Know Your Rights – Protest Safety

What you need to know to keep yourself and your community protected.

In the UK, we have the right to protest. You should have access to information that can help you protect yourself against unjust police encounters or violence. That information should be readily available, but it’s harder than it should be to find.

We’ve compiled everything you need to know, including your legal rights and protections and what to do if they’re violated. Protesting is an essential part of enacting social change. Everyone deserves to be safe doing it, and with this knowledge, you can help yourself and your community. Planning is protection.

Part 1: Before the Protest

Your Legal Rights

You have the right to peaceful protest under Articles 10 and 11 of the Human Rights Act (freedom of expression and assembly).

Police can place conditions on protests (like time, route, or dispersal orders) but they have to communicate this clearly.

You do not need a permit to protest but organisers will often notify police in advance, especially for large marches.

The Public Order Act 2023 has made protest policing stricter. It’s important to know what’s changed, like new laws against “serious disruption” and “locking on”.

What to Pack

A Note on ID: You are not legally required to carry ID unless you’re driving. If you’re Black, Brown, trans, or more likely to be targeted, carrying ID might make potential arrest processing smoother, but it’s a personal risk decision. Weigh it carefully.

Safety Planning

• Tell someone you trust where you’re going, when you expect to be back, and what you’ll be wearing.
• Choose a friend to protest with and agree to stick together the whole time.
• Decide on a meet-up spot in case you get separated or either of your phones die.
• Have a plan in place if one of you gets detained. Who will call the legal number, who will wait?

Part 2: Facial Recognition and Tech Safety

Protesting is becoming increasingly criminalised, especially for Black, Brown, working-class, and migrant communities. Facial recognition software and digital surveillance make it easier for the police to identify, track, or target you if you’re protesting.

Even if you haven’t done anything wrong, data about your location, connections, or appearance can be collected and stored, sometimes indefinitely. Your face and your phone together are a data goldmine, and they should be protected.

Facial Recognition

Live Facial Recognition (LFR) uses cameras to scan and match your face against a database. This often happens without your knowledge or consent.

UK police have previously used LFR in cities like London, Cardiff, and Birmingham. It’s especially common in high-traffic or ‘high-risk’ protest zones.

Private companies like shopping centres or train stations will often collaborate with law enforcement and share their surveillance networks.

Footage from social media, livestreams, and photos is regularly scraped and analysed by facial recognition software.

Even protest posters with photos from past events can put people at risk. Always get consent and avoid uploading images of people’s faces unless they explicitly agree.

How to Protect Yourself

Cover Up.

• Wear a face mask or covering. It’s helpful to protect against illnesses in big crowds, and it confuses facial recognition softwares. Wear hats, sunglasses, or bandanas, because LFR struggles with those kinds of occlusions (especially if you’re wearing multiple). Avoid clothing that’ll make you stand out, like bright colours (unless that’ll help you blend into a specific crowd), custom shirts or jackets, or one-of-a-kind pins. Cover up identifiable tattoos with clothing or makeup.

Don’t Livestream Faces.

• Documenting protests is important, but try to avoid showing people’s faces unless they explicitly consent. Ideally, you should blur or anonymise footage later if you’re planning on posting it online. If you’re recording instances of arrest or misconduct, try to film the action itself and not who it’s happening to. Angles are really powerful.

In-Person versus Online Safety.

• Avoid tagging people’s social media accounts or using location geotags when posting protest footage. Think before posting or reposting identifiable content online, even if it’s a powerful photo or video. Could it put somebody at risk?

A Digital Safety List

• Turn off your Face ID or Fingerprint unlocking. It makes it easier for the police to get access to all the data on your phone.
• Set a strong password (at least 6 digits, with letters, numbers, and symbols, if you can).
• Enable encrypted backup if you can. iCloud isn’t always safe.
• Put your phone on Airplane Mode or turn off Location Services to avoid being tracked (but make sure a trusted person knows where you are and when they can expect you back).
• Delete unnecessary apps or chats temporarily.

If you’re going to a heavily surveilled protest and don’t want your data at risk, you could consider using a burner phone.

Some more tips – Signal is more secure than WhatsApp for encrypted texting. Turn off auto-upload of photos to iCloud or Google. Log out of your social media during the protest. But you can use your judgement – some protests are safer than others. You should act differently if you find yourself at an organised march versus a spontaneous riot, for example. Trust your gut.