this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
413 points (96.2% liked)

Technology

78627 readers
2929 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
413
Going to a Protest? Don't Bring Your Phone Without Doing This First (www.pcmag.com)
submitted 2 days ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/technology@lemmy.world
129 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] Bazoogle@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Commercial location data, in this case acquired from hundreds of millions of phones via a company called Penlink, can be queried without a warrant, according to an internal ICE legal analysis shared with 404 Media.

https://www.404media.co/inside-ices-tool-to-monitor-phones-in-entire-neighborhoods/

[โ€“] chaospatterns@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I thought this was using SDKs embedded in apps and advertising platforms. This is a different threat model. You need to block ads and prefer using websites instead of apps which have more access to device info like the advertising ID.

If you've got an Android, go to Settings, search for ads, and find the advertising ID and delete the ID. It's a stable identifier that can be used to identify your phone.

Switch to more private browsers like Firefox for Mobile and install uBlock Origin.

EDIT: I'm not saying this will protect you against IMSI catchers or tower based drag nets. In addition to not bringing your phone, when you do go home you need an entirely different set of tools to protect yourself.