use it
the more resillient the network gets

Tony Hoyle 10h ago

@evacide "And even if your phone is turned off, it will still send out Bluetooth signals to broadcast its location." That needs an edit I think.. I'm not aware of any device that would do that when switched off.

RealGene ☣️7h ago

@tony @evacide
It doesn't send when switched off, but its last location may have been logged before it was:

@evacide I have an older Pixel and installed GrapheneOS. Generally for a few bucks I can get a Mint Mobile starter SIM. You plug it in and get a some data, a new phone number, and a few SMS msgs for 7-days. Create a throw away Google account. Create a new Signal account. Rinse and repeat.

Michael T Babcock 1h ago

@evacide but it also presumes informed decision making.
Someone out there brought their phone without realizing the potential consequences and wouldn't have if they'd known.
Informing everyone is hard.
Therefore some choices weren't fully choices but accidents.