Comment on Texas State Police Gear Up for Massive Expansion of Surveillance Tech
SteveFromMySpace@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months agoEveryone brings their phones to protests because they have cameras. Riots are also rarely planned in the US so so I doubt even a majority of the participants will remember not to bring a phone with them.
I understand you’re being somewhat tongue and cheek, but the flippancy of your statement downplay the chilling effect of us can have on protests and other gatherings. It also impacts one of the most powerful tools we have for accountability: the cameras on our phones.
Notice that Louisiana just banned filming police officers within I believe 25ft. These governors/legislators aren’t stupid. This is all a very deliberate, coordinated effort.
Riots are also rarely planned in the US so so I doubt even a majority of the participants will remember not to bring a phone with them.
It also impacts one of the most powerful tools we have for accountability: the cameras on our phones.
Airplane mode
When you’re talking about massive groups of people you need to accept that a lot of them won’t.
I am not talking about other people, I am saying that any individual who happens to become part of some unplanned ethical riot, has a chance to not be tracked through their phone and still use its function which don’t require any external connection, like camera.
Whether they decide to use it or not is really up to them.
Have you been in a riot or a protest that escalated enough to provoke swift/decisive police response?
I’m not challenging your activism bona fides here to be clear. But i am trying to say is that it is very difficult to work through a mental checklist when shit starts to get rowdy and one should never bank on making a series of proactive decisions while under duress/in a time crunch/in really any stressful scenario.
I guess? I mean the feds were already doing this to the capital insurrectionists, but yeah it does suck that Texas is now doing it too. I suggest everyone who’s getting pissed at me reevaluate their threat models instead and maybe go get a DV handycam from goodwill
NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
That is the real (overall) goal of shit like this.
Prevent people from using communication devices so that we can’t coordinate. It is a lot easier to go around busting heads if people aren’t recording you (or running over from the other street to fight back…). Same with the constant war on encryption.
And useful idiots (or incompetent plants) will love to talk about how the real problem is people are bringing those evidence collection boxes to protests and are coordinating rather than acting as a sea of individuals.
anarchrist@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Yet again I’m not saying this isn’t bad, I guess I’m just surprised people are just catching on to this shit. Look into meshnets. Get a DV handycam. Keep it secret keep it safe. Practice good op sec. Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
No. What you are doing is trying to act smug while spreading the exact same end goal of isolating people.
A hidden gopro does not stop cops from beating you to death and saying you had a gun. A bunch of phones that are recording “to the cloud” does that. Similarly, a hidden camera does not let you communicate with other protesters and just isolates you and weakens the movement as a whole.
Please listen to others rather than being a useful idiot for the fascists.
SteveFromMySpace@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
We aren’t just catching on. You’re letting your smug cloud your judgment here.
This is a new policy that codifies these practices. That is a ratcheting up of the problem.