EFF's Cell Phone Guide For US Protesters

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EFF's Cell Phone Guide For US Protesters

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 16, 2014 @06:14PM from the do-not-use-your-cell-phone-as-a-projectile-weapon dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The Electronic Frontier Foundation has updated its guide for protecting yourself and your cell phone at a protest. In addition to being extremely powerful tools (real-time communication to many watchers via social media, and video recording functionality), cell phones can also give authorities a lot of information about you if they confiscate it. The EFF is trying to encourage cell phone use and prepare people to use them. (The guide is based on U.S. laws, but much of the advice makes sense for other places as well.) Here are a few small snippets: "Start using encrypted communications channels. Text messages, as a rule, can be read and stored by your phone company or by surveillance equipment in the area. ... If the police ask to see your phone, tell them you do not consent to the search of your device. Again, since the Supreme Court's decision in Riley, there is little question that officers need a warrant to access the contents of your phone incident to arrest, though they may be able to seize the phone and get a warrant later. ... If your phone or electronic device was seized, and is not promptly returned when you are released, you can file a motion with the court to have your property returned."

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Better Idea by sexconker · 2014-08-16 18:36 · Score: 5, Informative

Use a shitty pre-paid phone when you're out rabble rousing.
Wipe it before you leave the house.
1. Re:Better Idea by Anonymous Coward · 2014-08-16 19:04 · Score: 1
  
  Thats assuming you know your going to be protesting with enough lead time.
  If you get caught up in a spontaneous protest your not going to have time to go out and by a disposable phone.
  1. This rarely happens.
  2. Your regular phone is a tracking device. Keep this in mind at all times. If a protest is important enough for you to get involved in, then it should stick around long enough for you to go home and drop off your regular phone. Which shows you leaving the protest early, just in case the cops want to 'round up' the people who were involved.
2. Re:Better Idea by epyT-R · 2014-08-16 19:05 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Better to just not own/use a smartphone.. or a cellphone at all. It's still possible to do and retain a social life.
  Spare me the "well everyone expects you to have one now" responses. We're all too caught up in choosing convenience over protecting ourselves from tyranny.
3. Re:Better Idea by wonkey_monkey · 2014-08-16 19:22 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Wipe it before you leave the house.
  Words to live by.
  
  --
  systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
4. Re:Better Idea by GNious · 2014-08-16 20:20 · Score: 1
  
  Thats assuming you know your going to be protesting with enough lead time.
  If you get caught up in a spontaneous protest your not going to have time to go out and by a disposable phone.
  Try to not "get caught up" in random protests.
5. Re:Better Idea by Anonymous Coward · 2014-08-16 20:59 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I agree with 2, but 1 - not so much. Maybe. Possibly. It's happened to me (in the UK) and it's happened to a number of people I know (also UK) at different times.
  A couple of examples: the British Prime Minister called for street parties to celebrate a royal event. Someone decided to hold a disco in a public park. Many people attended. The police - after letting it proceed for several hours (during which numbers grew) - decided to intervene. People taking happy, smiley pictures on their smartphones suddenly discovered that their phones were "evidence", and now in police possession. (The police intervention inevitably prompted a small but violent reaction from a small group of very drunk party-goers, but curiously the police attention was directed elsewhere - at known political radicals. Character references for one of those charged came from senior European politicians who described the arrests as politically motivated).
  In my case (at a different incident) people recognised me as a "legal observer" and asked me to monitor a brutal arrest. I was unprepared, and ended up arrested and charged (the case was thrown out promptly, fortunately). But I was carrying my regular, smart, phone with me - not the usual throwaway "burner" I'd normally carry on actions.
  My experience of smartphones and the police is - if the police want to arrest you, they probably won't do it when you're expecting it. If you're worried about this, never carry a smart phone (and have a good lawyer's phone number memorised).
6. Re:Better Idea by AmiMoJo · 2014-08-16 22:31 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  It's a great idea to use a mobile phone at a protest. For a start they can upload video and photos in real-time, making it impossible for the cops to delete them. Encrypted messaging is a good way to organize a protest.
  If you just take a camera you are both isolated and vulnerable to having to taken off you and wiped.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
7. Re:Better Idea by PolygamousRanchKid+ · 2014-08-16 22:54 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Wipe it before you leave the house.
  Words to live by.
  . . . or shake it three times. But if you shake it more than three times, you're playing with it.
  
  --
  Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
8. Re:Better Idea by nurb432 · 2014-08-17 01:22 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Even better, buy it on the way to the protest. Using cash of course.
  I didnt bother reading the EFF advice but if you take your own stuff to a demonstration, you are a fool. You never know what may happen, you go with a minimal amount of items with you. ID ( required to avoid many vagrant arrest laws ), a few bucks in cash for a burger if you are stuck waiting on a ride from jail ( or the hospital ).. Hide your car keys ON your car.. No jewelry or a watch. A few contact numbers in your pocket, in case you are unconscious when found.
  
  --
  ---- Booth was a patriot ----
9. Re:Better Idea by Z00L00K · 2014-08-17 02:17 · Score: 2
  
  Any old "brick" phone would be good.
  If you want to coordinate when protesting - get FRS or PMR radios. Of course - the authorities can listen in, but the device don't store anything and learn to talk code and it will be unclear what you mean and who that said what.
  As long as you don't do illegal stuff the authorities can't do much.
  
  --
  If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
10. Re:Better Idea by LVSlushdat · 2014-08-17 05:54 · Score: 2
  
  As long as you don't do illegal stuff the authorities can't do much.
  VERY naieve attitude.. When you're dealing with one of today's militarised "police departments", what is actually "illegal" is pretty much up to the thug(s) you're dealing with.. Witness the many court decrees that the public can video law enforcement, assuming the pubic is not interferring with law enforcement.. Theres a HUGE loophole there, one you could drive a bus thru. If they don't like you video recording them, they can alledge that you're "interferring" and there seems to be nothing you can do about it... We now live in a police state... Prove me wrong, I DARE ya.. (I sure wish I was even wearing a tinfoil hat.. Tinfoil hat time is long past)....
  
  --
  THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
11. Re:Better Idea by Zero__Kelvin · 2014-08-17 08:41 · Score: 1
  
  "Better to just not own/use a smartphone.. or a cellphone at all."
  I'm going to second this exceedingly wise advice, and up it with some even better advice. When battling gunman, don't bring a gun. Someone might get shot!
  
  --
  Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
12. Re:Better Idea by Zeio · 2014-08-17 16:07 · Score: 1
  
  I like how we still think we can stop the police state with voting for politicians that support an expansion of police state power and doing "sneaky stuff" to try and get around the jackboots. IF its not already too late, the only way out of this horrible 1984 world we live in is to consider the government as the enemy of freedom and liberty rather than seeing it as something that can be fixed by playing by its rules.
  
  --
  Legalize the constitution. Think for yourself question authority.
13. Re:Better Idea by eanbowman · 2014-08-18 05:21 · Score: 1
  
  Rarely? By-standers get caught up in protest activities all the time. You're delusional if you think otherwise, sadly.
  
  In such a situation, you're not there to protest but may be detained anyway for simply being outdoors in or near a neighbourhood that's under police control.
  
  Trust me. You can't always plan for this kind of thing.
14. Re:Better Idea by sociocapitalist · 2014-08-19 00:29 · Score: 1
  
  Even better, buy it on the way to the protest. Using cash of course.
  I didnt bother reading the EFF advice but if you take your own stuff to a demonstration, you are a fool. You never know what may happen, you go with a minimal amount of items with you. ID ( required to avoid many vagrant arrest laws ), a few bucks in cash for a burger if you are stuck waiting on a ride from jail ( or the hospital ).. Hide your car keys ON your car.. No jewelry or a watch. A few contact numbers in your pocket, in case you are unconscious when found.
  Don't you have to give ID even if you buy a prepaid (cash) ?
  
  --
  blindly antisocialist = antisocial
15. Re:Better Idea by beastofburdon · 2014-08-19 05:00 · Score: 1
  
  They will ask for it every time, but it is not legally required.
Do this as well by Anonymous Coward · 2014-08-16 19:08 · Score: 2, Interesting

Do live streams so they cannot just erase your shit. I also have my phone encrypted with a one and done failed password shutdown and a extreme acceleration shutdown trigger as well, go ahead and grab it. I'm not really worried about the police my motivation is geared towards my phone being stolen.
Best by Anonymous Coward · 2014-08-16 19:09 · Score: 1

The best advice anywhere in the world, is to NEVER go toa protest, unless you are a political science or law student and wish to make politics your life. For everyone else, it is best to stay faaaaar away.
1. Re:Best by epyT-R · 2014-08-16 19:14 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  If this is good advice, the government is tyrannical.
2. Re:Best by Anonymous Coward · 2014-08-16 19:17 · Score: 1
  
  The best advice anywhere in the world, is to NEVER go toa protest, unless you are a political science or law student and wish to make politics your life. For everyone else, it is best to stay faaaaar away.
  Nonsense. You can meet hot chicks at protests.
  Everywhere else there is a ticket you have to buy to get in.
3. Re:Best by Anonymous Coward · 2014-08-16 19:29 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  good idea, If we all hide in our house's it will get better right?
  If you feel strongly enough you need to get out there and make your voice heard, One person can do very little but a large group of people giving up their time to a cause can change to world.
4. Re:Best by epyT-R · 2014-08-16 19:56 · Score: 2
  
  and politically illiterate college kids voted for tyranny to get free stuff.
5. Re:Best by Anonymous Coward · 2014-08-16 20:47 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  oh yea, because democracy works in an oligarchy. They would be better off supporting 1 person and getting them employed by google then asking if google would support a reform of the area, this actually has a chance of success.
  The other option is exactly what they are doing, getting international attention by going on a rampage, the area will suddenly get all the support it needs and additional funding.
6. Re:Best by whistlingtony · 2014-08-17 02:10 · Score: 1
  
  isn't hating knowledge, and the people who try to seek it, so much fun....
7. Re:Best by Z00L00K · 2014-08-17 02:22 · Score: 1
  
  On the contrary - but do protest in the right way, don't start to burn things you don't own.
  Symbols are sometimes stronger than speech.
  If the cops orders you to disperse - do that and regroup instead. It will be hard for the police to make sense of anything if you act as a murder of crows always returning to the food by new paths.
  
  --
  If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
8. Re:Best by AHuxley · 2014-08-17 17:25 · Score: 2
  
  Re: "For everyone else"
  The problem is you may have to pass that area under cell tracking for some unrelated reason.
  Every user that turns their phone off (battery out or turned off) near the tracked protest area will be looked at ie you where educated about tracking and wanted to enter a protest zone without your phone on.
  Thats the problem with any cell device. A a vast area of use is reconstructed by gov and mil experts every phone is going to be considered.
  Powered on at the protest.
  Powered off before entering the protest area.
  Walking to or with a person who was at the protest site or also had their phone off in a guilty way near the protest area.
  The cell use map will massive over a wide area and over time. To catch people arriving early, late, meeting people or walking to or from an event.
  Did they steam, upload media? If so what, where and how and to what network, where they given data to stream further way trying to hide the person who captured the true optics of the event for the press and a wider world.
  
  --
  Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
STOLEN, not "confiscated". by jcr · 2014-08-16 19:14 · Score: 5, Insightful

Confiscation is legal. When a pack of thugs in costumes takes your phone to keep you from exposing their crimes, they're stealing your phone, not confiscating it.
-jcr

--
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
1. Re:STOLEN, not "confiscated". by DigiShaman · 2014-08-16 19:23 · Score: 1
  
  Evidence that gets shelved for years. So technical it's a confiscation, but it's more like theft in that you won't see it again for quite some time.
  
  --
  Life is not for the lazy.
Alter the phone so standard tools won't work by mysidia · 2014-08-16 20:09 · Score: 5, Interesting

For example, take steps to disable 'data communication ports on the device that you don't use.
Disable the ability to pair over USB or bluetooth.
Use nonstandard filesystems.
Analysts attempting to execute an illegal search of your device are not going to be "technical gurus"; too few of those to go around.
They'll be using standard software tools they bought from some vendor.
Make sure no "standard" tools will work as expected on your device, and their costs go up tremendously.
1. Re:Alter the phone so standard tools won't work by Anonymous Coward · 2014-08-16 21:20 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  If you have access to surface mount equipment, just modifiy your USB jack to use a flopped cable and add a couple surface mount (grain of dust-sized) diodes to the +/- power lines (think half-wave rectifier bridge). Do it right, and this also "booby-traps" it to "short" any standard USB cable. Either pops the current limiter on the host USB controller or HMCF's their motherboard.
  I do know of a couple folks that have "do I recognize this host?" checking software running on their phones.
  Gotta love surface mount tech.
2. Re:Alter the phone so standard tools won't work by AmiMoJo · 2014-08-16 22:37 · Score: 1
  
  A phone with wireless charging is really good for this. You can remove or break the USB port and still charge it up. Ideally you need to sabotage it in a way that is impossible to repair.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
3. Re:Alter the phone so standard tools won't work by Registered+Coward+v2 · 2014-08-16 22:59 · Score: 2
  
  A phone with wireless charging is really good for this. You can remove or break the USB port and still charge it up. Ideally you need to sabotage it in a way that is impossible to repair.
  While nothing is impossible to repair I'd go with corroding or breaking the terminals and then epoxying the port closed. That would prevent them from using many of the systems now available for grabbing phone data. the challenge s how do you then get data off the phone and out to the world? You'd still have to leave a path into the phone that can be exploited.
  
  --
  I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
4. Re: Alter the phone so standard tools won't work by Anonymous Coward · 2014-08-16 23:31 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  You tech-heads are so cute. You think technical solutions can solve anything. They can't read your phone? Too bad... For you. They will pressure you to break it for them, and you will yield. You're not Neo or some fictional hero. You're an overgrown kid playing with the Big Boys. A couple of minutes of "vigorous" interrogation and you will be their bitch.
5. Re:Alter the phone so standard tools won't work by AmiMoJo · 2014-08-17 10:22 · Score: 1
  
  You use wireless to get the data out. Just make sure that you only turn it on for data transfer, and then turn it off again. Make sure it is turned off when the take it away from you.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
6. Re:Alter the phone so standard tools won't work by GTRacer · 2014-08-18 00:06 · Score: 1
  
  Umm... You're talking about physically flipping the USB port, right? To essentially physically obfuscate the connection in the hopes they try their cable and give up?
  
  Aside from that old chestnut "Security through obscurity isn't security," when's the last time you plugged in a USB cord right on the first try?
  
  Pretty much every device I have where the cord isn't already bent into position gets the push / fail / flip / push / fail / flip / crap it was right the first time treatment.
  
  --
  Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
7. Re: Alter the phone so standard tools won't work by david_thornley · 2014-08-18 05:39 · Score: 1
  
  The amount of intimidation the police can get by with on a general basis is rather limited. This doesn't apply if they're specifically out to get you personally, but if you're just caught up in a sweep they'd be much happier to read your phone without your assistance, and they're very likely not bothering with phones they can't read by themselves.
  
  --
  "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
You just ignored everything they try to solve by ciaran_o_riordan · 2014-08-16 20:29 · Score: 1

That doesn't address the desire to send text messages during protests without being eavesdropped .
Or the issue of documenting the event and not having your phone taken off you, thus losing all those pics/vids/etc.

--
Expert in software patents or patent law? Contribute to the ESP wiki!
Occam's Razor by DaMattster · 2014-08-16 23:58 · Score: 2

Only apply the simplest amount of technology to remain efficient. This is a case where too much technology is the enemy. Go back to CB, Amateur, and walkie talkie radio for communication. Use a camera that can record to an SD card and periodically switch out the card and find a safe place to "dead drop" it. This way, the police can glean very little, if anything at all.
1. Re:Occam's Razor by PopeRatzo · 2014-08-17 00:10 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Go back to CB, Amateur, and walkie talkie radio for communication.
  And learn to speak Navajo.
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
2. Re:Occam's Razor by AHuxley · 2014-08-17 17:32 · Score: 1
  
  Yes just like the Western press did watching East Germany respond to protests. Keep the the media safe, get it out for broadcast.
  
  --
  Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
carry 'n change by Mister+Liberty · 2014-08-17 00:43 · Score: 3, Insightful

The only sensible thing to do, imo (aside from not carrying anything that can ID you), from /both/ the standpoint of
personal privacy, /and/ from the standpoint of adding to a protest's effectiveness (something just a bit lost in the
EFF article), is to bring just the cheapest dumb phone that you can find, and at the site immediately exchange it
with another protestor unknown to you, for his/hers. Shortly test both, and you're on.
1. Re:carry 'n change by matbury · 2014-08-17 03:18 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, burners are a tried and trusted way to achieve temporary anonymous communication at an event, like a protest. Just make sure you get rid of the phone before you go home!
  The fact is that these days the police are often given carte blanche to do whatever they like with people at or near protests. Your rights more than likely won't be upheld while they try to disrupt the protest.
  There are times when your own smartphone can be handy too as long as you manage your privacy well (you shouldn't have your whole personal life on your phone or on social media anyway). As others have mentioned, being able to stream video and audio to a remote server in real time is a powerful tool in your favour. However, you have to be sure that you can trust whoever your streaming it through and who's storing it, i.e. Will your network provider or the storage service block it on request from law enforcement?
  Video and audio evidence seem to be the most powerful tools in social movements and challenging institutional abuse and criminal behaviour, e.g. unwarranted assaults on peaceful protesters or killing people of colour by escalating minor infractions of the law into confrontations and conflicts. You don't need a smartphone to do that. Digital cameras are small, cheap, produce high quality video and audio, and are especially easy to use discreetly (You can also get ones that have no BlueTooth or WiFi connectivity so can't be traced, monitored, or compromised remotely); you don't usually have to hold it up and look at it to go through any menus to start recording, just hit a button and you're up and running.
  Also, you may not want to alert the police that you're filming the event (unless the intention is to prevent the crime from escalating any further). Start recording and leave it on a lanyard around your neck or in a top pocket with the lens poking through.
  Also, store data on removable memory cards (and bring lots of spares - they're cheap and tiny) so that you can quickly remove and pass on to other trusted people or hide in the event that you think you may be compromised.
  If everyone uses different devices, techniques, and strategies, the police will have more to deal with and less of an idea of how to manage it, leaving you to get on with protesting and documenting what happens, distributing the evidence, and making sure that the corporate media has fewer opprotunities to misrepresent peaceful, lawful, and very necessary democratic participation.
Perfect solution by Rick+Zeman · 2014-08-17 02:39 · Score: 1

Block all cell signals so the looters can't send their movies anywhere. That's illegal, you say? And looting and pillaging isn't?
1. Re:Perfect solution by Zero__Kelvin · 2014-08-17 08:51 · Score: 1
  
  "Block all cell signals so the looters can't send their movies anywhere. That's illegal, you say? And looting and pillaging isn't?"
  Yes, because the reason people want video of what actually happens is to prove that they were breaking the law! They certainly don't want footage of the cops breaking the law! Oh no. That would be foolish! Foolish I say. Everyone know cops don't break the law! Nixon minimized the facts! It's not just true that it's not illegal if the President does it. Oh no. It's not illegal if a cop does it! If someone steals some cigars, why that's illegal! Now if a cop shoots the criminal, he isn't breaking the law. No sir! He's just doing his job! His job is to stop crime, and if he has to kill people to save a few cigars, well I for one am all for it!
  
  Signed - Some idiot dick Zeman
  
  --
  Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Trojan Horse by Anonymous Coward · 2014-08-17 05:30 · Score: 1

Bring a burn phone with a camera. Add software to it to give it a "duress" mode. When the duress mode is activated, it starts recording and videoing everything and uploading it to a public server in a foreign country so long as it has power. Then let the police confiscate it. It will be interesting to hear what they say when they think no one is listening.
It wouldn't hurt to put a bunch of viruses on it as well. Preferably some that spread via Bluetooth as well as USB. It would make dealing with confiscated phones very expensive for the police, and maybe they will stop doing it after they get infected a few times.
1. Re:Trojan Horse by q4Fry · 2014-08-17 09:47 · Score: 1
  
  What do you think they will do to you after you've messed with their computer system? I am fairly certain that they can get you under CFAA, minimum, let alone find a way to put you under the anti-terror laws.
  
  You may be harder skinned than I am, but malware-bombing "the man" just to make a point while they are as likely as not to have you in custody at the time is way too far on the cost:outcome ratio than I would be comfortable trying. Maybe if you can convince strangers on the internet to try it, you come out ahead... wait.
Re:you do not want it back by AHuxley · 2014-08-17 17:33 · Score: 1

Every connection to that device is now databased or waiting to be collected.

--
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"