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Feds Can Locate Cell Phones Without Telcos
schwit1 sends along an Ars Technica report covering the release of documents obtained under the FOIA suggesting that the Justice Department may have been evading privacy laws in their use of "triggerfish" technology. Triggerfish are cell-tower spoofing devices that induce cell phones to give up their location and other identifying information, without recourse to any cell carrier. "Courts in recent years have been raising the evidentiary bar law enforcement agents must meet in order to obtain historical cell phone records that reveal information about a target's location. But documents obtained by civil liberties groups under a Freedom of Information Act request suggest that 'triggerfish' technology can be used to pinpoint cell phones without involving cell phone providers at all. The Justice Department's electronic surveillance manual explicitly suggests that triggerfish may be used to avoid restrictions in statutes like CALEA that bar the use of pen register or trap-and-trace devices..." The article does mention that the Patriot Act contains language that should require a court order to deploy triggerfish, whereas prior to 2001 "the statutory language governing pen register or trap-and-trace orders did not appear to cover location tracking technology."
Yeah, patriot act, rights violations, unecessary power, etc etc...
Where can I get one?
Sometimes, life itself is sarcasm...
I saw a poorly disguised cell tower in a shark suit just yesterday.
I said it had to be a cop.
any time, I just flushed it down the toilet. Trigger this fish tracking...
Dude, your septic tank is only 50 feet from the house.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
>step 1, remove batteries.*
*Does not apply to iphone owners
The article must be in error. Bush passed the patriot act to allow this to happen without warrants, not to impose the need for warrants, right?
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I wonder why they didn't use the Hawaiian name, "humuhumu-nukunuku-a-pua'a"...
*shrug*
I wouldn't be surprised if most aluminum foil were more than sufficient.
And to think people laughed at me when I put a pocket in my tinfoil hat!
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
Apparently, cell phones are designed to transmit everything they know: phone numbers, call logs, etc. Why are cell phones designed to be so insecure?
Surely there are cell phones that are not so lame, unless the government is requiring anonymous access for snooping purposes.
You have no idea as to what I'm hoping, Comrade.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
This isn't like going through the trash at all. Besides, where are your manners? This is Slashdot, and the decision to opt for a trash analogy instead of a car analogy is just plain rude.
This is like you're driving down the highway, listening to tunes and shit, and some dude on the side of the highway is using x-ray vision, man, X-RAY VISION, to look at the driver's license in your wallet to see who you are...
Except he's got a bunch of machines to do it for him, and get this -- with three machines, he can not only see who you are, but he can also see exactly *WHERE* you are, dude. He's all violating Heisenberger's Uncertainty Principle or something... and the worst part is, he can ALSO tell if you're alive or dead *before* he gets a warrant, so he's violating the fundamental laws of physics not once, but twice.
Put that in your trashcan.
Besides... The Wire? As a source of tech knowledge by a Slashdot reader? What is the world coming to?
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
And to think people laughed at me when I put a pocket in my tinfoil hat!
Is that a tinfoil hat in your pocket, or are you just exercising your 4th amendment rights?
If you have something that you dont want anyone to know, maybe you shouldnt be doing it in the first place -Eric Schmidt
I don't think that's right. Triggerfish (the fake tower) doesn't give you call detail information, at least the way it's described. In The Wire, they were able to map what disposable phones called which other disposable phones, and you'd need call records from the telco for that.
Plus in the show, they did in fact get a warrant for that, however dubious, whereas apparently for triggerfish, the feds don't need a warrant to invade your privacy because -- Oh look! Sparkle-pony fairy dust! Pretty!
...now you know why the iPhone batteries are soldered in. Pretty soon only terrorists will use phones with removable batteries...
The show actually used the term "trigger fish" when referring to the devices. Apparently, they were sitting in a storage room somewhere, a part of a federal grant that none of the other police officers had the sophistication to use. The Baltimore PD wanted to borrow a trigger fish from the FBI when the FBI agent said, you have one! We gave it to you.
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
I wonder how a sceptic tank works.
Isn't a sceptic tank the opposite of a think tank?
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.