General Device Recommendations for Protests
The safest approach to electronic devices at protests is straightforward: don’t bring any electronics at all. Electronic devices, particularly smartphones, create digital footprints that can be monitored, tracked, and potentially used against you by law enforcement agencies. Whenever possible, attend protests without any electronic devices to minimize your digital exposure. However, recognizing that complete device abstinence isn’t always practical or possible, this guide provides essential precautions if you must bring a phone. These measures won’t eliminate all risks, but they can significantly reduce your digital vulnerability in protest environments.
- Leave Devices at Home: The safest option is to attend protests without any electronic devices, eliminating potential digital tracking entirely.
- Minimize Digital Footprint: If devices are necessary, take precautions to reduce trackable data and protect your privacy during protest activities.
- Be Aware of Surveillance: Understand that both federal and local law enforcement agencies may employ various surveillance technologies at protest sites.
Remember that federal agencies typically possess more advanced surveillance capabilities than local law enforcement, though both may monitor protest activities. Your awareness of these realities is the first step in protecting your digital privacy in activist settings.
Pre-Protest Phone Preparation
If you must bring a phone to a protest, proper preparation before the event is crucial. These steps should be completed well in advance of arriving at the protest location to maximize your security and minimize potential vulnerabilities.
- Disable Biometric Locks: Courts have ruled that police may compel you to unlock your phone using biometrics (fingerprint, face recognition), but generally cannot legally force you to enter a PIN. Disable all biometric unlocking features before attending.
- Strengthen PIN Security: Ensure your device is protected with a PIN of at least eight digits. Longer PINs provide significantly better protection against brute force attempts to access your device.
- Update Software: Install all available updates for your operating system and applications, to patch known security vulnerabilities that could be exploited.
- Remove Unnecessary Apps: Uninstall unused applications that might collect and transmit data in the background, potentially revealing your location or activities.
- Restrict Location Permissions: Review and revoke location access for all non-essential applications to prevent location tracking through third-party apps.
These preparation steps significantly enhance your phone’s security posture before you even arrive at a protest.
Remember: digital security is a layered approach—each measure you implement adds another barrier against potential privacy intrusions.
Phone Management During Protests
How you handle your phone immediately before and during a protest is just as important as your pre-protest preparations. The key principle is minimizing your device’s connections to cellular networks and other services that could track your location or activities.
- Power Off Before Arrival: Turn your phone completely off at least 5-10 city blocks before reaching the protest area. A powered-off phone provides the strongest encryption protection and typically cannot connect to cell towers or networks.**
- Use Faraday Bags: If available, place your powered-off phone in a Faraday bag, which blocks all wireless signals. This provides an additional layer of protection against tracking.
- Airplane Mode: If you must keep your phone on (for recording, notes, etc), switch to Airplan mode at least 5-10 blocks before arriving. While not as secure as powering off, this reduces (but doesn’t eliminate) active network connections.
** Many phones, most commonly Apple iPhones (but also other phones), exchange some information with other nearby devices even when completely “powered off”. This is how the Apple Find My network operates, for example. This is one reason that we recommend not bringing any electronics to protests at all.
When powered on and not in Airplane mode, phones constantly communicate with nearby cell towers, creating a digital record of movements. Law enforcement agencies can monitor these connections to track individuals at protests.
Remember that different agencies have varying capabilities for mobile surveillance. Federal agencies typically possess more advanced tools than local law enforcement, but you should assume that any law enforcement presence at a protest has some capacity to monitor mobile devices in the area.
More Information
For more protest device security, please reference the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Surveillance Self Defense guide for Activists and Protestors: https://ssd.eff.org/playlist/activist-or-protester
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