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Federal Agents Used a Stingray To Track an Immigrant's Phone (detroitnews.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Investigators from Immigration and Custom Enforcement as well as the FBI have been using controversial cell-spoofing devices to secretly track down undocumented immigrants, court records show. According to a report the Detroit News, which obtained an unsealed federal search warrant affidavit, FBI and ICE agents in Michigan used a Stingray device to ensnare a restaurant worker from El Salvador in March. The devices, which were originally intended for counter-terrorism use, have come under fire because there are currently no clear rules governing when law enforcement is allowed to deploy them. Even in cases where authorities have a clear target in mind, they run the risk of exposing personal information of other innocent people in range. Until 2015, Federal investigators were free to deploy the devices without a search warrant. At that point the Justice Department laid out a policy requiring investigators get approval to use the devices first.
Your tax dollars at work
The real problem is that phones send so much data unencrypted. Stupid old-tech design. Software systems designed by idiotic hardware engineers that think they're smarter than they are.
Just one step away from using these to round up political dissenters and whistleblowers.
Sooooo... These guys are upset that the Feds followed the law and got a warrant???
You got Trumped!
XoXo,
America
I'm a bit curious as to this guy's history given the technology used to find him. Seems like a questionable use of resources to nab a busboy. Given that they didn't tell us why he was deported the previous two times I'm curious if they used it simply because he simply was two-time deportee that keeps coming back, or if he had any history of criminal activity involved in any of his deportation orders.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Oh noes, please don't catch undocumented immigrants. Only Nazis want a functional immigration system.
>> "only brushes with the law involve drunken driving allegations and a hit-and-run crash"
Um...if the dude's that dangerous, yes, please, kick him out. There are plenty of cooks that aren't threats to innocent people.
" FBI and ICE agents in Michigan used a Stingray device to ensnare a restaurant worker from El Salvador in March. "
Clearly he was a threat to all of the patrons of that restaurant by not having the proper paperwork.[sneer]
It's obvious that ICE and the FBI are going after the low-hanging fruit to look "productive" instead of "protecting us"
I feel so protected because they're going after Jose or Josephine immigrant that poses no threat to anyone.
--
BMO
This seems pretty simple. If law enforcement is allowed to do it without a warrant, then any citizen is allowed to do it. Including doing it to law enforcement.
The fact that such a device exists is clear evidence that the protocols for cellular phones need to be fixed so that they will only connect to a master list of cellular towers that are in specific locations. What you may not know about cellular phones is that much more than this is possible. You can push an "update' from a tower to your cell phone and it's all done without any consent. Even if you have the latest security focused Blackphone, your phone will still accept any update pushed to your phone by any tower. The reason for this is that the baseband modem functions independently and always trusts that the network is not compromised.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Instead of finding the illegals doing violent crime, it's much easier to find the ones who are working in restaurants, construction, and farms. This is the Arpaio model of leading in sex offenders not being caught but large numbers of non-violent illegals captured. It helps to selectively highlight crime by illegals to make it look like the violent crime rate is going up when actually illegal immigration has reduced crime. Especially when you account for the rate of illegal immigrants being the victims of violent crime.
Yup find the easy to capture illegals and let the violent ones roam free .. that plays well in the right wing media but it isn't exactly helping the country. Also what will the 15,000 member deportation force of the department of homeland security do once they have few illegals to deport?
Oh, wait, they already do. Tell me again why it is wrong for police to track somebody who violated the law and suck into the country?
So Stingray doesn't affect me.
How is that news? I'm fine with the FBI using whatever they can to track illegal acts regardless of them being an illegal immigrant or something else.
I'm an immigrant myself - as in not an American citizen living in the US. Do you know how much it takes to move to the US legally?
Why would people be able to enter illegally and get away with it. Because feelings? Talk about privilege..
The people make the country. People who can't follow rules and due process will also do anything to get by and produce much less than they consume - which means lower GDP at the end of the day. That's why we have third worlds and first worlds. And yes -being born in another country might put you as a disadvantage. Even with all the education in the world, if your culture is fucked up and you lived in it since birth these things are engraved irreversibly in your brain - western culture, it turns out, is the one that gets the closest to equality of opportunities though. The people who do not understand that probably think people migrate to the US because it's magic land and being on it's soil magically make your happy and wealthy. They also probably never had to wonder if they'll die tomorrow because and only fight against it because it make them feel good. How selfish.
I don't know or heard of a single person that lived through that which did not agree on these fundamentals. zero. that includes the illegal immigrants.
Given that we have limited money and resources, you rather we go after the illegal than investigate rapes and murder cases. There are thousands of rape cases that have not even been investigated (let alone solved). How about clearing the rape kit backlog before hunting down restaurant workers? You are allowing violent crime to reign freely while going after the easy targets like restaurant workers that are causing negligible if any harm. It is illogical.
Were they to post notices on restaurant door to avoid "secretly"?
Not immigrants but invaders! Immigrants have documents. When subversives in media cause us to use wrong terms, our thinking is subverted. If you invade Mexico, will you be put in prison as "undocumented immigrant" or criminal?
Its a fishing net type of tech. Have neutral industry experts brief your congress and have the debate.
Copper wire can be tapped with solely physical access. In the central office, or anywhere between. Ultra-lo tech. Could easily listen to a bunch of conversations on that copper.
Stingray is just a different means of wire-tap.
"Follow the rules and you'll be fine" rhetoric - check.
"Work builds character" rhetoric - check.
"Equal chances" bull$h1t - check.
"Cultural supremacy 'cuz we fucking deserve it" BS - check.
"I know I'm right because I used to be one of $THEM, but then I saw the light" - BINGO!
Will somebody explain to me why the people who get all up in arms when the US government does something like this tend to be the ones that turn around and want to give that same government even MORE power by turning over another 20% or so of the US GDP to direct control of that same government?
You don't trust the government with Stingrays, but you do trust them with your health care?
WTF?!?!?!
And I still want a wall.
Again science fiction as reporting.
All the device can do is to mimic a cell site forcing mobiles in the immediate area to automously register giving a list of mobile serial numbers and mobile station identity. And the mobile station identity belongs to the provider not the subscriber and gets assigned when the mobile is activated. The serial number or MEID says nothing about the mobile except its manufacturer. No Mobile Directory Number, no "personal information", no voice or data capture. It cannot act like a man-in-the-middle as it has to redirect the mobiles to the real cell sites for calling to work. And that assumes the the device is not overloaded when all the mobiles that can hear it register simultaneously. Additionally it needs to do this over at least 2 carriers for CDMA and more for LTE. And it will miss any mobile already on a call until that call ends or a data session goes dormant.
What it is good for is to collect the possible mobile information of any suspects in the area which would allow by elimination find the specific information you actually need for a court order to do a CALEA/LAES tap.
The person in question was involved with DUIs and a hit and run.
I'm find with expending some resources to round him up.
The fact that he's an illegal immigrant just means he'll be deported (yet again) instead being incarcerated here.
One day will be used on you.
There is no defense for allowing illegals in this country, much less the crimes they commit.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Yes, follow the rules that everyone else had to follow.
They should deport him by catapult this time, maybe light him on fire for effect.
Why care? Track Immigrant OMG! Must be a violation of those illegal rights. Uh?
"Immigrant's Phone"? You mean illegal immigrant.
Stingrays transmit on licensed frequencies, that are legally restricted to a specific phone company. It's illegal for anyone else to use them. Without a warrant I don't see how the police can legally ignore federal law and use those frequencies. Stingrays work by intercepting phone calls (voice and meta-data) and re-routing them through their equipment. How can they tap phones without a warrant?
Now I know why you call yourself Shanghi !
...and only those who have committed an aggravated crime on top of it. Fake News here. Move Along.
Don't worry from the DNC on down there will be quick action to stop this practice. How could law enforcement possibly prosecute, or kick out, future Democratic voters? Unheard of! Ridiculous! And, unfortunately, a fact.
The false premise begins where the writer uses the term "undocumented Immigrant". The correct and proper term is "illegal alien". That is a person who has entered the United States illegally or has over stayed their permitted time to remain in the United States.
These people are breaking the law of the land by way of their presence. It doesn't matter if you feel the law is unreasonable or if you don't feel that the law should be enforced. The FACT is that they are breaking the law and subject to imprisonment and or deportation.
"Undocumented immigrants" are ILLEGAL ALIENS. Their very presence is a criminal act.
I have precisely ZERO ISSUE with these agencies acquiring a warrant and using a stingray to capture and prosecute this ILLEGAL ALIEN.
I'll go a step further and say that since he is an illegal alien, I do not believe that he should enjoy any protections of our laws, beyond natural and human rights laws. So, I don't think he deserves an protections such as requiring a warrant or right to due process or anything else.
Illegal ALIEN captured. Deport. The end.