Technology

Jesus Christ, this conversation is scary. I wish y’all good luck that none of these precautions are necessary.

As someone in a blue state where governance is sane, I’m “raw dogging it” (effing offensive slang term but now I’ve used it once in my life and can rest easy) and bringing my kids (teens). M also going to the local demonstration rather than go into the city for a big one - to some extent it’s a numbers game: ICE can’t raid them all and police aren’t legally allowed to help them

…. And hopefully my optimism is well founded

—-

Edit: huge success! Entirely peaceful. While a few cops drove by, there was no police presence. Thousands of people of all ages lining both sides of main st, and three sides of our town common. Constant honking from supporters driving by. It was very inspirational. I’m proud of my fellow citizens and hope our voice for restoring sanity and democracy is heard.

For those pessimists,a bit more context why I was so optimistic….. a few years back, our mayor and police were participants in a local BLM rally. Also a big part of local outrage against fascism was a city counselor getting assaulted and arrested for videoing an illegal raid on one of his constituents.

You get a burner for the protest and give your phone to a friend or family member for the day so that it still pings towers at the usual places.

people on the internet love to talk about all these great security smart things that they will definitely never do.

leave valuables at home, wear unremarkable clothes, and write your lawyers number on your arm with a sharpie.

personally i bring my phone and a leica. ive been to jail for protesting before and in my current situation i just don't care.

Here is the simple trick: leave your phone at home. Get a burner.

Leave it at home.

Burner phone ... leave your main one at home ... ABSOLUTELY DO NOT BRING YOUR MAIN PHONE

Set up your burner phone with one or two accounts to things you might want to upload to ... encrypt as much as you can. Do not load all your social accounts ... only log into the bare minimum. If you are organized, log into temporary or fake or secondary accounts if you can.

Start the day without any prior history, photos or content on the phone and keep as few contacts as you can ... memorize numbers that are important to you.

Always be prepared to give up or lose your phone.

And as always ... SAFETY GLASSES .... bring a pair of industry rated CSA approved safety glasses (try to get a pair with a tint so you can pass them as sunglasses). Look for safety glasses with anything marked ANSI Z87+, sometimes written Z87.1+ (note the plus) rated or CSA Z94.3 rated are ensured to safely withstand a direct high energy strike.

.... additional things if you want to do more

Bring a small new blank paper note book you can keep in a pocket with a small pen or pencil ... you might be taking notes like license plates, name tags or names of people or places ... its always faster to just write something down than in taking a shaky photo or tapping away a note on an app

Wear a big scarf ... for guys or girls ... a scarf comes in handy for all kinds of emergencies including using it as something to cover your mouth, dress a wound, tie something or cover something up.

Wear a good pair of running shoes ... be prepared to run and be on your feet all day.

Bring a small backpack and bring a couple bottles of water and some energy bars ... keep it light because you'll be on your feet all day and if things go bad, you might be targeted if you have a large pack ... plus an empty pack can be used to carry things later if you need to.

Dress for the weather ... if its going to be hot, wear light clothing but if things go bad and you have to stay out over night or longer, bring a light jacket ... if rain is forecast within a day or two, bring a small poncho

Leave it at home.

I can understand the wish to film things; I recommend buying a cheap camera, maybe one to strap on your forehead (starting at $20) or an old compact digital camera. Something without any sort of connectivity. Something you can leave behind if the going gets rough.

You leave it at home. Take an old factory-reset with a prepaid sim. Keep it off unless you 100% need it.

Leave it at home lol

Stolen from another post:

"you need around 6 layers of tin foil you can test this if you have a bluetooth device start playing some music or any audio and start wrapping in tinfoil until it disconnects id also say to leave your phone at home sk it pings the cell towers that you are at home and bring a burner if you can and make sure the burner is private so use cash prepaid sims and dont put the sim in at home or work make sure its all a mall away from cameras"

Be safe tomorrow everyone

I learned this recently: if you have an iPhone, pressing the lock button five times rapidly will lock it so that you need to enter a passcode, not just FaceID. Useful if you think somebody might forcibly use your face to unlock it