How to secure your phone before attending a protest
2 min read
Summary
Before attending a protest, it’s important to consider the amount of data that can be stored on a personal device, such as a smartphone, and the potential consequences that could arise if that device is lost, stolen, or confiscated.
As such, if protestors plan to attend a rally or demonstration, they should take these precautions with their phones: have a backup of the device and remove all personally identifiable information; encrypt the phone, using a strong password instead of biometrics to secure the phone and disabling message content in notifications; turn the phone off or switch it to airplane mode and make sure all location services are turned off; and use guided access or pin screens to lock certain apps and effectively lock the rest of the phone.
Other precautions people can take include: leaving the phone at home and using a burner phone instead; using secure messaging apps such as Signal; using a secure browser such as Tor, Brave, or Vivaldi; using a VPN; and securing social media accounts with an email that has no personal information linked to it.
Finally, if a phone is confiscated, the owner should not unlock it, if possible, and change all passwords for apps and accounts linked to that phone.