Help! My friend has been arrested with their phone! What do I do?

In Britain, people get arrested at protest, sometimes in their homes, and will sometimes have their houses raided by the police where phones and laptops are taken. It can be really scary when your friend has been arrested with their phone, and you don’t know what to do. We have a clear set up steps that we recommend when someone has been arrested.

Hold up! Check with people there if their phone was taken.

If you can confirm it was not, then stop here. Go check on your friend, and maybe clear their tech out of their house if there is a risk of raid. If unsure and cannot confirm, continue on here.

If their phone with Signal may be in police possession…

Find out which Signal account is potentially compromised. Most people only have one.

On active chats:

1. Change the chat description to remove sensitive info (you can copy to clipboard)
2. For messages in the last 24 hours you have sent, use the “delete for everyone” option to delete incriminating messages
3. Remove them LAST - this has to be done last or the previous requests will not be taken to the stolen phone.

This only works if the phone is connected to the internet or is connected at a later date before the storage is duplicated (if the police do this).

If the arrested person is the only admin on the chat…

In the case the taken phone was the only admin on the chat (which if you follow good Signal hygiene it shouldn’t be), then this is the only situation it is appropriate to close this group and start a new one.

1. Follow steps (1) and (2) above
2. Set up a new chat (with two or more admins)
3. Add everyone other than the arrested person into this chat.
4. THEN stop using the old group and close it as you normally would do.

DON’T remove everyone from a a chat just because the seized phone was or is in it

This does NOT prevent anyone with access to the taken phone’s Signal seeing those contacts. Not only does destroying chats not have any security advantages, it also fosters a culture of fear whilst potentially destroying networks and groups.

Share

Copy this message and share in any chats that know the person has been arrested.

If you know or suspect their device has been taken, then copy and modify this message

🛑 REMINDER: Signal Admin After Arrest 💬

Someone has been arrested, please read this before you start reacting.

✅ On ACTIVE chats: 1️⃣ Change the chat description to remove sensitive info (you can copy to clipboard) 2️⃣ For messages in the last 24 hours you have sent, use the “delete for everyone” option to delete incriminating messages 3️⃣ Remove them LAST - this has to be done last or the previous requests will not be taken to the stolen phone.

❌ IGNORE inactive chats

❌ DON’T remove everyone from a a chat just because the seized phone was or is in it This does NOT prevent anyone with access to the taken phone’s Signal seeing those contacts. Not only does destroying chats not have any security advantages, it also fosters a culture of fear whilst potentially destroying networks and groups.

ℹ️ The arrested person was called XX on Signal. Please can people carefully start going about the above. ℹ️

📖 Read more and FAQs

FAQs

What does this do?

• Prevent further messages falling into the cops hands
• If the phone was connected to the internet, then it potentially reduces access to your signal description and some incriminating messages (the ones you delete)

What do the police get access to?

If the police get through the phone’s encryption, then this can be accessed

• Taken account’s contacts
• Taken account’s chat descriptions & names
• Taken account’s message history (i.e. messages that have already been sent and not deleted by the phone

Should I leave the chat?

Generally, no. Your contact can’t be hidden from the taken phone, and the fact you left would come through and link to your contact. Only leave the chat as normal cleaning up of inactive chats.

What about if a computer with Signal desktop is taken?

Do you have access to the linked phone?

• Yes: change the descriptions and delete messages on chats as above. Then unlink the Signal on the phone app. No further messages will be received on the computer.
• No: same process as above.

Note: this is why device encryption is so important! A well encrypted device that is turned off, or a Molly-Signal that has been locked with a strong password makes the police’s job much, much harder.