USB dead drop

An unrelated system called "deadSwap", in which participants use an SMS gateway to coordinate passing USB memory sticks on to one another, was begun in Germany in 2009.

[5][6] Although typically found in urban areas embedded in concrete or brick, installation of USB dead drops in trees[7] and other organic structures in natural settings have also been observed.

Other benefits are more social or artistic in nature: USB dead drops are an opportunity to practice what Telecomix describes as datalove and can be seen as a way to promote off-grid data networks.

The act of making such a connection, to a device which is not necessarily trusted, inherently poses certain threats: Publicly and privately available USB dead drops give anyone (with physical access) the ability to save and transfer data anonymously and free of charge.

[7] As of 2016, overall dead drop infrastructure was estimated as being more than 10 terabytes of storage capacity, with the majority still located in the United States and Europe, but with growing numbers installed in the Asia-Pacific region, South America, and Africa.