• Phoenixz
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    5719 days ago

    Buy a burner, keep the battery out until you arrive at the protest, remove the battery when you leave the protest. Don’t store any phone numbers in that phone.

    Not that protesting will do anything anymore, that time has come and gone

    • @rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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      119 days ago

      I disagree about saving numbers, you should add your emergency contacts and anyone you went with in case you get separated or shit goes down

        • @rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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          219 days ago

          I have 1 number committed to memory, and it’s the only one I need if I get arrested. Until that happens I prefer to stay in touch with my people

        • Drasglaf
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          519 days ago

          I still remember some of my school friends’ phone numbers form 30+ years ago, but I have difficulties remembering new people I meet. My brain is weird.

    • @null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      819 days ago

      This is the answer.

      There’s just no fucking way you should go to a protest with your daily driver, secure or not.

      I also wouldn’t go without any form of communication. You need to be able to receive information from organisers. Maybe go with a buddy who has a burner and not take anything yourself, but expect to get separated if you’re in a larger group.

      I personally wouldn’t be too spooked beyond that, but of course it depends on the level of “activism” you’re going to be involved in. As in I wouldn’t dick around taking the battery out, and I’d save relevant contacts in the phone.

      They’re not going to go all CSI miami on your device and your contacts. If they ask you to unlock your phone they will just be looking for selfies of you doing something incriminating.

    • @MellowYellow13@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      No offense but obeying in advance is fucking pathetic and it is what your last comment is doing.

      Any civil disobedience does matter and changes alot more than you think. They also want you to think it doesnt matter, it does.

      It is also dangerous to tell others protesting wont do anything, you are spreading fascist fears and you dont even know it.

      • @roofuskit@lemmy.world
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        919 days ago

        Smile only existed to bleed referral revenues away from search engines. Once enough people started using their app directly they no longer needed smile to make them skip referrers.

    • @Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de
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      519 days ago

      I was going to complain in the comments that the article doesn’t mention anything about lockdown mode on iOS, but thankfully this eff one does. Thanks for sharing a superior article!

  • @febra@lemmy.world
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    5519 days ago

    Do not bring your phone with you to a protest.

    If you really need a phone on you, get a burner phone with a prepaid card not linked to your person. But remember, MITM attacks are possible and the police can intercept your traffic and in some cases even compromise your E2EE services (if the key exchange takes place on a compromised spoofed network, see stingrays [1]).

    If communication is necessary, get a meshtastic device. It’s not the most reliable, and the channels can be jammed, but no one will bother with that. Because they work on usual IoT/smart home appliances frequencies, there is so much interference in cities that triangulating your position in a crowd of people isn’t very realistic.

    [1] https://theintercept.com/2020/07/31/protests-surveillance-stingrays-dirtboxes-phone-tracking/

    • @Septimaeus@infosec.pub
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      1919 days ago

      Bringing extra meshtastic nodes to a protest could be really helpful. Extra nodes would allow information to more easily find a clear path out of a hot zone to routers in safer locations, and it’d do so without using any telecom infrastructure. The encryption’s pretty good too.

    • @ABetterTomorrow@lemm.ee
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      19 days ago

      I’ve been using my old(cleaned installed) pixel 1 & 3 with my R1 meshtastics during this recent protests. Very helpful.

      • 🔍🦘🛎
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        219 days ago

        I’ll have to look into this. I have an old Pixel 4a I use occasionally, and it’d be nice to make it more useful

        • @ABetterTomorrow@lemm.ee
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          319 days ago

          Clean install that bad boi (those 4a were done really well), update everything possible and then turn off as much settings/features as possible. It’s like reviving a 7 year old PC with Ubuntu 24.04.1(coming from an emotional standpoint than logical),the thing is badass again. It’s a great offline device. Meshtastic, music player, eReader, remote, (use local non-two-way VPN) GPS, etc etc. to keep that device living longer for another 7-10 years, buy a replacement battery sooner than later.

          • 🔍🦘🛎
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            119 days ago

            Yeah the battery is pretty well shot, but it’s otherwise in perfect condition.

  • @mctoasterson@reddthat.com
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    1519 days ago

    Remember, when iPhones are off, they just become Airtags. Most modern phones are sending/receiving BLE signals even if you don’t expressly intend them to. I wouldn’t go anywhere near a protest with anything besides degoogled Android, because its the only OS where you can actually disable the radios. Even then I would probably opt for a Faraday bag.

    Other considerations… Apple (and probably Google) devices are doing client side scanning of images and turning on GPS to geotag images unless you specifically disabled that features. In other words, there are ways you can be correlated to locations and activities after the fact. Just ask all those J6 rioters.

  • @misk@sopuli.xyz
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    1119 days ago

    Write down your name and ICE information with a sharpie on your body. Use a rugged phone case.

    Don’t bother going to peaceful protests, they don’t work against post-truth authoritarian governments.

    • Gormadt
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      2219 days ago

      Going to peaceful protests are useful because it can help you meet some more like-minded folks.

      Not to mention sometimes a protest starts peaceful and then goes to shit.

      • @0x0@programming.dev
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        119 days ago

        Not to mention sometimes a protest starts peaceful and then goes to shit.

        That usually means there are infiltrated agitators.

      • @misk@sopuli.xyz
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        119 days ago

        I participated in plenty of protests but haven’t made any acquaintances. I think internet is a better space for meeting people.

        Not to mention sometimes a protest starts peaceful and then goes to shit.

        Taking a look at the Tesla protests it’s just no-impact feel-good thing. Liberals have too much of disdain for non-economic violence.

        • @futatorius@lemm.ee
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          319 days ago

          I think internet is a better space for meeting people.

          You have no idea who you’re “meeting” online. F2F isn’t perfectly safe, but connecting with people you know, or who are at least known by people you know, is far better than some rando online. Even then, you need to learn to compartmentalize and operate on a need-to-know basis. If you want your group to be infiltrated, at least make them work for it. I wouldn’t enter into a financial transaction with someone who approached me on the internet, so why would I bet my freedom or even my life on such a person?

          • @misk@sopuli.xyz
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            019 days ago

            I’m not exchanging financial information with strangers regardless of whether it is online or offline. You’re not IRA, you don’t need this kind of precautions anyway.

    • @futatorius@lemm.ee
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      319 days ago

      I’ve been involved in peaceful protests and in other actions. Get out there and attend peaceful protests. It helps develop your situational awareness, you learn what it’s like being at a protest, and often you’ll get to find out what happens when the police and/or counter-protestors run amok. And even when the corporate media suppresses reports of protests, there are other ways of getting that information out.

      As for non-pacifistic direct action, operational security and comms security are even more critical. This thread is probably not the place to discuss it in detail. Just be aware that the few normal constraints on the behavior of the authorities have been relaxed or lifted entirely.

      • @misk@sopuli.xyz
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        19 days ago

        I participated in the biggest protests since the fall of Russian occupation in my country. I helped people organise and prepare, I joined a political party and ran in local elections. Results? None, because there was no path to those and leadership up top is mostly concerned about their position. It was actual virtue signalling even though I hate everyone who uses this term.

        What is your plan exactly? There is raising awareness but are you actually convincing anyone? Is someone unaware of what’s happening? What I’m seeing is that libs assume everything Trump supporters say is wrong and vice versa, there’s no discussion so how can any of you convince each other? It was similar here and we’re still stuck with this setup. In a polarised world people picked their sides based on criteria that were important to them and then pulled into a boxing match between liberals and fascists. You could have even agreed on some things but you hate each others guts to the point where you assume all positions of your political football team. If you engage in those ineffective ways of political activism you’re just going to have people run out of steam for nothing.

  • dohpaz42
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    4419 days ago

    What a boring dystopian article. It’s sad, but necessary.

    purchase and use a burner phone instead, and only turn it on when you’re at the site of the demonstration

    This should be the de facto response. In addition, I’d suggest not using your personal phone for any protest related communications and stick with burners no matter how much you may trust the organizers.

  • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed
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    3219 days ago

    Can we revive radios?

    I mean, yes they can triangulate transmissions, but (As far as I know) they don’t have IMEIs, and you talk in code to obscure meanings.

    You turn it off before going home, and there’s no tracking, don’t transmit from home and its fine.

    For evidence, bring a camera.

        • @AlchemicalAgent@mander.xyz
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          19 days ago

          Yes! If you leave the default channel enabled it will join the public meshtastic network. But you can run eight channels at once, and the others can have different encryption keys.

          The default setting is also to forward any received packets to the mesh, even ones it can’t decrypt.

          • @TK420@lemmy.world
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            219 days ago

            Wicked! It’s on my list officially, what would you recommend for a node as I know there are a ton of options. Thanks for your help, I’ll stop asking questions after this.

            • @AlchemicalAgent@mander.xyz
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              318 days ago

              No worries! If you’re starting out you can’t go wrong with a T1000-E. It’s water resistant, has GPS built-in, and ties everything together in a neat package for ~$35. There are plenty of other nodes out there but it’s more of a build your own kit situation. If you’re into microcontroller programming and stuff like arduino/RP/etc then Heltec v3 Lora boards are good tinker hardware.

              We also have a community here on mander for meshtastic.

              • @TK420@lemmy.world
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                318 days ago

                Heltec v3 on the way, tinkering is more my speed.

                Things in this space are moving fast, I did not want to take advice from an online article over a year old and get something and hate it.

                Thanks for the information!

    • @ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      One good thing about a phone over a camera is automatic backup. If you have a burner smartphone uploading all of your images to Dropbox (or whatever) as you take them, and then you think your phone is about to get taken, you can wipe it or even destroy it without losing the photos. Not so a camera.

      Also, a cheap burner phone is way cheaper than pretty much any standalone camera on the market. It’s hard to find a point and shoot digital camera (or any type of film camera) these days that isn’t super pricey, because they’ve become hobbyist items.

  • oshu
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    19 days ago

    Start protecting your privacy by not visiting the Verge and the 876 partners they share your personal data with.

  • _cryptagion [he/him]
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    1819 days ago

    How To Secure Your Phone

    1. Leave it at home

    Why is this even an article? Do not bring your phone to protests, especially under a republican president, especially one like Trump.

      • _cryptagion [he/him]
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        118 days ago

        you do not need a phone at a protest. and do not buy a burner phone either, because even if you pay with cash, they can track you. there are a few hackers that have gotten caught this way. every phone sold has the location it was sold, and when, recorded. at that point, it’s trivial for law enforcement to ask for camera footage that shows who bought the phone.

        • @KeenFlame@feddit.nu
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          117 days ago

          There’s layers of security but you can also buy a burner online if this is a concern for you. But don’t bring your phone, and don’t expect to keep anything that isn’t uploaded automatically on mobile data