this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2025
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[–] TheLoneMinon@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (4 children)

One thing I'm noticing in these comments, and in a lot of comments threads is the "well yeah, duh. Everyone already knew that" and while I'm definitely in that camp and have done that myself, I am starting to wonder if there is danger there.

Like, this is a significant breach of privacy and trust and the kind of thing that we should be up in arms about. But we already assume the government is doing the worst movie villain shit imaginable, so when we have evidence of it we shrug it off as just another Tuesday.

Yeah, waters wet. We should still be alarmed when we see a puddle of it somewhere it shouldn't be. (I don't know if that analogy actually tracks but I'm sticking with it).

[–] NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

You're not wrong, but these days the number of members of the public that truly cares (to point of taking action) about privacy is an extreme minority.

[–] Kirsche_z@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Puddle has been wet for a while, infact, it's practically almost an inland ocean, why do you think we're funding drone wars? Ai computing? Quantum computers? tactical robotics? Surveilence companies like Pegasus, Blackrock, Palantir, Even our our domestic surveilence is getting a larger check than defense. It's a very deliberate "funding" of institutions that ultimately give the police an upperhand, not saying that the police are directly funding these institutions, but rather the state, although not much when it comes to anything outside the defense budget.

There's a reason why privacy advocates are for alternative tech, and that's because since 9/11, corporations have become "lobbied" for lack of a better word, to include backdoors and implement certain tech to aid a surveilence state, such as the removal of headphone jacks, the endorsement of useless and extremely vulnerable tech that's more energy wasting, blutooth products (yeah i have a problem with it, everyone should), fingerprint sensors, front and back facing cameras, artificial intelligence (yes even the older models.), and even going as far as to add metadata to photos that give your exact geolocation data.

Don't even get me started on the invasive software that comes with the tech, like auto generated albums, or auto editing photos, the such, it pisses me off that we let these things happen. Alternative tech makes it much harder to intercept such vulnerable information, ofcourse, it won't completely stop it, but it mitigates how much they can swipe under your nose.

Not only that, but check upon the "Blue Shield Act," it explains the motive for corruption within the american institutions of police, hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. It's the common trope for the kinds of psychopaths that would be okay with doing the job in the first place. If there's one thing that makes their job easier, it's definitely going to be you in cuffs staying silent, so why try to steer away from cutting corners? We're the law, what we say is final. Until it isn't ofcourse..

But that's the problem, as you state in your comment above, this abuse of power is shrugged off, almost as if a normal behaviour, expected. It's digusting to see it even when i grew up around the same mentality. But hey, at least their method clearly seems to be working, we're practically silent seeing as they still have the confidence to fuck with our lives.

Just remember, it's final until it isn't.

Blue Shield/Blue Wall/Blue Code https.//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_wall_of_silence

[–] KingPorkChop@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

I think you can just assume at this point the US government does not care about the constitution or it's people and will use any means necessary to collect data on those who wish to counter its growing authoritarian nature.

If you go to a protest, only take a burner phone or no phone at all. If you must take your phone, turn it off and Faraday cage it.

The US has become a failed state. Leave if you can. Things will only get worse before it completely implodes.

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[–] super_user_do@feddit.it 28 points 1 day ago (7 children)

and they criticize china for this bruh

Reminds me of:

Samsung: "Apple Bad! They removed headphone jack and the charging brick."

Also Samsung one year later: "sAvE tHe eNvIrOnMeNt 🤡"

[–] spicehoarder@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago

Remember, they were really just admiring them 🫠

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[–] Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Exclusive BREAKING NEWS: After careful consideration by the World's top scientists from 1000+ top Universities, it turns out that WATER, H2O, the Wet Wet is, in fact, wet.

[–] MBech@feddit.dk 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

No fucking way! I'm gonna need about 100 articles about that, all explaining the exact same thing, but slightly too dumbed down to the point that it doesn't actually tell me anything.

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[–] jeromyokc@lemmy.okla.social 4 points 1 day ago

Saw a job posting yesterday to assist a contractor with installing a system used by police to monitor school camera feeds directly "to support law enforcement". jesus fuck man

[–] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 154 points 2 days ago (48 children)

Even though most of the comments here point out the obvious that phones are a risk, this kind of journalism is still important for spreading awareness and documentation of illegal surveillance for the record

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[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 104 points 2 days ago (7 children)

once again.

do not take your phone to a protest

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

Cory Doctorow wrote a pretty entertaining book on the subject of tech vs politics.

https://craphound.com/attacksurface/

Also it's well researched

https://pavelanni.github.io/attack-surface-tech/attack-surface-tech.html

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[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 42 points 2 days ago (5 children)

So basically, one could go to ICE protest and troll with fake conversations about attack points and watch them scatter to control nonexistent issues.

[–] modus@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

"Free Donuts, corner of 12th & Main. Tell no one."

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

You could then troll them even harder by giving them a real threat to scatter over.

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[–] Snowclone@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

better be VERY coded language that a jury would agree is innocent in nature and intent.

Brave to think this will go before a jury.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago

might be better to have a bunch of gibberish with a few named places.

They might think it's code and deploy there, and you're not actually making a legitimate threat they could come after you for somehow.

[–] Auth@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Yes, but they would probably arrest you instead.

[–] bold_atlas@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

They'll arrest you for looking at them.

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[–] Tracaine@lemmy.world 182 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I mean...is that not assumed to be the default? Cell phone surveillance is pretty much just business as usual in this country is it not?

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 133 points 3 days ago (13 children)

This is illegal without a warrant. And judges have been denying broad sweeping warrants that would cover such situations.

[–] eclipse@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago

The US Government only gives a shit when they are caught. You'd have a damn hard time trying to prove mass surveillance to a court even though we all know they do it.

[–] Pulsar@lemmy.world 114 points 2 days ago (2 children)

We are in different times. This administration doesn't care about warrants.

[–] Anahkiasen@lemmy.blahaj.zone 92 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

It honestly doesn't care about "illegal" much either 😅

Edit: for themselves of course! Everyone else...

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[–] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 2 days ago

I mean who doesn't know this cmon

[–] KbSez@piefed.social 146 points 2 days ago (9 children)

If you attend a protest, you need to read this and follow it:

https://ssd.eff.org/module/attending-protest

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[–] Deflated0ne@lemmy.world 74 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (12 children)

Please dont take your fucking phone to a protest. Buy a burner if you must.

You will be tracked. And spied on. And facial recognitioned. Etc.

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[–] cashsky@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Could AI be used to create a bunch of useless chatter in the airways that they would have to sift through and waste their time? Maybe use AI for actual good.

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

IMSI spoofing is a product of wireless telephony being an ancient (way-pre-internet) technology, and we're long in an era where law enforcement (or in this case law-enforcement coded) investigators don't have to obey laws, such as assuring due process, and unreasonable searches disqualifying evidence. Instead they're hunting political enemies, and every prisoner of the United States is now a political prisoner.

It also means we don't have to obey the law, and can start using all-frequency jammers in and around protests and ICE actions to level the playing field. (It will also interfere with regular infrastructure, but it's not like ICE or the current regime gives half a fuck about that.

All-frequency jammers are older tech and easier to build than IMSI spoofers, and are highly illegal since so much of our commerce and communications depend on radio. But the current [FCC] has also been captured and is failing to do its job.

Any Amateur Radio enthusiast will know how to make a jammer. And current battery technology would assure you could make a handful that are portable and powerful enough to shut down blocks and blocks of municipal communication. This is playing pretty hardball, but then ICE isn't playing by the rules.

[–] Sawblade02@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 day ago (3 children)

From an RF enthusiast,

Wideband jamming will get a lot of attention very quickly and is extremely easy to triangulate with handheld hardware and a couple of hours of training. I'd recommended against doing that.

[–] bold_atlas@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Hide them and trigger them remotely.

Alternate between multiple devices and relocate every time you use it.

I bet you could waste a lot of their time with this.

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 day ago

At the point you already have a tense paramilitary operation clashing with protests in what is escalating towards lethal violence, I'm not sure finding wideband jammers will be the priority of responders in the area, at least not the first few times.

Though in times of peace and order, wideband jamming is, yes, a big no-no.

[–] jonesey71@lemmus.org 3 points 1 day ago

I understand it would be totally easy to triangulate if it were a single jammer, but would it be possible to triangulate a mesh of maybe half a dozen jammers. It seems like a headache to try to triangulate that because your signal strength would be all over the place.

It also means we don't have to obey the law

Not true. Even pre ICE. Law enforcement is allowed to lie to you, but you cannot lie to them. The playing field is not level.

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[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 20 points 2 days ago

IMSI catchers. It's known at least for 10 years now, that they get used on protests in US.

[–] hiramfromthechi@lemmy.world 34 points 2 days ago (2 children)
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