New Illinois Law Limits Police Use Of Cellphone-Tracking Stingray (go.com)

An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes a report from ABC News: A new Illinois law limits how police can use devices that cast a wide net in gathering cellphone data... [Stingray] gathers phone-usage data on targets of criminal investigations, but it also gathers data on other cellphones -- hundreds or even thousands of them -- in the area. The new law requires police to delete the phone information of anyone who wasn't an investigation target within 24 hours. It also prohibits police from accessing data for use in an investigation not authorized by a judge.

A dozen other states have adopted such regulations, and Congress is considering legislation that would strengthen federal guidelines already in place... Privacy advocates worry that without limits on how much data can be gathered or how long it can be stored, law enforcement could use the technology to build databases that track the behavior and movement of people who are not part of criminal investigations.
Earlier this month a U.S. judge threw out evidence gathered with Stingray for the first time, saying that without a search warrant, "the government may not turn a citizen's cell phone into a tracking device." The ACLU has identified 66 agencies in 24 states using Stingray technology, "but because many agencies continue to shroud their purchase and use of stingrays in secrecy, this map dramatically underrepresents the actual use of stingrays by law enforcement agencies nationwide."

Comments

Limit Police Use of Bullets

[Anonymous Coward]

It seems lately that the old-fashioned "file a report" for each shot fired isn't adequate oversight. Give any officer in a non-assault/SWAT role a limited magazine.

Re:Limit Police Use of Bullets

[justthinkit]

Limit Police Use of Bullets

Like in Norway.

Minor setback..

[fustakrakich]

Nothing a rubber stamp, and/or "hose" can't fix

Frankly I'm surprised

[the_Bionic_lemming]

I live in Illinois and around here the legislation usually is whatever takes the most money from people who live here. I'm astounded that this passed.

Re:Frankly I'm surprised

[gurps_npc]

They are scared the courts will outlaw them completely. Or simply wait until they have a long list of cases done without a warrant, and then the court says "no warrant, no conviction".

So the politicians decide they would set up a bunch of rules pre-empting a judicial censure of the police.

Re:Frankly I'm surprised

[Anonymous Coward]

The actual truth is fairly interesting.

During the "budget stalemate", the republican governor continued to call the democrat-dominated legislature into special sessions for the purpose of passing a budget. Since both sides were so far apart, very few, if any, republican members of the legislature bothered to show up for most of the sessions. This left the democrats that were there with nothing to do regarding the budget.

The governor refused to deal with legislation that was budget-related unless it was a full budget plan, but it was soon discovered that he was perfectly fine with legislation that had nothing to do with money. Just about everything that special interests want deals with money in some way or another, so these kinds of laws are all that were left. All you had to do was call up one of the democrats that bothered showed up for work and convince him or her to put it to a committee. There was no opposition since the republicans weren't present, so it was almost guaranteed to pass and get sent to the governor, who signed almost every non-money thing into law.

Re:Frankly I'm surprised

[gurps_npc]

Thank you, that was very informative.

The real problem

[fred911]

is there is absolutely no control over the use of these products. Once any information is obtained, intelligent agencies just use parallel construction or other methods to convict someone. Had they not had access to the use of these devices, surely many many prosecutions would be impossible or alleged crimes unknown.

  Cop having these devices are like foxes guarding hens.

really?

[Anonymous Coward]

i guess i forgot the limits of my glass house

Limit it to ZERO

[Anonymous Coward]

What the hell kind of device can be legally used that impersonates a cell tower?

How about if manufacturers of such devices are required to have a full audit trail of daily/weekly usage which must be uploaded to a trusted intermediary/escrow before it the crappy device is unlocked for the next usage. That way when creeps who have access to these devices think their wives are cheating on them go ballistic and start listening in on everything and everyone to find out, then their illicit usage will at least be recorded.

Re: Limit it to ZERO

[Anonymous Coward]

But but... Then the police would have accountability, we can't have that

Re: Limit it to ZERO

[Anonymous Coward]

But but... Then the police would have accountability, we can't have that

No, we can't, because of this-and-that or these-and-those or hey, look over there ... There's always some reason why we can't have that. But if we did have that, it sure would reduce the number of DWB* crackdowns.

* Driving While Black

Re: Limit it to ZERO

[Anonymous Coward]

Judge: Why did you pull them over?
Cop: They were black,
Judge: Why did you make them get out of the car?
Cop: They couldn't proper conjugate the verb "to be" and they didn't understand the proper use of a countable noun.
Judge: Why did you handcuff them?
Cop: Because they wore their pants below their waist and exposed their asses and underwear.
Judge: Why did you shoot them?
Cop: To save the courts time, prisons space and the taxpayers money.
Judge: Thank you for your fine performance, Officer,

Re: Limit it to ZERO

[PopeRatzo]

Judge: Why did you shoot them?

The latest answer is, "I don't know".

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us...

Re: Limit it to ZERO

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you listen to the audio! He plainly misconjugated be, and misused a countable noun. Therefore, he was only shot in his leg and not mortally wounded.

Local, state, and federal

[Anonymous Coward]

That's okay, if the state won't allow it, then ask the feds to do it. They'll do anything.

Re: THIS IS Y WE NEED TRUMP 2016

[Anonymous Coward]

For the love of Gawd, I hope this was sarcasm...

Re: THIS IS Y WE NEED TRUMP 2016

[mmdurrant]

And that's the part I find most disturbing. The whole Trump phenomenon has turned Poe's Law on it's head.

New Illinois

[BigBuckHunter]

There's a New Illinois now?

Re:New Illinois

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a New Illinois now?

No, just a dipshit on the Internet trying to be funny, and failing. That dipshit - it's you!

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

I promise to delete the data!

[DatbeDank]

Said no intelligence, police, or government agency ever.

Re:I promise to delete the data!

[Anonymous Coward]

Said no intelligence, police, or government agency ever.

But they all say it. It's getting them to actually DO it that's the hard part.

Re:I promise to delete the data!

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Nor did any private company.

License Plate Readers already store info

[Anonymous Coward]

Privacy advocates worry that without limits on how much data can be gathered or how long it can be stored, law enforcement could use the technology to build databases that track the behavior and movement of people who are not part of criminal investigations.

License Plate Readers do this already.

For what good it will do...

[Anonymous Coward]

So the States decide to legislate, and the Feds will legislate right back...
Jammers are already illegal, so any other hand-held device could be classified that way.

best to try to get the manufacturer to give the codes to turn it off/remove a particuler cell phone...
Or maybe sell the codes to an android developer...
( the manufacturers are citizens also... and probably would like that for themselves...)

Re: THIS IS Y WE NEED TRUMP 2016

[Anonymous Coward]

Leftist Liberals just put Trumps name into anything and then start complaining . Meanwhile Hillary and Oboma have been minipulating the media to flood the american airways a with Propoganda.
1) Do you really think Police officers meet up all day to hunt down black people ? Fact more no blacks are involved in police involved shooting each day
2) Do you really believe "white privilege" is the reason why blacks are not succeeding despite the billions of dollars spent on subsidized housing, food stamps, free health care etc. My father was really privilaged as he worked 3 jobs to put food on the table, pay the mortgage and help my brothers pay for college. Real privilge there..

Hillary is croket to the core. She has no respect for the rule of law and will do whatever the highest bidder pays her to do

This is GOOD - it allows them to be challenged

[prograsm]

This is actually a good thing. In order to get these devices ruled as Unconstitutional (as they obviously are), they have to make it to the Supreme Court. In nearly every previous case where a court has seen the technology presented for argument, it has been swooped up by federal agencies and barred from court discussion under secrecy and missing evidence. Illinois has codified the technology into law, making it simpler to challenge the legality of these devices and difficult to swoop in and disappear with the evidence, as in this case the evidence is the law itself. I welcome the coming legal challenge. Illinois may be a ridiculously corrupt state, but in this case that corruption is going to help the entire nation.

FBI stingrays

[manu0601]

Is a state law like this able to limit federal agencies usage of stingray?

There's a Stingray detector app for Android

[Rexdude]

..called AIMSICD. It alerts you to when you're possibly connecting to a fake cell tower, and can be configured to instantly disable the phone radios if that happens. I've tried it, but no idea if it works as claimed since I'm not in the US.