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Judge Unseals 500+ Stingray Records
An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from Ars Technica:
A judge in Charlotte, North Carolina, has unsealed a set of 529 court documents in hundreds of criminal cases detailing the use of a stingray, or cell-site simulator, by local police. This move, which took place earlier this week, marks a rare example of a court opening up a vast trove of applications made by police to a judge, who authorized each use of the powerful and potentially invasive device
According to the Charlotte Observer, the records seem to suggest that judges likely did not fully understand what they were authorizing. Law enforcement agencies nationwide have taken extraordinary steps to preserve stingray secrecy. As recently as this week, prosecutors in a Baltimore robbery case dropped key evidence that stemmed from stingray use rather than fully disclose how the device was used.
According to the Charlotte Observer, the records seem to suggest that judges likely did not fully understand what they were authorizing. Law enforcement agencies nationwide have taken extraordinary steps to preserve stingray secrecy. As recently as this week, prosecutors in a Baltimore robbery case dropped key evidence that stemmed from stingray use rather than fully disclose how the device was used.
You can not consent to what you do not know. A free society mandates that the governing be done in open view of the public. Otherwise, how can we consent to what we are unaware of. As Lincoln said: "... of the people, by the people, for the people..."
In the absence of a judicial order/warrant a police officer should have the same rights as any ordinary citizen, except when they see a crime being committed. If police can operate a stingray then anyone should be able to do so. If police can demand (and get) telephone records without cause then so should everyone else.
If they will reveal which one killed Steve Irwin.
In United Russia, you track down cell phone...
In Soviet America, cell phone track you down.
--sf
and his copilot "Phones" of the W.A.S.P.
these extreme trolls are complex enough that they might mean something
i wonder what organization (and their PR wing) would be pissed that Slashdot published this story
it could be that if they can't keep it from being published then they systematically subvert it by putting racist/homophobic stuff as first post to make it obnoixious
in other words, sockpuppet griefers
Thank you Dave Raggett
Regarding the NDAs that have been signed with Harris and the government not to disclose information regarding the Stingray devices - I was under the impression that a civil contract could not override state or federal law, and any such clauses requiring such are non-enforceable. These judges need to be finding every single one of the officers and prosecutors in contempt when they present "but we're under an NDA" as an argument in a court of law.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
Poor people who have to live in countries like Russia, USA or North Korea. They don't know what is "freedom" anymore.
Government makes decision for them, poor chaps just need to bend over and take it in the asssssss
They just want you to look the other way....
Never trust a cop. It's their job to make you suffer.
Clandestine agencies in the US have circumvented all pillars of free and open government in order to slice off your balls, and tell you that you do not need to look down when you notice the pain. Please act with urgency while there are still means to sew them back. It is your duty to push back. No matter what maze-like justification is used to create a framework that undermines the foundation of our country; it is never justified nor does it serve to create justice. Stingray breaks the law just by existing.\
--- We need more Ron Paul!
If a device is used on the airwaves in the cell phone bands to emulate a tower, then necessarily, it will have to have a transmitter. Is the device type registered by the FCC, does each emulator have a site license? Does each operator have a license to operate the device?
If it is a "cell phone test device" then it must be associated with a properly licensed technician.
The legal requirements to simply operate the device include much more than the rights of the person of interest. For that reason alone, the concealment of the use of the device would be reason enough to throw out any information obtained from it, even before any case law is considered.
IANAL, but I have had 6 different FCC licenses, and have had to jump through many hoops. (I think only 3 are current now).
Is it possible for the existing cell network/protocols to identify "unknown" towers -- ie, those that appear in the spectrum but aren't known to be legitimate cell towers and somehow blacklist them to limit their functionality?
Do cell towers have a way of communicating to handsets which towers should be avoided or not used?
These have been around for years.
Police departments can buy one from:
http://www.meganet.com/meganet...
I spent an hour trying to figure out what this posting meant. Wikipedia lists lots of meanings for "stringray" but none having anything to do with human body cells. And why would a policeman want to simulate the location of my human body cells? Stimulate, with a T, perhaps, painful like a stingray, but not smulate.
The missing keyword was "phone". I live in Thailand. They're not called "cell phones" over here, they're called "mobile phones". If anyone posts an article about (US cell) phones, I hope they throw in the word "phone" somewhere so that we over here can comprehend it.
Thanks.
I know squat about cellular, but I'm guessing some sort of authentication system is in place to allow mobile units from a particular carrier to connect to a tower from the same carrier and only those towers ? ( ignoring roaming for the moment )
Would it be possible to ' fingerprint ' all of the carriers towers and push that information to a database kept on the phone ? I wouldn't think such a database would be all that big considering any given carrier has a few thousand towers at best. During the handshake process, the phone would query tower info and run it through some sort of hash algorithm and if it doesn't match, it doesn't connect. Or at the very least, it tells you it doesn't match.
Potential issues would then be roaming status on your phone and the Government, under the guise of terrorism and protecting the children clauses, getting the carriers to add tower authentication signatures for their double-naught-spy systems.
Use Google to search for the word, "trolling."
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
I'm looking for the download. No, I don't expect the software to be made available, although that would be cool. I just want to view those records that have been unsealed.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
almost 10 years isn't a 'noob' on any internet forum
Thank you Dave Raggett
Are you referring to the Stingray brand cell site simulator (made by Harris)? Or just a generic cell site simulator? Because a lot of companies make these and some are more easily available to the public (through gray channels) than others.
Have gnu, will travel.
Phone Firewall Identifies Rogue Cell Towers Trying to Intercept Your Calls (09.03.14)
http://www.wired.com/2014/09/c...
Will the next generation of rogue cell tower have the ability to be another normal cell tower?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
You're a 6-digit uid noob yourself. You've never been to the slashdot that was worth reading either.
Says the anonymous coward.
People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
There are still some judges left that use common sense and reject to become tools for orvellian spy programs.
Does anyone remember the code that turned the Misubishi Diagem into a cell phone scanner? It's been a long time and I cannot remember.
The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.
I think the first /. uid I abandoned was 5 digit.
But that's not the point. The point is you said something reeeaaallly stupid, and I made fun of you.
Deal with it.