Secondary Phone Checklist ("burner phone light")

If you’re buying a new phone, you might end up choosing the provider based on what is in stock near you.

We use Tracefone because it offers the best plan for occasional use at protests.

If you know you want unlimited data use, Mint Mobile and Tracfone are both good options and cost about at $15/month.

Once again, we're not trying to achieve anonymity here, so paying with a card is fine, but why not add one additional buffer layer between your identity and this device?

If you need to buy online, you can purchase a prepaid Visa credit card (aka: "gift card") with cash (and a mask) at a store, then use that online. This will work best for services (like the prepaid plan), but if you have to buy products (like the phone), you might have to use an address anyway. It's best to buy products in-person.

Most affordable phone model: ($50-60 new)

• Tracfone cheapest smart phone ($50-60 new) Examples: Samsung a03s, Moto G Play

• Go to the website for your prepaid carrier and search for a smartphone option under $60 dollars.

• The downside is that you are also buying something new, which increases the demand for conflict minerals.

• Why are these phones so cheap? They're cheap because they are “carrier locked” to Tracfone. This means they can’t be activated on other networks. They’re counting on your buying plans for a long time to pay it off. They also tend to install lots of junk for data mining purposes.

Best phone models for security

• iPhone 13 or newer

• iPhone SE (2022) or newer

• Pixel 7 or newer

Note: Our opinion is that iPhones are more secure in general than most Android phones. Newer Pixel phones are also secure.

If you have a Google Pixel 6 or new, we highly recommend installing Graphene OS, which is a de-Googled version of Android OS that is incredibly secure and hard for the cops to break.

As of October 2025, these are the models we know more more resistant to cracking and data extraction.

Using an old phone someone has laying around

• If you already have and old phone laying around or know someone who does, that’s a good option.

• It may be no longer receiving security updates. If so, be aware that it will be easier for the cops to crack and extract data from if they get ahold of it. Security is often about trade offs. It may be better to have a protest phone that’s no longer getting security updates than to bring your normal phone that is full of sensitive information.

Notes about used phones

• Make sure it is “unlocked” (not tied to a specific carrier).

• Make sure battery will get you through a day of heavy use (or be prepared to bring a battery pack and a charging cable)

• Check if still receiving security updates

• The older the phone, the are more vulnerable it is likely to be to the cracking/extraction tools cops use (like Cellebrite and Graykey)

Where to buy a cheap, new phone?

• Big Box Stores (Best Buy, etc.)

• Pharmacies (CVS, Walgreens, etc.)

• Convince Stores (7-Eleven, etc.)

Buying online is an option, though it is even easier to track. Our goal isn’t anonymity here, so that’s okay. But if you’re able to buy it in-person, that’s better. If you’re able to buy with cash, that also provides a layer of separation.

If you bought a phone new directly from the prepaid provider: it probably comes with a SIM card already. Read the box or ask whoever you're buying it from. If it has a SIM already, you can skip to the next step.

If you are bringing your own phone, you need to buy a SIM card.

Most phones don’t come with any minutes or data, so you need to buy a prepaid service plan.

Types of prepaid plans

Pay As You Go: “fixed X minutes, expires after 30, 60, 90, or 365 days.”

Even though it says something like “400” minutes, that also applies to data (1 megabyte of data usually uses 1 minute). If you go over, you can recharge.

• Best for long-term use: If you can afford paying for a 12 month plan, it reduces the number of times you have to re-charge your plan (and change your phone number).

• Example: as of October 2025, Tracfone offers a $99 plan of 400 minutes that expires after 365 days. The line must be used at least once every 6 months to preserve your number.

Unlimited Monthly: “Unlimited talk/text/data for 1, 3, 6, 12 months. Expires after that time.“

• Most affordable option: If you need a more affordable option, or you’re trying this out and unsure how long you’ll use it, the unlimited for “30 days”

• As of October 2025, Tracfone offers a $15 plan for 1 month of unlimited service or $192 for 12 months.

Notes

• Your number will expire: Make sure to use the phone once a month. If your prepaid plan expires, you have a short grace period before you lose that phone number. You can easily get a new one by activating a new card, but you’ll have to re-activate Signal.

• Tip: Set a reminder to refill your plan before it expires!

Advanced: See our instructions about using a data-only SIM. There are some options that never expire, which are ideal for a secondary phone like this, but it takes more to set up.

• You will use this email to set up your prepaid mobile account and your phone app store account (Apple or Google).

This is how you turn on phone service

Tips

• Don’t use your real name when making this account.

You have two options for how you use Signal:

Option 1: Use a totally separate Signal profile for this phone (recommended)

• Pros: Your phone is always ready to go, no additional set up needed. More data is secure.

• Cons: You may miss communication from people who don't know about this separate account

Option 2: Migrate your existing account to this new number temporarily

• Pros: Anyone who is trying to reach you using your standard Signal profile will be able to reach you on this new device.

• Cons:

  • You can only have one phone linked to your Signal account at a time, so you will be signed out of Signal on your main phone.

  • Any secondary devices (computer, or tablet, etc) will become 'unlinked,' and will need to be re-connected to your Signal account to continue receiving messages

  • More data is exposed (contacts, messages) if your phone is confiscated.

  • You have to move it back and forth every time you want to use your protest phone.

• Consider this option if you really need to know that you don’t miss any messages from someone who didn’t hear about your secondary account.

• Install Onion Browser (iPhone) or Tor Browser (Android) for maximum privacy.

• Or at least install Brave Browser to use instead of the default browser.

All of the items in the Prepare for a Protest checklist still apply to a protest phone. Even though you’re exposing much less data, you still have Signal installed, which contains data you want to protect.

With a data-only SIM, you will still need a phone number to set up your Apple/Google account and your Signal account. You can use a temporary number service to accomplish this for a few dollars.

To set up a true burner, you'd want to make sure to do the following things (in addition to everything outlined in the "secondary phone" guide above):

• Purchase the phone and plan with cash and try to avoid your face being recorded. Do not bring your devices. Avoid driving your car

• Never turn the phone on at your home, work, or any place you go to frequently. (Unless it is off and in a high-quality faraday bag.)

• Never turn the phone on near other devices (phone, tablet, smart watch, etc).

• Activate it by connecting to public WiFi at coffee shop (or something similar)

• Never give the number to anyone you associate with normally and do not text/call anyone you associate with normally. This implies that you're either contacting one person (ex: a whistleblower contacting a journalist) or you're contacting a network of other folks who are using true burner phones.

• Never sign in to any of you normal accounts on this phone.

• Create separate, anonymous accounts only on the phone (not your home internet). And preferably with Tor Browser when possible.

• Avoid other pattern-of-life associations. Does your other phone suddenly stop moving/texting/calling at the same time this phone turns on? If you are experiencing targeted surveillance, you may need to find a way to reduce the correlation between the two.

• ... And many other steps that we can't go into in this guide!

And finally, this is generally a short-term use phone. Once you fail to do one of these, the phone should be considered compromised and you should "burn" it by destroying the phone and the SIM and starting the process over. What counts as "compromised" is different based on how you're using the phone. It could mean that you accidentally turn it on at home or near your primary device. It could mean that someone in your network of burner phones turned their phone

Even if you follow all of the guidelines perfectly, you should only use the phone for a limited period of time because it will start to develop it's own "pattern of life" where it shows up at the same locations that can be tracked. If it is a very high risk action, you should only use the phone that one time.

And even if you do all of this, you shouldn't talk about sensitive topics on the phone or when the phone is nearby. You should only use the phone to coordinate and use coded language to discuss sensitive topics.