Tower Triangulation

This is where multiple cellular towers are used to geometrically locate devices connecting or pinging them by measuring the strength of the connection from each tower.

more towers present around you = more accurate location

Towers even at a distance of 5 miles from you can be used to triangulate your location precisely.

Wifi Triangulation

Wifi routers often interact together especially when they're from the same ISP. When your device recognizes a wifi network nearby (as seen in the wifi details option of your phone) which also allows them to determine the signal strength of each router.

This can be used to geometrically determine your device's location based on how strong the nearby signals are, even when you're not connected to it.

Two routers are enough to track you precisely upto a 6 feet error. You're surrounded by tens of them.

On Android and Apple devices, wifi can also be used to geofence you with GPS through Google or Apple Network Location Provider (NLP) service. Making it even easier to geo-locate your device.

GPS/A-GPS

Your phone constantly searches for satellites to connect to Global Positioning System (GPS) signals.

Both Android and Google devices use Google-SUPL service for gps queries - [supl.google.com:7275]. This happens even if you do not connect your phone to a WiFi or Cellular data.

Blocking this service greatly impacts cellular data connectivity and disables location services on your device.

(A-GPS stands for 'Assisted GPS'. It is when the SUPL GPS service works with the on-device GPS module to be even efficient in location tracking.)

How to have a phone for anonymous use?

WARNING: The safest and simplest way to stay anonymous is to keep your phone at home, as explained above, for deniability, where you can claim that you stayed at home during the protest.

⚠️ Proceed only if you need connectivity for communications while doing anonymous outdoor activities. ⚠️

WARNING: Best preferred Android ROM is GrapheneOS. If you REALLY NEED a secondary phone and it is compatible with LineageOS, you can proceed with it, but remember, you WILL NEED to make changes to the LineageOS firewall (+ block supl.google.com:7275) for it to be even close to Graphene in terms of security.

WARNING/TIP: If you're proficient with linux and have experience using ubuntu touch, you can proceed with the same steps of setting up and precautions after you have secured its firewall.

Preparation - indoors:

• Use your main pc to flash grapheneOS on a pixel phone. Only proceed if you get one. Otherwise, don't use a secondary phone at all.


• Get a decently reviewed Faraday bag on amazon. However its recommended to buy it physically with cash or learn how to make Faraday bag here, here, or here.
  
  WARNING: Make sure to check whether your faraday bag works on not at your home prior the protest by putting your or someone else's phone inside it with cellular data and gps/location enabled and trying to call/track it.


• After you have flashed your pixel with grapheneOS (first step), DO NOT CONNECT TO ANY WIFI OR CELLULAR NETWORK. Now switch your phone off and immediately put it in a faraday bag, making sure its completely sealed. Its is good to cover and disguise the faraday bag as a normal envelope or put it in a bag to avoid high-level suspicion.


• Use sites like Openwifimap through tor to pre-scan and find free open WiFi around the protest to use in a secondary phone and the place where you plan to use active internet (as shown later).
  
  [WARNING: Do this only if you NEED to use secondary phone for the protest].


• ⚠️ Use a Faraday bag at all times to store your secondary phone when you don't need to use it. ⚠️

Next steps (a) & (b) are for accessing internet anonymously ONLY AFTER you have completed the above steps.

a. Accessing internet anonymously - eSIM

• Using Whonix VM or Tails VM, via the tor browser and some Monero (XMR), purchase an eSIM from https://silent.link and note down the activation code on a piece of paper.
  
  

  WARNING: It is important to write the combined activation code down on a piece of paper or print the QR activation code (both given by silent.link after the purchase), and not in any digital or audio format because you do not want to leave any evidence of you ever interacting with the anonymous eSIM providers and arise suspicion.

• Write down the activation instructions below on a piece of paper. Dress up all black and go to a random place insignificant to you, get your phone out of the faraday bag, and connect to an open wifi network. There activate the eSIM as instructed below.



How to activate eSIM

Step 1

Navigate to your grapheneOS setting and click on "Network and Internet"



Step 2

There you will find that the "priviledged eSIM management is disabled. This is because the google play services and google play service framework is not present by-default in graphene."



Step 3

Navigate to your app drawer and click on "Apps"



Step 4

Now install "Google Services Framework" and "Google Play Services"



Step 5

Navigate back to "Network and Internet" in the settings. The eSIM managament option should be enabled now.



Step 6

Click on the eSIM management option. Then click "Download a SIM instead."



Step 7

Click "Next."



Step 8

Here, either scan the printed QR code on the piece of paper. Otherwise, navigate to "Need Help?" and select the option to input the code manually. Input the combined activation code from the silent site that you noted down on the piece of paper.



Step 9

You might see different sim name downloading when you activate the sim. Its fine.



Step 10

Navigate to "settings" after you've finished downloading the eSIM.



Step 11

Click on the downloaded eSIM option.



Step 12

Toggle "Use SIM"



Step 13

Make sure to enable use for data if you want to access internet. You now have access to your private and anonymous eSIM. If you encounter any abnormal issue, using tor browser, head to silent help.



Step 14

DO NOT FORGET TO REMOVE BOTH GOOGLE SERVICES THAT YOU DOWNLOADED EARLIER.


• Make sure that while you're doing this, you're not under any security surveillence (cameras, law encorcement buildings, etc).


• Once you validate that the eSIM works, power the device off, and put it in the faraday back again right away.

---

⚠️ Although eSIM method works well, you need to remember that the moment you activate it, the systems start tower-triangulation right away and doing it anywhere close to your location of interest might be potentially risky. You also need to be careful NOT to switch it on at your own home by any chance, or you could hear the bang on your door soon. This is why its best to use open public wifi.⚠️

Leave your primary phone INDOORS and ACTIVATED while you are outdoors.

⚠️ Remember NEVER to carry both - your personal/primary and your secondary phones at the same time. If and only if need to for critical reasons, make sure to ALWAYS keep atleast one of them in a faraday bag at all times and do NOT switch on both of them simultaneously. ⚠️

---

b. Accessing internet anonymously - public wifi

• There are multiple advantages to use tools like openwifimap to find public WiFi cafe networks to connect to.


• If for some reason the app/website does not show free open WiFi around your area, you might want to go for a walk like a normal person just to grab some coffee and note down the password without any suspicious movements.


• Make sure to install f-droid on your grapheneOS and install tor browser and orbot vpn from it. Check "Setting up package managers" section of this to be guided through how to install fdroid securely.


• Go in your grapheneOS settings and search for 'VPN' , find and select more options for orbot vpn after opening the orbot app once and giving it permission to start a VPN. Select the option to set orbot as an "Always-on VPN" and turn on "Block all connections not using this VPN".
  
  (or)
  
  Install Mullvad VPN and proceed with the same steps to block all connections not using Mullvad.
  
  

  Setting up orbot

  
  For routing internet traffic to specific servers anonymously, nothing beats tor. You can learn how to extensively do so here.
  
  
  

  ⚠️ If tor is banned and illegal in your country, you NEED to access it through an untraceable anonymous VPN like Mullvad.

  For now, we will just set up orbot as power user (socks proxy) through which we can safely route our SimpleX chat (below) messages securely.

  
  
  

  Step 1

  Navigate to the orbot app after you have installed from the steps above

  

  Step 2

  Go to "More" (three dots) on the bottom left of the screen

  

  Step 3

  Go to settings

  

  Step 4

  Enable "Power User mode"

  
  
  
  
  We will be showcasing how to use the SOCKS5 proxy you just enabled to securely relay SimpleX messages and also a guide on setting up Mullvad VPN in our future article(s).
  
  

  ⚠️ Although Mullvad is one of the very few trustable VPNs out there, we can NEVER trust a single entity so its better and free to use orbot. ⚠️

Now whenever you are outdoors onto doing something sensitive, being unidentifiable with the uniform and your gear, you can take the phone out of the faraday bag, power it on and use it.

Anonymous Communications

A trusted, decentralised communication platform for discussing things about the protest is the most important thing. Despite having all the proxies and anonymization tools in your hand, if the Law Enforcement already knows about the people going to protest, they can arrest them prior the protest.

This is why you need a secure, decentralised, end-to-end encryption based messaging platform.

An extensive guide on how to use and why to use PGP encryption in messengers can be found here.

Simplex Chat

For sensitive communications while outdoors, it is suggested to use SimpleX chat with disappearing messages turned on.

You NEED to make sure to turn on disappearing messages on both ends, incase authorities get hold of your device and search for your chats. Having messages set to disappear after a said amount of time allows you to use deniability.

We will be also showing how to use SimpleX as an all-in-one privacy messenger for all your activities in one of our future tutorials.

Your body language

sourced from cia assessment training papers from wikileaks.

While interacting with people of the protest, you need to take care make sure that you

• Do NOT tell anyone your real name. Create a pseudonym for every group/contact. SimpleX chat offers this feature within their app to randomly generate one using "Incognito mode" within the app.


• Do NOT vocally talk about protest at home, near devices. SimpleX chat should be the only place you talk about the protest.


• Do NOT share personal info (address, phone number, birth year, family background) with ANYONE.

When going outside to safely access services like eSIM or tor, as we talked earlier, always keep in mind to

• NOT go to a location that holds a significance to you.


• NOT go to a location that is near Law Enforcement premises or under surveillence (CCTV) without being sure you've not been followed and are unidentifiable.



• Put your uniform in a bag (1) and put the bag (1) in another bag (2). Go to a subway washroom/restroom and wear the uniform making sure no cameras are watching you. Make sure to now put the bag (2) in bag (1) and proceed with your work as shown in the below diagram.





Again, keep the secondary phone switched off in a faraday bag at all times. Switch it on or remove it from the faraday bag STRICLY ONLY AFTER YOU HAVE DISGUISED (ONLY after reaching public washroom A). Put the phone back in before removing your disguise (BEFORE leaving public washroom B).