You’re being followed. Your mobile phone is tracking your location minute-by-minute while network providers, phone manufacturers, apps, hackers, and the government devour your data.

This isn’t a Bourne movie; this is real life. We live in a world of electronic surveillance where artificial intelligence can process huge amounts of data and cross-reference it with CCTV cameras, facial recognition software, and the data hemorrhaging from your mobile phone. 

It’s called Ubiquitous Tech Surveillance - think of it like bulk data collection on steroids.

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Proactive surveillance‍

In the old days, CCTV surveillance camera systems generated video footage with terabytes of data that humans sorted through to find potential criminals after the fact. 

Now, governments can track targets on real-time CCTV cameras and program artificial intelligence (AI) to look for specific people or cell phone numbers, said Bob Dougherty, a former CIA undercover officer and SPYEX consultant.

“There’s been this explosion in the capabilities,” Dougherty told SPYSCAPE. “Mainly it is because of the AI software that is now looking for patterns and anomalies and can interpret these huge amounts of data that are being generated either by cell phone networks or by CCTV cameras - and they are marrying all three of them together now. So that’s what’s really scary about it.” 

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If you travel to London, Paris, Singapore, São Paulo, or beyond, Customs and Immigration will likely snap your photo at the airport so they can program your face into their facial recognition software. Once you start using the local cell phone network, they can track you in real time as you move around the city. 

So how do you guard your privacy in a world of invasive, 24-7 surveillance? SPYSCAPE asked three former CIA officers how the pros protect cell phones and electronic devices while on the move, and what we can all learn about best practices. 
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Peter Warmka

Ex-CIA undercover officer, SPYEX consultant, and expert on cybersecurity, social media, social engineering, and human hacking.

• Your hotel room represents the singular most vulnerable location for you when it comes to data protection. Some rooms may be pre-wired by the local intelligence service for visual and/or audio collection. At check-in, consider requesting an alternate room from the one assigned to you.

• Never leave your media device or data storage device behind in the hotel room. Hotel safes are not secure from intelligence services.

• When traveling to high counterintelligence threat countries, never take your business or personal media devices with you. Consider taking a new, sterile device dedicated only to this trip and/or return travel to the same country and avoid logging into your personal social media accounts.

• Always be on your guard when someone approaches and tries to engage you in a conversation. The individual may speak perfect English, claim they love to talk to Americans, and eventually offer their assistance during your stay. While some of these might be simple scams, foreign business travelers can be very vulnerable targets for classic honeytraps.

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Emily Crose‍

Ex-CIA, NSA, and US Army Intelligence and Security Command infosec specialist and SPYEX consultant with expertise in tech, cybersecurity, industrial infrastructure, counter-extremism, and government transparency.

• Avoid joining open Wi-Fi networks. Open Wi-Fi networks can be created by attackers to capture network traffic or even create advantageous conditions for a 'man-in-the-middle attack'.

• Use trustworthy and secure Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) while on the road to increase network security and protect your sensitive login credentials. Even on password-protected Wi-Fi networks, your data may be open to being read by an attacker sharing a network with you. Using a VPN will keep all of your 'data in transit' secure as it passes between you and its destination.

‍• Turn on Full Disk Encryption (FDE) on any devices you take with you for travel. Most modern laptops and phones support encrypting the onboard storage devices like hard drives, and even removable media like USB drives. You never know when these devices may be lost or stolen and, even if someone does steal your phone, they will have a difficult time reading its contents.

• If you don't need it, don't take it! Consumer electronics devices contain a wealth of identifiable information. The best way to protect this information is to limit your 'attack surface' by limiting the amount of devices you have on you that could be susceptible to loss, theft, or even unwarranted searches when traveling abroad. So, if you don't need to take it, leave it at home.

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Bob Dougherty‍

Ex-CIA undercover officer, SPYEX consultant, and trainer, with expertise using intel-based solutions in the private sector.

• Switch off personal electronics when you’re not using them - and that includes your laptop, tablets, iPhones, iWatches, and anything that emanates a signal. If you don’t have to use it, turn it off. That keeps it off of the network. That keeps it from being monitored.

• Turn off your phone for five minutes a day to get rid of Pegasus or other spyware. I turn my iPhone off and leave it off for five minutes. If something is loaded on there -  it’s not 100 percent effective - but it will wipe a lot of that type of software off by just turning your phone off.

• If you want to leave your device turned on, or you want extra protection, put it in a Faraday bag. That means no signal can emanate and nobody can monitor it.

• Turn off Location Services on iPhones and Androids which track where the phone is physically because what that is, is a record of your day-to-day movements. (Location Services or GPS is usually found in your phone’s General Settings menu.) If you turn off those Location Services, that means Google Maps isn’t going to work as well, but when I’m traveling overseas I turn that off because it is almost a minute-by-minute pattern of where I’ve been with that phone.