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U.S. Wiretapping Surges 19%
linuxwrangler writes "Court authorized wiretaps in the U.S. surged 19% in 2004 to 1,710. Court orders relating to terror-related investigations are not included in the wiretap statistics and those warrants reached a record 1,754 last year. Apparently judges have found that law enforcement is unbelievably perfect as they rubber-stamped approvals on every single request they received."
Can they 'tap' a cell phone?
they don't have to. all they have to do is listen. hence, few criminals use cell phones for communications which they'd prefer remain confidential.
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or so i've....heard......:-/
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
-Oscar Wilde
If you want real privacy, use SpeakFreely with your own choice of encryption library.
Our old story on VoIP Wiretapping
Interestingly in U.S., there are serious legal restrictions on the use of wiretaps by police agencies. The Supreme Court has consistently held that wiretaps qualify as searches under the Fourth Amendment.
Article on related topic of Open Internet Wiretapping: Carnivore
IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) policy on wiretapping which says: The IETF restates its strongly held belief, stated at greater length in [RFC 1984], that both commercial development of the Internet and adequate privacy for its users against illegal intrusion requires the wide availability of strong cryptographic technology.
Another issue: Is Dialing Into a Conference Call an Interception?
I find it hard to believe that these are just "rubberstamps" seeing aswithout any concrete evidence to justify the wiretap, any evidence they would gather from one or as a direct result from one would be not be admitted as evidence due to that whole 4th Amendment thingy.
Plus the article gives a plausible technological reason the increase given that it takes more stuff these days to nail people. Can't exactly bust someone plotting over blackberry, etc through pre-blackberry techniues.
Anonymous Cowards generally receive no replies because you're a coward and I'm a bitch
I have a few friends in law enforcement, and they tell me the reason such a high percentage of warrants are approved is because it is seen as bad for one's career to request a warrant and be denied. If a detective keeps asking for warrants that aren't justified, supervisors see it as a sign of poor quality police work, so many officers are reluctant to ask a judge for a warrant unless they know they have a nearly air-tight case.
Also, if a large percentage of warrants were denied by the courts, people would spin the statistics to say that police are trying to over-exert their powers by asking for illegal searches. The police don't want to create that image for themselves.
not that i would know or anything, I think I saw the lone gunmen (the 3 geeks on X-Files) do it in an episode...
they can customize the dial error messages you receive, they can route your cell-phone web browser through whatever proxy server they want, they can shut off your cell phone to piss you off, reprovision on the fly, etc... The hardest thing is to find your physical location, and thats using good old triangulation if you turn off the location awareness thingie (which isn't actually turned off, just restricts it to "Law Enforcement Personnel" or their close personal friends), and yes, they can create a hidden three-way call to a third party to listen in, or store the conversations digitally...
Anyways, the point is that cell phones are tapped with computers, after it the signal hits the tower and gets on the land lines, not with radio receivers...
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
And even if you do not worry about your network provider and authorities listening, you should be aware that the GSM encryption was deliberately designed to be weak, and that it has been broken.
Of course they can.
Apart from your voice and data traffic, the 'mobile' part of your connection also keeps track of the signal strength from the nearest cell phone towers. This allows the operator to give an estimate of your location, the accuracy of which is dependent upon the number of towers within range.
Since each cell phone tower is going support hundreds of phone calls simultaneously, this requires a high-speed digital data link to the nearest trunk exchange, where the call can be routed to other telephone networks, as well as the operators accounting system.
Since the data is digital it can be multiplexed or diverted and split off in any direction. Particularly useful for voice-mail, three way calling and group conferences.
Your mobile phone is always in communication with the nearest cell phone tower, even if it isn't actively handling a telephone call.
There have been several cases where a suspect had been incriminated by the times and locations that a mobile phone has been used and switched off.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Yea but Nazi's won the election that brought them to power, though not a clear majority. They consolidated their power largely thanks to winning control of the legislature and passing laws that gradually decimated or outright outlawed all opposition. They used the Reichstag fire to justify many of their greater excesses as the Republican's today use 9/11.
"the nazis were socialist as are most Democrats"
They were Fascists which isn't exactly the same as classic Socialists. The Nazi's created a giant interventionist government but it worked hand in hand with giant corporations and industrialists much like today's Republican party. Wealthy industrialists brought him to power, in fact bankrolled his rise to power, in particular the Thyssen family, and wealthy capitalists don't normally support real socialists. The Thyssen family is interesting because George. W's grandfather Prescott was their banker in America and his bank, Union Banking, was seized for trading with the enemy when war was declared much to the embarrassment of the Bush family. They had extensive financial dealings, along with their wealthy benefactors the Harrimans, with Nazi Germany.
Today's neo con Republicans are also big fans of aggressive warfare, you know unilaterally invading countries who haven't attacked you under false pretenses, like Nazi Germany.
I'm guessing your suggesting today's Republican's are free market conservatives and the antithesis of all this Nazi, Democrat Socialism, well I guess you haven't noticed but the new Republican party has been growing the government, its intrustion in and control of our lives, and its deficit spending at a furious pace, they are just growing it in a way that favors the wealthy and their corporate friends.
I really wish we did have a conservative government that did what all the Republican's have said they were gonna do if they gained power, cut government spending, cut the size of govermment and limit its intrustion in our lives, but today's Republican party is more Fascist than it is conservative. Certainly its velvet gloved, compassionate fascism and nothing close to Germany in the 30's but give it time and one more 9/11 scale attack.
"we still have elections"
So did Germany, they did gain power through elections, laced as they were with Brown shirt intimidation, and they held elections for most of their rise to power, they just used their control of the government to pass laws that marginalized or outright outlawed of all their opposition.
After a stolen presidential election in 2000 and a suspicious election in 2004, remember the exit polls that said one thing and the official results that said another I don't think just having elections proves anything. Unless they are fair and above reproach which America's haven't been since 2000. If they are vulnerable to manipulation they are meaningless.
"free press"
Heh, most people are getting their news from TV networks controlled by a tiny handful of giant corporations. Rupert Murdoch's global empire in particular, is anything but "free", "fair" or
"balanced" and is dominating cable news, maybe you've heard of them, Fox News, they own like a third of the world's media, Viacom, Time/Warner, GE and Disney round out the list, none of which are exactly fans of controversy. Radio is controlled largely by Clearchannel and dominated by right wing extremists. Newspapers are also massively consolidated and simply don't have any traction with most people any more.
So our media has been stampeded in to being anything but free. CBS has been thoroughly spanked for its "liberal bias", FOX's right wing bias is blatant, unchecked and its all angry white men watch. CNN used to balance FOX but since November when they got their new chief and the Republican's swept the elections I barely recognize it, they are pandering to the Christian right so much to try to salvage their ratings. There was a time after the Atlanta shooting they were plugging "The Purpose Driven Life" so
@de_machina
... or they're using the cryptophone...
If I understand it correctly, that telephone uses a sort of ssh-like connection for normal calls... sounds pretty cool :)
- Leon Mergen
http://www.solatis.com