Ukrainian govt uses cell phones to identify participants in "mass disturbance"

[rah45]

I think the Ukrainian government is providing a valuable lesson.

Maybe the Most Orwellian Text Message a Government's Ever Sent



“Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”

That's a text message that thousands of Ukrainian protesters spontaneously received on their cell phones today, as a new law prohibiting public demonstrations went into effect. It was the regime's police force, sending protesters the perfectly dystopian text message to accompany the newly minted, perfectly dystopian legislation. In fact, it's downright Orwellian (and I hate that adjective, and only use it when absolutely necessary, I swear).

But that's what this is: it's technology employed to detect noncompliance, to hone in on dissent. The NY Times reports that the "Ukrainian government used telephone technology to pinpoint the locations of cell phones in use near clashes between riot police officers and protesters early on Tuesday." Near. Using a cell phone near a clash lands you on the regime's hit list.

See, Kiev is tearing itself to shreds right now, but since we're kind of burned out on protests, riots, and revolutions at the moment, it's being treated as below-the-fold news. Somehow, the fact that over a million people are marching, camping out, and battling with Ukraine's increasingly authoritarian government is barely making a ripple behind such blockbuster news bits as bridge closures and polar vortexes. Yes, even though protesters are literally building catapaults and wearing medieval armor and manning flaming dump trucks.

Hopefully news of the nascent techno-security state will turn some heads—it's right out of 1984, or, more recently, Elysium: technology deployed to "detect" dissent. Again, this tech appears to be highly arbitrary; anyone near the protest is liable to be labeled a "participant," as if targeting protesters directly and so broadly wasn't bad enough in the first place.

It's further reminder that authoritarian regimes are exploiting the very technology once celebrated as a vehicle for liberation; last year, in Turkey, you'll recall, the state rounded up dissident Twitter users. Now, Ukraine is tracing the phone signal directly. Dictators have already proved plenty adept at pulling the plug on the internet altogether.

All of this puts lie to the lately-popular mythology that technology is inherently a liberating force—with the right hack, it can oppress just as easily.

[JohnyMac]

Man O' man we are so lazy. Think GMRS, CB and handheld ham. Of course everybody can listen but not if you speak in code.

[APX808]

Sadly this has happened previously, specially in eastern countries during the "Arab Spring", you should take a burn phone or not phone at all.
Having a cell phone with you also presents many more issues, check this guide created by the EFF about problems and possible solutions.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/cell-phone-guide-occupy-wall-street-protesters-and-everyone-else

[rah45]

Can't you just pay cash for prepaid phones, distribute them to the rally's section leaders, tell them to use gloves whenever they touch them and put them in sealed ziploc bags when they're not in use, and then toss them after the rally?

[APX808]

Yes that could be a way, I dunno why the ziploc bag, if you are always with the gloves you wouldn't be able to leave your fingerprints.

In a really shitty situation you also should consider pictures and video. In most public demonstrations you'll have other people taking pictures, the media filming and taking pictures, CCTV from the government and also many times I have seen snipers and photographers on top of the buildings, so being a "grey man" is key, and having something to cover your face that is easy to hide or throw away.

[APX808]

Check this out



I saw those fuckers a few times by myself, you can see their heads moving on the roofs.
That's the main square called "Plaza de Mayo" where there were the disturbs in the 2001 crisis.

[rah45]

Check this out



I saw those fuckers a few times by myself, you can see their heads moving on the roofs.
That's the main square called "Plaza de Mayo" where there were the disturbs in the 2001 crisis.

Your pic isn't coming through, APX.

EDIT: Fixed image link - APX.808

[rah45]

Yes that could be a way, I dunno why the ziploc bag, if you are always with the gloves you wouldn't be able to leave your fingerprints.

It would just be an extra security precaution. There are many reasons why a person might need to take off a glove or two, and forget to put them back on afterward.

In a really shitty situation you also should consider pictures and video. In most public demonstrations you'll have other people taking pictures, the media filming and taking pictures, CCTV from the government and also many times I have seen snipers and photographers on top of the buildings, so being a "grey man" is key, and having something to cover your face that is easy to hide or throw away.

Couldn't they just use the existing surveillance systems' footage, networked together, to track the individuals afterward? You have to take off the mask sometime, or get in a vehicle, or do something else that might trace who you are or narrow your point of origin/base of operations.

[APX808]

It would just be an extra security precaution. There are many reasons why a person might need to take off a glove or two, and forget to put them back on afterward.

Yes that's an option, YMMV

Couldn't they just use the existing surveillance systems' footage, networked together, to track the individuals afterward? You have to take off the mask sometime, or get in a vehicle, or do something else that might trace who you are or narrow your point of origin/base of operations.

For sure they could, but you should be a special someone of all the people in the demonstration, they aren't going to profile thousands of guys. Being a "grey man" would help you mix in big groups of people, like getting inside the metro and then you're gone.

As any security measure, isn't bulletproof but at least makes you a hard target.

[APX808]

Fixed the image link, hope is working now.

[Kentactic]

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

-JFK

[rah45]

Fixed the image link, hope is working now.

Yep! Thanks! 

[Kentactic]

Ukraine protests/Riots after new laws were passed.

За масові заворушення 19.01.2014 у центрі столиці міліцією уже затримано більше 20 осіб

EDIT: Fixed video embedding - APX.808

[Kentactic]

Thanks APX it wont do that from my phone.

Here's a new little article on this subject. It kind of puts the NWO spin on it.

http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/01/23/ukrainian-protesters-encircle-us-embassy-yankees-go-home/

[special-k]

I've skipped through a 7 hour YT video of raw RT footage of this event.  I noticed how the protesters were constantly feeding and starting new piles of tires on fire.  Do y'all recon this was done to obscure drone surveillance?  If so, this should be a strategy to learn from.  When the area was fairly saturated with black smoke, the police completely backed down and attempted to put out any tires they could reach with a water cannon to only little avail (they couldn't keep up with the new pile fires.)