The Intercept has today published 200-page documents revealing details about Harris Corp's Stingray surveillance device, which has been one of the closely guarded secrets in law enforcement for more than 15 years.
The firm, in collaboration with police clients across the U.S. have "fought" to keep information about the mobile phone-monitoring boxes from the public against which they are used.
The publication reports that the surveillance equipment carries a price tag in the "low six figures." From the report:
The San Bernardino Sheriff's Department alone has snooped via Stingray, sans warrant, over 300 times.
Richard Tynan, a technologist with Privacy International, told The Intercept that the "manuals released today offer the most up-to-date view on the operation of" Stingrays and similar cellular surveillance devices, with powerful capabilities that threaten civil liberties, communications infrastructure, and potentially national security. He noted that the documents show the "Stingray II" device can impersonate four cellular communications towers at once, monitoring up to four cellular provider networks simultaneously, and with an add-on can operate on so-called 2G, 3G, and 4G networks simultaneously.
Typical set up for StingRay portability, pause vid to view:
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I really don't think your average citizen much cares if their phone conversations can be heard by law enforcement.
Especially if it helps them to keep track of the people who are on the other side of the law.
But if it gets out of control and becomes a tool of tyranny that is a whole other story.
On that note the DOJ has, as of September 3, 2015, required law enforcment to obtain warrants, supported by probable cause, to use cell-site simulators in their work.
Which any lawman knows could compromise some investigations by insider tip off's to those under investigation.
It is a catch 22 no matter how we look at it.
So I bet the things get used just to locate where certain people's phones are located at any given moment without all of the red tape and hurdles.
I know that there are fake companies located in buildings where cell towers are on the roof, and the states transportation cams all feed into their central location.
The fake companies usually are some sort of "Marketing Research" company.
They actually house the NSA watch dogs private out sourced contractors who sit at terminals where cell phones and state cams all feed through.
Young people come and go from these offices, unlocking the door and locking it as they come and go through out the day.
A sure tip off that something unusual is going on in there.
And the people all keep to themselves pretty much.
So how come i know this stuff?
I paint offices.
I see normal offices where people come and go all day long with out unlocking and locking doors.
When people unlock and relock doors as they come and go, it is a major "give."
So of course your gonna look inside when the door opens and you see what's going on.
And you put together the clues that something is up.
And of course you see the transportation office right next door, where once again young people come and go, unlocking and locking the door.
Folks we are safe, if you think about it.
These guys are listening to every conversation with software to high light any words and phrases that need further examination.
If something comes up, they can locate the phone and activate any near by camera feeds to get visual.
Ya it is invasive on one hand but on the other it is just a tool at work to protect all of us.
Or...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
Just for grins...
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Coinciding with the launch of Oliver Stone's movie Snowden in select theaters this week, a coalition of civil rights groups are launching a campaign to convince President Obama to pardon NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Fusion.net reports:
The effort, which is organized by the ACLU, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, will gather signatures from regular people and endorsements from celebrities.
Snowden will speak by video link from Moscow at a press conference on Wednesday morning in New York, and an initial list of "prominent legal scholars, policy experts, human rights leaders, technologists and former government officials" in support of the cause will be released, according to a statement from the campaign.
A presidential pardon would mean that Snowden could come home from Moscow, where he's lived for the past three years, without the fear of being prosecuted.
He currently faces federal charges of violating the Espionage Act and stealing government property, even though his disclosures led to reform of the wiretapping program by Congress.
Many Snowden supporters are hoping the movie Snowden, which opens in U.S. theaters on Friday, will spur support for a pardon.
"I think the value of the movie is that it's likely to reach millions of people who have not been paying close attention to Snowden or to the debate about surveillance and privacy," Snowden's layer at the ACLU, Ben Wizner, told Fusion.
"Those people will emerge from the movie more educated about surveillance and with more positive attitudes toward Snowden."
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For 25 five years this man has been trying to make public information public, now he is being sued for it
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