How Do I Put together My Phone for a Protest?

This article is an up to date model of The Markup’s original article on how one can put together your telephone for a protest, printed in 2020.

No Kings Day protests are happening this Saturday throughout the nation. For the second time throughout this administration, organizers predict thousands and thousands of individuals will hit the streets to declare that “in America, we don’t have kings and we won’t back down against chaos, corruption and cruelty.”

Before going to a protest, demonstrators or observers ought to observe their cellphones could topic them to surveillance ways by legislation enforcement. If your cellphone is on and unsecured, your location could be tracked and your unencrypted communications, equivalent to SMS, could also be intercepted. Additionally, police could retrieve your messages and the content material of your telephone in the event that they take custody of your telephone, or later by warrant or subpoena.

Deciding How and If to Bring Your Phone

Your proximity to organizers of a protest, your immigration standing (right here’s what to know should you’re requested about your immigration standing at a protest) and different elements imply there isn’t any one-size-fits-all privateness recommendation for whether or not to deliver your cell phone to a protest.

“All protesting and all marches are a series of balancing acts of different priorities and acceptable risks,” mentioned Mason Donahue, a member of Lucy Parsons Labs, a Chicago-based group of technologists and activists who run digital safety coaching lessons and have investigated the Chicago Police Department’s use of surveillance know-how. “There is a lot of communication ability that goes away if you don’t bring a phone period,” he mentioned.

Leaving your telephone behind means the info it holds and transmits would be the most secure it is going to ever be, but it surely additionally means giving up entry to vital sources. It turns into far more troublesome to coordinate with others or get updates from social media. For many, telephone cameras are additionally the one means they’ll doc what’s taking place.

If you’ve got entry to a separate telephone, whether or not it’s a “burner” phone, an previous smartphone that you may reset or an old school digicam, you possibly can select to deliver these gadgets as an alternative of your usually used telephone. However, not everybody has entry to those gadgets or can afford to buy a separate telephone only for protesting.

If you’re taking your mobile phone with you, the remainder of this information runs by way of how one can reduce dangers to your privateness.

Use a Passcode, Not a Fingerprint

Fingerprint and face locks could also be handy methods to safe your telephone, however they don’t at all times work in your favor in case your telephone is seized by legislation enforcement.

In the United States, the Fifth Amendment grants folks the suitable to not be “compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against” themselves. When it comes as to if you’re obligated to unlock your smartphone, your Fifth Amendment safety varies relying on whether or not you’re utilizing a passcode or biometrics like a fingerprint or face scans.

Courts have made opposing rulings on whether or not the Fifth Amendment applies to each passcodes and biometric locks, and most just lately, a federal appeals court docket dominated that legislation enforcement can compel an individual to unlock their telephone utilizing their fingerprint. On the entire, in case you are selecting to deliver your telephone, privacy experts recommend that you just use a passcode as the best choice, but it surely isn’t failsafe.

“Police have these tools by Cellebrite, which essentially try to do tons and tons of guesses really fast on your phone to see what the passcode is. It works pretty effectively for the police because most people use fairly predictable and simple numerical codes,” defined David Huerta, a digital safety coach on the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

He recommends utilizing an alphanumeric passcode, the longer the higher. To add an alphanumeric passcode:

iPhone: Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Turn Passcode On or Change Passcode > Passcode Options > Custom Alphanumeric CodeAndroid: Settings > Security > Screen Lock > PasswordTo flip your biometric lock off:

iPhone: Settings > Face ID & Passcode >Tap Reset Face IDAndroid: Settings > Security & location > Pixel Imprint > Click Delete subsequent to every fingerprintJennifer Granick, Surveillance and Cybersecurity Counsel on the American Civil Liberties Union, informed The Markup, “It is legal to refuse to unlock your phone or to disclose your passcode, citing your Fifth Amendment rights if possible. There should be no negative ramifications.” Granick famous nevertheless, that police don’t at all times act lawfully.

Subdue Your Signals (and Download Signal)

Protesters ought to be ready for surveillance of their cellphone’s transmissions — even when they don’t make any calls, Huerta mentioned.

In some components of the United States, legislation enforcement has instruments that may intercept cellphone alerts, referred to as “stingrays” or “IMSI catchers.” Stingrays collect the identifying details of telephones within the space by “impersonating” cell towers, and newer fashions are believed to have the ability to intercept calls and messages, in line with TechCrunch.

In 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union identified 75 businesses in 27 states and the District of Columbia that owned stingrays.

You can configure your telephone to keep away from connecting to the subset of stingrays that use 2G connections:

iPhone: Settings > Privacy & Security > Lockdown ModeAndroid (v12 or newer): Settings > Network & Internet > SIMs > [Carrier] > Allow 2G > OffNote that activating “Lockdown Mode” on iPhone will limit your telephone use, and improve your safety, in a lot of different methods; see the hyperlink above for extra particulars. Similarly, it’s possible you’ll expertise much less dependable mobile connectivity on Android with out the 2G possibility enabled.

Huerta mentioned that since a few of these gadgets can scoop up textual content messages, it’s best to use an encrypted messaging app like Signal or WhatsApp as an alternative of your default one. (For iPhone customers, iMessage is encrypted, however be warned: If you textual content with an Android telephone person, it routinely switches to SMS, which isn’t.)

Huerta recommends Signal over different apps as a result of it’s battle-tested: In 2016, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia served a subpoena on Open Whisper Systems, the corporate that makes the app, searching for details about two Signal customers for a federal grand jury investigation. The solely data the corporate was holding? The time the customers’ accounts had been created and the date the customers final related to the app’s servers.

Lockdown Location Tracking

Law enforcement may also request “cell tower dumps” from telecom suppliers. In its February 2020 transparency report, AT&T disclosed that it received 1,289 demands for cell tower searches through the second half of 2019. The firm mentioned that the calls for “ask us to offer all phone numbers registered on a specific cell tower for a sure time frame.”

Because of the chance of such surveillance, some specialists recommend turning off your cellphone altogether at a protest. For occasion, the Electronic Frontier Foundation recommends turning your telephone off or enabling airplane mode whilst you’re on the protest, as a result of it ensures that your machine gained’t be transmitting alerts.

But turning off your telephone means you gained’t be capable to talk with others or use your digicam to report. So if it’s a must to preserve your telephone on, attempt to at the very least handle what location data your apps could have. The Verge has a handy guide for Android customers, and Business Insider has a comparable one for iPhone customers.

You may even flip off all location providers solely:

iPhone: Settings > Privacy > Toggle Location Services offAndroid: Settings > Location > Toggle Use location off 

Harden Your Hardware

Another situation that Huerta instructed that protesters think about is what to do in case your telephone is seized by legislation enforcement. If you’ll be able to, again up your machine earlier than heading out to make the choice to wipe it if you end up in a decent scenario slightly bit simpler. There are tutorials for each iPhone and Android customers.

Encrypting your telephone additionally makes it harder to entry data if it’s been seized, as a result of information can solely be learn if somebody has the encryption key. DuckDuckGo, the privacy-oriented search engine, has step-by-step instructions for each iPhone and Android customers.

Neutralize Notifications

Notifications are usually an effective way to rapidly examine messages, but when your telephone is misplaced or seized, it might reveal data that you just’re not snug sharing with others.

“Many times, if you don’t have a chance to turn off your phone before a device gets seized, even if law enforcement can’t unlock your phone,” Huerta mentioned, in case your notifications are on, “they don’t even have to unlock your phone, they can just scroll down and see everything that you’re up to.”

Reducing the quantity of open data that sits in your locked display screen can enhance the safety of you and the folks you’re speaking with.

On Android, you’ll be able to strip notifications of context by going to Settings > App & notifications > Notifications, going to the “Lock screen” part and turning off Sensitive notifications.

With iPhones, you’ll be able to change how detailed an app’s notifications are by going Settings > Notifications, deciding on that app after which scrolling all the way down to the Options part and setting “Show Previews” to “Never” and “Notification Grouping” to “Automatic.”

You may also flip off notifications solely:

iPhone: Settings > Notifications > Set Show Previews to NeverAndroid: Settings > Apps & notifications > Notifications > Notifications on lock display screen or On lock display screen > Don’t present notifications

Think Before You Share

Photos and movies can reveal greater than you plan.

Image information can contain metadata that features the date the picture was taken, the make and mannequin of the machine it was shot on, and even the GPS location of the place it was taken. One of the best methods to strip a photograph of its accompanying metadata is to take a screenshot of it and put up that as an alternative of the unique picture, Huerta explains.

And even should you use a screenshot, examine the picture for data you won’t need to make public, equivalent to indications of location and the identification of different folks.

Law enforcement has entry to powerful facial recognition databases. Civilians even have tools in reach that may reverse engineer the who, what, and the place of your social media posts. One strategy to mitigate these is to cowl up figuring out data utilizing an emoji or by drawing over it with a stable coloration.

Signal Messenger additionally permits customers to blur the faces of people in its digicam picture editor.

Physicalize Your Phonebook

Phones can run out of battery or get misplaced, damaged or taken away. Don’t make it your solely strategy to entry vital contact data.

Reporter Madeleine Davies suggested writing down the telephone variety of a lawyer or emergency contact in your arm with a Sharpie.

The National Lawyers Guild operates legal support hotlines throughout the United States which are particularly for individuals who have been arrested at political demonstrations. Look up a hotline to your space and write it down.

This article was originally published on The Markup and was republished beneath the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.