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The protester's guide to smartphone security

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Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security

#111

Post by quesera »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #24
tehjoker wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The battery thing can be important. One strategy law enforcement uses is to force your phone into a high energy state and zap the battery very quickly.

How do you force a phone into using more battery through external means?

If you ever forget to put your phone in Airplane Mode when flying (and you survive the flight!), you will notice that the battery is surprisingly depleted.

I think it has to do with the phone constantly renegotiating with cell towers along the route.

I've seen similar behaviour when a hurricane took out power to a local tower, and it was intermittently restored.

It might be possible to emulate that in a controlled environment/area.

Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security

#112

Post by georgeecollins »

philwelch wrote: post #71
liontwist wrote: post #56

I don’t understand the issue. Protesting is legal. Are we advocating for illegal activity?

There’s some strategic ambiguity going on here. If you’re going to a protest that looks like the Women’s March on Inauguration Day of 2017, you don’t have to worry about this kind of thing. If you’re starting fires or breaking into the Capitol building, you definitely do have to worry about this sort of thing. And just to make things even muddier, the exact same protest can radically change from one to the other base…

I think the "strategic ambiguity" here is ethics. Civil rights protestors were clearly breaking the law when they sat at diners that wouldn't serve black people. But who today thinks they were wrong? When I was a kid, students protested at Universities to divest from Apartheid era South Africa.

People can agree on what the law is, but they don't always agree on what is right. Sometimes a democratic government will zealously defend a law, war or principal that later generations of the same government will disavow.

Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security

#113

Post by neilv »

timewizard wrote: post #106
neilv wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You might ask what attending a large scale protest is intended to achieve and decide for yourself if the personal risks are worth it. True. But keep in mind that demonstration size can have an impact. Even just relatively large, not even a Million Man March. For example, relevant to recent news magnifying vile Nazi-saluting imbecile demographics: They tried to pull that at an event in Boston in 2017, but tens of th…

> but tens of thousands of counter-demonstrators showed up What social change did this lead to? It sounds like two ideologically opposed groups showing up in the street to war with each other. In the end the organization just built a new group and moved everyone into it. What is this meant to be an example of? Seems like "Sound and fury. Signifying nothing." to me. > reminders that the US can be good people. The US /…

> What social change did this lead to?

Even when obviously crazy/corrupt/malevolent people seize control of most branches of government, demonstrations tell some of the people who feel most threatened that they're not alone, that the people around them are not what the news would have them believe, and that many others will come out and stand up for them.

Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security

#114

Post by nostradumbasp »

diggan wrote: post #3

If 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…

Turn your phone off, and wrap it in 5 layers of tin foil. Or like you said leave the stupid thing at home.

Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security

#115

Post by _DeadFred_ »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #98
6LLvveMx2koXfwn wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if those risks are too great due to state over-reach, best stay at home.

That seems too lenient on yourself. Why not do the right thing and hand yourself into the Inquisitor General for wrong-think about protesting? Maybe they'll go easy on you.

At the least you should confess your temptation to wrongthink at the nearest Larry Ellison AI monitoring 'oracle'. Landru...I mean Oracle AIs maintain social order through their constant AI vigilance. The good is the harmonious continuation of the Body.

Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security

#116

Post by weakfish »

georgeecollins wrote: post #112
philwelch wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s some strategic ambiguity going on here. If you’re going to a protest that looks like the Women’s March on Inauguration Day of 2017, you don’t have to worry about this kind of thing. If you’re starting fires or breaking into the Capitol building, you definitely do have to worry about this sort of thing. And just to make things even muddier, the exact same protest can radically change from one to the other base…

I think the "strategic ambiguity" here is ethics. Civil rights protestors were clearly breaking the law when they sat at diners that wouldn't serve black people. But who today thinks they were wrong? When I was a kid, students protested at Universities to divest from Apartheid era South Africa. People can agree on what the law is, but they don't always agree on what is right. Sometimes a democratic government will ze…

Yeah, I think a key point here is recognizing that the law isn’t always aligned with morality, depending on the issue you’re protesting for/against.

Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security

#117

Post by tptacek »

upofadown wrote: post #36
fph wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signal is open source and ships with verified builds, so yes, we have a way to know what they actually collect.

I meant at the server. We have no way to know that is running there.

The point of end-to-end encrypted messaging is not having to care about what the server is running, which is why the threat models for most academic cryptographic research on these things is "assume a compromised server", and, if that gets you real compromises, the protocol is considered broken.

Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security

#118

Post by scarface_74 »

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #109
diggan wrote: post #3

If 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…

Burner phones aren't safe. Security through obscurity worked with the 1990s cell network but not with today's vast logging/geolocation tagging.

The idea is that they can’t tie the phone to a person. You also have to make sure you don’t get the burner phone some place with cameras.

Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security

#119

Post by scarface_74 »

timewizard wrote: post #106
neilv wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You might ask what attending a large scale protest is intended to achieve and decide for yourself if the personal risks are worth it. True. But keep in mind that demonstration size can have an impact. Even just relatively large, not even a Million Man March. For example, relevant to recent news magnifying vile Nazi-saluting imbecile demographics: They tried to pull that at an event in Boston in 2017, but tens of th…

> but tens of thousands of counter-demonstrators showed up What social change did this lead to? It sounds like two ideologically opposed groups showing up in the street to war with each other. In the end the organization just built a new group and moved everyone into it. What is this meant to be an example of? Seems like "Sound and fury. Signifying nothing." to me. > reminders that the US can be good people. The US /…

The last election proved otherwise. The police are corrupt and now are going to have immunity to it. The President just introduced a meaningless cryptocurrency to bilk his true believers and is just ripe for a rug pull.

We demonized a whole group of immigrants and said they were eating pets and they just pardoned 1500 violent criminals that even the police were opposed to pardoning.

And over half the country is okay with that

Re: The protester's guide to smartphone security

#120

Post by scarface_74 »

layman51 wrote: post #80
diggan wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

There’s a setting on iPhone called “Erase Data” which will erase the data on it after 10 consecutive failed passcode attempts. That seems like a recommended setting for any smartphone to be honest, especially if it is used for business.

Which is only effective on iOS against law enforcement before first unlock.
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