Hong Kong's tech-savvy protesters are going digitally dark as they try to avoid surveillance and potential future prosecutions, disabling location tracking on their phones, buying train tickets with cash and purging their social media conversations.
Police used rubber bullets and tear gas to break up crowds opposed to a China extradition law on Wednesday, in the worst unrest the city has witnessed in decades.
Many of those on the streets are predominantly young and have grown up in a digital world, but they are all too aware of the dangers of surveillance and leaving online footprints.
Ben, a masked office worker at the protests, said he feared the extradition law would have a devastating impact on freedoms.
"Even if we're not doing anything drastic -- as simple as saying something online about China -- because of such surveillance they might catch us," the 25-year-old said.
This week groups of demonstrators donned masks, goggles, helmets and caps -- both to protect themselves against tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets, and also to make it harder for them to be identified.
Many said they turned off their location tracking on their phones and beefed up their digital privacy settings before joining protests, or deleted conversations and photos on social media and messaging apps after they left the demonstrations.
There were unusually long lines at ticket machines in the city underground metro stations as protesters used cash to buy tickets rather than tap-in with the city's ubiquitous Octopus cards -- whose movements can be more easily tracked.
In a city where WhatsApp is usually king, protesters have embraced the encrypted messaging app Telegram in recent days, believing it offers better cyber protection and also because ..
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