This page is intended to be used as a guide for comrades who are trying to practice good operations security (opsec). Opsec usually entails practices to make sure that private information stays appropriately private, and that those involved have their private & personal information protected.
The info in this document is adapted from various sources: (1) (2) (3)
The most important step is to make sure you can communicate securely without being surveilled. You need a way to communicate privately with your peer group and a way to stay up to date with what's happening around you and where demonstrations are taking place. For that, it's recommended to use two apps: Telegram and Signal. You can find them on either Google's Play Store if you're on Android or Apple's Appstore if you have iOS. Signal and Telegram have different use cases:
You might be familiar with Signal, especially if you have been into organizing before. It's a messaging app that deploys strong end-to-end encryption. You should use Signal to communicate with your peer group. The pros of using Signal:
Cons:
Turning on the disappearing message feature so that your phone never contains indicting information is very important, but this will be explained later in this guide. As with all communication, even if Signal has end-to-end encryption, the golden rule still applies: loose lips sink ships. Never admit to doing something unlawful on a messaging app.
Let's start off with the most important points:
Use Telegram to follow channels from your city to stay up to date about what's going down. You can find these channels on social media. Don't write anything there that you wouldn't post on twitter or instagram. If you can read it, so can the police. To keep your phone number private, go to the privacy settings and disallow your phone number from being displayed.
If possible, it is advised to purchase a burner phone with a prepaid sim when attending protests. Get a phone with a removable battery, only turn it on when you're at the protests. If you take your burner phone to your home when it's turned on you can just not bother with it in the first place.
A big part of surveillance at protests stems from CCTVs or mobile camera checkpoints. Don't forget that there's a pandemic going on: mask up! It's the thing that you can easily do that will you protect you from this surveillance (and a deadly virus).