Here’s How to Set Up a Cheap Burner Phone

 

The Intercept’s security director shows how to safeguard a secondary Android phone for an anti-police protest.

If you're taking to the streets to demand justice for the victims of police brutality and homicide, you may want to leave your phone at home. No matter how peaceful your behavior, you are at risk of getting arrested or assaulted by police. Cops might confiscate your phone and search it regardless of whether or not they’re legally allowed to, or they might try to break it, especially if it contains photos or video of their violent or illegal actions.

Watch the video for a complete tutorial on configuring the Nokia 1.3 to get ready to bring to a protest. Much of the advice applies to other up-to-date Android phones. The tutorial steps include:

* Inserting the prepaid Mint Mobile SIM card and activating cell phone service

* Creating a burner Google account to go along with the burner phone

* Installing system updates, and adjusting all of the Android settings to be as secure, and to leak as little data, as possible

* Installing and configuring the Signal app, and adding the contacts you’ll need during the protest to the device in such a way that they don’t get uploaded to the cloud

* Installing social media apps

* Setting up Google Photos to automatically upload photos and videos to the cloud, so that you’ll be able to recover them from another device even if police confiscate or break your phone