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Listen to Cel phones live on the Internet?
An anonymous reader sent us this link (note
that it is a shoutcast feed). Essentially, it is scanning
open airwaves for cell phone calls, and rebroadcasting them over
the Internet. Now I'm curious- is this invasion of privacy legal
or just proof that we all ought to be encrypting everything? What
do you think?
In europe, and probably other parts of the world, we already use digital cellphones, on the GSM net. I'm not an expert on this, but as far as I know, you cannot intercept a GSM call, unless you intercept it at the time the call is first made. After that, the encrypted signal key is changed at such a rapid rate, that only the two end-points of the phone-call is able to decrypt the signal again, having the keys. This is all done with a digital SIM card, that each phone has, and which is unique. You can also store phone# and such in the SIM-card, and thus transfer the data from phone to phone. Each SIM also has 4 sets of codes, one pair of regular, and one pair of Unlocking keys (4 and 11 numbers), and a SIM will not work anymore if you enter the wrong number 3 times in a row etc. (You need to use the unlock key to make it work again). :)
It might not be 100% perfect, but it is a secure and good way to do phonecalls throughout europe.
Analouge cellphones ? Thing of the past here
People need to realize that nothing is totally private. Anything which has a distance greater than zero between point A and point B has the possibility of being intercepted somehow. Thus, the focus must shift to making it as difficult as possible to decode the intercepted transmissions.
Unfortunately, I can't read that page. But I can tell you its easy to take an old Motorola bag phone, read the "Motorola Bible" about the test mode, and you have a scanner. Look it up on the search engine of your choice and start listening. You can also transmit and adjust power levels too. How do cellular technicians track this kind of abuse?
Needless to say, this is why I got a digital phone. It might not be secure, but its not as easy to eavesdrop! The only complaint I have is the audio quality is barely audible, especially when talking to another digital cell phone. Is the poor audio quality just my location or does it plague certain types of phones?
According to the whois server at ARIN, the nameless IP address on the web link reverse maps to:
Internet Unlimited (NETBLK-IUINC4-FASTNET)
3894 Courtney St, Suite 150
Bethlehem, PA 18017
US
Netblock: 206.245.158.0 - 206.245.158.255
Since this is within US borders, the Communications Act of 1935, prohibits the divulging of private radio transmissions without consent of the parties involved. Even the sweeping anti-freedom amendments to the Act in 1986 and 1994 aren't needed to point this web site out as being illegal.
Rainbow Technologies is one of many possible places to start for real encryption.
IIRC, digital cellphones use spread spectrum technology which is an effective pseudoencryption method for protecting against casual dial spinners.
while test 1
do
mpg123 http://206.245.158.45:8000
done
There is (IIRC) language in the communications act as amended that says something about the intent of the communicating parties. It is unlawful to intercept communications intended as point to point. Communication intended as a broadcast is not protected (obviously it is legal to listen to your local FM station!). It is also legal for non-licensed persons (all of this is in the US, beyond basic ITU rules regarding amateur radio, I know nothing of these things in other countries) to listen to, for example, two CB'ers or two radio amateurs talking because these are known and intended as broadcast media.
Also IIRC it used to be legal for licensed amateurs to monitor the entire spectrum, including the then RT bands (pre-cellular radio telephone), and, by extension, cellular and cordless phone traffic, but these privledges were specifically revoked in one of the sets of amendments somtime in the last 10 years. (Don't remember when).
Personally, I have always felt that if you want to keep something secret, keep your mouth shut. I do not think that anyone communicating by radio using some simple form of modulation (AM, FM, PCM, USB/SSB, etc.) should have any reasonable expectation of privacy. You can pass all the laws you like, but you can't prevent the interception of signals.
I'm an amateur radio operator. I drive around with a dual-band transceiver in my car (145MHz and 440MHz). Hams on these bands use FM modulation, just like a bunch of analog devices including (non-digital) cell phones. In urban areas there are so many transmitters all over the place that I often experience a phenomenon called "intermod" (intermodulation) which occurs when two radio carriers with wide separation in frequency happen to "beat" at the frequency I am monitoring (the difference between the two transmitter's carrier frequencies is equal to the frequency I am monitorning). If the conditions are right, my radio will then rectify the carrier and the demodulator will try to make audio out of the mixed signal. Often the result is gibberish, but often I hear two crystal clear conversations. This is an accident of physics. I doubt I could be prosecuted, since design of my radio tries to avoid this (lots of band pass filtering and such) and I had no intent to monitor anything I ought not to monitor. Nevertheless, I often hear ten and fifteen seconds of "private" conversation.
BTW, every time someone else buys a minivan and a cell phone, the problem gets worse. More transmitters on more frequencies equals more combinations that yield intermod. RF pollution is a semi-serious problem! (Cell phones are better for this than many systems, because the transmitter power levels are so small compared to more traditional methods of area-wide radio).
So, while the laws are pretty tight, you still shouldn't expect privacy. Even so, rebroadcasting cell phone conversations are something I think they would try to send you jail for...
This seems to be a no-brainer to me. It doesn't surprise me that listening to cell calls is illegal, but real criminals with something to gain from this sort of eavesdropping aren't putting up a web site advertizing what they're doing. If someone really wants to listen to unencrypted broadcast traffic (whether it was intended as point-to-point or not) they will. The solution is not another unenforceable law; instead people need to take reasonable precautions when they're using part of a public spectrum. I agree that it is ethically wrong to intentionally listen in on a cell call, but the bottom line is that the real bad guys are not going to stop, and there isn't a good way to catch them right now.
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
Linda Tripp to the contrary, normally recording someone's conversation on a tape recorder is illegal unless you let them know you are doing it. This is why customer service 800 numbers say something like "This call may be monitored for quality purposes".
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
IANAL either, but I'm pretty sure that you have to inform someone you are recording them - otherwise why would customer service tell me that I am being recorded? Probably there is a loophole for law-enforcement wearing a wire undercover and so forth. However, I can't point to the specific law on this, so I can't prove my point at all.
Perhaps your coworker was OK as long as he didn't record what he heard. After all, he was just doing his job on the phone lines, it's not like he was wiretapping those people. Wouldn't he be in contempt of court if he refused to testify, though? I know that priests, doctors, and lawyers can't be forced to divulge what they hear on the job but I didn't know that it extended to telco line workers.
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and