Anti-surveillance gadgets for protesters

“There is a huge disparity between the amount of technologies used by the authorities and the technologies available to protesters and activists during protests and riots,” warn Pedro Oliveira and Xuedi Chen, two designers from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. “That gap is only getting wider.” Oliveira and Chen hope to even the odds with an electronic arsenal of their own.

At the Radical Networks conference in Brooklyn this past October, they presented the Backslash kit, a package of devices that help protesters stay safe and connected during demonstrations. Gadgets include everything from portable routers that create improvised communication networks in the event of an Internet blackout to a pendant that blocks radio signals (to prevent cell phone surveillance). A pocket-sized “personal black box” creates its own Wi-Fi hotspot, which protesters can use to automatically copy any photos or videos they capture to an on-board SD card, ensuring evidence will survive even if a protester’s device is seized or destroyed.