
Cell Phone Guide For US Protesters, Updated 2014 Edition - panarky
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/08/cell-phone-guide-protesters-updated-2014-edition
======
josai
> ask to speak to your attorney

> ask to speak to your lawyer

> you will need an attorney to help you sort through your particular
> circumstance

Do normal people in the US always and at all times have a lawyer on call?
Especially the type of person likely to be arrested at a protest (not that
there's anything wrong with that - I just doubt they're the 1%).

I'm in my late thirties and certainly don't have a lawyer on standby I can
call at the drop of a hat. This "advice" always seems, if not disingenuous, at
least a little naive.

~~~
jambo
I don't think so, looking around at my peers. In the US, you have the right to
publicly funded counsel if you are arrested, so the advice might better be
put, "Am I free to go? <no> Am I under arrest, or am I free to go? <you are
under arrest> I am exercising my right not to speak with you and would like to
speak with _a_ lawyer".

~~~
watwut
You can get publicly funded counsel only if you are poor enough and unable to
afford own lawyer. And public defenders tend to be overworked and underfunded,
so it is not like they will give you too much personal attention.

~~~
dannypgh
In my experience you'll consult with a PD at your arraignment even if you
don't qualify for a PD (for everything beyond summary offenses). They will
give you the good advice of staying quiet, and stand next to you before the
judge, and generally they might help you ask for bail or to otherwise get out
at your arraignment.

If it's earlier in the arrest- e.g. at the police station- if they want to
question you and you don't have a lawyer they need to get you one, and in
theory this could be a PD. I don't have first hand experience with that,
mostly because there's little point in the police bothering to question anyone
who asks for a lawyer in 99.9% of cases. The lawyer will tell their client to
not answer anything and the client should heed the advice.

------
rdl
A key thing is to memorize or write-on-your-arm-in-ink the phone number of
your lawyer or other support person in the event you're arrested; you may not
have access to your phone.

(The only numbers I can recall offhand are Apple's customer support number
from 20 years ago (which is now a phone-sex line), a special/other "in case of
kidnapping" number which is an Iraqi cellphone and disconnected or something,
and Comcast Business Support. None of which would really help me now.)

~~~
sneak
> Apple's customer support number from 20 years ago (which is now a phone-sex
> line),

no, 800-SOS-APPL is still Apple's old support line. You are dialing S-zero-S,
which has always been a phone sex line.

~~~
rdl
+1 800 776 2333 is the number I meant (which was how I got to apple dev stuff
back in ~1993 when I was 14 and had nothing else to do)

------
ejr
While useful for communication, recording via smartphone is still a tricky
affair.

This was listed on HN recently, and as soon as it becomes available, it may be
a more viable option for recording video than a smartphone camera or even a
GoPro [http://www.polaroid.com/cube](http://www.polaroid.com/cube)

It also has no bright screen to draw attention to itself and the small form
factor makes it easier to mount in clothing and, if you have enough time to do
so, the MicroSD card is easy to remove and conceal/transfer if you need to
hand over the camera.

~~~
GoodIntentions
1968: Get busted at protest, get searched for weed. 2014: Get busted at
protest, get searched for data.

We're living in odd times.

------
chatmasta
It's amusing to think of how much of this article would be complete gibberish
to the framers of the constitution. They literally would have no idea what
some of the words mean:

\- "they'll be carrying phones"

What's a phone? Is that some sort of musket?

\- "Modern smartphones"

I hope the British don't have those too!

\- "encrypted communications channels"

Hey, somebody tell Revere to speak in code while he's shouting that stuff from
his horse.

\- "social media"

What in the blimey is that?

\- "End-to-end encryption does not protect your meta-data."

Hey Jefferson, this looks like one of your convoluted sentences from the first
draft. Nobody's gonna understand that stuff.

~~~
ejr
They had access to quite interesting cryptography tools as well, such as a
cipher disks :
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipher_disk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipher_disk)

And see :
[http://slclip.wikispaces.com/Cryptology+during+the+US+war+of...](http://slclip.wikispaces.com/Cryptology+during+the+US+war+of+independence+and+the+US+civil+war)

There's an interesting article by Lee Taylor on civil war codes and encryption
too
[http://chesapeakesignals.com/encrypt.htm](http://chesapeakesignals.com/encrypt.htm)

------
Aloha
I'd also suggest that CDMA2000 is at least slightly more secure that GSM - its
somewhat harder to perform a man in the middle on.

------
jeffrey8chang
For the point of "Start using encrypted communications channels" while
protesting, here's a way to encrypt your voice:

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/620001568/jackpair-
safe...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/620001568/jackpair-safeguard-
your-phone-conversation)

It's a low-cost alternative to BlackPhone etc.

~~~
rg3
If you already have an Android phone, I guess the RedPhone app is the most
convenient and cheap way to make encrypted voice calls.

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.thoughtcri...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.thoughtcrime.redphone)

~~~
jeffrey8chang
The other party you called must use Android phone + RedPhone app as well.

~~~
13throwaway
Redphone can talk to iPhone users with the signal app.

------
johncoltrane
* Don't use any technology before, during or after a protest.

* Wear something that you can throw away.

* Don't wear recognizable brands or symbols.

* Hide your face.

* Cover every visible part of your skin.

Protests and riots are all fun and games until you are part of the last
roundup and you finally have time to figure out that protesting will never
change anything to what you are protesting against.

~~~
Zikes
> protesting will never change anything

I'm sure the British said the same thing in 1775.

~~~
mikeash
Protesting didn't really change anything there. A long campaign of organized
violence did. There are _far_ better examples of effective protests than the
American revolution.

------
deegles
Do these recommendations also apply if a person is in the country under a
visa?

------
ryandrake
Surprisingly, the obvious and fairly fool-proof "If you're going to go
protest, leave your phone at home" didn't seem to be among the advice given.

~~~
spiritplumber
If you're going to a protest, spend $10 on a tracfone. They have cameras
anyway.

