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How Militarized Cops Are Zapping Rights With Stingray (alternet.org)
"Police nationwide are secretly exploiting intrusive technologies with the feds' complicity," argues a new article on Alternet -- calling out Stingray, which mimics a cellphone tower to identify every cellphone nearby. "It gathers information not only about a specific suspect, but any bystanders in the area as well... Some Stingrays are capable of collecting not only cell phone ID numbers but also numbers those phones have dialed and even phone conversations."
The ACLU says requests for more information have been meeting heavy resistance from police departments since 2011, with many departments citing nondisclosure agreements with Stingray's manufacturer and with the FBI, and "often, the police get a judge's sign-off for surveillance without even bothering to mention that they will be using a Stingray...claiming that they simply can't violate those FBI nondisclosure agreements.
"More often than not, police use Stingrays without bothering to get a warrant, instead seeking a court order on a more permissive legal standard. This is part of the charm of a new technology for the authorities: nothing is settled on how to use it." Stingray is more than a 1960s TV series with puppets. Several state judges estimate there have been hundreds of instances where police have used the Stingray tool without a warrant or telling a judge.
Slashdot reader Presto Vivace writes:
This is why it matters who wins the mayor and city council races. Localities do not have to accept this technology.
"More often than not, police use Stingrays without bothering to get a warrant, instead seeking a court order on a more permissive legal standard. This is part of the charm of a new technology for the authorities: nothing is settled on how to use it." Stingray is more than a 1960s TV series with puppets. Several state judges estimate there have been hundreds of instances where police have used the Stingray tool without a warrant or telling a judge.
Slashdot reader Presto Vivace writes:
This is why it matters who wins the mayor and city council races. Localities do not have to accept this technology.
I keep my phone in airplane mode and disable wireless outside my house whenever I'm not actively making a call. (Yes, that means no incoming calls).
It's not just stingray that's a problem, it's asshole marketers.
It's really sad to me that such steps are now needed if you want to retain a shred of privacy from the surveillance state (both commercial and governmental branches thereof). However, it is.
This is why we can't have nice things.
nothing is settled on how to use it
This isn't a problem with new technology. This is a problem with powertripping fuckheads.
The Fourth Amendment, in very simple and explicit language, settled the use of Stingray long before it was even imagined.
Especially in the USA...
They don't represent you or care about you.
They want control over you, your money, your property, your family, your life chained to them in fear.
Fuck 'em.
Seriously.
Fuck the police..blame the damn cell phone manufacturers for letting this shit happen. Posted from Baltimore, where this is real..
Hard to see what the problem. The police gather information illegally with a stingray. Then they know who/what/where to look for. Then they create a secondary story to explain how they made the bust. In the drive through a McDonald's noticed suspect leave motel and get in his car. Suspect stumbled and appeared to be inebriated. When suspect was pulled over, suspect seemed nervous which justified the search which lead to the happy fortuitous discovery of drugs...
No cops where jailed during the crime, so all good.
Hello, Fornicators, Warez Dudes and other Americans who hate the American way of life, My name is Geoffrey R. Stone. I am a civil rights expert and a professor of law. *DO NOT* try and understand this yourselves. It is beyond you. Instead listen to my expert advice: The police are good men and women who are well-intentioned and trying to keep you safe. Stop this incessant whining and let them do their jobs.
FTS: "often, the police get a judge's sign-off for surveillance without even bothering to mention that they will be using a Stingray...claiming that they simply can't violate those FBI nondisclosure agreements"
So judges should just get into the habit of asking specific questions about Stingray, and anything similarly illegal, EVERY TIME law enforcement asks for a warrant. Force the cops to make a choice between lying to a judge and violating an NDA with the FBI. It would be entertaining to be a fly on the wall and watch the FBI get thrown under the bus a few (dozen) times in front of a variety of judges.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
Is that without proper framework for evidence gathering, accusations, etc, stingrays and other surveillance make it much easier to stick whatever you want to whomever you want.
The entire point of these new law enforcement "tools" is helping make sure everyone can always be seen as guilty of something.
Cell radiation or is it from the safety I feel?
The Police State is progressing successfully, all while we continue to ensure that the masses believe they are free and have a full bill of rights that is followed legally.
"requests for more information have been meeting heavy resistance from police departments since 2011"
What is it they tell us again about how okay it is to use the stingray?
"If you have nothing to hide..."?
No. The reality is that there is a chain of command and that the most spineless lightweights occupy lower offices. They will do whatever they are pressured to do from the next level up, and so on.
Stop living under the delusion that there is democracy in the world.
The only way you could argue that there is democracy is if 95+% of humans don't count as people. Which is pretty much the argument the top of the hierarchy makes.
If the Feds gave local police military helicopters with Hellfire missiles they would routinely be used on jaywalkers and drivers who didn't use turn signals. If it was nukes they would be used on speeders. One of the perks of being a cop is the right to use unjustifiable force any time you can get away with it.
Why is Snark Required?
If they can call Linux/Tor/Tails users "extremists", then so can I with Stingrays and the Windows 10 trojan.
or disclosing the extent of what they're going to do they've dropped the request. If they feel threatened they just go to ground.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
...with many departments citing nondisclosure agreements with Stingray's manufacturer and with the FBI, and "often, the police get a judge's sign-off for surveillance without even bothering to mention that they will be using a Stingray...claiming that they simply can't violate those FBI nondisclosure agreements.
So their position, then, is that they've contracted away our constitutional rights? Is that the long and the short of it?
Moderate drunk! It's more fun that way!
mdsolar zapping my rights to cheap efficient electricity with his anti-nuclear agenda. For more information, go back 4 articles.
Would it be possible for Slashdot readers to provide their anecdotes about the devices that can be purchased in electronics shops in Asia / South East Asia that can be used to obtain data from smart phones and computers that operate at a few metres or more, from the target device? I guess you can buy IMSI catchers for example and devices that look like tablets that can be used to obtain data other than the usual hacking via Internet / WIFI ?
Posters to Slashdot often talk of the police having Stingrays, but I guess that citizens from from countries around the world are already using these IMSI catching devices far more than the police.
Mobile phones aren't secure anyway. You are being tracked by one or more entities when you carry one. All your data is monitored as well as your calls and location by the various corporations. Yet everyone seems to have one. Just accept that any networked communication system is not secure by definition. All nodes need to be able to talk to other nodes in the system. That is the design.
Maybe all defence lawyers should ask the opening question whether any surveillance device was used without a court order, during the investigation? Get the illegal data tossed out frequently enough, that maybe the cops will consider use of a court order?
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
This is a case of privatised military equipment in use by civilian police, federal, state, county, city, and even lower!
This is expressly prohibited.
never Ever trust the police. They are no different than the Crips or Bloods except they are better financed.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
1.) Remove Battery Function. Use often and early.
2.) Create a list of codewords on paper and use that for confidential communications. Make sure you do not use the list for too long.
3.) "forget" your phone at home then and now. Learn to live without the NSA-GCHQ Necklace.
Remember - the 1% want to control you in every little detail while pulling off their crimes with whoever bribes them good enough (like the Saudi-Turkish-Pakistani Terror Financiers). But they want YOU to be a 100% controlled sheep.
Get A Freedom Computer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi
Get rid of Windows.
"Why do you have any problems with the Rectal Mounted Security System of NSA ?"
At least he blasts the collusion of the 1% with the enemies of our civilization. He has already been suggested for assassination by a NY Times journalist. That means he has stuck a fork into the shitpile of corruption.
What do you suggest ? Clinton and more of the Bush-Obama type of corruption ? Who will be attacked for nothing this time ? Iran ?
I see a stingray van every day. Has different company's paint jobs. Its at least one guy's full time job around here to operate.
The 6th amendment right to confront your accuser has caused many cases brought about by so called stingray devices to be dropped for fear of violating the NDA's signed by the department utilizing the devices, FBI included. I'm not saying they aren't out there or that many departments aren't over-stepping their bounds but any decent lawyer will challenge the source of transcripts and many cases have magically faded away for the lack of evidence unless they are major cases that can invoke secret warrants or such as national security issues.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...
http://forums.theregister.co.u...
https://www.techdirt.com/artic...
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
How can we fight back against these damn things?
There has to be a way to deturmine if a cell tower is a stingray. Then we can just publish code to stop phones from connecting to them.
I believe this whole outcry is quite stupid. It has quite a "simple" technical solution.
1. Crowdsource the position and coordinates of "legal" cell tower antennas. It's not hard, they are visible . If it is possible to have "OpenStreetMap" I do not see why it cannot have a layer called "OpenCellSites". Just like Waze
2. Write an App, or include it in the firmware that keeps the cellphone from answering siren calls from any antenna not in the list.
Stingray is not a problem if you simply do not answer its call.
I know #2 maybe difficult if it is in the firmware inside radio module. If that is the case then I foresee an industry of open source radio modules with a "veto" signal that tells the cellphone when it is hearing a "better" antenna and asks for permission to change. It it does not receive permission, it is forbidden to switch.
Just My Idea.
Get "Network Signal Info Pro", by kaibits software. Then use it.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
This activity has multiple negative trends embedded in it:
1). The notion that perjury can be OK at times (which you know only means when the police do it);
2). Creeping corporatism, where we place the rights of corporations above those of real citizens, you know, the ones with a brain and a pulse;
3). Blanket searches that sweep up the information of many innocent civilians. Far more, for instance, than the alleged guilty parties. Then we are expected to believe that the security apparatus won't peek at that information, they promise and pinky swear!
4). Warrants that are non-specific, and a slow erosion of the credibility of the entire warranting process.
I heard of 'Thunderbirds' as a child but didn't see it until 40 years later. After that, I watched 'SuperCar' but I had no idea that Gerry Anderson produced other Tv shows: 'Stingray', 'Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons', 'Fireball XL5', 'The adventures of Twizzle'. He also did the live action 'Space 1999', which I also watched as a child, plus other live-action shows. He made a large contribution to the sci-fi genre but is rarely mentioned.
They showed the messages as captured - so either this was faked or private citizens can purchase and use Stingray's for spying on people.
And you are worried about Law Enforcement using them ?
are a criminal class.