With reports that the witnesses in today’s murder by ICE were all detained (and their phones presumably confiscated), I’ve been thinking nonstop about if I were to record ICE or the cops doing something, how could I ensure that any videos I record are not able to be deleted, assuming my phone was confiscated? I’m talking about specific tactics.
My phone runs iOS. I already have a strong passcode which hopefully makes brute forcing difficult. I use ADP and the only thing I back up automatically are photos and videos. In theory, I think my setup is fairly secure, since it would be hard to get into my phone or my iCloud account. But I don’t know what vulnerabilities or tools I may be missing.
I’m asking for iOS, but I think it’s good to discuss Android and GrapheneOS as well.
Set up syncthing on your phone and whatever other device (laptop/pc/another phone at home/etc). Point it to your photos/videos folder and sync to your device at home(or friend’s house). If your phone is confiscated and they manage to get it deleted from the cloud, you’ll have a copy on your device. Make sure you enable settings like trashcan or versioning so the files deleted on your phone aren’t auto deleted on the device.
It is my understanding that iOS does not support Syncthing.
Mayne that’s old? My quick google show Mobius Sync and Synctrain are two syncthing clients that work on ios.
Encryption is good but even better is uploading it somewhere as soon as humanly possible
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If it’s just photo/video: Immich does the job very well.
If it’s also files: Syncthing/resilio
Live stream
Take a burner and live stream. Do not keep any sensitive info or log into anything other than the live streaming platform.
If you have your personal phone on you TURN IT OFF when law enforcement is nearby. The most secure state for your phone is before you unlock it after it boots up. The first unlock decrypts it and makes it much more vulnerable.
Where do you livestream? I’m trying to find a service that isn’t shit.
Twitch.tv is most peoples preffered option. Theyre corporate, so i would be surprised if violence doesnt violate their tos, but i see protest livestreams all the time so idk. It also automatically saves a video of your livestream for two weeks iirc
Ugh. That’s the best option I’ve been able to find, but I really don’t trust Amazon to not just immediately roll over for the feds.
Auto upload to a remote location (e.g. VPS), ideally somewhere out of the country to really minimise chances of deletion. Could also have it auto upload to several places. You’ll need good enough internet connection to upload it though, so if they’re using signal jammers at a protest that could be a problem.
In terms of preventing deletion on the phone itself, you can’t really stop them from “losing” your phone, even if they can’t get into it.
If your phone is confiscated, you can’t count on getting it back. Upload the video to a server or another nearby machine (maybe another phone) as you shoot it. There are apps for that purpose of course.
My videos already sync to iCloud. My concern is if the cops were to get into my phone, they could just go to the Photos app and delete it from the device and my iCloud account.
Disable faceID and secure your phone with a strong alphanumeric pin (which can include spaces to make it easy to remember) of at least thirty characters before going into any sort of situation where you know henchmen will be.
If henchmen get the drop on you and you’re not prepared, then ideally keep a six-digit pin at all times. It’ll be easier to get into, but it’ll still take them lots of work.
If you have access to another device, you can log into icloud.com and remotely log out of the phone.
Files “deleted” from icloud can also be restored on icloud.com/recovery for up to 30 days after deletion.
Oh that’s interesting. Can you reach your iCloud stuff from a remote computer? Just have something on the remote machine auto-uoload the video from iCloud to some storage outside the US.
Try Proton. It’s based in Switzerland, is encrypted, and way more secure than using anything associated with Apple or Google, aka the fascist regime.
I pay for a Proton account already, this is a great suggestion, I’m going to look into this (can’t believe I forgot this)
if you want to be really super sure then you live stream the video. That’s how it was done at occupy.
Auto upload to cloud that someone bas access to. Even Google photos with shared partners will automatically download your partners auto uploaded videos and photos. This should be more than enough until nazis take full control.
There is a deep setting on iOS for full encryption of everything. It can make it harder to retrieve your things if you forget your password but that’s exactly what you want here.
Also, on top of other great ideas. Make sure iCloud sync is on, low battery isn’t, and it should sync if it is topped up enough
set up a local VPN on your NAS/file server and add your phone to the VPN. Next, map a local drive on your phone to the NAS. Dunno if you can do that on iOS, but at least on android you can. Disable modify and delete permissions on the NAS folder, so that the phone can only write/read from it, then use a camera app that lets you choose the save location and set it to record video to the network drive. Requires a pretty solid connection, but is extremely robust.
Just livestream. Be ready to live stream. Test that live streaming works ahead of time. Have a lockdown mode setup on your phone. Remember to vote. Make sure some IRL friends and out of state comrades will how to find your live stream. Make sure people know you’re out and expecting you back in group chats.
Keeping a live stream going on a burner phone is a good idea, removing biometrics and identifying information from main phone where possible, remote backup to a different location (preferably 1-way) keeping them both in the fully off locked state when not in use. Burner phone should only have your livestream/1-way backup passwords, nothing else. I hope you don’t have to experience this, but better safe than sorry
ADP is good. Use the iCloud foto upload. In the settings of the fotos app enable unlimited mobile data. In the mobile network settings enable „more data over 5G“. After recording if possible go to the fotos app and tell it to continue syncing if it stops because you are on battery or not on wifi, which it still sometimes does despite the settings. Before someone takes your phone click the side button five times. That disables faceid and makes it harder to unlock with spy tools.
Also in the Face ID settings:
Disable masks
Enable require attention (if the phone still accepts faceid and someone holds it to your face to unlock it, close your eyes and keep them closed. Don’t squint.)
Enable „erase data“ (after 10 attempts. Makes it practically impossible to bruteforce the phone).
Keep a consistent sync between a server you control and the phone.
Something like immich will make it easy.
