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ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods

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Re: ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods

#51

Post by stavros »

therobots927 wrote: post #44
i80and wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A decade ago I put this stance into my LinkedIn profile tag line, and was a little surprised how many engineers reached out to praise that decision. I think it's rapidly, finally , entering the realm of political viability.

All it took was a white mother (and US citizen) getting shot in broad daylight. As much as I hate to admit it, a large enough segment of the population needed something blatant like this to care.

It's not flattering to the US that the mother who was murdered needed specifically to be white for people to care.

Re: ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods

#53

Post by rambojohnson »

silisili wrote: post #17
phillipcarter wrote: post #3

The most maximally vindictive candidates are earning my votes in the coming election.

> most maximally vindictive candidates I think that's how we got to this point today, tbh.

pussy-footing and reaching across the isle never did anyone of good conscience any good.

Re: ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods

#55

Post by beej71 »

daheza wrote: post #22
icameron wrote: post #20

When I first heard the advice to ditch your phone when you go a protest, I thought maybe that's a little extreme. But it's a real threat. We already knew post Snowden there is an extensive big brother apparatus. We saw post 911 that all rights can be taken away in the name of counter-terrorism. Now with a government that's operating outside the law and labeling peaceful protesters as terrorists, I don't think we can…

If we all ditch our phones then how will we record the abuses of power?

I have an old point and shoot (20x optical zoom) and a SIM-free phone that has never been used in my name for anything.

Re: ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods

#56

Post by gruez »

drnick1 wrote: post #47
nemomarx wrote: post #5

Any tips on how to avoid this? I suppose those tin foil signal blockers might be useful?

Do not use devices that can be trivially tracked through the cell network, or that can be surveilled by big tech. This means a device bought anonymously, a free/libre OS like Graphene, no Google/Facebook/Apple spyware apps, and an anonymous SIM paid for with cash or crypto. This should be done by everyone to avoid the possibility of mass surveillance, not only people who have something to hide from a three-letter age…

>Do not use devices that can be trivially tracked through the cell network, or that can be surveilled by big tech. This means a device bought anonymously, a free/libre OS like Graphene

GrapheneOS isn't magically exempt from cell tracking, and both android and ios phones can go into airplane mode and have location disabled, which provides similar privacy.

>and an anonymous SIM paid for with cash or crypto. This should be done by everyone to avoid the possibility of mass surveillance, not only people who have something to hide from a three-letter agency.

No, it's much harder than just "an anonymous SIM paid for with cash or crypto". You need to practice proper opsec. There's no point getting an anonymous sim when you then turn around and then use it as a 2fa number for your bank, or carry it around with you every day.

Re: ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods

#58

Post by baggy_trough »

embedding-shape wrote: post #45
icameron wrote: post #20

When I first heard the advice to ditch your phone when you go a protest, I thought maybe that's a little extreme. But it's a real threat. We already knew post Snowden there is an extensive big brother apparatus. We saw post 911 that all rights can be taken away in the name of counter-terrorism. Now with a government that's operating outside the law and labeling peaceful protesters as terrorists, I don't think we can…

Basically: if it has a modem in it, it can be used against you in some way. Phones, routers, cars, public signs, cameras. It's been so turbulent lately, that it's hard to register events that would have blown our minds if so many things didn't also happen around the same time. Remember when Israel made a bunch of pagers explode indiscriminately across Lebanon and Syria? So many things going on, one worse than the oth…

Indiscriminately?

Re: ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods

#59

Post by filoleg »

nphardon wrote: post #27

M.I.A.'s clothing brand is looking real good now. There are others but hers was the first I heard about. Seems like the waist bag would be critical for activists. From the Ohmni website: "...fabric's work by utilizing the principles of a Faraday cage to block or shield against electrical signals, electromagnetic radiation (EMR), and radio frequency interference (RFI)."

>"[...] fabric's work by utilizing the principles of a Faraday cage to block or shield against electrical signals, electromagnetic radiation (EMR), and radio frequency interference (RFI)."

But what's the point of bringing a phone at this point?

Other comments mentioned valid points about tradeoffs of using an offline camera vs. a phone, with pro-phone arguments listing things like "being able to livestream and get the evidence out even if the device is damaged/destroyed" and "messaging/coordinating/comms". The anti-phone/pro-camera side also had good points, saying that those things also make it easier to track/identify you. The choice between those two options is definitely not clear-cut, and it is all about individual tradeoffs and risk assessment.

But if you are rocking something that's essentially a wearable Faraday cage that block all signals (I am just assuming it works exactly as stated, without attempting to judge its efficacy), what's the point of bringing (an essentially fully offline) phone in the first place, as opposed to bringing a camera with zero connectivity?

Re: ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods

#60

Post by iugtmkbdfil834 »

therobots927 wrote: post #44
i80and wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A decade ago I put this stance into my LinkedIn profile tag line, and was a little surprised how many engineers reached out to praise that decision. I think it's rapidly, finally , entering the realm of political viability.

All it took was a white mother (and US citizen) getting shot in broad daylight. As much as I hate to admit it, a large enough segment of the population needed something blatant like this to care.

Odd. I thought she was a legal observer. It is funny how quickly the narratives changed given how little traction was gained on 'observer' status.
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