• tired_n_bored
    link
    fedilink
    333 days ago

    At protests you should not bring your smartphone but instead rely on anonymous drvices such as Meshtastic.

    If you want to bring your smartphone to a protest, set Airplane mode and communicate with others through Bluetooth or WiFi networks using Briar or Bitchat

      • tired_n_bored
        link
        fedilink
        5
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        May I ask you how? Or if you have more info? No criticism here, honest question. Afaik the only way to do that would be to fingerprint a behavioural pattern, which albeit possible is surely more secure than cell communication.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          52 days ago

          The “find my” networks still function with randomized macs and “fully” powered down devices

    • mesa
      link
      fedilink
      English
      72 days ago

      Meshtastic with 3 jumps would be stretching for actual communication. Plus Bluetooth is even worse for security. Direct connection might be a better way to use the device.

      I’ve had meshtastic for about 2 ish years now and its still being worked on.

      • tired_n_bored
        link
        fedilink
        5
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        What is unsafe about cell communication is that there is virtually no way to prevent being tracked. Bluetooth is not necessarily more secure but has several advantages:

        1. Its Mac address can be easily changed. With a fake Mac address it’s more difficult to track someone down, albeit it needs some “technical skills” (going in the developer settings)
        2. With these apps communication is encrypted by default unlike cell tower communication
        3. The range is limited. If police listens over Bluetooth they’ll be able to track less people down
    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      7
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      It’s amazing how many times I saw this knowledge being spread, together with thousands of umbrellas and hard hats during the Hong Kong riots from day one with “Hong Kong, add oil” as their first slogan combined with very mild mannered arguments (we don’t know if it could lead to more serious things) against the extradition law which was supposed to affect maybe half a dozen people per decade, all serious criminals. A law almost every country has on earth that the US used against the daughter of the owner of one of the largest companies in the world, for the flimsiest of reasons, in contrast to the walled-off-to-arrest-one-particular-teen-girl-axe-murderer-to-be-shipped-to-Taiwan-law Hong Kong tried to implement.

      How many people have been affected by the Alien Enemies Act again?

      And how did the The protests were call “No kings” remember that? Remember that it was called NO KINGS “Unbiased. Straight. Facts” SAN? Do you remember that? No? Okay, well… “anti-ICE” it is protests go?

      Because apart from the shocker that you were being surveilled, I think the protests needed a little bit less “Zero demands, not one more” chants and a little more ‘We demand and protest until we win and get what we want’ kind of thing.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        122 days ago

        Not at the same scale as mobile traffic

        Bluetooth by definition doesn’t go much past 10-20 meters

      • mesa
        link
        fedilink
        English
        6
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        Super easy. You can also do basic triangulation with some specialty hardware.

        • tired_n_bored
          link
          fedilink
          2
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          But we’re talking about a protest where bad actors (the police) just want the names of its attendants. Our phones scream to everyone “I am [name surname] and I am here!”. Bluetooth instead says the same but with a lower tone of voice, so less people can listen. Also, with little configuration you can instruct it not to broadcast its identifier.