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?
As others said, you can reuse burner phones, and they can be really really cheap. You can get a 10-year-old midrange phone from an e-waste place for free or close to that, replace the battery (which tends to be much easier on old phones), and it will do everything you need just fine. I think it’s the sweet-spot between convenience (e.g. navigation is really useful if the crowd carries you to part of the city you don’t know, taking photos/videos, etc) and safety (even if you get caught, and are forced to unlock the phone, there’s virtually nothing on it that cops can rummage through). Just make sure to pre-download maps and other resources you may need (for maps on a cheap old device I would recommend this: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/app.comaps.fdroid), but don’t log in to any accounts. Unless you really need to communicate with others over the phone, keep the airplane mode on. If you’re savvy enough, while replacing the battery you can also physically disconnect the antennae from the modem too for extra peace of mind.
Oh, also, I don’t know about your country but in some places you can still get “anonymous” pre-paid SIMs from sellers in shady underpasses for cash. If you really must communicate with others via cellular/need mobile internet, that’s also an option to put in your burner phone. But once again, avoid logging in to any accounts or calling anyone you know unless absolutely necessary.
That burner phone can still be traced back to you.
That burner phone is likely going to require you to sign into a Google account with a phone number before it will do absolutely anything. All “feature phones” are running some form of Android, and Android requires this in their ToS.
Depending on what that means, sure. Most likely scenario is that you get apprehended, can’t discard the phone for whatever reason, and the cops search it. In that case yeah sure it can be traced back to you.
If you are careful and only use it for (careful) photography and maps (as OP requested), then I feel like it can’t really be traced back to you if you discard it or give it to someone else etc, except maybe fingerprints and DNA (but cops likely won’t have the resources to do that for everyone in the entire protest). And for situations like this it a digital camera or a paper map could be traced all the same.
I’m not talking about “feature phones”. Just a regular old midrange smartphone. E.g. the original Samsung Galaxy A-series.
Some of them will, sure. Check before buying (or just make a new Google account without linking it to a phone number - might require a VPN to somewhere else but doable). I’ve had plenty of smartphones where you can just skip it. You won’t have access to Google Play and such but that might be a bonus :)
I’m too lazy to check but I highly doubt it - Google is not available in China at all and yet there are plenty of Android smartphones sold there. Also Android is mostly open-source and different vendors can and do build different versions of it.
It means they can find out where it was purchased and by whom.
Still runs Android.
All of them. Again, this is required by Android ToS.
Are we talking about China? If you live in China your cell phone is the least of your concerns. They don’t need it.
And for the love of god, don’t sign in to your google/apple account, other shit is probably less problematic if you sign out later.