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."

Comments

Re:Feds can track my cell phone...

[bill_mcgonigle]

any time, I just flushed it down the toilet. Trigger this fish tracking...

Dude, your septic tank is only 50 feet from the house.

Re:batteries ftw

[mobby_6kl]

>step 1, remove batteries.*

*Does not apply to iphone owners

Patriot act

[bluefoxlucid]

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?

Re:batteries ftw

[QuantumRiff]

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!

Re:Can it be rescinded by Bulk Executive Order 1?

[WillAffleckUW]

You have no idea as to what I'm hoping, Comrade.

Re:This Was In HBO's The Wire

[Red Flayer]

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?