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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."
Citizens have little effective defense against govt or private security hacking and penetration, installing malware and spyware in their mobile devices. The only real defense is not to keep a phone with you. I'm sure that it's happening and it's be great for EFF to get some solid evidence of it and then take the appropriate legal actions.
And cold weather is notorious for trying to log in to your Google accounts and deleting uploads to Fcebook..
Also, it's probably because there are hundreds (thousands?) of people crammed into an area and trying to use service that wasn't developed to deal with that kind of capacity on a regular basis. If you've ever driven though parts of the mid-west there's a lot of areas with bad or no coverage depending on where you're at. If they're at the edge of a tower, its going to eat through more battery life.
I also bet it's partially due to a bit of hysteria. People have their battery drain faster than usual, apps crash, etc. all the time, but don't think too much of it. All it takes is one rumor and suddenly people are paying a lot more attention to the meaningless coincidences and trying to find something to attribute them to even if there isn't one.
I get that the government can spy on people and there is documented evidence of various agencies having and using the equipment and technology to do so, but that doesn't mean its always doing so or is in this particular case. I had assumed that the protesters were mostly hippies and the like that the government wouldn't give two shits about, but I suppose if there are some ELF-types at the protest their might be more cause for concern or the possibility where a warrant to do so could be granted and things are being done above board legally.
A large number of the "protestors" at standing rock are earning a wage for it. They're not protestors, they're employees.
Do you know this or are you repeating something you read on the internet?
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Emergency agencies where I live train and use ham radio volunteers to operate communications in their mobile command centers. A ham friend of mine trains with them occasionally. The expectation is the hams will still get through if and when the standard tech fails. They don't deploy hams for normal police actions, but if there's a natural disaster or other emergency, he'll be there.
I wouldn't rely on the ignorance of others.
John