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.
Yesterday, I posted a reply that said, just do not bring any cellphone with you. I do not own one & double check people using electronics around me during activists activities. Lat night, before I went to sleep, the obvious occurred to me, activists need to record evidence of what is going at the activism.
Thus, my updated answer/recommenation (as a veteran, own no cellphone & double checks people using electronics around me activist) go back to the ‘80s’ or maybe, even ‘90s’ recording technology to record evidence of what is going at the activism.
I do not think anything done to a protester’s/activist’s cellphone can make it safe to bring to protest/activism.
Going to a protest? Don’t bring your phone
without doing this firstI’m skeptical of bringing your phone at all, either in airplane mode or off, because modern phones still broadcast location when it’s ‘dead’ in order for you to find it. But I don’t know enough about that to say for sure
Off should be off. Airplane mode often leaves WiFi and Bluetooth on because airplanes allow them. And GPS doesn’t transmit anything, but if it’s enabled it’s still recording your location.
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.
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.
Just don’t bring it. Bring a digital pocket camera instead to document stuff.
Nowadays, you can’t use a mobile phone without signing in to some Google service or Apple. It’s mandatory. Giving them access to every data you own.
That and cell towers….
But a cheap burner. Don’t activate it. Keep it in a faraday pouch. In an emergency remove from faraday pouch and call 911. You can do that on phones you don’t activate.
But everything else, like you said, document with a digital camera.
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.
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”.
Faraday bag all electronic items; phone, smartwatch; hell, I’d even bag my car keys. Cover your face, especially the eye area. Make your voice heard, but don’t be a data point.
Yeah. I see so many protesters with their face not covered. Cover your face!!!
Also, dress like them. You want to create as much confusion as possible.
This might be relevant for following ICE around or direct action, but at this point there’s almost zero personal risk from attending something like a rally or a march.
My relatives and even friends my age are afraid to go to protests. They read stuff like this, and it acts as demobilization messaging. In my experience, once you get them to go once they’re no longer afraid to engage, but there’s an initial fear and anticipatory obedience that has to be overcome.
inb4 protests do nothing: getting people to stick their toe in the water helps build commitment that will one day be necessary to gain critical mass for more organized disobedience.
ICE has literally started going door to door in Minnesota looking for immigrants and activists. It’s already starting, people need to be protecting their privacy now.
This might be relevant for following ICE around or direct action, but at this point there’s almost zero personal risk from attending something like a rally or a march.
No. If the data exists at any point, then a future threat will be able to exploit it, so full on nazi style fascism might not be here yet, but when it is, you’ll be in danger. Data can sleep forever before it becomes a threat.
It already is, with taking a digital device!
I go to protests without my phone, and I’m afraid every time.
I get that nothing is likely to happen to me, but it could. I get that this is am irrational fear. But idk strategically what to do.
ICE has told the press that they are “at war.” It’s not an irrational fear.
