Mobile safety

Work with participants to share strategies and tactics for using their mobile phones more safely in situations and contexts where they live. We **highly recommended** that you choose a Learning Path to travel, as these include activities with different levels of depth that should help participants obtain more insight into the covered subjects.

Introduction and learning objectives

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In this module, we work with participants to share strategies and tactics for using their mobile phones more safely in situations and contexts where they live.

This module offers guides for facilitating conversations about how women's rights and sexual rights activists experience their access to mobile technology and communications differently based on their genders and sexual identities. We'll talk about how we are using our mobile phones for personal and private communications, for public and movement communications, and strategies and tools we are using to managing our mobile communications more safely.

This module includes: group activities for and examining our use of mobiles and how this relates to our genders and sexual identities; hands-on activities for exploring and understanding how mobile phones and mobile communications work; group activities for sharing and practicing safety strategies and tactics in the context of our lives; facilitation guides for trainers to bridge issues of feminist safety and technical security.

Common questions we hear and are trying to address in this module:

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, the participants would have:


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Learning activities, learning paths and further reading

This page will guide you through the Module's correct use and understanding. Following the Learning Paths, with activities of varying depth, should allow participants to obtain a better grasp of the studied subjects.

Learning paths

For trainers/facilitators who are interested in any specific activity, you can use one or a few in combination. We recommend beginning with a starter activity to open discussion and sharing by participants about their mobile phone experience and how gender, sexuality, race, class, ability, are related to and impact their experiences.

Some specific recommendations: For groups who are considering how to use mobiles for documenting violence we recommend the deepening activity Documenting violence to open space for debate and discussion about challenges and opportunities of documenting violence and the tactical activity Using mobiles for documenting violence: Planning and practicing.

For groups who want to use mobiles for communications for actions and organizing we recommend the tactical activities including Planning mobile comms and Back it up, lock it, delete it.

For participants using mobiles for online dating and sexting, we recommend starter activity Collecting phones and tactical activities Reboot your online dating safety and Safer sexting.

Learning activities

Starter activities

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Deepening activities

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Tactical activities

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External and tool-based activities

Where modules include practice and use of specific tools and software, we have linked to external resources. We do this for a few reasons: tool designs and features and security issues change frequently and so it is best for us to link out to resources that are updated frequently.

Special note for mobile safety training

It is very rare that all the participants in your workshop would have the same kind of mobile phone. It is a good idea to do hands-on in smaller groups: for iPhone users, for different versions of Android, and/or for feature phone users.


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Mobiles, intimacy, gendered access and safety [starter activity]

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This is an introductory discussion about the ways that participants are using their mobile devices. Facilitators can use this exercise to introduce concepts about gendered access, to highlight how we manifest many of our identities in this mobile space and how this presents unique possibilities and risks for participants.

We recommend doing this at the start of a workshop about mobile safety.

This activity has 3 stages:

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This can work for anyone who uses a mobile phone or has used one.

Time required

This activity will require about 30 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Our mobile phones are spaces of intimate interactions. We connect with loved ones, lovers, friends, share calls, messages, images, videos, private conversations and images. And insodoing, we know our mobile phones as personal intimate objects, but they are also a part of a larger context, linked to mobile phone providers, regulated by government policies, subject to getting taken, viewed without our consent.

Mobile phone access varies by gender and mobile phone use by women represents a challenge to power – people may enact violence on women using mobile phones; in another context, women may use mobile phones to report abuse.

Pair Discussions - 15 minutes

In pairs to facilitate personal sharing. Ask one partner to share first and the other to listen. Then prompt partners to swap listening and speaking roles. Each person should have about 5-7 minutes to speak. This will depend on how long it takes for pairs to form.

Questions

Write these somewhere visible to everyone or on pieces of paper that the pairs can take with them to their discussions.

Full Group Shareback - 15 minutes

Facilitator make notes and synthesize. Are there any strategies in specific that you want to address, situations, scenarios?


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Making a mobile timeline [starter activity]

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This is an introductory activity participants share personal experiences with mobile phones and engages people through body movement and storytelling. You can expect participants to speak and hear about each other’s attitudes towards mobile phones and to share ways that they are using and accessing phones that are personal and meaningful to them.

This is similar to the activity, Women's wall of internet firsts, inviting participants to share their experiences of mobile technologies and to relate them to one another along a timeline. Through this activity, the trainer(s) can also become more familiar with the participants' experiences and relationships to mobiles.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This can work for anyone who uses a mobile phone or has used one.

Time required

This activity will require about 30 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

Labels to mark a time line with dates in 5-year segments, 1990-2019. This can be numbers written on paper and laid on the ground (ex. 1990, 1995, 2000... etc).

Mechanics

Prepare a timeline in your room. Participants will stand along the timeline at specific dates in response to questions you ask. In a large group, ask participants to move to a time along the timeline in response to the following questions. When the timeline is created, ask what the first and last dates are, if there are clusters of people at certain areas of the timeline, ask them where they are.

Depending on your group size and how much time you have, choose 2 or more questions.

Ask 1-2 participants to respond to the specific questions, for example, "What was it like?"

Questions

Debrief - 5-10 minutes

Ask participants if they have any comments or observations to share. Facilitator, debrief and connect what people have shared to intimacy and gendered access - consider what people have said about their attitudes towards their phones and the ways that they like to use their phones.

Intersectionality Flag: How is mobile access and privacy varying among participants based on their gender, sexuality, race, class?


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Himalaya trekking [starter activity]

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This is an introductory activity to raise participants' awareness about mobile security and for both participants and facilitators to assess the kinds of safety measures participants are taking and the vulnerabilities that might be the largest priorities to address. We recommend doing this at the start of a workshop about mobile safety.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This can work for anyone who uses a mobile phone or has used one.

Time required

This activity will require about 30 minutes.

Mechanics

Facilitator ask the participants to stand in a line shoulder to shoulder. Ask questions about mobile security of the participants. Instruct participants to take a step forward if their answer to the question is yes, a step backwards if their answer is no.

Example questions

Debrief - 5-10 minutes

Ask participants if they have any comments or observations to share. Facilitator, debrief and connect participants' trekking to the agenda for the day or series of sessions you will be together.


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Collecting phones [starter activity]

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This is an introductory activity to raise participants' feelings about their mobile devices and other people accessing the devices and contents.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity works particularly well in the context because their workshop participants experience this often. We recommend this exercise if your participants are experiencing device seizure and want to discuss the impacts on them and their emotional responses.

Care note: We recommend doing this with great care. Get participants' clear and emphatic consent. This will likely work best in a context where you and your participants have already built deep trust with one another.

A note about learning pathways: This is a great starter activity to prepare for discussions and tactical activities around preparing for high-risk situations in which phones may be taken or lost.

Time required

This activity will require about 30 minutes.

Mechanics

Activity: Collect participants' mobile and discuss – 15 minutes

Collect participants mobiles in the very beginning, getting their clear and emphatic consent, but without explaining why you are collecting them.

Discussion

Ask:

Activity: Return mobiles and debrief - 5-10 minutes

Return the mobile which was collected from the participant in the very beginning.

Discussion

Ask:


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Me and my mobile [starter activity]

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This is an introductory discussion. This is designed as a very short activity, to facilitate participants' thinking about how they are using their mobiles in intimate ways and to begin to share practices and concerns around surveillance and privacy related to these.

We recommend doing this at the start of a workshop about mobile safety.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This can work for anyone who uses a mobile phone or has used one.

Time required

This activity will require about 30 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Pair discussions - 15 minutes

In pairs to facilitate personal sharing. Ask one partner to share first and the other to listen. Then prompt partners to swap listening and speaking roles. Each person should have about 5-7 minutes to speak. This will depend on how long it takes for pairs to form.

Question 1: What are the most personal and private things you do on your mobile phone?

Question 2: What do you do to take care of these interactions, media, these experiences?

Facilitator, give an example or two of what you would share in a pair. For example, nudes that you are taking for your own pleasure and expression of self, sexting or intimate conversations you are having with others.

Intersectionality Flag: How is mobile access and privacy varying among participants based on their gender, sexuality, race, class, disability?

Full group shareback - 15 minutes

Facilitator make notes and synthesize. Ask people to share what they spoke about. Draw out common threads from the conversation. How are people using their phones and in what ways are these uses intimate? How have participants shared that their gender relates to their access to mobile phones, to their privacy? What are people doing to care for their intimate interactions and mobile media? What are people concerned about and how are they relating privacy and gender, sexuality, race, class, disability, age, etc?


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Mobile power - device, account, service, state, policy [deepening activity]

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This is a collaborative mind-mapping activity. Through a facilitated conversation, the group will discuss how they relate to their phone devices, service accounts, mobile phone providers and a small amount about how corporate and government policies come into play.

We suggest doing this activity at the start of a mobile workshop.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This can work for anyone who uses a mobile phone or has used one.

Time required

This activity will require about 45 minutes as written. If you want to cover this content faster, you could ask the participants fewer questions and instead share a slide or example mindmap.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Ask your participants a series of questions and mind-map their responses. The goal is to try to map the ways participants related to their mobile phones. Participants will discuss mobile power, control and agency as they discuss how they relate to their mobile devices, service accounts, mobile phone providers and corporate and government policies.

Suggestions for preparation

Draw a mind map in a visible space so people can see as you ask the following guiding questions.

example mindmap. click to view it larger.

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Questions to ask

Ask/discuss

The relationship between ourselves and our mobile providers. Did you sign terms of service? What did you agree to when you signed your contract? What did you provider agree to?

Note to facilitators: If you know of particular concerns with local carriers, try to find and bring examples of terms of service and/or case studies where people/consumers have engaged with the carrier around safety.

Ask/discuss

The relationship between the mobile providers and the state. Are these state run? Are they international, local, regional companies?

Note to facilitators: You may want to research in advance, state regulations or influences on mobile use. Have there been any recent state shutdowns of service? Are participants familiar with targeted shutting down of individual's lines? Do security forces seize devices?

Additional resources

Case studies: as WRP continues to use this activity, add links to relevant case studies here


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What is a phone? How does mobile communication work? [deepening activity]

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The purpose of this activity is to deepen knowledge of how mobile communications works in to support participant's ability to assess and plan for risks of mobile communications. Facilitators should include this in any mobile workshop or confirm that all participants are already familiar with the information in this activity. It is the basis of assessing technical mobile risks.

This activity has 2 stages:

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity is for anyone participating in a mobile workshop.

Time required

This activity will require about 45 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Mention or discuss, depending on time, that we will talk about mobile technologies – considering devices that are easily portable in a hand or pocket and have communication capabilities from voice calls and sms to web and data services. Some of this section will apply also to tablets.

Inside our phones - 5 minutes

Take this phone apart. Your phone is a tiny computer. Everyone take your out and locate:

Device and SIM identity - 5 minutes

Your phone has all these pieces and it has a few identifying features, in addition to the make, model and OS, it has 2 names - a Device Identifier and a SIM Card identifier. These are important to know about because you can be identified by either one and your phone communicates this information often, especially the IMSI.

International Mobile Equipment Identifier (IMEI): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mobile_Equipment_Identity

International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_mobile_subscriber_identity

Our phones in communication - 35 minutes

We use our phones to communicate with people: SMS, Messaging, Social Media, Apps, Calls. Our mobiles are also communicating information about our phones and ourselves - not just our messages but metadata, our location, etc, and this can be linked to other information about us like our social networks, our organizing networks, our habits and places of work.

It's good to be aware of these, mostly so that we can understand how our mobile phones use can act as a tracking device in the moment and as a historical record of our activities afterwards.

1. Your phone is chatty

Your phone is calling out to different types of networks and via different types of communication to announce it is near and to connect or check if anyone wants to connect.

Mobile carriers 

Mobile carriers have towers and antennae that your phone communicates with. Each antenna can reach a specific area. Your phone checks in with whichever tower(s) you're nearest. It shares at least your IMSI to announce which mobile carrier you are using and your number so you can receive messages, calls, and communications to your device. Every time you are near a tower, it is like dropping a pin on a mapped timeline where you are. You mark where you are, when you are there, and what you are doing in that location in terms of using your phone.

GPS

If your GPS feature is on, your phone is communicating with GPS satellites, similarly checking in, which is like dropping pins on a mapped timeline.

Wifi

If your wifi is on, as you pass through Wifi networks, your device may both attempt to connect to those networks, leaving a pin with the wifi network, and also make a record of the network name in your phone.

Bluetooth/NFC

If these are turned on, other devices using Bluetooth and NFC may be able to communicate with your device, attempt to connect, share files. Etc.

Facilitate discussion: Which things you need to have on when? Are records of where you are a risk for you or not?

2. You are chatty

We use our phones to communicate. Different types of communication appear differently while you are communicating and once the messages have been sent.

SMS

Text messages and metadata - in communication and once stored on your device and with your carriers, are sent in cleartext. A useful analogy is that an SMS is like a post card. If someone intercepts it, they could read the entire contents as well as metadata (ex. sender, recipient, time, date).

MMS

Media messages and metadata - in communication, this may or may not be encrypted, so if someone is trying to intercept your communications, it will vary if they can see it. Once it's sent, you and your recipient's mobile providers and devices have a record of the message and so investigation into either might reveal metadata (ex. sender, recipient, time, date) and content.

Calls

Call content and metadata - similarly - calls should be encrypted as they are in progress, but your provider and your recipient's provider will store metadata about the call (ex. sender, recipient, time, date) and if your opponent has access to your providers, they may have access to listen into calls or to record them.

For more information about Apps and Messaging Apps, see:

A note about state surveillance: From country to country, state surveillance varies. In some places, governments will have access to any and all data that carriers have -- so with these, you should consider all of your metadata and contents of unencrypted services accessible to governments both in real-time and after the fact if there is an investigation for these records.

Your best defense against surveillance is End-to-End Encryption.

3. A phone is a small computer

Software bug - A phone is a computer and can be infected with malware just like a desktop or a laptop. Individuals and governments alike use software to bug other people's mobile devices. This kind of software often uses parts of the phone to act as a bug or a tracking device, listening in with the microphone or sending location data.

4. The cloud is a file cabinet

Some data that my phone accessess is not on my phone at all, it's on the cloud. The "cloud" is just a term that means "the internet" -- data that is stored somewhere physically on a device that is connected to the internet. Your apps may accessing data that is in the cloud and not actually on your device.

Considerations: Is my data encrypted in transit between myself and the service? Is it encrypted when it's stored by the service? Do I know of any instances when opponents have been able to get access to this information - when, how?

Note to facilitator: As you speak, participants may ask questions about parts of phones or risks associated with communication methods you mention. Take the time to answer questions. If you can, keep a running list of issues and topics that people ask for additional information about -- a running list on a white board will do. Also keep a running list of issues and topics you will not get to this workshop so that you address it later in the workshop or suggest as follow up after the workshop.

Additional resources

Tactical Tech's My Shadow site has a number of great training guides to facilitate learning about mobile tech.

Some videos:


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Debate: Documentation of violence [deepening activity]

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This is a deepening discussion activity to facilitate discussion around using mobiles to document violence and how this relates to perpetuating violence. This exercise can be used to discuss case studies specifically of activist media aimed at reducing violence to ways in which the same channels and media have been used to perpetuate violence.

Participants will share examples of how they are using mobiles to document violence and will engage in debates around the impacts of sharing documentation of violence online.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

Groups who are currently or considering using mobiles to document violence.

Time required

This activity will require about 60 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

In plenary - 10 minutes

Ask participants to share ways they are using mobile phones to document violence.

Care Note: People may share incidents that are activating for themselves and others in the room. When you ask for examples, acknowledge any agreements and norms of your space regarding speaking about violence. You may want to acknowledge that the exercise will discuss acts of violence and that people who are sharing are invited to share and to take care of themselves, to share in a way that they do not exceed their own capacity, to ask people to care for themselves if they are feeling activated to stop sharing or to care for themselves how they need.

Ask:

Facilitators, you may want to prepare examples of recent and local movements using mobiles to document violence and ask participants to share examples of how they are using mobiles to document violence or to share documentation. Examples may include: documenting state violence, forwarding videos of violent acts, live streaming violence, the implications of having possession of this kind of media.

Some examples are linked in the "Additional resources" section below. You may choose to use these for your small group case studies or to select examples that are more current or appropriate for your participants.

Explain that this activity is to facilitate space of discussion and debate around this use.

Small group - case studies - 20 minutes

Give each small group a case study to read and discuss. You can find case studies below – choose from and edit case scenarios, blog posts and articles from the news, or choose or write examples that are more relevant for your participants.

Scenarios

These scenarios are examples of one way to write scenarios for your workshop participants. By writing more than 1, you can raise multiple issues that you know participants will want to discuss. The examples here are designed to spark conversations around linking documentation to movement, consent, impact and perpetuation of violence.

Scenario 1

Your community has been facing violence and harassment. You and others have organized to document specific acts and to share some of these on social media platforms with subtitles and text to explain the incidents and the ongoing violence. You link these to resources including a list of demands of your community is making and support resources for people who are experiencing similar violence.

Scenario 2

You witness an act of violence on the street and begin live streaming it to your social media channel where you have thousands of followers. You do not know the people you are filming and you do not know the context.

Scenario 3

You and your community have been livestreaming footage from demonstrations in order to both show the power of the demonstrations and to document incidences of violence and harm done to demonstrators. You become aware that the footage is being used by local police and by opposition groups to target demonstrators and edited together to create oppositional media about demonstrators that is also being shared on social media.

In plenary - shareback - 30 minutes

The full group shareback is an opportunity for each group to share their case study and to have a full group discussion about current challenges with documenting violence and sharing this documentation online. Allow for ample time for groups to share and for others to engage.

Facilitator, as participants shareback, draw out common themes. What are your participants concerned about most in their work – some issues that may come up and that you can facilitate sessions on more specifically later may include tactical issues of how to document, store, share; issues of verification of media, deep fakes; use media to incite violence and the possibility of sharing documentation of violence as perpetuating violence and harm.

Additional resources

Case studies and blog posts about the impacts of documenting violence

Examples of how people are using mobiles in organizing - we suggest gathering local or relevant current examples of how organizers are using mobiles and asking your participants and hosts for examples in preparation for the workshop.

Live streaming violent acts Case Study: The Ethical Challenges of Live Internet Broadcasting, Irie Crenshaw and Justin Pehoski https://mediaengagement.org/research/matters-of-facebook-live-or-death/

The world is turning against live streaming, In the aftermath of the Christchurch shooting, Australia is leading the charge against raw, unfiltered video, Casey Newton, April 4, 2019 https://www.theverge.com/interface/2019/4/4/18294951/australia-live-streaming-law-facebook-twitter-periscope

Dispatch from Brazil: If killed by police, guilty by default unless there's video?, Priscila Neri https://lab.witness.org/dispatch-from-brazil-if-killed-by-police-guilty-by-default-unless-theres-video/

WhatsApp will drastically limit forwarding across the globe to stop the spread of fake news, following violence in India and Myanmar, Kurt Wagner Jul 19, 2018 https://www.vox.com/2018/7/19/17594156/whatsapp-limit-forwarding-fake-news-violence-india-myanmar

C-SPAN's viral video moment, Hadas Gold, 6/22/2016 https://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/cspan-house-sitin-democrats-224696 US Congress members livestream a sit-in demanding a vote on gun-control legislation.


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Planning mobile communications for actions/organising [tactical activity]

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The following are guiding considerations for groups who are organizing and participating in actions and relying on Messaging Apps. Using this guide, you can facilitate discussions to support groups in considering the kinds of communications they are having and to design group management, message and device protocols that meet the safety needs for that communication.

This activity has 3 stages:

If groups have not yet chosen the messaging app they want to use, you may want to do the activity Discussion, input + hands-on: Choosing mobile apps

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity is for participants with varied levels of experience in using mobile phones. If participants include individuals who will be group admins for messaging groups, plan to implement the designs in the workshop.

Time required

This activity will require about 60 minutes to map and design and up to 3 hours if you will be installing messaging apps, mapping and designing, and implementing.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Mapping communications and assessing risk

Consideration: Privacy

Consider that you may have different types of messages to communicate via signal and that some messages can be more public than others. Map the kinds of communications you have and design groups to match your privacy considerations.

What kinds of communication are you doing and what considerations do you have around who has access to communication? Suggest that participants consider these different groups. Ask them if they have more types of information -- for example, is there information that only 2 people should know, that only one person should know and document and not share?

WHO EXAMPLE COMMUNICATIONS
1 needs to be kept among a very small circle of people who know each other location of lead organizers
2 is vital for volunteers to know or for small groups to coordinate around changes in crowd location
3 can be shared openly rally start time, groups who endorse this action publicly

PLAN: Design groups and settings

Work with participants to design groups to correspond with the different types of communication.

Guiding suggestions around group design: We suggest starting from these design questions. We have included example suggestions for group management and settings for some common types of groups. Ask the participants what about this will work and what will not, facilitate the group in modifying the designs to respond to parts that do not work.

Membership

VERIFICATION: Know who you are talking with 

For a type of communication, how will you verify who you are talking to?

Message security - settings

Discuss, based on the sensitivity of the information you are communicating, what agreements do you want to make about how people are using message settings?

Common group design templates

1. Small very strictly verified groups for sensitive information

Consideration/Risk: That people will join groups who you don't know and don't want to have access to information that is not okay going public.

2. Pods - small groups

Consideration/Risk: That people will join the group and send information that is not useful or intentionally incorrect.

3. Open group, public Information

Consider information on this channel to be public information in real-time. While information from any of the other groups could be leaked or shared outside of the group, this is a group that you automatically consider to be public.

Device security

If your device is taken, prevent others from pretending to be you and reading your information like signal messages, contact book, email etc. For more detailed facilitation guidance around device security, see the activity: Back it up! Lock it! Delete it! a.k.a. Someone took my mobile: Border crossings, arrests, seizure, theft

Power and service

What if people can't use SIGNAL or your chosen App, Phones, Internet, for any reason - power, busy network, shutdown etc. Do you have backup or redundant internet access - a portable wifi hotspot for instance (if it uses cellular data that would also go down)? Is there an offline plan? Will your hub have a power-charging station for volunteers?

Additional resources


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Back it up! Lock it! Delete it! a.k.a. Someone took my mobile: Border crossings, arrests, seizure, theft [tactical activity]

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In this activity, we plan and prepare for situations where participants and their phones may be at physical risk. Scenarios may include:

This activity has 4 stages with optional hands-on activities with installing and preparing devices. The stages include:

Optionally, follow this activity with hands-on exercises to practice the strategies and tactics.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity is for participants with varied levels of experience in using mobile phones to practice tactical safety with a focus on care and mobile phones.

Time required

This activity will require about 80 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

This exercise is designed to support activists who are planning to engage in risky situations with their mobile phones. In the end, they will have a map of tools and tactics they can use.

Current practices in caring for ourselves – 20 minutes

Care note: This activity is a tactical activity to plan and prepare for using mobile phones in situations where people and their devices are at risk. Begin by acknowledging that to prepare for a risky situation, we need to consider first how we care for ourselves before, during and after.

Begin with grounding and discussion about how people care for themselves in high risk situations.

Ask each individual to begin by working on their own. Hand out paper and ask them to consider these questions and to write their answers:

Ask participants to divide their paper in 3 sections: before, during and after. Their paper will look something like this:

Participants' Paper Example
BEFORE
DURING
AFTER












As a full group, invite participants to share their practices. Write these on a white board or piece of paper visible to the full group. Leave this up in a place that is visible. Ask people to share practices they do as individuals and with others.

Participants will continue to use this simple method for organizing practices in the next part of the workshop.

Planning and preparing our devices - 45 minutes

If you are working with participants to prepare for a specific event, it is best to work with the actual event. The following are scenarios that you might use in case workshop participants are not preparing for a specific event or your group needs more grounding for any reason. These are examples and we invite you to take these and make them your own.

Scenario 1: Safety when participating in protests

You are about to attend a mass protest. You need to be able to keep the data in your phone safe and to keep yourself from being tracked in the protest, but also be able to use your phone to contact allies for emergency purposes. You are also thinking of using your phone to document the protest and any possible human rights violations that will happen there.

Scenario 2: Safety at (unsafe) border crossings

You are in transit, and are about to cross a border into an unsafe location. You want to be able to use your phone to keep contact with your allies, but not as a personal tracking device. Ask people what their strategies are when they know someone else may have access to their phone. Examples of situations might include border crossings, flight boarding, going to a street protest.

Scenario 3: Safety when there is threat of arrest or seizure

You have heard from a reliable contact that you are being targeted by the state for arrest and seizure of devices because of your activism.

Scenario 4: Safety when there is risk of theft and harassment

You are concerned that someone may steal your phone and use the content to harass you.

Ask participants to document their discussions on paper and to divide their paper in 3 sections: before, during and after. Their paper will look something like this:

Participants' Paper Example
BEFORE
DURING
AFTER












In small groups, facilitate participants to work through the following sets of questions.

How are people impacted: In this scenario/the event or experience you are preparing for, what are the risks? Who is impacted by this? Consider yourself, people who are on your phone in some way, your organizing/the issue you are working on (if applicable).

You can use the following questions as guiding questions for groups to consider how to reduce the impacts on people from a tactical perspective.

Before: Think about what you will do to prepare your mobile phone for this scenario.

During: Think about how you will use your phone during the scenario.

After: Think about what you will do after the scenario.

Give the groups a minimum of 30 minutes to a maximum of 45 minutes to come up with plans, strategies and tactics.

At the end of the group discussion, ask the groups to talk about their plans, strategies and tactics.

Use the results of the report-back to plan your hands-on for mobile safety.

Input (optional) - 15 minutes

Notes for trainer/facilitator Depending on your style and your participants, you may want to deepen and add inputs as groups debrief or as a planned input section. The following are notes that we believe may be useful as you plan this.

Before

During

After your phone has been out of your control

Additional resources


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Discussion, input + hands-on: Choosing mobile apps [tactical activity]

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This is discussion and input activity that will focus on enabling the participants to choose mobile apps for themselves, especially after the workshop.

This activity has 3 stages:

Learning objective this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This session may apply to anyone who has ever used a mobile phone, and wants to have a better handle on how to choose apps.

Intersectionality flag: this activity is designed as practice with assessing safety of mobile apps, specifically messaging apps. Other types of apps that may be more relevant for your participants might include the following:

Time required

This requires about 60 minutes.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Discussion: What are you using and why? - 10 minutes

In plenary, ask: What are 5 apps you use the most? What do you use them for? Get everyone to contribute to the discussion.

Then ask: How did you choose them?

To synthesise, summarise the reasons and go into the input.

Input: Best practices for choosing apps - 5 minutes

Hands-on activity: Assessing popular apps - 15 minutes

Go into the app store and try to find an app that does something common in the context. In an urban setting, maybe a taxi-hailing app, subway system map etc.

How do you choose? Look into (1) what permissions does it ask for (2) who is distributing the app and who manages and owns the service. There are a lot of apps out there that are copies of popular apps, made to look like something you want like a game or a subway map and they are actually designed to do other things like send your location to someone else. The developer or company that is distributing the app will be named in the app store. Share what you know about who owns the app/runs the service and research to assess ways in which the values may be similar and different from yours and how that may impact your privacy and safety while using the app. If you are choosing between multiple apps that appear the same, look elsewhere online for more information about the app and who is the developer or company distributing it and double check that you are downloading this one.

Activity: Assessing messaging apps - 30 minutes

Break into small groups. In small groups:

In plenary: Share back, each group share one app until you have shared all of them.

Guiding questions:

List of messaging apps and considerations

SMS
Calls
Facebook Messenger
GoogleTalk
Signal (recommended app)
Telegram
WhatsApp
Wire

Additional resources


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Using mobiles for documenting violence: Planning and practicing [tactical activity]

This is a tactical activity for activists intending to use their mobile phones to document violence.

About this learning activity

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This is a tactical activity for activists intending to use their mobile phones to document violence. Participants will practice doing a safety assessment and making a documentation plan. Participants will then work hands-on with their mobile phones to practice documenting using their apps and tools of choice.

Care note: Facilitators, this is a long activity and may take most of a day. Be sure to take breaks as you go through this. Acknowledge that the act of documenting is stressful and encourage your participants to share exercises that they find helpful when they are documenting for example breathing and motion exercises.

This activity has 2 parts:

Part 1: Assess and plan

Participants will first plan their work, assessing safety issues and the wellbeing of those involved and will make safety plans and decisions about managing mobile phones and media based on this assessment.

Part 2: Setup and practice

Following this, participants will practice tactics for documenting violence using mobile phones.

We recommend also using the Deepening discussion about mobiles for documenting violence and tactical Back it up, lock it, delete it.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

Groups who are currently or considering using mobiles to document violence.

Time required

This activity will require about 1 hour 45 min.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Introduction - 5 minutes

Share some recent examples of movements using mobiles to document violence and ask participants to share examples of how they are using mobiles to document violence or to share documentation. Examples may include: documenting state violence, forwarding videos of violent acts, the implications of having possession of this kind of media.

Part 1: Assess and plan – 30 minutes

Facilitate participants to make small groups based on common situations in which they are documenting violence.

Care note: Facilitators, encourage participants to assess and plan for their own care needs. Documenting acts of violence can be activating and stressful for the documenters. Encourage participants to share how they are self-resourcing, how they are working with other activists to address the impacts of documenting.

see also Back it up, lock it, delete it

Purpose and planning: Discuss the purpose of the documentation

Assessing risks and taking care: Discuss known and likely safety issues for the people documenting and being documented

Know your rights

Preparing your device

Discussion: Why or why not, do you use your personal mobile for documenting violence?

Input

Use information from What is a phone? to explain how mobile phones are linked to the people using them, how identification works with real-time surveillance, how metadata about phone usage and media EXIF data can be used to identify you.

After
Discussion

What else do you want to do after documenting?


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Part 2: Setup and practice - 60 minutes

Depending on the time available, you can do these activities together or break into smaller groups and participants join whichever groups suit their needs the most.

Recording tips and tricks

How to use photo, video, and/or audio recording to document violence

Recording phone calls

Input: This has proven useful for sex workers who were being threatened by authorities.

Using an app

You can install and use an app that allows you to record. This will require data for downloading, data for conducting the call as the app will use data and not the phone line and will take some planning ahead.

Using a recorder

If you are unable to or choose not to use an app for any reason, you could work with another person, using your phone on speakerphone and using a recording device or their phone to record from the call using their phone as a voice recorder. Some phones have a built in voice recording feature.

Screenshots

You can take screenshots of your phone to document textual harassment and violence.

Notice, you will not be able to screenshot all apps. Some apps, like Signal, have a security setting that allows a user to prevent others from screenshotting specific conversations.

Documenting the events for internal records

As an incident is occurring, whether it is brief, long, one time or repeated, it is important to document information about the event. Whereas many of the other tactics are around documentation for public and social sharing, this may be mostly useful as an internal practice. Where is the event occurring, when, who is involved, what is happening. Keeping track of this information can be useful in reconstructing events, assessing and planning responses.

Live Streaming

Adapted from the WITNESS resource: Livestreaming Protests, written for activists in the USA

You are livestreaming at an event like a protest, rally, etc. Definitely use the Planning activities and Prepare activities. This may be a great way to show events that are unfolding and to engage people who are watching in supporting. There are also some elevated risks as there may be police presence and there may be police watching now or later to target activists.

Shareback - 10 minutes

Additional resources


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Reboot your online dating safety [tactical activity]

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This is a tactical activity in which participants share safety tips and tricks for online dating. Participants will work in small groups or pairs to update their own online dating profiles and practices. Participants will share their different needs and preferences around dating apps, privacy and security. Participants will share and practice different tactics for increasing the privacy of their dating app use.

Intersectionality note: Facilitators, make space for people to share how their online dating considerations and practices relate to their gender and sexuality. Among your participants, how do gender and sexuality related to the apps people are using to date? How do they relate to concerns about privacy and safety?

This activity has 2 parts:

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

People who are using dating apps and want to use them more safely.

Time required

This activity will require about 2-2.5 hours.

Facilitator note: The exercises take about 2.5 hours and we recommend taking a few breaks as you work.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

Sharing online dating and safety tips and tricks

Ice breaker - 5 minutes

Safer dating – 30 minutes

Before getting into the apps and hands-on with devices, facilitate sharing of dating safety tips between participants.

Ask:

Write this on a flipchart or somewhere visible for participants.

Share the following additional safety tips and ask participants to share and add:

Dating app (safety tips)

New models for dating

Are there any features you especially like about existing dating apps that you can look for in newer apps?

What possibilities and features do newer apps offer? (i.e., red-flagging users with bad reputation, documenting scammers, sharing tips about selecting matches).

In what ways are you already connecting with your trusted friends and community members around online dating?

Hands-on: Reboot your online dating safety - 60-90 minutes

Start with lightly Doxxing Yourself – see what information is available about your name in your dating apps. Using the information on your dating app profile, look for yourself on other platforms. Try searching for your username or information you share in your profile. Reflect on what information about you that is available outside the dating you don´t want to the dating app folks to know. Based on that, re-do your profile.

In pairs, go through the Safety Tips and update your profile. Share with each other and support your partner to point out if there is identifying information or if they can change more elements to be less identifiable and meet their own safety goals.

Reboot your pix

Check and replace any images including your profile and other account photos if they do not meet the safety tips you want to follow. Consider removing identifying metadata and removing identifying information about other people in the images.

Reboot your text

Check and rewrite your text if you are revealing more information that you would like to, considering your safety. Work with a partner to rewrite this if you want!

Set up a secure separate email address.

Shareback - 10 minutes

How was that? What was surprising? What was easy? What was hard? What are you doing to do next?

Facilitators: Are participants interested in sexting? Check out the safer sexting module.

Additional resources

Privacidad y seguridad en contextos conservadores: las apps de citas para mujeres de la diversidad sexual. Steffania Paola: https://www.genderit.org/es/articles/edicion-especial-privacidad-y-seguridad-en-contextos-conservadores-las-apps-de-citas-para

Self-Doxxing: https://gendersec.tacticaltech.org/wiki/index.php/Step_1#Self-Doxing

Dating App Safety Resources


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Safer sexting [tactical activity]

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This is a tactical activity in which participants share and practice safer sexting tactics.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

People who are sexting or interested in sexting and who want to discuss and practice safer sexting.

Time required

This activity will require about 2 hours.

Resources needed for this activity

Mechanics

In pairs, discuss - 10 minutes

Full group shareback and strategy share - 35 minutes

Facilitate participants sharing of what is fun and pleasurable about sexting with phones.

Intersectionality flag: Is there social stigma around sexting and how do participants of different genders, sexualities, races, classes, ages, experience this stigma differently? How do participants address social disapproval?

Discussion questions you might ask:

Strategy share

Facilitator, prepare large pieces of paper with the following titles:

Facilitate a conversation with the guiding questions below. Make notes on the large paper with strategies shared by participants.

Cumming to agreements

The love we make, the data we share

– information that goes with our photos and the stories it tells:

Apps and basic safety/device considerations

Hands-on: Safer apps and image editing

Discussion about choosing sexting apps

What apps are participants using for sexting and why? What safety concerns do you have choosing an app and what safety features do you like about your app? What are you concerned about?

Use apps that are:

Assessing SMS and MMS. SMS and MMS do not offer any of these features. See Activity: What is a phone? How does mobile communication work? For more information SMS and MMS and surveillance.

Hands-on activities

Facilitator, this activity is an opportunity for participants to practice safety strategies recommended by contributing trainers to the FTX Safety Reboot. Select whatever activities are most appropriate for your context. Some others to consider:

Share this list of tasks with participants and instruct them to practice these tips in small groups, using each other and the internet to answer questions.

Hands-on with images

Hands-on with devices and apps

Shareback - 10 minutes

How was that for you?

Additional resources

Luchadoras' Sexting Workshop – moments of sexting like lead up, during, after. Storage and sharing, Shifting consent and consent in all these moment.

Trainers Notes As deleting images from apps and devices is a bit more complicated, here are some specific instructions to support participants to “Know how to delete images from your device” (last updated May 2019): Knowing how to delete images from your device requires understanding how to do this in your app memory and also knowing the location of where your images are stored in your mobile phone. On IoS devices this more opaque as you don't have access to files aside from the apps where the files are created. This also depends on whether or not you are using the chat apps to take photos, or you are preparing photos in advance (using the mobile phone's camera app).

For Telegram users, click on the header of a conversation, then look for Photos and Videos, you can delete images from there. This will delete the images from the Telegram app but if you had saved those images on another folder in your device, you will have to use a File Manager to do delete those. You can also look at and explore shared files with a specific user or a group.

On Signal, click on the header of a conversation. You will see thumbnails of Shared media. You can delete from there. Again, this will only delete the images / shared media on Signal, and if you had saved it elsewhere on your device, there will be a copy there. This also applies to who are sexting with.

For Android users, using a File Manager Removing media and images on Telegram: go to Internal Storage, and look for the Telegram folder >> Telegram Images / Telegram Video / Telegram Documents / Telegram Audio. Then delete the files in those folders. For Signal, if you save an image / media to away from Signal you can choose where to save it. Other places where your pictures / media could be: Internal Storage >> Pictures. You will generally get a directories (folders) that store your photos. By default, saved images from Signal get saved here.


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