this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2025
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Privacy

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For "normie" protestors who doesn't have the budget to get new gadgets, is Airplane Mode enough? (So to just use their phone as a Camera/Camcorder and Offline Maps for navigation) (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 days ago by throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works to c/privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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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?

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[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Even in a genuine authoritarian state there's no need to "discard" anything. For these occasions just keep a separate device with plausible data on it, or don't take one at all.

[–] throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

So does an old device that you wiped clean, and have only offline maps and use as mostly a camera and put into airplane mode all the time, a device which the imei and serial are already linked to your identity count as a "burner"? I mean you're not connecting to any towers so its fine, right?

[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

As others have said, there are two discrete threat models.

Turning off all the radios (pull out the SIM for good measure) is enough to block any proof of your geographic whereabouts. That absolutely includes wifi. Cell towers are yesterday's news, geolocation is also done by wifi and GPS and your device will be sharing that with a bunch of third parties if you let it connect.

But there's a separate issue about what happens if you have to surrender the device. For this scenario, your choice will be between fighting the authorities over the encryption key or presenting a dummy device as your only one.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Not necessarily. If you are connecting to or available for connecting to Bluetooth for example, this can be used to track you, even if you never actually connect.

It's effectively the same principle as how air tags work. Before a device actually connects it needs to be shown it can connect. So even without connecting you can be visible.

Then there are private companies aggregating and processing these data. It's about 30k a month for API access, but with some clever geofencing, you can practically track individuals.

Short answer: hear what's being said. The only true failsafe is no device at all.

That being said, it may not be practical, so follow good practices.