For everyone, especially persecuted groups
For everyone, especially journalists, academics, public servants
Ethical hacking, web publishing, AI/LLM
For activists, whistle blowers, freedom fighters
For anyone under oppressive governments
For activists, whistle blowers, freedom fighters
Technology, freedom, democracy | Tools, education
Personal security, self-defense, and physical security in the broader sense, really is for everyone. Yet, it's getting more important for any organisation or individual that's commonly targeted by hate groups and oppressive governments – such as protestors, females, and minorities. | 2026.02.01
The following recommendations are inspired by the EFF's brochure Protecting Your Data During a Protest, the Swedish security police's (Säpo) brochure on physical security, and Mark Wayne's (Colonial Outcasts) text Gouging the Eyes of the Beast – A Community Guide on how to defend against hostile surveillance.
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When moving around, travelling to and from a gathering such as a protest, you're more exposed to risk. To be safer, consider this:
– Travel with company, at the very minimum two people together, the more the merrier though, agree to have each other's back, no running off leaving the other one alone if/when facing a potential threat
– Maybe avoid commuting, and use a bicycle or take a taxi instead. Probably don't use your own car (to avoid license plate readers)
– Be vigilant, keep eyes and ears open, watch your back, trust your intuition – notice someone acting sketchy? Leave, decisively, in a calm and collected manner, avoid unnecessary attention
– Be ready to use your phone to gather evidence, document threats or violence if/when it's taking place (May also function as a deterrent)
– Plan your route ahead, choose paths that are well populated and well lit. Avoid walking close to pillars and dark corners
– Sit or stand with your back towards a wall, keep checking what's going on around you. Don't overdo it, just be fully aware. If wearing headphones you can have them silent, to seem unaware of your surroundings while the opposite is true
– Talking to someone on the phone (or pretend to do so) can have a calming effect and may also function as a deterrent
– Tell someone where you are and where you're going (at least aproximately, and/or via code words)
– Carry keys in your hand, to use as a sort of nuckle, should it come to a situation where self-defense is necessary
– If you need to run away, do so in a zig-zag pattern around street corners, so it becomes a labyrinth for whoever is following you. Try to disappear within a croud
– If you believe you're being stalked or surveilled, go in and out of stores, cafés, buses/trains; and pay attention to if someone keeps following you
– Take note of emergency exits, have a plan B-exit route thought out beforehand
– Keep your belongings gathered in a backpack. Be ready to bug out on short notice
– If climbing or fighting your way out might become necessary, consider having gloves ready
– Study and train self-defense
– Practice running and climbing
During gatherings, such as protests:
– Have long PIN-codes for unlocking devices
– Disable unlocking via fingerprint
– Disable unlocking via face recognition
– When taking photos and videos, do it without unlocking the device
– Enable airplane mode, even better; also put your phone in a faraday cage, the best though? Leave it at home
– Disable 2G (to at least partially avoid StingRays/fake cellphone towers)
– Back up your data (you might loose your device)
– Make sure to have whole disk/device encryption activated
– Communcate via the Signal app
– Set messages to auto-destruct within a short time frame
– If information is very sensitive, and/or if consequences of interception is high, then do _not_ write, talk or send anything over any digital channel (only talk IRL, with precautions such as having no devices nearby at all. Use code words and/or avoid specific words and details; "Bring the thing, see you at the place.")
– To blend in, in a mixed group of people; wear nondescript clothing, which could mean dressing as a tourinst, as a student, as a professional, as a business person on their way to the office... it all depends on the environment
– To blend in, in a group of activists; (everyone should) dress in 100% black, use a permanent marker or gaffer tape to cover any details such as logotypes, use makeup or clothing to conceal any tattoos and other indvidual variations including piercings
– Hide your hair, and ears, with a hoodie
– Use gloves, sunglasses, covid-masks, ski-masks, balaclavas, etc. to hide your skin color and facial features
– To avoid identification via facial recognition; use facial cover that doesn't reveal facial features/measurements at all, for example face protection intended for airsoft or paintball games (conceal the precise distances between eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, chin)
If you're planning on publishing any photos or videos from an activity or protest:
– Blur people and any potentially identifying details
– Scrub meta-data by sending the files (to yourself) via Signal, or use another method to delete meta-data stored in photo and video files, such as time and place (GPS), camera/camera app/smartphone details, etc.
– Also note that photos and videos can be tied to a specific individual device/camera/smartphone, by forensically comparing the individual sensor noise/imperfections, sort of like a fingerprint. In other words, you might want to use a burner camera (one time use)
Get an alert if a tag/tracker is following you. Both stock Android (14+) and iOS (14.5+) have it enabled by default, but do verify.
Android: Settings > Safety & emergency > Unknown tracker alerts > Verify that Allow alerts is enabled
iOS: Settings > Notifications > Tracking Notifications > Verify that Allow Notifications is enabled
Android:
– Tap notification, a map with the time and date when your phone noticed the tracker will be displayed (may not be exact)
*An AirTag's owner can see the current location, but not the history of the AirTag's movement (other tags/trackers may show history to the owner; Tile, Samsung)
– Tap "Play sound" to trigger the AirTag's sound to help you find it (doesn't always work, may show error message even if an AirTag is nearby)
– Once you find the tag/tracker, hold it close to the back of your phone to get more information about it, will show the last four digits of the phone number of the registered owner, and the unique serial number of the tag/tracker
iOS:
– Tap notification, a map with the history of everywhere* you've been since your phone first noticed the tracker (may not be exact)
*An AirTag's owner can see the current location, but not the history of the AirTag's movement (other tags/trackers may show history to the owner; Tile, Samsung)
– If this is an AirTag known to you, tap "Pause Tracking Notifications" to disable notifications for that AirTag
– Tap "Play Sound" to make the AirTag beep to help locate it
– If you can't yet locate the AirTag, tap "Find". If you're close enough, a screen with arrows attempts to guide you to the precise location
– Tap "Learn About This AirTag" to open a website that lists the serial number and the last four digits of the phone number that's registered to that AirTag
– Hold AirTag close to the back of your phone to get more information about it, you'll be taken to a website that lists the serial number and the last four digits of the owner's phone number. Tile, Samsung SmartTags, Chipolo do not have a similar feature. Some Chipolo versions will work with Apple's "Find My" app to display similar info as with AirTags
Detect tags/trackers manually – with AirGuard. The app works without access to location, but will not include location history of where the app found the tracker.
If AirGuard detects a tag/tracker, you will get a notification:
– Tap notification, AirGuard will open, showing a map and history of where your phone first noticed the tracker
– The "Observe Tracker" option allows you to set a timer that will send you new notification after one hour if the tag/tracker is still following you
– The "Locate Tracker" option shows a screen with a percentage on it, representing how strong the signal between your phone and the tracker is, sort of like radar. Walk around with your phone to see if the signal gets stronger
– Tap "Ignore Tracker" if you don't want to get more notifications
Consider waiting with any incident response – you may not want your adversary to know that you've found out about the tracking. First, make sure you and your loved ones are safe, and physically separated from whom ever you suspect migth have placed the tracker.
Advanced surveillance detection – GPS, Bluetooth, and WiFi. Know if someone is following you, by sniffing their signal emissions over time. Geo-locate/identify them via Wigle integration, to be able to further assess your situation:
– github.com/ArgeliusLabs/Chasing-Your-Tail-NG
Consider waiting with any incident response – you may not want your adversary to know that you've found out about the tracking. First, make sure you and your loved ones are safe, and physically separated from whom ever you suspect migth have placed the tracker.
WiFi:
– Verify that WiFi is turned off
– Use Ethernet and/or USB cables
Bluetooth:
– Verify that Bluetooth is turned off
– Use cable connected headphones, mouse, keyboard
IoT devices has WiFi and/or Bluetooth:
– Smart watches
– AirTag, SmartTag, Chipolo, Tile
– Car tires
– GPS trackers, etc.
Turn these off, leave them at home/at work, replace with old school/analog alternatives. At the very least – place them in a Faraday bag:
– mosequipment.com Mission Darkness; Radio frequency shielding solutions
– slnt.com/.../military SLNT; Berry and TAA compliant (FAQ)
*Phones and other devices may emit signals even when (seemingly) fully turned off; hence the Faraday bag suggestion
*Faraday bags may leak if used improperly, low quality, worn out, or just bad luck; hence the suggestion to leave devices at home/at work
"This project implements the research from the paper 'Careless Whisper: Exploiting Silent Delivery Receipts to Monitor Users on Mobile Instant Messengers' by Gabriel K. Gegenhuber, Maximilian Günther, Markus Maier, Aljosha Judmayer, Florian Holzbauer, Philipp É. Frenzel, and Johanna Ullrich (University of Vienna & SBA Research).
What it does: By measuring Round-Trip Time (RTT) of WhatsApp message delivery receipts, this tool can detect:
– When a user is actively using their device (low RTT)
– When the device is in standby/idle mode (higher RTT)
– Potential location changes (mobile data vs. WiFi)
– Activity patterns over time
Security implications: This demonstrates a significant privacy vulnerability in messaging apps that can be exploited for surveillance."
"The most effective mitigation is to enable “Block unknown account messages” in WhatsApp under Settings > Privacy > Advanced.
This setting may reduce an attacker’s ability to spam probe reactions from unknown numbers, because WhatsApp blocks high-volume messages from unknown accounts. However, WhatsApp does not disclose what “high volume” means, so this does not fully prevent an attacker from sending a significant number of probe reactions before rate-limiting kicks in.
Disabling read receipts helps with regular messages but does not protect against this specific attack. As of December 2025, this vulnerability remains exploitable in WhatsApp and Signal."
– github.com/gommzystudio/device-activity-tracker
EFF.org:
"...technologies used by police and other authorities to spy on you while you are going about your everyday life... /---/ Rayhunter is a new open source tool we’ve created that runs off an affordable mobile hotspot that we hope empowers everyone, regardless of technical skill, to help search out CSS around the world.
CSS [cell-site simulators] operate by conducting a general search of all cell phones within the device’s radius. Law enforcement use CSS to pinpoint the location of phones often with greater accuracy than other techniques such as cell site location information (CSLI) and without needing to involve the phone company at all. CSS can also log International Mobile Subscriber Identifiers (IMSI numbers) unique to each SIM card, or hardware serial numbers (IMEIs) of all of the mobile devices within a given area. Some CSS may have advanced features allowing law enforcement to intercept communications in some circumstances."
– Rayhunter: A New Open Source Tool from EFF to Detect Cellular Spying
– github.com/EFForg/rayhunter
– Vaydr: Block facial recognition, with glasses
– Vaydr: Block thermal imaging, with blanket (incl. regular camouflage)
The global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, firmly believes that ending the complicity of states, corporations, and institutions in “israel’s” ongoing, live-streamed genocide against 2.3+ million Palestinians in Gaza [and the West Bank] is the most effective form of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle to end the genocide and dismantle “israel’s” 78-year-old regime of settler-colonialism and apartheid. – bdsmovement.net
Search brands and scan products, to see if it’s being boycotted and why. Make ethical shopping choices with confidence! – boycat.io
Read the PDF-file emails! [SFW, redacted] – jmail.world Watch the videos! [SFW, censored] – jmail.world/jefftube
From Latin abstrūdō; to conceal, hide, push or thrust away. Evolved to abstruse; difficult to comprehend or understand, obscure. Synonyms; cryptic, covert, secret.
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