cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/40154928
I doubt its even environmentally/economically sustainable for a whole crowd of millions to just buy burners to discard after every protest. Too much ewaste. Is there a strategy that everyone can use without generating too much ewaste?
Look, if you’re going to one of these protests, what are you really worried about? These are mostly very popular, very well attended liberal demonstrations. Is it a big deal that there is digital evidence that you were in the area at that time?
If you think (or plan that) you may be involved in more than waving a sign, then just leave your phone at home. Make a plan ahead of time, and have one or more friends in on it that do the same. Look out for one another, and wear clothing that visually obscures your identity. Wear masks, cover any tattoos, don’t wear distinctive clothing.
That sounds an awful lot like you still believe you we have protected constitutional rights.
Every piece of digital information has been tracked and stood away by the government since the '90s.
There’s a very thin line right now between showing up at a peaceful protest, getting corralled in and detained until curfew then getting locked up, researched and logged.
The administration knows that sufficient protests will knock them out of power. They will escalate making protests dangerous enough to try dissuade protesting.
All efforts and privacy are reasonable under the circumstances.
Privacy and security are a continuum, and they are balanced by your appetite for risk, and necessity of action. The safest approach to these protests is, of course, not attending them at all. I don’t want to overwhelm anyone with security advice that may not be reasonable or relevant for their situation.
If you’re asking this question then you’re not paying attention to what’s happening with the current US admin. We’re entering a vengeful dictatorship. Hence the name of the protest.
This is a “remind me in five years” question.
Probably we turn this thing around and nobody gets disappeared for their phone records showing attendance of a peaceful protest.
But that “probably” is doing a shit ton of lifting in the previous sentence.