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Speculation On Large-Scale Phone Location Snooping
An anonymous reader recommends a speculative blog entry by Chris Soghoian up on CNet. Soghoian makes a convincing case that the NSA could be using loopholes in the law to gather real-time location information on the mobile phones of millions of people. There is no hard evidence that this is happening, but the blog post sheds light on the dense undergrowth of companies populating the wireless space that could be easy pickings for a National Security Letter with a gag order attached. "While these household names of the telecom industry [AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint] almost certainly helped the government to illegally snoop on their customers, statements by a number of legal experts suggest that collaboration with the NSA may run far deeper into the wireless phone industry. With over 3,000 wireless companies operating in the United States, the majority of industry-aided snooping likely occurs under the radar, with the dirty work being handled by companies that most consumers have never heard of."
It is easy to keep a secret: tell no-one! Two people can only keep a secret if one or both of them are dead.
Sure, the NSA could try. Maybe even under a legal smoke-screen. The problem is the gag order wouldn't stick. Too many people would need to know, or see the traffic. Somebody, somewhere would leak. Lots of good, anonymous ways. And it is not as if they're comitting treason.
Besides, I don't think this would yield much. Anyone concerned with surveillence should have their cells turned off unless making a call or expecting incoming/gathering txts. More concerned invidividuals will use disposible phones.
I was recently hired by a company that works on classified information. Cell phones are not allowed, by DOD policy. The risk lies in the ability of [??] to remotely activate the phone and eavesdrop on the microphone. This wasn't a joke, several people believe the capability already exists.
Having the cell phone remotely activated is the least of their concerns. They're more concerned about YOU activating it, or using it to store something.
I have a friend who works on classified stuff too (as does just about anyone who works in DC/Maryland.) They have a room that is for use of classified systems and materials.
Cell phones etc are kept outside because everything that goes in, stays in, so that it can't be used to bring something out. For example, he took a USB mouse in, and had to buy a new one to replace it- they wouldn't let the USB mouse out, because it could be used to hide stuff. Maybe it had been modified with memory, or opened up and something classified stuffed inside the case. Etc.
Please help metamoderate.
This has been possible for a long time already. The Nokia 5160i released in 1998 could be used to eavesdrop. Simply short the answer button to the light up key pad. Toss it in a room and call it at your convenience. The phone will answer immediately without ringing.
305,063,243 Americans
talk 0.11 hours per day on the phone or 6.6 minutes on average per day or 2,409 minutes a year
or 734,897,352,387 total minutes a year
Using GSM cellphone audio compression technology of 5.6kbps or 336kbpm or 246,925,510,402,032 kb/year or
30,865,688,800,254 KB/year
or
30,142,274,219 MB/year
or
29,435,815 GB/year
or
28,746 TB/year
or
28 PB/year
and if you assume people mostly talk to other Americans you only need to record half of the conversions
or 14 PB/year
1TB drive currently costs about $200 or
$3 million dollars to store all the made calls in the US in a year plus overhead.
At this point, I think it's pretty clear that people need a secure way to perform key exchange with friends and have the keys stored and the conversations decrypted off of their mobile phone devices.
Why aren't such systems in the consumer space yet, and cheap?
Without encryption, your expectation of privacy should be no more than that of a ham radio operator.
That said, the article seems to be about phone location snooping — somebody, somewhere records where you (or, rather, your phone) were, and not, what you said. Encryption will not help you here, but your privacy is not violated either — or not nearly as much, as the "Heil Bush" moron would like you to think.
It is not even illegal — for example from an earlier era, consider the fact, that although the contents of your mail correspondence is private, the fact of the correspondence is not. The government can observe/record/use against you the fact, that you wrote to so-and-so and/or received letters from such-and-such even if it does not know, what was written, because it could not (or would not) obtain a warrant to open up your mail.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
I think one can reasonably take the position (like I do) that I might be annoyed if something private about my life were to be released. My credit card number, for example, or conversations I have with friends and relatives. But I wouldn't be ashamed or otherwise hurt.
I may not want it to be released, but if it were released, the only major harm would be my annoyance.
Demand privacy. Do not require it, or you will become a slave to it. You can't be blackmailed if you have no secrets...
"It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." -Peak Performance