Live Video Uploads for Checkpoint Filmers
 

Given the disgusting events outlined in today's JFK thread, I want to point out just one of the tools available that allow you upload video content in real time to a safe Internet location, so even if you're coerced or forced to delete it from your phone, or your phone is confiscated, the video will remain in a safe place.

I would suggest connecting to a nearby Wifi signal for best performance, but the product might still work over a strong 3G or 4G signal.

http://qik.com/

No personal experience with Eye-Fi technology but I am aware that it's increasingly being used by members of the media -- although primarily to speed the process of sending photos or video directly to an editor or newsroom without delay.

I just tried qik, and stopped the app without closing it as it wanted. As if the camera was taken from me and the battery pulled out. Qik has no record of the upload.

Do you have to close out the video for it to be saved? If so, it's a bit less useful for places you might be confronted unexpectedly and stopped. You have to stop the video and have a couple of seconds to close it out.

The upload seems to occur immediately after the video stops recording, so it helps if you've got Wifi. I also noticed that if you delete the video from Qik, it is also deleted from your online storage (with no apparent recovery method?). If you're forced to delete the video under duress, there would be no online copy for you later.

Potential solutions I can think of (haven't tried any of these, please test first!):

1) Share videos as public by default, and enable the Qik option to publish to YouTube immediately.
2) Once under duress, turn on (ironically) airplane mode on your phone, ideally surreptitiously. Then, when forced to delete your videos, you can do so locally without deleting Qik's online copy.
3) Set a password on your phone and refuse to unlock it for anyone. If they insist, you/they can input a wrong code several times and cause the phone to wipe itself. Your video will still be preserved online.

If you are taking a photo with an Android-based smartphone, establishing a Google+ account will allow you to have any photos or videos you take with your smartphone automatically upload to your Google+ account (and your Picasa album if you have one), which means they load onto Google's servers and can be downloaded onto your computer or sent wherever for safe keeping.

I haven't shot any video, but the upload rate on photos over a 3G connection is less than five seconds.

Will qik work with a Blackberry?

Ditto the G+ suggestion. Also, know that the media you upload is not visible to people in your G+ circles until you share it with them. Even though there's the G+ connection, it's still private.

Yes

http://qik.com/phones

If you're in an area that doesn't have good WiFi or cell coverage, you could also use an SD WORM card.
http://sandisk.com/business-solutions/sd-worm
Basically, once you write a file to it, it's impossible (in theory) for it to be deleted short of destroying the physical medium itself. It's certainly more expensive than standard flash media, and I'm not sure where to buy one yet, but no matter how many times the thugs impotently pressed "delete" once they've taken your device, they can't delete it.

They can take the card off you and throw it in the nearest trashcan, however.

[Edit: I write "can" in the strictly physical sense of being physically able to. Not going near whether they "may" do so.]