Here are 7 steps you can take to secure your phone and data before attending a protest

• As Americans continue to take to the streets to protest police brutality and systemic racism, chief concerns for protestors include personal safety and digital security.
• Your smartphone harbors tons of personal information and can also be used as a tracking device.
• Here are some precautions that can help prevent surveillants from potentially taking advantage of your data.

Thousands of Americans are protesting police brutality and systemic racism across the nation following first the police killing of Minneapolis resident George Floyd and now the Kenosha, Wisconsin, police shooting of Jacob Blake.

Of the precautions that protesters should consider to stay safe is how to prepare for your phone being broken or lost. It could also be confiscated by authorities, who could then potentially access information about you and those you communicate with. Scores of data are located in the apps on your phone, and your smartphone can also be used as a tracking device.

All of which is to say safeguarding your phone against external forces might be a good step to take before attending a protest.

Here's how to prep your phone before joining a demonstration.

1. Leave your phone at home if you can.

As Vice reports, perhaps one of the most surefire ways to prevent your phone from falling into the hands of someone you don't want it to is to participate in the protest without it.

You can instead coordinate with others by word of mouth. Establish meeting places and contingency plans for regrouping in case the crowd is dispersed and you lose track of each other. Familiarize yourself with the city grid and streets.

You could also buy a burner phone to use solely for the demonstration, The Verge reports. They expire after a certain number of days and can cost anywhere between $1 and $100 — Digital Camera World rounded up some in February.

2. If you do take your phone, back up your photos, contact numbers, and other data beforehand.

Losing or breaking your phone could mean thousands of photos, notes, and other data could be lost. Consider backing up your phone's contents to a computer or to the cloud, according to Gizmodo.

As PC Mag notes, you can also temporarily delete apps from your phone and then reinstall them at a later date.

3. Encrypt your phone.

By using an encryption key, or password, to unlock your phone, you're creating a barrier between your phone data and anyone that could potentially take advantage of it.

For iPhone users, if you use a passcode to get into your device, then you're set — it's already encrypted.

4. But consider relying on a password to unlock your phone instead of a fingerprint or facial recognition.

If law enforcement asks you to punch in your password to unlock your phone, you retain your Fifth Amendment right to refuse, as Gizmodo reports.

But biometric methods, such as unlocking with your fingerprint or face scan, aren't as protected in case you're taken into police custody. Officers could still potentially hold your phone up to your face or press your finger to the device to unlock it.

Consider deactivating Face ID and use a strong password instead.

5. Consider disabling WiFi, Bluetooth, and location services on your phone.

These functions can track your location, a feat that some companies and brands are able to take advantage of for advertising purposes, according to Consumer Reports.

If you don't need Wifi, GPS, or Bluetooth, you can switch them off to prevent your exact location from being monitored. As CR notes, some smartphones are designed to switch these settings back on by default, so be sure to keep tabs on whether or not they stay disabled.

You can read how to stop your iPhone from tracking your location here.

You can also put your phone in Airplane Mode to prevent tracking, which shuts off WiFi, Bluetooth, and cell data in one fell swoop. As The Verge notes, doing so prevents cellphone carriers from communicating with cell towers to locate you. It also shields against stingray attacks, which is when a device masquerades as a cell tower to connect and gain access to phone data. In 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union found 75 law enforcement agencies across 27 states in the US that owned these types of tools, as The Markup notes.

But Airplane Mode differs depending on what phone you have, so disabling it isn't always an airtight solution.

You can also simply turn your phone off and only use it when you need it. But that can make it more difficult to quickly take photos, record videos, or be able to quickly make an urgent call.

6. Use anonymous messaging apps to communicate.

Phone message encryption has its limits, such as in the case of an iPhone user messaging with an Android user — the text automatically converts to SMS, which isn't encrypted. So experts have recommended using secure chat apps such as Signal or WhatsApp, according to The Markup.

Signal has seen a spike in user downloads as protests have been held across the US.

As Consumer Reports notes, the app provides a setting that deletes messages soon after the recipient reads it, which can help protect both parties on either end of the conversation in the event that one of them loses their phone.

7. You should also disable notifications.

If you don't do so, and your phone is lost or confiscated, others may be privy to the messages and alerts that appear on your home screen, as The Markup points out.

You'd be protecting both you and the people sending you messages by preventing their texts from appearing.