Also don’t wear any clothing you bought from a unique Etsy store (or any store you physically visited and paid with a card).
The clothes you wear to the protest should also be bought from a thrift store that you visited without your cellphone and paid for the clothing in cash.
Otherwise, yes, your clothing purchases are tracked, and the young lady who torched a cop car during the George Floyd protests was literally found by the FBI searching Etsy purchase records for people who had bought that shirt.
https://www.inquirer.com/news/lore-blumenthal-philly-protests-george-floyd-sentencing-20220728.html
Other options are facial recognition defeating clothing like this:
https://www.dezeen.com/2023/02/07/cap_able-facial-recognition-blocking-clothing/
Or this:
EDIT:
But neither of those help when we’re dealing with stuff like Gait Analysis.
For help with that, we must turn to the Ministry…
Cory Doctorow has a solution: put some pebbles in your shoes, that will change the way you walk right away.
I remember reading a book about this hacker student kid that would do that to sneak out of the school because they had gait recognition cameras. Can’t remember the name of the book though…
Little Brother I think.
Oh haha yep that’s it! Guess I shoulda tried googling Cory Doctorow first. Thank you!
I aughtta give that another read
Seems like solid advice, thanks!
I wish the facial rec-blocking clothes weren’t too expensive for most protesters
I could retain a subpar attorney with that
Gee, people in the US need to be this cautious when protesting? Where I live it’s totally fine to just casually show up at protests, take selfies, talk to people and whatnot.
I live in Canada and there is a university professor that had police visit his house because he took some pictures of an oil project that was being protested while he was on a walking trail near the university.
It was an interview on the cbc several years ago. He was a prof at SFU, I assume it was the trans mountain pipeline expansion.
…in the `states, police can shoot you for any or no reason: we call it at-will liberty…
That’s because people in the US don’t protest for real, since it’s totally toothless there’s not much crackdown either
I think it depends on the protest, a little bit, but that’s generally the case in Canada, too.
I counter-protested anti-SOGI assholes (didn’t want 2SLGBTQ+ taught in schools) and it was completely fine. I brought my 5 y.o.
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I think this comic is supposed to be based in the future.
Seems pretty relevant now as well. Just ask the brave environmental activists with RICO charges in Atlanta, for starters.
RIP Tortuguita
It depends on where you live. This absolutely is the present now in some countries. Like China you have to do this and more to protect your identity.
And even if your country isn’t quite there yet, they could still be collecting all that data and just not doing anything with it other than observing and collecting more data on you/ the group.
It probably also depends on whether you are just holding a sign or straight up rioting.
Or holding…checks notes…
Wrench
Cordless drill
Water-hose nozzle
Flashlight
Shower rod
Cane
Broomstick
Hairbrush
Sunglasses
Bottle of cologne
Underwear
Tinfoil
Bottle of beer
Pill bottle
E-cigarette
Cell phone
Wallet
iPod
Wii remote
Toy truck
Sandwich
Bible
Hands
…can we add Acorn to the list? I think Acorn can go on there now, also.
No…we don’t. This I’m assuming is showing someone who’s idea of protesting is burning cars and businesses down.
Sounds like someone doesn’t know (or care) what can happen to protestors that are protesting the “wrong things”… Like oil and gas pipelines, for example, or training centers for heightened police militarization. Or foreign policy, even, that one has been happening for generations already.
Lol if only they would protest the right way, they wouldn’t have to worry about anything, right?
Gen-X here. Gen-Z answers a question I had as a teen. “What the hell children will the extreme sports, tech-centric, video gaming, gangsta rap, grunge, rage against the machine, angst filled ‘slacker’ generation raise?”
It’s fucking beautiful, right?
It sure is.
I’m Gen X too, and I feel the same!
…gen Z have rekindled my hopes for a future which were snuffed by the millenial interregnum…
" … and no identifiable tattoos."
That’s exactly what I was thinking lol. Tattoos are way easier to identify than a face so the mask does nothing.
Great red haring though. Not that I ever would but I’ve also considered using a bald cap if I ever needed to do something illegal. They’ll be looking for a bald person and I’ll be here chilling with long hair.
Great red hair ring
Why shouldn’t you bring your phone?
Edit for y’all who thought I don’t know what cell triangulation and gps tracking are: If you’re involved in protesting to the extent that you might be actively tracked, you should have the proper precautions in place on your phone that make it untraceable even when you’re carrying it with you.
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Yeah, like if you’re going to the trouble of getting a faraday bag or a lead lined case or whatever you think makes it untraceable… Just leave it at home? It’s a liability.
your phone can’t work if your carrier doesn’t know where you are
on top of that, advertisers put bluetooth receivers everywhere, which will log your phone as having been nearby, even if you don’t connect
on top of that, you can do the same bluetooth trick with wifi endpoints
plus your phone has a gps/glonass/whatever receiver in it
probably other reasons too but those are the ones i can think of off the top of my head
yes you can maybe mitigate all of these, but there are probably ones i haven’t thought of that people much smarter than me have, so why take the risk?
To respond to your edit: no, you just shouldn’t bring your phone
You can’t harden your phone against every hypothetical because you can’t think of every hypothetical and it’s dumb to think you can. Why would you think you alone can outsmart teams of very well-paid people who literally sit around all day thinking about ways to track you using your phone?
Your phone literally can’t even have signal without your carrier knowing where you are, so why bother bringing it?
Are you seriously here to tell me there are no uses for a cell phone without signal or Internet access, when the most common use for cell phones at protests is taking video?
Then bring a camera that can take videos?
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Why?
Anarchism is the ideology of teenagers and 20-somethings who act like teenagers
And what do you believe in then?
We love our hierarchies, folks.
Like CNT did in 1936 when they got drunk on what essentially became grassroots market “socialism” and their leadership entered the bourgeois government thinking that there is no need to brutally and swiftly resolve the issue of proletarian/bourgeois dual power instead?
Or Zapatistas, who have literally captured the capital of such a huge country but then decided to compromise and go back to the jungle for some narrow-minded reasons and ban abortion while they were at it?
You forgot to make the point - you just vaguely gestured at examples of problems with those calling themselves anarchists… as though every last one of us hasn’t personally experienced problems with strong hierarchies.
I understand that relying on a point rather than implied threats of violence may be new territory for someone advancing the position you appear to be, so I’ll give you another try - try steering clear of transparent hypocrisy this time too.
implied threads of violence
Either you are a revolutionary and want to act decisively, boldly and with some cohesion to smash the state apparatus and brush off aspiring bureaucratic traitors or you either get offended at a large scale yet in what is mostly isolation and burn out or practice glorified reformism.
What’s this got to do with your apparent love of rigid hierarchies, exactly?
I’m not american. Why not bring your phone? Around here as long as you have a legion of people pointing cameras at cops they’ll not outright beat you senseless since it’ll be impossible to lie about some bullshit justification about how you did something first.
Why not bring your phone?
Your SIM/IMEI are tied to your ID. The police can visit you at home later. Details depend on the country.
Flight mode?
Don’t trust the surveillance device to turn off because you ask nicely. Leaving it at home helps sell the idea that you weren’t at the protest you were at.
Do you actually know anything about software or are you just saying things
If you have an iPhone you can go ahead and try Flight Mode right now. You’ll see that it disconnects from WiFi and disables cellular. NFC, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi stay powered on, Bluetooth stays active. Yes, latest iOS has Bluetooth tracking protection on by default (varies by country, illegal in some), but it is not completely safe. I’m not sure about NFC and Wi-Fi. If you power the phone off it is unlikely to turn off the radios - they are needed for “find my iPhone” and similar features on Google and Samsung Galaxy phones.
Overall you can’t be confident that your phone does not reveal your location and identity to “law enforcement”, especially in places where police is well equipped to track you.
Find my phone doesnt work if your phone isnt connected to the network, let alone if its turned off. Stop spreading misinformation
I’m pretty sure the SIM still connects to cell towers even if you have mobile data deactivated
Edit: on most phones it prevents the connection but there are still other ways to track like GPS
The GPS data will not be sent to the carrier, will it? And your phone will only be searched if they can tell its you in the first place. In which case you got caught physically there anyway.
Also this no id thing is confusing to me. I guess its just american law. In many other countries, they just jail you until you tell them who you are.
Phones are easily tracked, and police generally can get that info. As for the beatings, in the US police commonly aren’t held responsible even when they’ve clearly broken the law. Often, they aren’t even charged.
One, it’ll get smashed anyway. Two, if you manage to get away, they’ll work with your provider or location based apps to prove you were there and arrest you. Or, force you to unlock it so they can arrest your contacts. Filming them barely helps, there’s so many videos of cops beating the shit out of people with no justification, who have been identified and never faced any repercussions
Further, cops have learned to just play copyrighted music (say the Frozen soundtrack) when they see they are being recorded, that way if people upload it to the internet, they can rest easy that Disney will hit that video with a copyright strike and the video will be taken down before anyone can see it.
Thankfully for protestors, audio editing exists, and certain AI tools have become very good at stripping certain audio from videos while keeping relevant audio. Leave it to cops to choose a “brute force” solution every time when finesse is all you really need to bypass their brute force.
cops have learned to just play copyrighted music (say the Frozen soundtrack)
I hope they’ve secured the proper licenses for a public performance of that music.
You. Cannot. Be. Forced. To. Unlock. A. Phone. With. A. Password.
(In the United States)
If you are caught with your phone in a bad situation, fight to manage to get it to shut down. Android will be stuck in a locked out state where biometrics are disabled. Im sure iphones can do something like that but rethink bringing your stupid iphone to a protest. Ask for a lawyer. Do not talk, do not answer questions, do not say anything else.
You don’t even need to shut it down, newer Android phones (at least on LineageOS) have lockdown mode in the power menu.
Also on iPhone, you can just hold down buttons to trigger power down menu which also disables Touch/Face ID.
Takes ~2-3 seconds to set on my Sony Android phone; long-press power, top-right option is lockdown.
Thank you, I didn’t think of that!
- Tracking via bluetooth, wifi, cell signals, nfc, etc. Does one trust airplane mode?
- Seizure of the device if one is arrested. There is legal debate about what methods law enforcement can use to get into the phone. One is exposing both whatever pictures and video was made at the protest but everything else going on in one’s life too.
- If one has a unique case or model, one can be doxxed.
Action cameras are cheap, durable, and many come without any radios that can be used to track someone. They all look the same. Using a brand new sd card means that the only data on there is the pictures/video taken at the protest. The major downside is that if they are seized, they are an open book for law enforcement since they are unencrypted. If the sd card is taken or destroyed then one loses any evidence along with it.
Cell phones can be later used to establish who was there/identify people.
Lots of reasons, mostly this
They can use phones to track you. I guess if you’re the one who is planning on throwing bricks then don’t bring it but if you’re just a warm body to fill the crowd a phone is fine since it’ll also prove your innocene if you record your whole stay there.
Cover up all destinguising marks… Like tattoos
This is why I love the west coast of Canada, I can talk to the cops all I want, I can call them pigs, I can tell them they should learn to do their jobs, I can just straight up troll them and it’s protected.
It doesn’t mean they won’t be absolutely shitty about it and try to start shit though.
There’s many many many other reasons it’s not a good idea during a protest
Good work, friend.
What’s the zigzag arrow symbol?
i am unsure. the flash and circle is a fascist symble, but that usually doesnt have the arrow head. i assume its an antifascist symble but couldnt find anything about that.
Okupas ( Spanish for squatters )
Squatters Symbol
