This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Going to a protest? Don’t bring your phone ~~without doing this first~~
I’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.
Shitty article. Doesnt even contain the words SIM card or IMEI so it has no business advising people on whats safe to bring to a protest. There is no such thing as cop-proofing a mobile phone unless all wireless modules have been removed. The cops can and do track peoples cell tower signal derived locations and they can log active Wifi/Bluetooth MAC addresses in their vicinity.
As others have said, just dont bring it if you are scared. Consider just using a bodycam or gopro style camera.
Modern phones rotate random MAC addresses. For WiFi, capturing SSID probes can be enough to track somebody though (some phones also have some mitigation for that too, like not probing for an SSID after it hasn't been seen for some amount of time). Even when turned off, many phones, including iPhones, turn into BLE beacons similar to AirTags, which can be used to track you.
almost worthless. I just learned that the android 13 xiaomi phone of a family member broadcasts some of the wifi AP names it knows when scanning for available networks! constantly! why the fuck it does I don't know because neither are hidden networks that would need this, and there's no setting for it
Yeah, I'm guessing it's so if you "hide" the network, it will still connect to it. Anyone can scan these advertisements, then go to wigle.net and likely get a good idea of where you live/work.
Good additions, thanks.
Modern phones rotate random MAC addresses
My phone does, but im not sure if normal google/apple phones do by default.
iPhones do by default, you need to specifically turn on fixed IP at home to identify the damn phone reliably
Thank you, I have been saying this. Use a regular camera and be sure to delete meta data off images and videos when uploading!
Maybe I'm missing something though?
I got a body cam for about $50 amazon dot com/dp/B0BHZ4PRRG, currently unavailable. Makes a great dashcam too. When the usb charging cable is plugged in it turns on when you start your car and turns off when you turn off your car.
The only thing you're missing is to put a piece of white tape on the sole of your shoe. When you are lying on the ground It's a cop signal that you are an undercover agent.
You can buy faraday wallets for like $20.
Others said not all work well though.
Wrapping in aluminum foil works. Thicker is better, more wraps is better. But one wrap stopped my test call.
I tested mine using my keyfob (which is what I bought it for). Test, for sure, but there are ones that work. Aluminum foil also works.
Buy a used phone on eBay. Activate with phreeli at a library. Only turn on phone at protests. Turn off when you leave.
Interesting, but $25 a month. Tello dot com has a cheap plan for $7.91 a month after taxes and fees. I use it on a $50 Amazon blu phone because I wanted something else for 2FA, and I have a phone ready if my main one breaks or gets lost.
Cripes all of that and not even, "Buy a burner SIM card", "Use a VPN at all time if you have to use data", "For the love of god don't use biometrics as authorization, use a alphanumeric password to unlock", "Use the damn encryption solution provided by your phone's OS".
Burner sim won't help, you need a burner phone too.
A VPN does not stop location data for your physical device when looking at cellular data from the carrier. Your location can and is always triangulated using cell towers. VPNs only ever protect your IP address from being geolocated and encrypting the data downloaded and uploaded while connected. Bit streams are still sent and received from a physical place in the world before the VPN hides your traffic and that is recorded by the cell provider.
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.
These articles mean nothing. You have 2 options.
Leave ALL electronics at home and do not bring anything to the protest that connects to a tower or the internet.
Just deal with the fact you are being tracked and deal with it.
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.
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".
Yep, ding ding ding, buy a burner phone, with cash, from a store that doesn't have many or very good cameras.
Bringing your real main phone is you thinking you know more about cybersecurity and surveillance than Palantir, than all the cybersec and intel firms the US Mil and Police departments have been partnering with with over a decade now.
99.99999999% chance you don't.
Yes a burner that you don’t activate. Keep it in a faraday bag. In an emergency you can take it out and call 911.
I would like to bring the attention to LoRa.
Meshtastic is a good example of leveraging LoRa.
You wanted to bring attention to it but you couldn't bother to say what it is?
I bring my phone, and my wallet, and my keys, and a $7,000 camera, and my lawyer's phone number in my head.
they can suck my balls
always film cops
