Simple steps to take before hitting the streets Mass protests have broken out across the United States after a Minneapolis police officer killed black Minnesotan George Floyd while he was in police custody. One thing demonstrators should be aware of before they head out is that their cellphones may subject them to surveillance tactics by law enforcement. If your cellphone is on and unsecured, not only can your location be tracked, but your messages and the content of your phone may also be retrieved by police either if they take custody of your phone or later by warrant or subpoena. While some guides recommend buying a separate “burner” phone, or leaving your phone at home entirely, there are tradeoffs and barriers to some of these recommendations. Not everyone can afford to buy a separate phone just for protesting, especially during one of the seen since the Great Depression. greatest economic downturns And while leaving your phone behind means the data it holds and transmits will be the safest it will ever be, it also means giving up access to important resources. It becomes much more difficult to coordinate with people in other parts of a protest, and to get updates from places like Twitter or others monitoring the action remotely. For many people, their phone is the only camera they own to document what’s happening. “All protesting and all marches are a series of balancing acts of different priorities and acceptable risks,” said Mason Donahue, a member of Lucy Parsons Labs, a Chicago-based group of technologists and activists that run digital security training classes and have investigated the Chicago Police Department’s use of surveillance technology. “There is a lot of communication ability that goes away if you don’t bring a phone period,” he said. So if you’re going to take your phone, you might want to do some of the following things to minimize risk. Subdue Your Signals (and Download Signal) David Huerta, a digital security trainer at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said protesters should be prepared for surveillance of their cellphone’s transmissions—even if they don’t make any calls. In some parts of the United States, law enforcement has tools that can intercept cellphone signals, called “stingrays” or “IMSI catchers.” Stingrays of phones in the area by “impersonating” cell towers, and newer models are believed to be able to intercept calls and messages, according to TechCrunch. collect the identifying details In 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union 75 agencies in 27 states and the District of Columbia that owned stingrays. identified Huerta said that since some of these devices can scoop up text messages, you should use an encrypted messaging app like or instead of your default one. (For iPhone users, , but be warned: If you text with an Android phone user, it automatically switches to SMS, which is not.) Signal WhatsApp iMessage is encrypted Huerta recommends Signal over other apps because it’s battle-tested: In 2016, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia served a on Open Whisper Systems, the company that makes the app, seeking information about two Signal users for a federal grand jury investigation. The only information the company was holding? The time the users’ accounts were created and the date the users last connected to the app’s servers. subpoena Lockdown Location Tracking Law enforcement can also request “cell tower dumps” from telecom providers. In its February 2020 transparency report, AT&T disclosed that it for cell tower searches during the second half of 2019. The company said that the demands “ask us to provide all telephone numbers registered on a particular cell tower for a certain period of time.” received 1,289 demands Because of the risk of such surveillance, some experts suggest turning off your cellphone altogether at a protest. For instance, the Electronic Frontier Foundation turning your phone off or enabling airplane mode while you’re at the protest, because it ensures that your device won’t be transmitting signals. recommends But turning off your phone means you won’t be able to communicate with others or use your camera to record. So if you have to keep your phone on, try to at least manage what location information your apps may have. The Verge has a for Android users, and Business Insider has a for iPhone users. handy guide comparable one You can even turn off all location services entirely: : Toggle off iPhone Settings > Privacy > Location Services : Toggle off Android Settings > Location > Use location Harden Your Hardware Another scenario that Huerta suggested that protesters consider is what to do if your phone is seized by law enforcement. If you can, back up your device before heading out to make the decision to wipe it if you find yourself in a tight situation a little bit easier. There are tutorials for both and users. iPhone Android Encrypting your phone also makes it more difficult to access information if it’s been seized, because files can only be read if someone has the encryption key. DuckDuckGo, the privacy-oriented search engine, has for both iPhone and Android users. step-by-step instructions Use a Passcode, Not a Fingerprint Fingerprint and face locks may be convenient ways to secure your phone, but they don’t always work in your favor if your phone is seized by law enforcement. In the United States, the Fifth Amendment grants people the right not to be “compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against” themselves. While this means you are not obligated to tell someone your passcode, the law is a little murkier on the subject of biometric locks. In 2014, a Virginia circuit court judge that criminal suspects could be required to unlock their phones with a fingerprint scanner. In 2019, a U.S. District Court judge in California the opposite stance. ruled took With rulings on both sides of the issue, it’s in your best interest to use a traditional passcode. And making your passcode as long as possible is a good idea because police have tools that can easily guess simple passcodes. “Police have these tools by , 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,” Huerta explained. Cellebrite He recommends using an alphanumeric passcode, the longer the better. To add an alphanumeric passcode: : or > iPhone Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Turn Passcode On Change Passcode Passcode Options > Custom Alphanumeric Code : Android Settings > Security > Screen Lock > Password To turn your biometric lock off: : iPhone Settings > Face ID & Passcode >Tap Reset Face ID : Click next to each fingerprint Android Settings > Security & location > Pixel Imprint > Delete Neutralize Notifications Notifications are normally a great way to quickly check messages, but if your phone is lost or seized, it may reveal information that you’re not comfortable 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 saids, if 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 amount of open information that sits on your locked screen can increase the security of you and the people you’re communicating with. On Android, you can by going to , going to the “Lock screen” section and turning off . strip notifications of context Settings > App & notifications > Notifications Sensitive notifications With iPhones, you can an app’s notifications are by going selecting that app and then scrolling down to the section and setting to and to .” change how detailed Settings > Notifications, Options “Show Previews” “Never” “Notification Grouping” “Automatic You can also turn off notifications entirely: : Set to iPhone Settings > Notifications > Show Previews Never : > or Android Settings Apps & notifications > Notifications > Notifications on lock screen On lock screen > Don’t show notifications Think Before You Share Photos and videos can reveal more than you intend. Image files can that includes the date the photo was taken, the make and model of the device it was shot on, and even the GPS location of where it was taken. One of the easiest ways to strip a photo of its accompanying metadata is to take a screenshot of it and post that instead of the original image, Huerta explains. contain metadata And even if you use a screenshot, check the image for information you might not want to make public, such as indications of location and the identity of other people. Law enforcement has access to . Civilians also have that can reverse engineer the who, what, and where of your social media posts. One way to mitigate these is to cover up identifying information using an emoji or by drawing over it with a solid color. powerful facial recognition databases tools in reach Physicalize Your Phonebook Phones can run out of battery, get lost, broken, or taken away. Don’t make it your only way to access important contact information. Reporter Madeleine Davies writing down the phone number of a lawyer or emergency contact on your arm with a Sharpie. suggested The National Lawyers Guild operates across the United States that are specifically for people who have been arrested at political demonstrations. Look up a hotline for your area and write it down. legal support hotlines Credits Originally published as " How Do I Prepare My Phone for a Protest? " with the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.

AT&T

Techcrunch

The Verge

Twitter

The Truth About Less Biased Data-Informed Predictive Policing 

The Markup Investigation: Congressman Says that Google engineered a “Walled Garden”

Every dollar you donate helps support The Markup’s work.

If You're Ready To Protest Your Phone Should Be Ready Too

About Author

Comments

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN

Related Stories

A Conversation with Kashmir Hill: Envisioning a Chaotic Future

3 Easy Ways to Share Your Location on an iPhone

2017 in review: 8 most-talked about in tech

42 Best iPhone X, iPhone XS(Max) Mockups for Free Download[PSD+Sketch+PNG]

5 Best iOS 15 Features for Businesses

5 Best iPhone VPN Services: Secure Your iOS Devices

A Conversation with Kashmir Hill: Envisioning a Chaotic Future

3 Easy Ways to Share Your Location on an iPhone

2017 in review: 8 most-talked about in tech

42 Best iPhone X, iPhone XS(Max) Mockups for Free Download[PSD+Sketch+PNG]

5 Best iOS 15 Features for Businesses

5 Best iPhone VPN Services: Secure Your iOS Devices

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Minty

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps