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Well I cannot talk for others as honestly I'm not experiencing the situation of 1312 activity in some US cities, but it appears to me that while all of the analysis and advice above is sound and legit, and connects with my own experience of the protests of the last few years (especially those ridiculously awful XR and BLM nonviolent marches); I'm left with the question of how to communicate these with the activist groups they are aimed at. Even if you find a way to... how will you even get their attention or interest?

Today it's like the normal to be expecting people to film and take pictures of everyone, and there's zero knowing of who these people are and who they work with. It's a fucking joke.

The best way I can see to counter this would be to wear some kind of brown paper bag on your head with stuff written that goes like "my identity's underneath but it belongs to ME, alone. Plz fuck off!". This could become a curiosity to the protest paparazzis, so maybe a counter-trend could start from this.

And that is the kind of engagement anarchists should have with protests, imo, instead of just disappearing among the mass of sheeple or following the herd. There's a way to assert your critique without ending up as the black sheep of the crowd, that is quickly snitched or isolated by the leading group. Especially consider maybe NOT being a black bloc, and explore other avenues of engagement.. like those that have never been tried. A plurality of ever-shifting forms is compliant with the notion of diversity of tactics... where espousing the black bloc as the only way to engage seems pretty much like a single tactic!

Aside from that, here's the major issue that some principles clearly weren't passed across generations, so that at every new one, some people like the author of the text above gotta, once again, do the pedestrian yet necessary work of warning people about their ever more awful lack of security practices.