How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance

If you insist on using biometric unlocking methods to gain faster access to your devices, keep in mind that some phones have an emergency function to disable these types of locks. For example, hold down the wake button and one of the volume buttons simultaneously on an iPhone, and it will lock itself and require a passcode to unlock instead of FaceID or TouchID, even if they are enabled. Most devices also let you take photos or record video without unlocking them first, which is a good way to keep your phone locked as much as possible.

your face

Facial recognition has become one of the most powerful tools for recognizing your presence at protests. Consider wearing a face mask and sunglasses to make it difficult for you to be identified by facial recognition in surveillance footage, social media photos, or videos of the protest. However, Fight for the Future’s Greer warns that the accuracy of the most effective facial recognition tools available to law enforcement remains unknown, and that a simple surgical mask or KN95 may not be enough to defeat well-honed facial tracking technology.

If you’re serious about not being recognized, she says, a full-face mask might be safer — or even Halloween-style. “I’ve seen people wearing funny cosplay-style cartoon masks or mascot suits or silly costumes,” Greer says, giving as an example the Donald Trump and Elon Musk masks she saw protesters wearing at the Tesla Takedown protests against Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). “This is a great way to challenge facial recognition and make protesting more fun, too.”

You should also think about the clothes you wear before going out. Colorful clothing or prominent logos make you easily recognizable by law enforcement and easier to track. If you have a tattoo that makes you recognizable, consider covering it.

However, Greer warns that preventing determined agencies with surveillance powers from knowing the mere fact that you attended a protest at all is increasingly difficult. For those of you in more sensitive positions — such as undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation — she suggests you consider staying home rather than relying on any obfuscation tactic to hide your presence at an event.

Another factor to weigh is your mode of transportation. Driving a car to participate in a demonstration — whether your own or someone else’s — can expose you to surveillance from automatic license plate readers, or ALPRs, which can be used to determine a vehicle’s movements. You should also be aware that, in addition to license plates, these ALPR devices can detect other words and phrases, including those on bumper stickers, signs, and even T-shirts.

More broadly, everyone who attends a protest must consider – perhaps more than ever – their risk tolerance, from simple identification to the possibility of arrest or detention. “I think it’s important to say that protesting in the United States now comes with higher risks than it did before, it comes with the real possibility of physical violence and mass arrests,” says Danasia Fu, founder of Cyberlixir, a cybersecurity provider for nonprofits and vulnerable communities. “Even compared to the protests that happened last month, people were able to show up without faces and demonstrate. Now things have changed.”

Your footprint on the Internet

Although most of the privacy and security considerations for attending an in-person protest naturally relate to your body, any devices you bring with you, and your physical environment, there are a host of other factors to think about online. It is important to understand how authorities can collect posts on social media and other platforms before, during or after a protest and use them to identify and track you or others. Simply saying on an online platform that you are attending or have attended a protest spreads information. If you take photos or videos during a protest, that content can be used to expand law enforcement’s view of who attended the protest and what they did while there, including any strangers who appear in your photos or footage.

Authorities can access your online presence by searching for information about you in particular, but they can also get there using aggregate data analysis tools like Dataminr that provide law enforcement and other clients with real-time monitoring to link people to their online activity. These tools can also show past posts, and if you’ve ever made violent comments online or alluded to crimes — even as a joke — law enforcement can detect the activity and use it against you if you’re questioned or arrested while protesting. This is of particular concern for people living in the United States on visas or those whose immigration status is vulnerable. The US State Department has explicitly said it monitors the activity of immigrants and travelers on social media.