from the go-back-to-sleep-and-let-us-take-care-of-you dept.
Wired reports of another secretive database of phone records which has gone largely unnoticed and without scrutiny:
The database, which affects unknown numbers of people, contains phone records that at least five police agencies in southeast Virginia have been collecting since 2012 and sharing with one another with little oversight. Some of the data appears to have been obtained by police from telecoms using only a subpoena, rather than a court order or probable-cause warrant. Other information in the database comes from mobile phones seized from suspects during an arrest.
The five cities participating in the program, [...], are Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Chesapeake and Suffolk, according to the memorandum of understanding that established the database. The effort is being led in part by the Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Task Force, which is responsible for a “telephone analysis room” in the city of Hampton, where the database is maintained.
The unusual and secretive database contains telecom customer subscriber information; records about individual phone calls, such as the numbers dialed, the time the calls were made and their duration; as well as the contents of seized mobile devices. The information is collected and shared among police agencies to enhance analysis and law enforcement intelligence. ...
All over the U.S., local police agencies are collecting vast stockpiles of private information from people—some of it from people who have not been convicted of crimes but were merely stopped by police.
As an example of the amount of data being collected, in the first-ever transparency reports released by major telecoms earlier this year, AT&T revealed that between January and June, it received nearly 80,000 criminal subpoenas for customer records from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, while Verizon disclosed that it had received over 72,000 subpoenas from law enforcement during the same period.
IMHO, USofA is beyond just a police state, is becoming a secret police state (I grew in one, I see the signs).
As Boston Globe put it: vote all you want, the secret government won’t change.
Related Stories
'BlueLeaks' Exposes Files from Hundreds of Police Departments
Hundreds of thousands of potentially sensitive files from police departments across the United States were leaked online last week. The collection, dubbed "BlueLeaks" and made searchable online, stems from a security breach at a Texas web design and hosting company that maintains a number of state law enforcement data-sharing portals.
The collection — nearly 270 gigabytes in total — is the latest release from Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets), an alternative to Wikileaks that publishes caches of previously secret data.
In a post on Twitter, DDoSecrets said the BlueLeaks archive indexes "ten years of data from over 200 police departments, fusion centers and other law enforcement training and support resources," and that "among the hundreds of thousands of documents are police and FBI reports, bulletins, guides and more."
Fusion centers are state-owned and operated entities that gather and disseminate law enforcement and public safety information between state, local, tribal and territorial, federal and private sector partners.
BlueLeaks from Distributed Denial of Secrets. [Dataset link has been nonresponsive since this story was submitted.]
Also at Vice, Forbes, ZDNet, and SecurityWeek.
Related: Virginia Police Have Been Secretively Stockpiling Private Phone Records
Washington State Fusion Center Accidentally Releases Records on Remote Mind Control
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday October 21 2014, @12:07PM
* Fusion centers [wikipedia.org] - designed to promote information sharing at the federal level between agencies such as the CIA, FBI, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. military, and state- and local-level government. - result: police is militarized and transformed into intelligence centers
* the guide to label one a terrorist [firstlook.org] so, among other things, they can watch that one legally
* WaPo's list of domestically focused counterterrorism and homeland security organizations for each state [washingtonpost.com]
* Virginia police used automatic license plate readers to build massive database of political rally attendees [endthelie.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by idetuxs on Tuesday October 21 2014, @02:23PM
Thanks
(Score: 2, Informative) by dbitter1 on Tuesday October 21 2014, @01:30PM
For those unfamiliar with the area, there is a *HUGE* military presence there. Some of our very significant military assets (nuclear subs and carriers as well as ammo depots- and I mean the BIG stuff) live there when not deployed. From my experience in the military, we were pretty good about keeping classified stuff quiet, and not talking about with the significant others, or on land lines (remember those?) with fellow service members.
But... if I were, say a large communist country with tremendous resources, why bother trying to crack military encryption, when you can just break into a few unguarded police stations and get almost the same information? Even at the metadata level, if you had a target you wanted (say, a top secret clearance person) and wanted to learn their routine... why stalk them and risk tipping them off? Just steal the metadata from the Po-Po!
Ugh. I swore to uphold and defend the constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic... always wondering why they included the latter part of that.
(Score: 2) by Foobar Bazbot on Tuesday October 21 2014, @03:20PM
Ugh. I swore to uphold and defend the constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic... always wondering why they included the latter part of that.
Well, historically, there was wording very much like "all their enemies or opposers whatsoever" from 1776 to 1962, when the present "all enemies, foreign and domestic" replaced it. So "they" probably included it to make sure you'd shoot the US's own godless commies when they tried to rise up and destroy us all. How silly of you, to think the ruling classes might qualify!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 21 2014, @01:30PM
On the subject of government surveillance, can anybody explain why it costs between $0.56 and $10.76 more to pay with cash instead of E-ZPass when driving on the turnpike in Pennsylvania? Unless they are paying toll collectors $300 per hour, that's way beyond the cost of collecting the cash. So, why is the government making it so expensive and difficult (we now have E-ZPass-only exits, too) to drive around without a transponder in your car?
(Score: 1) by Whoever on Tuesday October 21 2014, @03:39PM
Because people paying with cash take more time to pay, causing tailbacks?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 21 2014, @04:13PM
If by "tailbacks" you mean traffic jams/congestion, the people paying with cash are already suffering for that with their wasted time and gas; why are they supposed to suffer with additional fees too? Also, the traffic would easily be avoided by hiring enough toll collectors to meet the volume, which they can easily afford to do with the high excess fees they are charging for people paying with cash. If anything, the existence of avoidable congestion is just more evidence that they are intentionally making it hard to avoid carrying a transponder.
(Score: 2) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday October 21 2014, @05:43PM
The turnpike has license plate cameras to catch people that fail to pay the tolls. So carrying the transponder is not going to stop them from knowing that you used the toll road.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Tuesday October 21 2014, @06:00PM
Because they would really like you to put a transponder in your car voluntarily. You even get the privilege of paying for it directly.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday October 21 2014, @08:44PM
Only keep it active in those areas where the toll is located?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 21 2014, @01:44PM
IMHO, your opinion is overrated and histrionic and should be kept off of the article summary.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 21 2014, @02:54PM
Your opinion is humble for good reason.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 21 2014, @06:44PM
Well then maybe you should submit the article next time. Until then his opinion, clearly labeled as such, will have more prominence than yours.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 22 2014, @02:30AM
I agree, what a load of crap. I had to put on a tinfoil hat just to understand it. Wearing my regular hat, it sounded like a strange misunderstanding between what is the State of Virginia and what is the United States of America. I live in only one of the two....