Let me be blunt: your phone is a narc.
Honestly, I didn’t always know that. I used to march into protests with my iPhone glowing like a neon beacon for surveillance agents sitting in a cubicle somewhere, watching my every move. Bluetooth on, headphones in, Snapchat mapping my location, Instagram open and Face ID at the ready. With my location tracking lit up like a Christmas tree, I was practically gift-wrapped for every government agency within Wi-Fi range.
That was before I learned what real digital safety looks like, and long before I stopped trusting convenience over caution. Before I realized that in the fight for justice, your data can be a weapon used against you, or a shield you wield intentionally and wisely.
This isn’t a tech manual at all, that’s definitely not in my wheelhouse. However, this is a field guide for anyone who’s ever stepped onto the streets in defense of justice and freedom, who’s ever held a sign, led a chant, or stood in the way of hate, and wants to do it without accidentally handing over their digital fingerprint to the very forces they’re resisting.
Loose Lips Build Dossiers
The first thing I tell folks is to wrap their heads around something called OPSEC, and for the uninitiated, it is short for operational security. I’m fully aware that it sounds like a hacker movie or a spy thriller, but OPSEC is just the mindset of not giving away information you don’t have to. It’s thinking two steps ahead, and playing the long game with your private information. It’s assuming that anything you carry, post, say, or share could end up in the wrong hands, and preparing accordingly.
Let’s get into it and talk about phones; those miraculous little tools we cradle 24/7. They guide us through city streets, film injustice with a swipe of our thumbs, and let us call a lawyer in a pinch. But conversely they also track us, tag us, and quietly gossip about our every move. I don’t care how expensive yours is or how many camera lenses it has, if you bring your main phone to a protest without changing a thing, it is not your ally.
Ideally, you leave it behind, at home on the kitchen counter where it can’t snitch on you. Or better yet, use a burner; one of those cheap prepaid phones you buy in cash and keep for moments just like this. But I get it, most of us are deeply tethered to our devices, so if you’re bringing your regular phone, there are things you must do. Location services? Off. Face or fingerprint unlock? Disabled. Log out of all social media. Encrypt your device. Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, airplane mode won’t cut it alone. If you think your device is just “sleeping” through the protest, you’ve already made a grave mistake.
And speaking of sleep, that’s what many people are doing when it comes to biometrics and facial recognition. These tools aren’t science fiction anymore, folks, and your ease of access is going to burn you in the end. They’re already here, already scanning, already matching faces from photos and videos scraped off your feeds. The police don’t even need warrants to obtain this data, it’s an open market and you’re out on display and ripe for the picking. They don’t even need to buy your data anymore, private companies sell it to them, and you, smiling proudly in your protest selfie, are the hottest commodity.
This Mask is My Love Language
So what do you do first? Wear a damn mask, and not just because it’s good public health practice. Wear a mask because it’s your first line of defense against being cataloged in a digital mugshot database. Masks, scarves, makeup that breaks up the contours of your face, are all fair game in the battle to confuse the algorithm. Even big sunglasses and hats help. Think less fashion statement, more face scrambler. Sometimes it’s not enough to just hide the bottom half of your face, more sophisticated surveillance equipment can detect and match your face by using your eyebrows.
Wearing a mask is paramount in protecting yourself, but the most important thing? Get your face out of the equation entirely. Facial recognition may be imperfect, but it doesn’t need to be accurate to be dangerous. A false match can still get you arrested and tracked. A blurry photo can still put a name on a list, and a livestream that tags someone in the background can unravel everything they’ve worked to protect. The road to being placed on a watchlist is paved with good intentions.
Biometrics Off. Boundaries On.
Now, let’s talk about biometric traps; those slick, futuristic tools we’ve grown so used to. Face ID. Touch ID. Iris scanners. They feel like upgrades, right? They’re not. Not at a protest. Not for an activist. Because if you get detained, an officer can legally force you to unlock your phone with your face or your fingerprint. They cannot, however, compel you to give up your passcode. That’s a constitutional protection. One you lose the moment your face is your password. So before you leave for any rally or march, you turn all of that off. You should also restart your phone to flush temporary data. And you don’t use simple pins! Choose a real passcode, long, random, unguessable. No birthdays. No inside jokes. No 123456. Get weird with it, make it absolutely impossible for anyone to guess it.
It may sound like a lot, but think about the cost of doing nothing. Taking the necessary steps to protect your identity at a rally is a hell of a lot cheaper than hiring a lawyer to represent you after your arrest. Encryption is your best friend as an activist in 2025. And hear me out, it’s not just for the tech savvy, or for people who’ve been indoctrinated into the world of tech specs and gadgets. Your phone might already be encrypted by default, especially if it’s new, but encryption only kicks in when your screen is locked. Leave it unlocked in your pocket, and all your messages, call logs, and notes are exposed to the entire world. And that world can force your hand in giving up all of your secrets.
This Pocket Spy? Treat it Like a Cop
On the street during a rally, it’s best to think of your phone as a liability, not a lifeline. If it must be with you, keep it lean. Trim all the fat, and don’t be stingy about it. Delete sensitive messages, don’t store protest logistics, names, or plans. And for the love of all that’s encrypted, don’t use Notes to write down people’s legal names or phone numbers. Use paper. Use Sharpie. Sometimes analog really is the safest route.
The same goes for communication. Signal isn’t optional anymore, it’s the gold standard. For now. End-to-end encryption is our best defense currently. Disappearing messages are the new normal. Trustworthy, open-source, and tested under fire by activists across the globe. Telegram, while popular, has default settings that aren’t secure enough in my humble opinion. WhatsApp is owned by Meta, which has a track record of compliance with government data requests. Don’t trust Meta, period. And regular SMS? You might as well be shouting your plans into a megaphone on the courthouse steps, even with an iPhone, nothing is really safe guarded on default settings.
If you’re organizing, coordinating, or checking in, do it smart, and use Signal. Avoid real names always. Create safety protocols with your group; code names, aliases, and shorthand for locations and events. Agree on what to do if someone goes dark, and practice how that works in real world scenarios. Always have someone outside the action who knows where you’re supposed to be and when, with legal numbers on hand in case you don’t check in. These should now become commonplace in your lives if you’re an activist.
They’re Not Tracking Clout, They’re Tracking You
And let’s not forget about our favorite opiate of the masses, social media. I know, we’re addicted, and it’s a problem for a myriad of reasons. We want to post, share, boost, amplify. We want the world to see what we’re standing for. But doing it live? Utterly dangerous. Posting in real time broadcasts your location to the world, and that includes the people you’re protesting against. Even if you’re not tagged, even if your profile is private, metadata and timestamps do the talking. And metadata loves to talk.
Simply wait until you’re home to post, your followers can wait. When you do get home to post, blur faces, and don’t name names under any circumstances. Don’t ever tag locations, and use apps like ObscuraCam or just screenshot the image to scrub the metadata. And always — always — get consent before posting photos of others at a protest. What feels like a celebration to you could be a death sentence to someone else. Doxxing is very real and incredibly dangerous. Retaliation is also a real threat in our current political climate, you don’t want to be the reason someone gets hurt.
Power: They Fear It. We Feel It. We Hold It.
I get that this all sounds super heavy. But I promise you: it’s not about fear. It’s about power. When we fully understand and embrace the systems designed to surveil and silence us, we become harder to stop. When we treat digital safety as collective self-care, we keep each other safer. When we normalize privacy, we normalize resistance. Self-care is resistance and that starts with personal accountability and safety.
Because in the end, the surveillance state isn’t a bug in the system. It is the system. Surveillance is the feature. Compliance is the expectation. And activism, true, unapologetic, frontline activism, throws a wrench in the whole machine.
The good news is you don’t have to be a cyber-security wizard to fight back. Believe me, I’m far from the most proficient in technology, so if I can do it, so can you. I promise, you don’t need a degree in computer science or a bunker in the woods. You just need to care enough to learn, and apply those lessons to real life. All it takes is a shift in your habits, and to educate your comrades, in order to see digital safety not as an individual burden, but a shared practice.
Before you head to the pavement, make it part of your routine. Charge your burner. Disable biometrics. Write legal numbers on your arm. Check in with a friend. Log out of socials. Rethink what you carry and what it carries about you. Get comfortable being anonymous, even if only for the afternoon.
Because the truth is, they’re watching. They’ve been watching. But you don’t have to make it easy.
I still protest. I still organize. I still show up. But I do it differently now. I do it wiser, safer, stronger. And if enough of us learn these lessons, teach them, spread them like gospel, then maybe the tools they use to track us will start working against them. Be the resistance.
We are many. We are learning. And we will not be digitally disarmed.
This is the second of a two-part series. Go to Part 1.