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EFF's Cell Phone Guide For US Protesters

Posted by Soulskill on 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."

12 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Better Idea by sexconker · · 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 wonkey_monkey · · Score: 4, Funny

      Wipe it before you leave the house.

      Words to live by.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    2. Re:Better Idea by Anonymous Coward · · 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).

    3. Re:Better Idea by AmiMoJo · · 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
    4. Re:Better Idea by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · 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!
    5. Re:Better Idea by nurb432 · · 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 ----
  2. Re:Best by epyT-R · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If this is good advice, the government is tyrannical.

  3. STOLEN, not "confiscated". by jcr · · 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."
  4. Alter the phone so standard tools won't work by mysidia · · 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 · · 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.

  5. Re:Occam's Razor by PopeRatzo · · 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.
  6. carry 'n change by Mister+Liberty · · 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.