Some police agencies have been conducting surveillance on nationwide racial injustice protests by tracking protesters' phone data. Tech writer Andy Ihnatko spoke with Boston Public Radio on Friday about phone data safety during protests.
"Police agencies are thinking, 'All of these phones are leaking so much information, there's nothing legally preventing us from capturing that, why shouldn't we do that?'" he said. "That's why you should turn it off your phone completely or put it into airplane mode so it's not broadcasting these signals during a protest."
Ihnatko also recommended utilizing your phone's 'lockdown mode' if an officer happens to take your phone.
"What lockdown mode does is it turns off your fingerprint authentication and face ID and locks down the phone until you enter your long digit passcode," he said. "They can still take your phone away from you, but legally they can't force you to give up your passcode, so this is a way to keep your data on your phone safe."
