The protester's guide to smartphone security
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The protester's guide to smartphone security
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Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security
#2>Some law enforcement agencies use "stingrays," devices which can impersonate a cell tower to track visitors to an area. While the capabilities of the most modern ones isn't fully known, you should definitely protect yourself from the subset of stingrays which abuse the lower security standards of older, 2G networks.
Good tip! I didn't know about disabling 2G support on my phone.
Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security
#3If you're attending a large-scale protest, it's likely that the cell-towers (or stingrays) won't be able to handle everyone who is connected anyways, so worth planning to use apps that can chat over P2P WiFi or Bluetooth together with the rest of your friends. This also allows you to continue using Airplane Mode the entire time, while being able to communicate with people nearby.
Alternatively, investing in walkie-talkies that have encryption can be worth it as well, but unsure how legal they are around the world, think some countries put restrictions on those so you might have to acquire them while vacationing somewhere else.
It's mentioned in the body of the article, but get the feeling most people could miss it: Absolute best idea is to leave your "personal" phone at home! Either get a secondary (burner) phone with nothing useful on it and no real names, or skip out on the phone fully. If you do get a secondary phone, make sure it has a removable battery and keep it out from the phone until you arrive at location and as soon as you move, remove battery again.
Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security
#4> If you lose your phone, you may be able to locate or wipe your phone remotely depending on the model...
> Please be aware of the legal consequences of these actions. Wiping your device or revoking online account access could lead to obstruction of justice or destruction of evidence charges in some jurisdictions.
This can be really serious. It is far better to never have/collect/obtain data in the first place.
Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security
#5> If you lose your phone, you may be able to locate or wipe your phone remotely depending on the model... > Please be aware of the legal consequences of these actions. Wiping your device or revoking online account access could lead to obstruction of justice or destruction of evidence charges in some jurisdictions. This can be really serious. It is far better to never have/collect/obtain data in the first place.
It got me curious; lets say I go to a protest, lose my phone and wipe it remotely. I couldn't possibly know who exactly got it (since I lost it) so if I remote wipe it while in police custody, could they really get you for "obstruction of justice" for example? Wouldn't that require intent?
Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security
#6Most of this applies wherever but do check your local laws where applicable, I know that in the UK you can be compelled to provide a PIN/password under some circumstances.
Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security
#7If you're attending a large-scale protest, it's likely that the cell-towers (or stingrays) won't be able to handle everyone who is connected anyways, so worth planning to use apps that can chat over P2P WiFi or Bluetooth together with the rest of your friends. This also allows you to continue using Airplane Mode the entire time, while being able to communicate with people nearby. Alternatively, investing in walkie-ta…
What apps do you recommend with p2p messaging?
Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security
#8> If you lose your phone, you may be able to locate or wipe your phone remotely depending on the model... > Please be aware of the legal consequences of these actions. Wiping your device or revoking online account access could lead to obstruction of justice or destruction of evidence charges in some jurisdictions. This can be really serious. It is far better to never have/collect/obtain data in the first place.
It got me curious; lets say I go to a protest, lose my phone and wipe it remotely. I couldn't possibly know who exactly got it (since I lost it) so if I remote wipe it while in police custody, could they really get you for "obstruction of justice" for example? Wouldn't that require intent?
I am not a lawyer.
You just don't even want to be at the "proving intent" stage.
If you had a function/service that just automatically wiped your device at intervals, regardless of where you were and what you were doing, that might be more defensible than wiping manually.
Best is if your device can't be locked and doesn't have any evidence of anything at all.
Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security
#9If you're attending a large-scale protest, it's likely that the cell-towers (or stingrays) won't be able to handle everyone who is connected anyways, so worth planning to use apps that can chat over P2P WiFi or Bluetooth together with the rest of your friends. This also allows you to continue using Airplane Mode the entire time, while being able to communicate with people nearby. Alternatively, investing in walkie-ta…
How safe is Bluetooth really? Cities has scanners used to track devices for monitoring road congestion, malls have scanners to measure foot traffic. I have to believe that anyone with access to stingray type of device can track Bluetooth as well.
Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security
#10Almost too many steps to remember here. Would it be possible for an app to prompt you to do all this? An app can bring up settings to allow your camera access, why not to quickly change those other settings?