- The police is not your friend: no matter how friendly the police sometimes are (towards XR), don't talk to them. As a movement, there is nothing to be gained because, in the end, cops always follow orders from higher up/the mayor. The only thing that can happen is that you (accidentally) share information that can be used against XR. Moreover, by being nice to the police you show little solidarity towards groups of marginalised people, or other activist movements that face discrimination and police violence.
- Respect and use action names: keeping your real name secret and using action names is a good way to make it harder for the police to track movements like Extinction Rebellion. Even if (part of) the group knows your real name or you are getting arrested with identity it can help to use action names for the long-term security of the movement as whole and for yourself if you might end up organising actions in the future. If you consider going anonymous in actions read the anonymity guide.
Don’t bring your phone or any other devices that you use for XR or other activism to actions. If you for whatever reason want to bring a phone, consider buying a separate (dumb-)phone for actions, which is not your private phone, with a burner SIM card (a seperate pre-paid simcard). For any phone that you bring to an action:
- Always encrypt your phone(s).
- Use a secure password and turn off fingerprint and face recognition.
- We further ask you to to remove any incriminating evidence if you’re taking your phone to an action. Delete chat histories from Signal and other apps that you’ve used to communicate with activists. Log out of cryptpad, Nextcloud and any other app with documents or communications about actions or other activities that could criminalise you or other activists.
Please share this guide to protect yourself and other activists.