{"id":12661,"date":"2025-03-26T14:04:24","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T21:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/?p=12661"},"modified":"2026-04-03T18:47:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T01:47:48","slug":"expect-the-unexpected-secure-your-phone-against-confiscation-or-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/expect-the-unexpected-secure-your-phone-against-confiscation-or-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"Expect the Unexpected: Secure Your Phone Against Confiscation or Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In an ideal world you never lose your phone or have it on you when there is a risk of arrest.\u00a0Of course, this isn’t always practical.\u00a0Keeping your phone locked at all times when not in use is great protection, but some of your data could still be at risk if the cops get their hands on it. Here’s how to lock down your phone\u00a0settings to keep your data as safe as possible, and what to do if your phone is lost or taken.<\/p>\n

Best practices before anything bad happens to your phone<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  1. Delete anything you don’t need from your phone \u2014 as many old contacts, photos, videos, apps as possible.\u00a0If it’s not there, the bad guys can’t find it.<\/li>\n
  2. Set disappearing messages for all your Signal groups.\u00a0Even if you’re not sure if a conversation is sensitive, set messages to disappear in a week.\u00a0This is the best way to protect conversations on your phone, and the only way to protect your messages on other people’s phones.\u00a0Set a Signal<\/strong> PIN and enable the registration lock so that your Signal<\/strong> account is protected.\u00a0Write down your Signal PIN somewhere secure. If you forget it, you lose your Signal account. Delete all signal messages and groups before heading out to a protest (or leaving the country).\u00a0 Make sure Signal notifications are not activated at all (or your contacts and\/or messages will appear on your home screen and cops can just screenshot your messages).<\/li>\n
  3. Protect your phone<\/strong> with a good passphrase and lock settings.\u00a0Use a passphrase generator (e.g. DicePass<\/a>] with at least three words. This is the key to encrypting everything on your phone, so it’s important to make it as strong as possible!\u00a0Write it down (or use secure password manager like 1Password<\/a>) somewhere safe so you don’t forget it!<\/li>\n
  4. Set your phone to automatically lock within a few minutes of inactivity.\u00a0This will help keep your phone protected. Data, but not all data (see below), is only protected if it is locked.\u00a0Take photos or video directly from the lock screen instead of opening your phone to access the camera.<\/li>\n
  5. If your phone allows, enable remote-wiping.\u00a0If you lose control of your phone, remote wipe it.<\/li>\n
  6. Turn off message previews or notifications.\u00a0If you can see it on your lock screen, so can the cops.<\/li>\n
  7. Turn off voice controls.\u00a0Voice control is one way for cops to be able to control and access an unlocked phone.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Before you suspect something bad might happen to your phone<\/strong><\/p>\n

    If possible, power down your phone completely.\u00a0 Make sure you have disabled biometric accessibility (fingerprint, facial recognition) by changing\/disabling in your phone settings.<\/p>\n

    Your phone has been lost or confiscated<\/strong><\/p>\n

    If your phone was confiscated, you should expect that the data on your phone was or will be copied by the bad guys\/State using a universal forensic extraction device (e.g. Mass Extraction Device<\/a>).\u00a0How much of your data they will have access to depends on your phone’s state when they do this:<\/p>\n