ActivistChecklist.org

New on the site: How to Host a Security Party Most of us intend to lock down our digital security one day. Without accountability and a crew, most of us don't actually do it. So we wrote a guide to help you do it. Everything is better with community! 🧵 activistchecklist.org/party

Solidarity to all the activists on streets in France who are fighting for better conditions for students and teachers. We just released a full French translation of our digtial security guides. activistchecklist.org/fr/

Proud to announce that our digital security guides for activists are now available in Italian. Solidarity to all the folks on the street in Milan and elsewhere in the country. activistchecklist.org/it/

We were seeing a big spike in traffic from France and Italy, so we are announcing the the site is now available in French and Italian. (Note: Our advice is built for US legal context, so some things may be diff in other countries.) 🇫🇷 activistchecklist.org/fr/ 🇮🇹 activistchecklist.org/it/

We reworked the homepage and navigation to be organized around what kind of action/risk you're taking. Feedback welcome! activistchecklist.org

Cops have been abusing technology and access to inflict harm and violence for much longer than Flock has been around. But because Flock is in the national spotlight, the wider public is hearing about it regularly, which is good to shift opinion.

We owe the attorneys on the Minnesota 15 case a lot of gratitude. They are working hard to force the state to reveal the methods of surveillance they used to spy on activists and organizers so we can be better prepared in the future. www.wired.com/story/chicag...

ERO ONE agents will [do a type of] analysis that involves researching not only a target, but also every other person to whom they’re connected, including household members, family members, friends, acquaintances, or the person with whom they carpool to work. prospect.org/2026/10/14/i...

Solidarity with anyone facing state repression is how we build strong movements. We have to keep our eyes on instances of repression like this, amplify it, and support in materials ways wherever we can. www.daylightsandiego.org/ice-raids-ho...

We've had way less public evidence of stingrays (fake cell towers) being used against protestors in the last 5-10 years. But here's a case of them being authorized against clearly first-amendment activity. (Not clear if they were deployed, hopefully a FOIA request will tell us)

www.wired.com/story/the-se... “It’s easy to claim your powerful hacking tool isn’t being misused if you go out of your way to ensure you don’t know how customers use it,”

> "The government is treating people who exercise their First Amendment rights and seek to hold it accountable as criminal suspects, and that's what we're asking the court to stop,” says JoAnna Suriani, an attorney at Protect Democracy who is representing ICE observers in the case.

Local prosecutor opted not to press charges for the protests in a small town where ICE's surveillance center is located. But state figured out a way to press charges against them. theintercept.com/2026/10/07/i... From @theintercept.com

Since 2024, iPhones automatically reboot after 3 days. This makes it harder for attackers (like police forensic devices) to break into your phone. Because everythins is encrypted after a fresh reboot before the first unlock. GrayKey now has a way to keep things unencrypted and prevent the reboot.

Good news. Cell-site simulators are used to spy on all cell phones. In the 4th circuit, they now require a warrant to use.

Good news. Makes it possible for you to delete the signal app and reinstall it (when crossing a border or doing higher risk activism) and just save your recovery key somewhere very safe.

Lawyers for an anti-ICE protester tried to argue his shot was a ricochet. The theory was squashed by gaps in the evidence and a judge’s suppression. theintercept.com/2026/09/27/p...

“This is one part of the surveillance and intelligence wing that ICE is building,” EFF’s @cooperq.com told @fedscoop.bsky.social. “It’s a big part of it, but it’s still just one part. ... It’s going to feed in and be indexed alongside all this other surveillance equipment and pipelines.”

The prosecutor in the Broadview Six case was silenced and put on leave when she tried to push back on the federal conspiracy charges and just make them misdemeanor charges instead.

The number of Flock abuse and stalking cases is just... staggering. Has anyone collected these into a database yet?

Now is a perfect time to get ready for when the MAGA regime tries to mess with voting or not seat newly elected officials. Expect "no work, no school, no shopping" as a response. Get together with your people to lock down your digital security ahead of time: activistchecklist.org/protest

Read this before upgrading to iOS 27 if you have an iPhone 15 or newer that supports "Apple Intelligence." New AI features might send your data (like Signal messages) off your device to Apple's servers It's absurd that we have to work so hard for our privacy :(

NEW GUIDE: WhatsApp digital security (a harm reduction guide). Signal is more secure for most situations. BUT tons of communities use WhatsApp. So we wrote a guide on how to use it in a more secure way and how to understand the risks. activistchecklist.org/whatsapp/

Really interesting talk from the founder of Kanary about how many data brokers have stopped honoring opt out requests in the last 2 years. Looks like our standard doxxing defense advice is in need of some updating (activistchecklist.org/doxxing/)

A police term to know: "Parallel construction" This is when they obtain information about your activities in a way that would NOT stand up in court (warrantless surveillance). Using what they obtained illegally, they then re-create a chain of evidence in a way that WOULD stand up in court.

Corporations have always used private security against activists (look up TigerSwan for more on that). This article is about how AI is acellerating their ability to track protests against AI executives and avoid encounters with protestors. "AI predictive policing" is also on the horizon.

NEW GUIDE: WhatsApp digital security (a harm reduction guide). Signal is more secure for most situations. BUT tons of communities use WhatsApp. So we wrote a guide on how to use it in a more secure way and how to understand the risks. activistchecklist.org/whatsapp/

It can be very useful to read about casese of inflitration to start developing a more nuanced take of how our movements are being infiltrated. The goal isn't necessarily to prevent it from happening, but to prevent infiltrators from gaining access to sensitive information and decision making power.

What an idea

I'll use this article as a chance to say: The digital security threat landscape is changing rapidly. Technologies we used to consider very niche and rare are seemingly being put in the hands of DHS/ICE to use more and more readily.

Brought to you by the "always-on surveillance" industry. www.404media.co/flock-taught...

This is what working on digital security guides for ActivistChecklist.org feels like every day...

Example of how DHS is abused its investigatory powers to get phone/text logs and IP logs behind social media accounts. In this case, they did it without needing to consulting a judge.

Bonkers. Cops 3D-printed a fake Flock camera to try to catch people who were bashing in cameras. Check out the video.

If you get an "Apple Threat Notification" please take it very seriously. It's rare to get one, but if you do, it means you were (very likely) the target of spyware. www.accessnow.org/apple-threat... Remember, MOST activists are not the target of spyware: activistchecklist.org/spyware/

@bennjordan.bsky.social is out there surveilling the Flock convention by monitoring wifi and bluetooth signals. Hero. 🔥

Benefits of older cars: They aren't internet connected, meaning they can't force feed you ads, which means they can't sell your data to data brokers which then gets into the hands of cops.

Everyone is talking about Flock but I've been reading the same article for 15 years about different technologies so I rage wrote about it for @19thnews.org 19thnews.org/2026/08/floc...