[icameron]

When I first heard the advice to ditch your phone when you go a protest, I thought maybe that's a little extreme. But it's a real threat. We already knew post Snowden there is an extensive big brother apparatus. We saw post 911 that all rights can be taken away in the name of counter-terrorism. Now with a government that's operating outside the law and labeling peaceful protesters as terrorists, I don't think we can rely on telcos to protect our identity. The mass surveillance will fingerprint a device, and the telco will know your name so it's not at all an extreme precaution to ditch your phone.

[embedding-shape]

Basically: if it has a modem in it, it can be used against you in some way. Phones, routers, cars, public signs, cameras.

It's been so turbulent lately, that it's hard to register events that would have blown our minds if so many things didn't also happen around the same time. Remember when Israel made a bunch of pagers explode indiscriminately across Lebanon and Syria? So many things going on, one worse than the other, that it is hard to stop and really consider the implication of these single events fully.

[ActorNightly]

Its important to not be hyperbolic in these times.

The two technologies ICE uses rely on permission for apps tonuse geolocation data for advertising purposes. Same reason you start seeing ads for local things when you travel.

Technically they can subpoena cell records to see which towers your phone connects to, but this is not viable for multiple people.

For privacy, if you care, having a rooted degoogled phone with no sim card is sufficient enough. You can check its signature by using your laptop as a IGW and capturing traffic to see if any apps or services ping anything.

If you want off grid comms, meshtastic devices are very nice, me and my wife use LilyGo Tdeck pluses for comms and finding each other at festivals. The portable modems are also nice because you can use them for GPS for your phone vs built in location services.

[baggy_trough]

Indiscriminately?

[daheza]

If we all ditch our phones then how will we record the abuses of power?

[ActorNightly]

Hate to break it to you, but people just simply dont care as much as you think they do. We have the right to own firearms for the purposes of protecting us against tyrany, but thats pointless when we cant even realize tyrany right outside our door.

[beej71]

I have an old point and shoot (20x optical zoom) and a SIM-free phone that has never been used in my name for anything.

[pavel_lishin]

Burners, which you never bring anywhere near your home, and which you do not drive your car to pick up.

[lapetitejort]

Point and clicks with no internet connectivity. Practice unloading and reloading SD cards in came someone comes to destroy evidence

[dredmorbius]

There are inexpensive dedicated still and video cameras, for as little as $40.

Higher-quality devices will still cost markedly less than a flagship, or even several-years-old smartphone, and will have much greater lifespan absent misadventure.

[kazinator]

- Use a different device: tablet, or camera.

- Do bring your phone, but put it into "airplane mode" so that it doesn't talk to any cell towers; then upload the video somewhere as soon as you get out of the area

[gruez]

Phone on airplane mode and with location services disabled?

[codingdave]

Buy a camera. And/or an audio recorder. Or pull the SIM out of an old phone and use that.

[fsflover]

Librem 5 phone has a hardware kill switch for the modem. The camera is not so great though.

[pklausler]

Disposable film cameras and FRS walkie-talkies, I think.

[layer8]

There are standalone pocket cameras.

[everdrive]

People have allowed themselves to become so dependent on mobile phones that I'm frankly disgusted. You're talking about a scenario where you're worried about being illegally arrested by the secret police -- aided by their tracking of your phone, but it's still not enough to consider using your phone less. It's no different that a rat starving to death but continuing to push the lever for the cocaine hit.

[edit]

Vote me down all you want. If a bulletin went out that said "we're going to use your phone to steal your children and torture them" you'd have people saying "but, but .. how am I going to do my banking and check my messages." It's the height of absurdity.

[chaps]

....cameras exist :)

[nickthegreek]

whenever this topic comes up, I like to point people to EFF's Rayhunter.

https://github.com/EFForg/rayhunter

> Rayhunter is a project for detecting IMSI catchers, also known as cell-site simulators or stingrays. It was first designed to run on a cheap mobile hotspot called the Orbic RC400L, but thanks to community efforts, it can support some other devices as well.

And

https://bitchat.free/

> bitchat is a decentralized peer-to-peer messaging application that operates over bluetooth mesh networks. no internet required, no servers, no phone numbers.

[CGMthrowaway]

Half the country learned this after January 6. The other half is learning it now, apparently.