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EFF Begins Investigating Surveillance Technology Rumors At Standing Rock (eff.org)
Electronic Frontier Foundation has dispatched a team of technologists and lawyers to a protest site in Standing Rock, North Dakota, to investigate "several reports of potentially unlawful surveillance." An anonymous reader writes:
The EFF has "collected anecdotal evidence from water protectors about suspicious cell phone behavior, including uncharacteristically fast battery drainage, applications freezing, and phones crashing completely," according to a recent report. "Some water protectors also saw suspicious login attempts to their Google accounts from IP addresses originating from North Dakota's Information & Technology Department. On social media, many reported Facebook posts and messenger threads disappearing, as well as Facebook Live uploads failing to upload or, once uploaded, disappearing completely."
The EFF reports "it's been very difficult to pinpoint the true cause or causes," but they've targeted over 20 law enforcement agencies with public records requests, noting that "Of the 15 local and state agencies that have responded, 13 deny having any record at all of cell site simulator use, and two agencies -- Morton County and the North Dakota State Highway Patrol (the two agencies most visible on the ground) -- claim that they can't release records in the interest of "public safety"...
"Law enforcement agencies should not be allowed to sidestep public inquiry into the surveillance technologies they're using," EFF writes, "especially when citizens' constitutional rights are at stake... It is past time for the Department of Justice to investigate the scope of law enforcement's digital surveillance at Standing Rock and its consequences for civil liberties and freedoms in the digital world."
The EFF reports "it's been very difficult to pinpoint the true cause or causes," but they've targeted over 20 law enforcement agencies with public records requests, noting that "Of the 15 local and state agencies that have responded, 13 deny having any record at all of cell site simulator use, and two agencies -- Morton County and the North Dakota State Highway Patrol (the two agencies most visible on the ground) -- claim that they can't release records in the interest of "public safety"...
"Law enforcement agencies should not be allowed to sidestep public inquiry into the surveillance technologies they're using," EFF writes, "especially when citizens' constitutional rights are at stake... It is past time for the Department of Justice to investigate the scope of law enforcement's digital surveillance at Standing Rock and its consequences for civil liberties and freedoms in the digital world."
By now it should be public knowledge for any protester against any government that their personal communication devices and the communication itself will be always under attack. Whoever goes to such protests and especially anyone who is networking with others about it, needs to encrypt all devices and all communications. Not just at the protest itself but in their private life too. One is always under threat to get arrested. If one is arrested the cellphone is the first thing confiscated and of course tried to access. Any US protester who uses US communication services like google, whatsapp, facebook for anything is simply a dumb fool. How many NSLs have been granted wrt Standing Rock already?
Governments infiltrated protest movements 50 years ago with COINTELPRO including assaults on people, did the same in the 90s cross border in Europe, fathered children with activists even and now of course will attack all communications, in meatspace and online. Attacking communications is the first step since it's easy: they own the means of communication. Google hast to comply, since it's the law. They didn't change the amount of effort they will go to, they just changed their tactics. The amount of effort is comparable to spies going deep undercover, to live whole lives over decades to infiltrate, so eavesdropping on communication is a very small and minor step.
Um, no. The EFF's official style is to refer to themselves as "Electronic Frontier Foundation." You can see this several times in the article.
"EFF has been tracking the effects of its surveillance technologies on water protectors’ communications and movement."
"EFF sent technologists and lawyers to North Dakota to investigate."
"EFF also sent more than 20 public records requests to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies."
Pipelines are only safer then the alternatives when things like the safest route is taken. In this case the safest route was close to Bismark and the people of Bismark protested so the pipeline was moved to go under a lake instead of the shorter route under the river.
Completely wrong on multiple points.
1. It wasn't the safest route,
2. the people of Bismark didn't even have a chance to complain because the early plan was killed before it even got submitted to State-level agencies.
3. It wasn't the shortest route either.
4. It's still going under the river. The 'Lake' is a manmade reservoir in which the river was just widened via a dam.
The Army Corps of Engineers nixed the idea because it made the pipeline 10 miles longer AND it make it much harder to keep the pipeline the minimum 500 feet from homes and put the water of far more people at risk. http://abcnews.go.com/US/previ...
Just an FYI, the entire state of North Dakota has less than 1 million people. Bismark has 67k people, and the entire Standing Rock Reservation has about 8k people.
Also FYI - over 80% of those arrested at the DAPL protests are not Natives - neither North Dakota/South Dakota citizens, nor Standing Rock tribal members.
I think the Standing Rock tribe did get screwed repeatedly historically, and had a right to protest and be heard. However, the Army Corps of Engineers hadn't even made their determination regarding permits to go under the river yet, so none of the sabotage and militant action was justified. All the idiots going "Hey, Why did Bismark get a pass? RACISM!" were jumping the gun because the same agency that made the determination RE: BIsmark were still assessing the Standing Rock crossing - the approval process hadn't even been completed yet.
In reality, most of the protesters currently at the camp in ND have been bouncing from one camp to another along the route causing trouble, spills, and related environmental damage. http://www.dailykos.com/story/...
The Standing Rock camp just got the most publicity, and the tribe got used again. This time for the alt-left's ideological extremism.