Slashdot Mirror
The Tech Used To Monitor Inmate Calls Is Able To Track Civilians Too (thedailybeast.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Daily Beast: Securus Technologies' programs are used in thousands of prisons and detention centers nationwide to track calls to inmates, but the company's offerings are also capable of tracking and geolocating people's cellphones without any warrant or oversight, The New York Times reports. Securus obtains location information though data from major cellphone providers the same way marketers do. It also advertises the technology to law-enforcement agencies as a tool to find murder suspects, missing people, and those at-large -- but the feature can easily be abused for access to millions of cellphone users.
One Missouri sheriff used the service at least 11 times between 2014 and 2017, and secretly tracked state highway patrol members and a judge, prosecutors said. While the company said it "required customers to upload a legal document" to certify the location lookup, the Federal Communications Commission claims Securus did not "conduct any review of surveillance requests" -- giving law enforcement tracking power without verification of approval or oversight.
One Missouri sheriff used the service at least 11 times between 2014 and 2017, and secretly tracked state highway patrol members and a judge, prosecutors said. While the company said it "required customers to upload a legal document" to certify the location lookup, the Federal Communications Commission claims Securus did not "conduct any review of surveillance requests" -- giving law enforcement tracking power without verification of approval or oversight.
I've read this story in multiple places, and the bit that always hits me, that nobody seems to even be concerned about is this:
So... we have a problem with law enforcement being able to geolocate (and, OK, I think there are some legitimate reasons to feel there should be restrictions on that, I get it, I'm not a fascist, but at the same time it's one area most people would agree that if law enforcement has a good reason, they should be able to geolocate a cellphone) but we don't give a shit about marketing people having the exact same data. Oh no, that doesn't bother us at all. We just casually mention that this was the original intent of the data collection, without actually in any way being bothered about it.
WHAT. THE. FUCK?
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
.. the same way marketers do
there's the problem. cell phone (and other communication or service) providers shouldn't be selling or giving the data away... period not without a valid and authenticated order from a judge. the data providers collect while providing the services they do should not itself be a profit center.
Inmates' phones are inherently different from civilians!
Aren't they?
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
Have gnu, will travel.
After being monitored, civilians will be jailed, fixing the problem.
The article sounds as if the geo-location data appears like magic. The crux privacy is the source of the data leak. Where does this information come from, and who's providing it?
The best I can gather is that people are signing up with Securus then agree to provide geo-location data to marketers, but this also can be obtained by law enforcement. But.. I can't really be sure... it's just not a well written article and it isn't clear.
Trump approves of this behavior. The rule of law is for snowflakes and libtards.
The linked article is based on a NYTimes article which is much more informative: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/0... ALL US cellphone location data is being aggregated and resold.
This habit of law enforcement officers using the term "civilians" to mean people who are not law enforcement officers is just plain wrong. A civilian is someone who is not a member of a uniformed military. They use this term because they operate as a (less and less) quasi military organization with ranks and such. There is a difference however, in that the military are put in prison for failure to follow a direct order and cops may be suspended (if their union doesn't fight it).
In any case that a person's rights are violated...we should ALL be alarmed and outraged especially when the situation is made light of like this here. No agency government or otherwise should be able to tap into anyone's private phone calls with no warrant regardless of their "reason(s)". As soon as we all stand by and start allowing these transgressions as if they have any freakin merit we essentially condone this illegal activity and by doing so lay groundwork for continuing activity that violates the rights of citizens until gradually there is no such thing anymore as a citizen with rights or privacy...