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NSA Abandoned Project To Track Cell Phone Locations
barlevg writes "The Washington Post reports that NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander testified before the Senate about an experimental NSA program to track location data from cell phones in 2011, but abandoned it because it lacked 'the operational value' it needed. It was not made clear what 'operation value' they were seeking. Alexander said, 'the data collected were never available for intelligence analysis purposes.' He added, 'This may be something that is a future requirement for the country, but it is not right now because when we identify a number we can give that to the FBI, [who can a warrant for the data it needs]. That’s the reason we stopped in 2011.''"
If it's anything like location data in Twitter, the reason they probably stopped is because the majority of location-tagged information exchanges from cell phones are made by teens, and the NSA was probably sick of sifting through conversations debating the relative merits of Justin Bieber vs. One Direction.
It sounds like what he means is that anyone who wants to hide their data can just turn off their GPS, so you get a bunch of data about people who don't care that someone could know their location. The types of info that have "operational value" are usually the ones that users aren't aware that the NSA can get.
I don't know any different, but someone's bound to express doubt that the program went nowhere.
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
It's just that the data wasn't as accurate as the data that they get from the microchips they've implanted in our dental fillings.
Translation: renamed and doubly funded.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
The first thing that popped into my head when I read this was "Carrier IQ". The timing is almost right as well. Could I be wrong?
Better turn off your wifi and your cellular radio too. Both of those combined is accurate enough to know where you are within a few meters. Plenty of accuracy to stake out your building in person, or order a drone strike.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
The NSA have directly lied and also more often twisted the meaning of words out of their common use, which is properly tantamount to lying.
This makes accepting *anything* they say problematic.
At this point the NSA can no longer meaningfully communicate with me.
That's what the manufs. say, anyway.
So smartypants Keith is being facetious here.
Well it sounds like they are simply trying to reveal truths of lesser value to redirect attention. I think they have poisoned the perception. The game is that do they think it is worth repairing ? They probably decided ti simply live with this perception.
All cellphone locations are tracked 24/7 by satellite...as well as all the transmissions too. Oh, and the reflected RF is used to track humans, cars, planes, etc, etc.
its a long way to get to the teeth
There will never be a time in America's existence where the intelligence agencies "need" geolocation data on the citizens. If that day ever comes we will no longer live in America, as on that day the Constitution would no longer exist.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
This shows how little your masters think of you and your ability to conceptually resist their evil. The NSA collect ALL the real-time positional information from EVERY mobile phone company in the USA, having direct hardware connections to the computer systems that gather the data that the US government mandated every phone produce years ago.
Here's an interesting fact. A few years back, every TV drama assumed that the sheeple viewing KNEW that all cell phones constantly have their location identified by cell tower triangulation methods, as well as option GPS chips that may exist in the phone. As a result, plot-lines in dramas often revolved around this location tracking facility. Then the US government contacted EVERY major media outlet, and requested that they no longer reminded viewers of the tracking facility. Their excuse was that 'criminals' would be more likely to self-incriminate if they 'forgot' (or never realised in the first place) that their cell phone was also a government tracking device (by Law). Today, you can watch US shows that LIE to the viewer, and claim non-GPS-chip phones can never be location tracked.
Every mobile phone also has the ability to have the microphone remotely enabled without any indicator of this action on the phone itself.
The NSA tracks you by your phone. It tracks your vehicle via the RFID fingerprint created by the RFID chips embedded in your tires. So-called licence-plate cameras ONLY exists to connect a 'name to the face' (in other words a RFID fingerprint to the car's make and licence plate). Under-road RFID readers are thousands of times more common than the cameras, are vastly more reliable, and are never noticed.
When the Iron Curtain fell, people were horrified at the true level of surveillance in East Germany and Poland, and this despite the fact that people had previously assumed surveillance in Soviet nations was massively over-the-top. The NSA full surveillance projects are much, much, much more intrusive than even 99.9% of the most informed of you believe. Essentially whatever could be done if money is no object is done by the NSA.
If the majority of you could be made aware of the truth, you would want to kill yourselves- realising that those that rule you truly perceive you as nothing more than cattle. The minds of those 'at the top' make the world's worst serial killers seem like saints in comparison. The effort made by the depravity Obama (supported by George Soros' HRW) to murder hundreds of thousands of children, women and men in Syria recently, so that the popular secular regime could be replaced with a female-hating extremist islamic one, should be a bit of a clue.
The NSA exists for three main reasons, NONE of them to do with fighting crime or 'terrorism'
1) to read the 'mind' of the US population, or selected group within, in order to perfect the effectiveness of propaganda campaigns pushed by the mainstream media.
2) to identify new grass-roots social/political activity for early destruction or co-opting
3) to gather blackmail and coercion material for use in 'persuading' people in positions of power to support the 'correct' agendas.
The NSA simply gives your masters the perfect intelligence tools to STAY your masters forever, regardless of the will of the sheeple. Hey, but then this is ALWAYS the real purpose of intelligence operations that engage in surveillance of the population. It is just that now the NSA can do this evil almost perfectly, having both the budget and the technology.
The NSA is not a magic wand (Obama wanted to holocaust Syria, but the Human Race, including the US sheeple, wanted to back Putin's non-violent proposals). However, the NSA is the next best thing, and US sheeple are completely happy to vote for the same monster each time, simply because the monster can opt to wear a 'democrat' or 'republican' costume. A big step may falter, but the NSA ensures the small steps stay true.
PS Snowden's 'revelations' are part of the carefully calculated NSA project as well. You hear only what they want you to hear in a carefully calculated game of 'cause and effect'. The citizens of Soviet East Germany were also allowed to regularly hear carefully crafted tales of state spying- but never anything approaching the real truth.
They are just trying to get out ahead of the next Snowden leak.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Have gnu, will travel.
I'm confident that he's telling the truth in this case as well.
in 5, 4, 3, 2...
He added, 'This may be something that is a future requirement for the country, but it is not right now because when we identify a number we can give that to the FBI, [who can a warrant for the data it needs].
Who can WHAT a warrant for the data it needs? Fabricate?! Prestidigitate?! Erect?!
Stop Self Censoring and Tell Us!
I for one believe my new information overlords.
To be militarily useful the position information from any cell-phone needs 10 cm accuracy and 10 cm precision at the 1 meter grid square level.
It sounds like he's saying it's cheaper/easier to just get it from the carriers rather than directly collect it themselves.
I don't think General 'collect it all' suddenly decided not to collect it all. He's a master of lying. More likely he had several such programs, and abandoned one of them and is referring to that one abandoned attempt at this. As long as NSA's actions are secrets, his lies go unchallenged.
He certainly has all the cell phone records in near real time and they do contain the tower metrics, perhaps he simply mines that for the persons location rather than get the telcos to do the calculation for him.
The location data is right there in the metadata General Alexander grabbed, it's not in lat/long form but it's quite trivial to calculate if you have a table of tower locations, which is publicly available. He's already admitting to grabbing meta data in near real-time so he's also grabbed location data in near real time.
So he's lying, it's just pinning down the exact lie.
IMHO, it's the 'real-time' thing, because he gets meta data in batches with delays of a few minutes. So he can claim there is no 'real-time' tracking of Americans locations because in his head real time means milliseconds not minutes. As long as nobody can see the details, nobody can see the lie. But we already have Snowden's leak on the metadata, and it already shows he gets the tower data.
Somehow these asshats have got it stuck in their heads that the NSA is any different at all from the FBI in terms of what it needs before it can collect the slightest bit of anything on a US citizen.
Maybe they are setting up a new and more modern tracking technology ...
As these guys routinely lie about what they do can we believe that they have dropped this program?