The person might then feel their phone has been messed with in some way and stop using it just when a gov still wants to know more in real time.
A more telco friendly option might exist to keep voice on so a person calls or is called, keeps their phone on, battery in and is very trackable.
They might not have any data connection and might have some extra gov software pushed down the network.
Hours later the phone works again, the video is lost with free space data overwritten, but the person might just still keep that now upgraded phone.

Re ". . . if you're that paranoid."
We saw the free UK offer of wifi to attempt get to phones of interest under
"UK spy agency reportedly intercepted email of delegates at G20 meetings in 2009" (Jun 17, 2013)
http://www.pcworld.com/article...
"... set up Internet cafes at the G20 meetings in order to extract key logging information and credentials from foreign delegates, giving the agencies “sustained intelligence options” against the targets even after the events ended."
"...allowing the reading of people’s emails before or at the same time as they do"
A few sites kept open to herd the press too, with CCTV and dat collection? All other easy to find sites closed thanks to tame telco help?
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/... 17 June 2013
"Setting up internet cafes where they used an email interception programme and key-logging software to spy on delegates' use of computers"
"Penetrating the security on delegates' BlackBerrys to monitor their email messages and phone calls"
"Supplying 45 analysts with a live round-the-clock summary of who was phoning who at the summit"
In any city for local police work soon :) You connect, the gov pushes some extra software out too.

Re "I stop to wonder how many smartphones worldwide are already 'kill-chipped' in such a manner by US Intelligence Community and others already."
In other nations its just a nice, helpful, free telco feature stopping a working phone after its been lost.... built in as sold :)

The US can now brick aspects of your phone and track your phone. Still powered on and seems to work but just cant upload in a city that night.
The more a person wants to upload, the more interesting the user is.
Let voice only work to see if any unlisted friends are called in real time for much needed tech help, if the media captured is described.
A person cannot upload, but the phone still seems to work and is very trackable. A gov could then send some new software down too?
Hoping a person of interest would not give up on their still working phone over weeks, months when upload ability is restored soon after.

Think back to East Germany. Even if a West German camera did look down over a city and capture a protest been broken up, the footage would still have to make it out of the area for later broadcast.
What the US gov is seeking is a wifi, cell and upload block per city zone. A member of the press would have to find their van, a citizen journalist would seek the working internet thats open to the wider public in real time if they had phone upload "account" issues ;).
Be fun if working free internet was offered as bait to track all the citizen journalists? A person sees their media upload but they are now identified in real time.
The longer a person is in a dark city with real collected video of an event the more ability a gov has to spin, control or preempt the optics of an event or hunt down that lone citizen journalist.
ie your phone is on but just cant seem to upload - your now carrying a unique beacon with media that needs to be sent and are on the move.
In East Germany all the gov could do is look at TV images later and find the site used long after an event was broadcast to the world.
In 2014 all a gov with a tame telco has to do is find your phone trying to upload. The unique video never gets out anymore. The citizen journalist is swept up and phone lost.

The ability to fool a Tor user and browser into giving up an ip has been in the press over the years.
It can be as simple as DNS to an unexpected port, ftp in the distant past to proxy not been filled in, to more unique application related issues with a browser.
In the end the ip drops out and user can then be tracked over the net as expected. Back in 2007 ideas around eg an exit server looking for key words would get a real ip to users browser ie user did not disable Java.

They where looked after well by the USA and UK as far as hardware and software went. Lots of nice equipment and top quality West/German staff that got to go on work related trips to the USA to learn more about new US methods.
The problem for real German intelligence is how many of their own staff now work for the US and UK and have done so for decades.
Who did they promote, how far did they get into vital German bureaucracies and the wider German mil.
Germany cannot trust its own staff, the German tested, passed text and voice crypto has issues as used, telco infrastructure or equipment they buy from via the tame USA brands.
Lots of nice overtime for skilled domestic German intelligence watching German staff for long term contacts with other wealthy nations.

The ability to pass back that US calls where not at all secure or where collectable at times, places would have been a good task for any German working for the US with wider German security access.
The spin can be seen as to try and not ask why US communications where not secure...
The spin can be seen as to try and not mention too much about German issues with German staff working for the US.
Beyond that its just Germany collecting all as they where tasked to by the the UK and US gov since the end of ww2.
The only mystery is how many Germans work for the USA and at what levels within the wider German gov and mil.

Every connection to that device is now databased or waiting to be collected.

Yes just like the Western press did watching East Germany respond to protests. Keep the the media safe, get it out for broadcast.

Re: "For everyone else"
The problem is you may have to pass that area under cell tracking for some unrelated reason.
Every user that turns their phone off (battery out or turned off) near the tracked protest area will be looked at ie you where educated about tracking and wanted to enter a protest zone without your phone on.
Thats the problem with any cell device. A a vast area of use is reconstructed by gov and mil experts every phone is going to be considered.
Powered on at the protest.
Powered off before entering the protest area.
Walking to or with a person who was at the protest site or also had their phone off in a guilty way near the protest area.
The cell use map will massive over a wide area and over time. To catch people arriving early, late, meeting people or walking to or from an event.
Did they steam, upload media? If so what, where and how and to what network, where they given data to stream further way trying to hide the person who captured the true optics of the event for the press and a wider world.

Yes with most projects just follow the years of funding. Good enough tech to fund a distant color revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... but the entry end end points are still gov friendly.

Yes wow :)
As for the need to pull young people in your getting close to Young Pioneer Organization of the Soviet Union
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Paramilitary group as with Hitler Youth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The "military training contexts" as mentioned seems to stand out long term, as with the desperate drive for more basic quality science and math and beyond.
The UK seem to have consider the same need for science and to build the ranks of its gov and private sectors with:
GCHQ staff teach 'future spies' in schools (09 March 11)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobi...
The most basic question is why dont they all just pump cash into selective normal academic school funding as is, no questions in the press, test, guide, fund, suggest or scholarship out as needed?
Why the need now for a generation rush to push of "military training contexts" in wider public education? Whats missing or not working now? What is so needed in a few years for an entire generation?

Australia tried so hard with vast test area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... after WW2.
The UK spent big on US equipment ideas and space related tech for its own secure sat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... option.
Both nations show its kind of hard to get gifts or buy in. Your own staff and production lines have to be set up in sync with your nations own science pace.
India really shows the science advancement option, as it started at the same time, with less and years later shows what can do now as a nation without constant costly outside help.

Lots of nations tried different ways of getting into space. Some like the UK and Australia did deals with the USA.
East Germany looked to the Soviet Union.
Long term the only way for a nation to get into space is to do do India did. Fully understand every aspect of the basic science and have your own hardware and software production, then move onto the next easy stage of space technology.
Other space nations will give you a free ride for the press or sell you tech but will not give away their own hard work.