How to safely protest in the surveillance era

If insists on the use of biometric unlocking methods to have faster access to devices, keep in mind that some phones have an emergency function to disable these types of blocks. Keep the Wake button and one of the volume buttons simultaneously on an iPhone, for example, and will block and require a passcode to unlock instead of Faceid or touchid, even if they are enabled. Most devices also allow you to take photos or record videos without unlocking them before, a good way to keep the phone blocked as much as possible.

Your face

The recognition of the face has become one of the most powerful tools to identify your presence at a protest. Take into consideration the idea of ​​wearing a face mask and sunglasses to make you much more difficult to be identified by the recognition of the face in the surveillance movies or in the photos of social media or in the videos of the protest. Fight for Greer’s precautions of the future, however, that the accuracy of the most effective facial recognition tools available for law enforcement remains a kind of unknown and a simple surgical mask or KN95 may no longer be sufficient to defeat the face-blocker technology.

If you are seriously not to be identified, he says, a full face mask can be much safer, or even in Halloween style. “I saw people wear funny cartons masks of cosplay -style animated or mascot dresses or foolish costumes,” says Greer, offering for example Musk masks by Donald Trump and Elon who saw the protesters wearing Tesla Takedown protests against Musk and the so -called department of government efficiency (doge). “This is a great way to challenge facial recognition and also make the protest more fun.”

You should also consider the clothes you wear before going out. Colored clothing or prominent logos make you more recognizable for the police and easier to track. If you have tattoos that make you identifiable, consider covering them.

Greer, however, warns that preventing certain agencies enhanced by the surveillance of learning the simple fact that you have participated in a protest is increasingly difficult. For those of you in the most sensitive positions – as immigrants without deportation risk documents – suggests that he considers himself to stay at home rather than depend on any cloud technique to mask their presence in an event.

If you are driving a car to protest – your own or someone else allows automatic plaque readers to easily identify the movements of the vehicle. And, in addition to the plates, keep in mind that these same sensors can also detect other words and phrases, including those on stickers for bumpers, signs and even shirts.

More generally, all those who attend a protest must consider, perhaps more than ever – what their risk tolerance could be, from simple identification to the possibility of arrest or detention. “I think it is important to say that the protest in the United States now involves higher risks than what was before: it comes with a real possibility of physical violence and mass arrest,” says Danacea Vo, founder of Cyberlixir, a computer security provider for non -profit and vulnerable communities. “Even just compared to the protests that happened last month, people were able to present themselves face to face and March. Now things have changed.”

Your online imprint

Although most of the privacy and security considerations to participate in a protest of person naturally refer to your body, to all the devices you bring with you and your physical environment, there are a series of other factors to think online. It is important to understand how posts on social media and other platforms first, during or after a protest can be collected and used by the authorities to identify and trace you or others. Simply saying on an online platform that you are participating or participating in a protest puts the information out there. And if you take photos or videos during a protest, that content could be used to expand the vision of the police on those who participated in a protest and what they did while they were there, including any strangers who appear in your images or videos.

The authorities can come to your online presence looking for information on you in particular, but they can also arrive there using data analysis tools such as dataminr that offer law enforcement agencies and other customers monitoring in real time that connect people to their online activity. These tools can also emerge past posts and, if you have ever made violent comments online or allumed to commit crimes – also as a joke – the application of Law could discover the activity and use it against you if you are questioned or arrested during a protest. This is a particular concern for people who live in the United States on visas or for those whose immigration status is soft. The United States State Department has explicitly said who is monitoring the activity of social media of immigrants and travelers.