The EFF's Guide to Attending a Protest
For quick reference, we've created a handy guide designed to be printed, folded, and carried in your pocket (PDF download). Now, more than ever, citizens must be able to hold those in power accountable and inspire others through the act of protest. Protecting your electronic devices and digital as...
Leave your phone behind because of geofencing. Even a dumb phone with your name connected to the bill will be traced to you. Grab an e-waste phone, buy a sim with cash, and even hide your face in the store, because the cops will get that footage.
Once you have your burner with no paper trail, never let it connect while at home, work, or any other place connected to your identity. Phones with removable batteries are best for this. Use a faraday bag if you must bring it home with you. Don't trust a phone to actually turn off.
The purpose of your burner phone is primarily to document events. You want to record the police instigating violence. However, avoid doxxing your fellow protestors. Don't record their vehicles, don't record their tattoos or other identifying marks. Keep the camera pointed at the cops. The media is captured by fascism, it will not report that the police are thugs. It's up to citizen journalists.
Expect the police to gain access to your phone. They will be logged into everything through that. Don't dox your friends by granting police access to your planning chat. Use a separate system for communicating during the event, and keep all accounts separate.
And there's other concerns as well, but mostly just .. don't bring a phone unless you know what you're doing. They're snitches.
(I didn't read the article yet. I expect I probably already did, years ago)
The purpose of your burner phone is primarily to document events.
If that's your only goal, just get an actual camera.
I didn't say it was the only goal, it is the PRIMARY goal. Secondary function is coordination of movement. As for camera functionality, it also serves to upload the images to the internet, or to live stream for awareness. An ordinary camera typically cannot serve that function
Ah, now I have skimmed the article, they got the right idea. I think the precautions described there are insufficient. These are not normal times, be safe out there.
Anyone know how to train pigeons? 👀
Sad that this advice is necessary.
Seems like a mixed guide generally. It's fine, just some complaints:
8-12 random characters that are easy to remember and type in when you unlock your device.
Ironic that this comes from the EFF. Passphrases are much better for this type of stuff, and diceware is practically the gold standard to generate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diceware
Install Signal
More of a small complaint, but SimpleX is probably better if you're aiming for as much security/privacy as possible.
However if you will, use https://molly.im/ and torbot for android.
Back up your data regularly and store that backup in a safe place to save yourself from a headache later on. If you're storing your iPhone's backups online, we strongly suggest enabling the optional Advanced Data Protection feature, which turns on end-to-end encryption for most of the data stored in iCloud
I don't know too much about iCloud but i wouldn't trust apple with anything.
Here's some good alternatives: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/cloud
Dress for Anonymity and Safety
No criticism, just FYI this is called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_bloc if you'd like to know more.
I'm pretty tired so i may have missed or written BS on top, please correct me if i am.
I’m completely new to SimpleX can someone explain it? Is it a protocol, an app?
Its an app that uses no user ids at all. It's probably the most private chat app available.
For more information see https://simplex.chat/
I've not heard of diceware before. How is it? I personally use a combination of password managers and short phrases which I encrypt using a specific method in my head.
One of the best ways I'd say. There are websites that help you generate. Even bitwarden has it implemented iirc
I recommend at least a five word passphrase, with a number somewhere, and you must generate it only once, each time you regenerate anc pick the easiest password reduces the entropy.
There are better solutions but its important to keep things simple, also.
I agree but it wouldn't hurt for some of these. Though the guide is fine as i said :)
I would go with SimpleX and start building contacts that way, especially since the model strongly encourages sharing your contact details IRL via their anonymous QR code.
Seems a good way to meet like-minded people
Unfortunately, if you go to a protest and use your phone to communicate, even with Signal, the phone's connectivity might expose your location.
I wonder if there's a way to use some sort of mesh network to get around this and avoid most people needing to transmit to cell towers
Briar.
Briar uses either: Internet (via Tor), Wifi (connects with every contact connected to the same wifi via local connection, does not require internet), or with Bluetooth
You can form a peer to peer connection if you have enough people connected to each other.
Your phone will only connect to users in your contacts, so its best to try sharing this app with everyone at the protest, and adding everyone at the protest as contacts. The more, the stronger the mesh.
Unfortunately, bluetooth is like 10 meters of range, so you need like a contact every 10 meters or so to continue the flow of information.
You just download the app, create a profile, set a password, and Voila. Everything stays on your device, all connections are encrypted.
Then go create a "Forum", share the forum with everyone (do not use the "group chat" thing, that is unreliable).
Everyone in the Forum can also share the forum with more people. But the forum only syncs with contacts.
Example:
User A and User B have each other contacts
User B and User C have each other as contacts
But if User A and User C aren't contacts, they have to relay information through User B.
But User B can also introduce each other, then sync that introduction with User A at Location One, sync with User B at location Two. Voila, now they are contacts.
User B could get arrested, but User A and C will have a connection if they meet later at a protest.
Get it? You have to add everyone to keep the information flowing.
(Also, even if both User A and User C added as contacts, and are on the same forum, they still need to "share" the forum with each other to make sure the connection works, because I think this is a bug)
For anti-tracking, turn on airplane mode, turn off all wireless connections except bluetooth before heading to the protest. Turn off Locations, turn off Location Accuract, Wifi Scanning, Bluetooth Scanning.
You have an off-grid communication system.
Keep in mind, they can still jam bluetooth connections.
Also, bluetooth MAC addresses are not randomized unlike with wifi connections. Its not foul proof.
Also, Briar is Android only.
And, this is all assuming you phone doesn't have a backdoor that tracks you.
You could also use a radio and talk in code, and they'll know someone is transmitting at the protest, but as long as you don't transmit at home, you're safe.
Don't let them find the radio tho.
Edit: Feel free to ask questions, I'm not a security expert, just some nerd digging around the internet often.
I would also do some work a day or two before a protest.
Use a disposable phone or a phone that you wouldn't mind losing or have confiscated. (personally, I keep all my old phones and use them for all kinds of things and maintain my main phone at the same time) ... a good smartphone that is 2-3 years old is good enough for good imaging and video capture anyway.
When preparing your disposable phone, only install a few apps and as few personal accounts and services as possible, then encrypt the entire thing and use a secure passcode.
Preferably, I would also set up dummy accounts for everything ... different accounts for social media or cloud storage or streaming accounts ... basically accounts you can lose or give up if you had to.
If you ever lose the device or it gets confiscated, don't ever bother asking for it again.
I've actually done this when travelling overseas. I don't travel any more but the last time I did was about four or five years ago and we were starting to worry about border security confiscating or looking at our devices. I'm not part of any political groups or join any protest organizations, I am part of official political organizations but I'm not exactly a radical or anything .... I just like maintaining my privacy and I really don't believe that any group, organization or government has the right to look at my things just because they want to.
a good smartphone that is 2-3 years old is good enough for good imaging and video capture anyway.
And it'll get incredibly good battery life if it's not connecting to cell towers. So even if the battery has degraded a bit, it'll probably be more than sufficient.
I'd argue that using dummy account is mandatory, not a preferrential choice.
If you have a phone on you with ANY of your personal data on it and a cop takes it, you should simply assume every single thing that the phone could access will end up in the hands of the proescutors to use against you.
Don't log in to ANY accounts that have ANY personal data on a phone you're taking to a protest, and sure as shit don't log in to any account that have ANY political/sociologial discussions or plans that could be used to paint you in a bad light in court.
Make new accounts for everything, and only install and log in to the very very bare minimum. This includes using your google or apple account when you set the phone up, too: google and apple have an enormous amount of data about you and if they get a subpoena for it, and there's anything anywhere that might be damning, you can bet it'll get used against you.
(As a side note: don't use anything electronic to do illegal shit either, because your other accounts could also be subpoenaed if the cops have reason to think your real google account has what they need, and most JPs will just rubber-stamp shit cops ask for anyways. If you MUST do illegal things do not use electronic devices. Meet in person, don't make notes/videos/recordings/post it on tiktok/wahtever.)
President Musk's behavior is really boosting the opposition sentiment.
Privacy is the back bone of civil society!