A Burner Phone is Your Invisibility Cloak at a Protest

Life in today’s dystopian police state is fraught with new challenges that most sane people never even considered, much less feared, last year. It’s time to buy a burner phone.

Back in the good ‘ol days, peaceful protests were seen as constitutionally protected rights. Everyone knew the US Constitution trumped bullshit from authoritarian MAGAt (MAGA traitors) who are now busily shredding said Constitution in their efforts to destroy democracy in America and establish an American Taliban society.

Today, privacy, security and resistance go hand-in-hand. Just as MAGAmoron’s fascist Gestapo wear masks to hide their identity, protesters, activists, and all people of the resistance must cloak their identities to shield themselves from harassment, illegal search and seizure, detainment and arrest, and even deportation to a 3^rd world shithole country that Trump seems to prefer. The most fundamental of these steps is a secure burner phone.

An untraceable device to avoid being tracked

Burner phones can range from $10 to $100. I recommend the cheapest option available because it will most likely be confiscated or destroyed. Its only purpose is to send a message to a trusted contact if you’re detained, “disappeared,” or on the run.

Most consumers of modern crime shows have heard of burner phones, but few have given them much thought beyond a vague notion of an untraceable device to avoid being tracked, identified or otherwise tied to you.

For example, you’re peacefully attending a protest when the Moron Gestapo appear and herd everyone into a containment area to be frisked (groped) and questioned. The first thing they’ll want is your cell phone. Give them your personal smartphone and you’re screwed.

Remember all those memes of the moron you downloaded during the 2024 election cycle? Remember the late-night screeds you posted when it seemed the moron was winning? Remember the babbling, blubbering rant text you sent your BFF when he won. That’s enough to get you a one-way ticket to a Khartoum slum or maybe a cramped cell in the Flori-duh swamps courtesy of death-Santis.

On the other hand, if you give them a burner phone that you only use during protests and other acts of resistance, the Gestapo will have squat. Now, this doesn’t guarantee the Gestapo won’t just make up some BS charge, but it’s easier to fight pure fictional BS with facts and truth than try to explain you didn’t “really” mean it when you wished some horrible fate on the MAGAt.

Like everything in life, nothing is quite as simple as it may seem at first glance. However, buying, securing, and using a burner requires some planning, forethought, and discipline.

For example, hopping on Amazon and laying out the plastic is a bad idea. That immediately ties that phone to you through your credit card. Besides, where are you going to have the phone shipped? So, a quick trip to Walmart or a local phone store with a pocketful of cash is the way to go.

Once there, you can bet your bippy your mug will be surveilled by multiple cameras. That can largely be avoided with a huge N95 mask covering your entire face. Perhaps you can wear a niqab and burka. Be sure to wear something non-descript, not your favorite t-shirt with your favorite “Trump as a pile of dog crap meme.”

Most prepaid phones come with a SIM (subscriber identity module) card and an allotment of minutes. A clean burner phone won’t have a SIM, and you buy a SIM card separately. SIM cards with 1GB of data can be had for $10. The minimum is all that’s needed. SIM cards generally expire in 30 to 90 days.

The same rules apply. Use cash, mask your identity, and don’t stand out. Many newer phones use an electronic SIM card that isn’t a physical device. That’s a bad idea because you usually buy those online. Buy a phone that uses a physical SIM card in a physical store with cash.

BTW, when you activate the SIM card, don’t go on autopilot and use your real name or address. Don’t laugh, some people have done that. Fringing on paranoia, don’t activate your phone at your house, do it at the library, a coffee shop or better yet, the parking lot of the local GQP (grifting QAnon perverts) HQ.

Now that your SIM card is active and your phone is working, please don’t use it or even turn it on in your house or near your personal smartphone. All phones broadcast an IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity, the actual hardware) and IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity, your identifying data) each time it’s powered up. These numbers are broadcast “in the clear”, i.e., unencrypted. It would be child’s play for even a DOGE juvenile delinquent to connect your burner to you and your home address.

Get a Faraday case

In the house or at work or, pretty much anywhere except at or en route to an event, please keep it in a Faraday case which blocks all electromagnetic emissions. Faraday cases are widely available and cost as little as $10. Of course, it goes without saying, don’t store your personal identification data (PID) on the phone. For that matter, the only thing I would store under “ICE” (in case of emergency) would be an attorney’s phone number or, maybe, a trusted friend in another state.

As you can imagine, many cheap phones can be used as burners. I can’t possibly list all the choices, but pay with cash, wear a face mask and dress just a step or two above the panhandler at the freeway entrance. You could even pay them $10 for their jacket and hat. Just kidding, but you get the idea. Don’t stand out.

---

Check this out: Political Sign Lands Veteran (Yoshimatsu) in Free Speech Debate With Police.