Comment

Comment on How Do I Prepare My Phone for a Protest?

Burner phone … leave your main one at home … ABSOLUTELY DO NOT BRING YOUR MAIN PHONE

Set up your burner phone with one or two accounts to things you might want to upload to … encrypt as much as you can. Do not load all your social accounts … only log into the bare minimum. If you are organized, log into temporary or fake or secondary accounts if you can.

Start the day without any prior history, photos or content on the phone and keep as few contacts as you can … memorize numbers that are important to you.

Always be prepared to give up or lose your phone.

And as always … SAFETY GLASSES … bring a pair of industry rated CSA approved safety glasses (try to get a pair with a tint so you can pass them as sunglasses). Look for safety glasses with anything marked ANSI Z87+, sometimes written Z87.1+ (note the plus) rated or CSA Z94.3 rated are ensured to safely withstand a direct high energy strike.

… additional things if you want to do more

Bring a small new blank paper note book you can keep in a pocket with a small pen or pencil … you might be taking notes like license plates, name tags or names of people or places … its always faster to just write something down than in taking a shaky photo or tapping away a note on an app

Wear a big scarf … for guys or girls … a scarf comes in handy for all kinds of emergencies including using it as something to cover your mouth, dress a wound, tie something or cover something up.

Wear a good pair of running shoes … be prepared to run and be on your feet all day.

Bring a small backpack and bring a couple bottles of water and some energy bars … keep it light because you’ll be on your feet all day and if things go bad, you might be targeted if you have a large pack … plus an empty pack can be used to carry things later if you need to.

Dress for the weather … if its going to be hot, wear light clothing but if things go bad and you have to stay out over night or longer, bring a light jacket … if rain is forecast within a day or two, bring a small poncho

source

Sort:hotnew top

codenamekino@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
To add onto the phone section: (1) Disable any biometric authentication, and (2) turn/keep it off whenever there’s a chance that it will be siezed.

While the first amendment protects you from being required to give up your phone’s pass code, there’s no protection against someone just holding the phone up to your face or fingerprints to unlock it.

While your phone is never totally impenetrable, it is significantly harder to access in its BFU state (before first unlock). Most commercially available cracking tools will only work if the phone is in it’s AFU state (after first unlock).
source
- Landless2029@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I’ve seen plenty of videos of cops holding a suspect down and forcing a fingerprint unlock…
  
  source
  - rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    And in all likelihood forcing your fingerprint or face unlock is perfectly legally acceptable for them to do. A password or a code is something they’d have to force you to say and ultimately you can choose not to (though they’re still fine to just try and hack out a pin/pattern on their own, or use phone-cracking tools or backdoors) but you have no defense whatsoever against your biometrics being used.
    
    source
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Ideally, that burner phone never goes anywhere near your home or any place you frequent from the time it is acquired until the time it is destroyed.

Briar is a good messaging app for you and your group. It will work (to some degree or another) over bluetooth even after they shut down the cell towers. Keep posting information about law enforcement deployment numbers and locations.

Airplanes.live provides unfiltered ADS-B data, useful for identifying and locating law enforcement aircraft, including drones.

For uploading media, choose overseas fediverse instances for your account, which are not subject to US law, and won’t get shut down or raided by US law enforcement if you upload something they don’t like.

I’ve been suggesting this everywhere: pick a dozen different protest locations, and share your list with everyone you meet. If and when law enforcement deploys in force at your current location, leave for another. Force them to constantly redeploy to multiple locations.

source
- Rumo161@feddit.org ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Do not use Smartphones. For the scarf use an unmarked tubescarf, its easely hidden in any collar. Cary bandages and lightsalt solution, like you use for contacts, to treat teargas and light wounds. If they get you you want nothing outside oft your memory that has any link to others. Depending in the effect of carrying your passport with you in your country decide wether to take it along.
  
  source
  - Rivalarrival@lemmy.today ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Smartphones are far too valuable to our efforts to be left at home. They are the difference between personally observing law enforcement atrocities, and being able to prove them. The media isn’t covering the protests. We need as much video as we can get. We need to be able to coordinate efforts, passing along troop deployments and numbers.
    
    While our main phones and accounts are probably linked to more information than law enforcement should ever be allowed to touch, burners add too much to our efforts to seriously consider not bringing them.
    
    source
BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
We’re so focused on electronics here, but this part can save your ass:

Bring a small new blank paper note book you can keep in a pocket with a small pen or pencil

The following is translated from the meager tactical training I’ve received: Emphasis on the pencil being small. You definitely don’t want a full size pencil in your pocket if shit hits the fan and you get tumbled.

Maybe get a waterproof notepad. But make sure that you can easily rip out pages. Use a single sheet for all the info you don’t want the police to have (like all the other burner phone numbers and such) That way you can rip that sheet out and swallow it, if you’re about to be captured.

Also, about the scarfs. I don’t know about the US, but at least in my own country, it’s illegal to use a mask at protests. Meaning a mask would get you singled out and targeted by law enforcement.

source
JayGray91@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

Wear a big scarf ... for guys or girls ... a scarf comes in handy for all kinds of emergencies including using it as something to cover your mouth, dress a wound, tie something or cover something up.

Everyone should look up what a shemagh is, and all multitude of uses it has. Pretty sure there are plenty of colors that aren't tacticool, which is inevitable when you search for it. If it works for the grunts the US sent to the Middle East, and actual Middle Eastern cultures, it'll work for you. Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy describes how useful it is to carry a towel across the galaxy; this is it.

source
foggenbooty@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Bring a pair of foam earplug as well. They weigh and cost nothing, and could be useful of they try to use sonic deterents against you.

source