- cross-posted to:
- Technology@programming.dev
- privacy@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- Technology@programming.dev
- privacy@lemmy.ml
Shared here for public benefit.
Before going to a protest, demonstrators or observers should note that their cellphones may subject them to surveillance tactics by law enforcement. If your cellphone is on and unsecured, your location can be tracked and your unencrypted communications, such as SMS, may be intercepted. Additionally, police may retrieve your messages and the content of your phone if they take custody of your phone, or later by warrant or subpoena.
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people on the internet love to talk about all these great security smart things that they will definitely never do.
leave valuables at home, wear unremarkable clothes, and write your lawyers number on your arm with a sharpie.
personally i bring my phone and a leica. ive been to jail for protesting before and in my current situation i just don’t care.
Leica digital or chemical film?
m10p with a 28mm and a flash
I learned this recently: if you have an iPhone, pressing the lock button five times rapidly will lock it so that you need to enter a passcode, not just FaceID. Useful if you think somebody might forcibly use your face to unlock it
Yes, but this will also call emergency services after, I think, ten seconds.
Make sure you cancel that call right away unless you actually need them.
Honestly, it would be kind of funny that your phone calls emergency services when you get pulled over and you don’t want them to force you to unlock your phone, having a 911 operator recording the entire interaction’s audio.
Leave it at home for a protest if you care about being tracked.
Pretty much all cell phones can be tracked even when turned off.
Source? EFF says airplane mode is sufficient per the article
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yes, even with all the foss software and radios turned off.
it will still ping radio towers. the only exclusion are phones with physical switches for disabling hardware.
I feel like it could still get damaged or used as evidence in court if you get caught up in a crackdown.
Could you not wrap it in thin foil to make a faraday cage? If done well it should prevent any signals for going in or out.
puts on thin foil hat
Buy a Burner.
Don’t bring it
The powers that you are necessarily taking these precautions against are all funded by your taxes.
Yes, that’s why they are protesting.
YOU DONT BRING IT.
If your phone is powered your location can be tracked. Secured or not: your location can always be tracked.
The rest is doubtful, always assume law enforcement has access at will.
Just don’t bring it.
doesn’t have to be powered on.
unless you can remove the battery, it should stay at home.
Source? EFF says airplane mode is sufficient per the article
so you’re going yo trust the government funded org to tell you how to not be tracked by the government?
better yet, you’re going to trust the company that actively works with the government under national defense that wants to track you to protect national defense?
no thanks. I’d rather be safe than detained.
Until I see a shred of evidence that airplane mode doesn’t disable the radios, yes, I’m going to trust the manufacturers, the EFF, and my background in EE
I tend to agree (and also an EE). Airplane mode isn’t a total panacea, though. It just disables the cellular radio. While it also disables the Wifi and Bluetooth, those can always be turned back on, even while Airplane Mode is active. A motivated state actor can absolutely track via Wifi or Bluetooth. (Possibly even NFC, but the range on that is so low that I think it would impossible to do without seeing what is tracking you).
Turning the phone off is the best solution if you want to keep rhe phone on your person. Guaranteed that all possible avenues for tracking is off, and also has the advantage that even if the phone is seized, the latest phone OSes require the passcode before doing anything at all when they first power up. Even the Police are limited in the data they can get off a phone that has just powered up and is asking for the passcode.
cool. you do you then.
I’ll keep doing whatever I need to ensure my freedom by not trusting government or corporate guidelines.
What government funding does the EFF take in?
Oh rly? Influence Watch, from the CRC?
I didn’t know that. interesting for sure though.
so what benefit would the eff gain by going against the hands that feed it? and the detriments?
Leave it at home.
Literally clicked to comment this
What’s wrong with a grapheneOS device on airplane mode? Is firmware level tracking a confirmed thing?
So it should be safe in airplane mode, no? If I can trust my device, that is.
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Stingray been in use widely since the 90s. LEOs have much better access and tech now. Pinpoint down to which room in a multi level hotel.
They may confiscate your phone and record all data on it.
If it’s a fresh wipe with a good passcode, and you keep it on airplane mode, you’re probably fine.
Set up a duress PIN on your graphene phone
Graphene is not a good OS for this type if work. Yes it’s secure, no good backup solutions. You will lose all your data upon confiscation. Graphene again is secure but if all your data is gone what good will it do? DO NOT TAKE YOUR PERSONAL DEVICES.
thats my plan. im not taking wallet or keys or anything. just a transit card.
Having an ID can help if you do get arrested. But that’s about all I carry.
Why do you need an ID? Leave it in your car if you’re driving.
I don’t think there’s a single state that requires you to actually carry documentation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_and_identify_statutes
These are the states that require you to at least verbally state your name, and only if the officer has reasonable suspicion that you have or will commit a crime.
They can ask your name. You may not have to answer.
Research your state’s law on this before you go. It’s in the link.
Regardless of the law, you can be detained by law enforcement if you cannot prove who you say you are until you can prove it.
If law enforcement was following the law I would not be protesting.
They’re detaining people with Real IDs for hours at a time. It likely makes no difference.
When they’ve got a cell full of detainees and they’re deciding who ICE is going to ship to “advanced processing” who do you think goes to the front of that line? I’m guessing it’s the “undocumented,” regardless of whatever laws you’re focused on.
Well also just the brown ones.
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There’s legal requirements, then there’s practical dealings with officers in the field. Seems to me that these days if you’re “undocumented” you’re asking to be sent to processing which can be a quick trip to a center somewhere across the country, if that’s the mood they’re in. After you get out you can try to sue them, maybe even win, but how long before you collect your damages?
This. You’ve got to ask yourself, what your goal when interacting with law enforcement is. It it your goal to stand up for every right? Or do you want to get away for the interaction as easy as possible?
Let me give you an example of what I mean. I Denmark police can stop and ID you without a cause. You don’t have to provide an ID, but you have to state your name, address, and birthday. If you don’t, then you’ll be arrested. Our SSNs consists of birthday and a checksum. You’re not required to state your SSN checksum, but if you do state it, the police will have to pay you if the stop is longer than 10min.
So giving the police a little more than they’re entitled to, can get you out of the interaction a lot easier.
Of course you can stand up for your rights, and if you want to fight, then do it. But it will make your day harder.
lookit mr can’t-get-disappeared-by-ICE over here
Or get a burner
And get a burner.
Yeah. And, leave the other at home. Somehow, that mutual exclusivity between devices made me write “or”. Hehe.
And take a burner phone if you must absolutely bring one.
Turn it off and leave it at home.
Most modern devices track the phone even when it’s turned off. If you can’t remove the battery, leave it at home.
Oh, this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Find_My
You can turn that off, I’m pretty sure.
I would not be surprised if it can only be “turned off.”
When I shut the lid on my work computer I assumed it was “off” or at least inactive. My home network showed me it was continuing to “check in” throughout the night.
Closing the lid typically does sleep or hibernate, both of which can still be active. I’ve had many windows updates overnight with the lid closed.
Typical isn’t relevant in a corporate controlled image which they push automatic updates to. Whatever “typical” was can be changed with the next update push.
Sure but it could just do the default thing because it just wasn’t changed.
Leave it on at home.
“Your honor, as you can see from my mobile device location history, I never even left my house that day.”
Not that that’ll actually work or that they’ll care, but still…
“I let my landlord borrow my car, though. He said it was important.”
They likely have the data to show it didn’t move at all. Eg it wasn’t on your person.
You underestimate how much of a couch potato I am. Not moving is normal lol.
Even sitting on a couch moves your phone more than simply laying on a table. They can use accelerometer data to determine how, if at all, it moved.
For that , someone mentioned a roomba or straping it to a dogs collar…
If I’m sitting on the couch, the phone is not on me. It’s on the table next to me or on a counter somewhere. I don’t even always look at it if I get a message. Sometimes I’ll wait hours after I get a message to read it.
Put a harness on your pet and put it on the harness. Boom, instant spoofing.
Movement data shows that you scratch your fleas a lot, you should do something about that.
Ask a non-protesting friend or family member to take it with them about their daily routine?
I’m sure my mum would be happy to look after my phone for a day if it meant getting one over on the authorities. And if anyone asks, I’m just a good son who likes to hang out with his mum.
Even better, have your tv on the whole time, so if the tv sends telemetry data that’s also linked to the phone, it’ll show you were at home the whole time.
Don’t bring it?!
Go old school and bring cameras instead.
This.
correct
Also be aware that the Georgia attorney general has declared that not bringing your phone to a protest will be considered criminal intent. They’re now trying to punish people for not having their tracking devices with them.
https://georgiarecorder.com/2024/02/12/georgia-ag-claims-not-having-a-phone-makes-you-a-criminal/
This can probably be argued that places that deny phones, like courts, could be charged with criminal intent against you.
By leaving it at home.
Your car’s GPS is also tracking your movements. If you have a newer car then your phone is only part of the problem.
To be specific, it’s not the GPS receiver, it’s the fact that the car may be communicating via cell network or satellite, right?
Correct. Yeah, if you have a newer car with GPS, it will likely also have built in communications to the car company.
There are benefits to older, “dumber” cars. Besides enjoying knobs and buttons 😁
Right, but most modern cars have that communication built in, because they use it to update firmware remotely. You can’t turn it off even if you wanted to. Many car companies justify it by saying it is needed to give your location to emergency services if you use their alert button.
Idk about other brands but with Mazda you can call and get them to deactivate your car’s sim. IIRC in Subarus you can just physically unplug the communication unit.
Buy a feature phone in cash at a Dollar General as far away from home as you can feasibly get. Do not interact with any other business in the area. Just buy the phone and leave. Activate it at a public library. Add no contacts. Tell no one that it exists.
You should probably leave your own phone at home when you do. You don’t want the burner phone and your own showing up on the same towers at the same time. Turn the burner completely off when near home or your personal phone.
That’s good advice as well, but really only important if you’re a long-term PoI. If you’re just arrested for rioting/protesting, it’s probably not essential.
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I did say that. But yes. Use cash whenever possible.
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Here is the simple trick: leave your phone at home. Get a burner.
Side note, leave the burner in a Faraday bag when it’s going to be near your daily driver.
Faraday bags do not work with modern phones anymore, specifically 5G
Faraday bags work, period, if they are made and used properly. If there’s no RF getting in or out, there’s no GPS and no checking in with the towers. Inertial navigation doesn’t work worth a damn after a little while, and it won’t work at all when powered down. Obviously? black tape over the camera lenses unless you’re ready to share what they’re seeing, and the microphones can listen very well too, it is a phone after all, so bear that in mind.
Wow, I hadn’t even thought about that. Excellent point!!
