ULPT: Evading city-wide CCTV
Posted by Designer-Display1506@reddit | UnethicalLifeProTips | View on Reddit | 37 comments
I am looking to participate in a protest and I reside in a country with, let's just call it "low tolerance" for such activities, I have already thought of bringing a mask but my city is full of CCTV, not just in shops but basically every 1-3 corners, and I am afraid it's possible for police to 'follow me around' the different CCTV footage, as in tracking where I go by just going camera-to-camera. I read a few posts about lasers but by the time I have found every single camera and greeted it with my big scary green light the batteries would be already melting. What should I do?
Shell-Fire@reddit
Can you duck into a shop or bathroom, change clothes/shoes and then go march? Change back later? Use something like cottonballs stuffed in your cheeks to distort face further. GL!
Educational_Bird2469@reddit
Theoretically it is possible to follow you. Highly unlikely they would, unless you did something to draw attention to yourself.
Lasers will damage a camera, so may not want to go that route. A mask is good enough.
If you’re just really paranoid you can solder together a lot of ir lights. Can’t be seen with the eye but will light up on a camera. Strap them on a hat and around your shirt or jacket collar and you will look like a glowing ball on camera but completely normal to someone walking next to you.
If you want a halfassed demonstration, use your tv remote. You won’t see it light up when pressing a button but your phone camera will.
Retb14@reddit
Gotta be careful with that one since the cameras can track you super easy with it and someone watching can direct people to investigate.
Having a way to turn it off is a good idea so you can walk into a blind spot, turn it off, then ditch it. Make sure it's turned on in a blind spot that has other ways to enter/exit too.
Make sure there's multiple people around too and if possible drop off a quick change of clothes in the blind spot before you need it.
Gloves are a must to make sure you don't leave fingerprints behind and a hat to keep hair from being left behind depending on how paranoid you are.
This works even better if you have multiple sets to give out because then it will be multiple people they need to track down instead of just one bright blob.
peacefinder@reddit
It’s the classic active/passive problem.
Active measures (lights, lasers, attacking cameras, etc) can be effective, but make it very obvious to observers that someone is engaging in shenanigans, and they’re not likely to just sit there and take it without investigating to some degree.
Passive measures don’t have that problem, they rely on drawing less attention than others do.
Kitchen-Potential243@reddit
Don't forget gait analysis.
peacefinder@reddit
D
Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit
Add a rock inside your shoe for the day. A blister is far better than prison.
nomoreimfull@reddit
Walk without rhythm and it won't attract the worm
wizardwil@reddit
Ok so seriously, I had no idea that's what the lyrics were until just now. I read your post and went "Wait, I know that pattern of words"
soundguynick@reddit
Fatboy Slim lifted the phrase from Dune. Without knowledge of the series, it does just seem like a random phrase.
wizardwil@reddit
No I know that, and I got the reference once I understood the words - I was just never able to quite discern what the words were in the song. It all makes sense now!
Just_Here_So_Briefly@reddit
UK
Designer-Display1506@reddit (OP)
?
Healthy-Path-9017@reddit
Umbrella
ckn@reddit
i think you're thinking too high tech.
Your Stated Goal: not be seen by CCTV and other video surveillance
This equates to a Minimal Objective: make cameras not be able to see.
Therefore anything that can cover you and/or the CCTV cameras meets your Minimal Objective.
Think lower tech, lower cost, easier to reproduce and you got your answer.
Reminds me of that video circulating the sites of the guy talking about how to dispose of used motor oil, sand, and old balloons....
Deep-Hovercraft6716@reddit
The thing about disabling cameras is that it generally means there's video of you disabling the camera. Especially when we're talking about lots of cameras with overlapping fields of view.
WhiteBlackBlueGreen@reddit
Use a drone
Deep-Hovercraft6716@reddit
You're going to need to think about that proposal a little more. It's not particularly feasible.
Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit
Too many targets, and the adage: if you're commiting a crime, only commit one at a time.
Scragglymonk@reddit
change of disposable clothes
rainmouse@reddit
Or reversible ones
Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit
And change in either a super high-volume location (too many to track everyone), or somewhere with untracked entrances/exits, and far from both home and the protest. Minimum two changes of clothes. One before protest, one after.
Deep-Hovercraft6716@reddit
Big bathrooms are what you're looking for here. Somewhere there's unlikely to be cameras and also lots of people coming and going. And you can hang out there for 10 or 15 minutes.
Money_Ad1068@reddit
Smart thinking.
wetblanket68iou1@reddit
Fat Albert costume that blows up. Inflate and deflate every other place you go.
Jimathomas@reddit
Reversible jacket, two t-shirts, two hats.
On a bet, I once walked through a mall in the Dallas area with the purpose of security and five friends not seeing me. I had a reversible jacket which I swapped three times. I wore two shirts, ditching one of them. I also had two ball caps, which I also switched multiple times and ditched.
I made it all the way through without Ben g seen by people who were specifically looking for me. Just blend with the crowd, change quickly, and it can be done.
Meteorite_Traps@reddit
I think there are like ‘paparazzi scarves’ that block camera’s or something. No idea if it works with CCTV. Here’s the link
https://theishu.com/pages/our-story
MostBoringStan@reddit
Those wouldn't work for CCTV. They work on paparazzi because they have cameras with a strong flash. The scarf uses a reflective material that reflects a lot of the flash back to the camera, which makes the rest of the photo darker. CCTV doesn't use a flash so the scarf wouldn't have enough light hitting it to reflect back and ruin the image.
Deep-Hovercraft6716@reddit
Some (lots of) Outdoor cameras use infrared lights which these garments do reflect and it does prevent facial image capture.
Money_Ad1068@reddit
I own a 3m reflective hooded jacket for this (hypothetical) scenario. Makes you glow like the sun, no way anyone could ever make out your face using IR cameras.
You would take steps to discretely remove the reflective wear before reaching an identifiable car, bus, home. Carry a change of clothes in a backpack. A single peaceful protester is not going to earn the attention of every camera, evert street cameras and evert retail store, every alleyway or honey bucket.
Valuable advice: LEAVE YOUR PHONE AT HOME.
Deep-Hovercraft6716@reddit
The problem with that is you can just track the glowing bright light from their house to the protest and back. Yes it will block an image but it doesn't make you less trackable.
K2O3_Portugal@reddit
Use a mask
Deep-Hovercraft6716@reddit
Okay, you're going to need to go to a thrift store or some place where you can buy used clothing.
You are going to need a jacket with a colored liner. It doesn't have to be a reversible jacket specifically. But any jacket where the inside is markedly different from the outside. I have one which is black on the outside and has white and red stripes on the inside. It just needs to look very different on camera.
You will also perhaps want two hats and two T-shirts. You can probably get away with not changing your pants. But that is also something to consider. Also a backpack is something to consider but you want the smallest one possible Because sometimes you have to wear it on the inside of your jacket.
And basically you go through a bunch of costume changes to outwardly change your appearance several times. Also, travel to your destination via a circuitous route. That is don't go straight to the protest or straight home.
And of course, as others have said don't bring your phone and if you do need a phone to coordinate have someone else buy burners with cash.
You are going to need some money to pull this off. So make sure you have a budget.
Responsible-Cow5828@reddit
Another thing...there are other ways of "participating" in a protest...sometimes events happen in a location on the opposite side of the city of the protests that tie up the police in other ways so that they dont show up to the protest. Sometimes things like these happen...
EF_Boudreaux@reddit
Emulate a post menopausal woman. No one sees us.
Responsible-Cow5828@reddit
Dont do the ir lights or reflective anti paparazzi clothing. It will just make it easier for you to track because you're the only one lit up like a christmas tree on camera. Wear bigger clothes, a hoody, a mask and blend in.
Dont bring your cell phone. Walk into establishments with a random group, change clothes, and walk out with other people.
Since it sounds like you're not in the US, look into getting signal jammers for gps, bluetooth, wifi, and cell signals. Though i dont know how effective those are for CCTV...those are usually hardwired.
The-One-Zathras@reddit
Leave home wearing a surgical mask, if anyone asks you got the flu.
Enter a public building with a lot of foot traffic, wait for a considerable amount of time while others enter and exit, change clothes in a restroom, stay masked, exit yourself and go do whatever you need to do.
You are not jason bourne, you will not see or laser every camera that is going to pick you up regardless of what you do.
Good luck