The Supreme Court was asked in a petition to force the government to disclose the US clandestine plan to disable cell service during emergencies.
...
The Electronic Privacy Information Center told the high court's justices Tuesday that the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit's decision created a new "catchall provision that can be used in any case involving records related to domestic and national security programs." (PDF)The privacy group had demanded the documents from the Department of Homeland Security in 2011 following the shuttering of cell service in the San Francisco Bay Area subway system to quell a protest. The Department of Homeland Security refused to divulge the documents associated with SOP 303, which the appeals court described as a "unified voluntary process for the orderly shut-down and restoration of wireless services during critical emergencies such as the threat of radio-activated improvised explosive devices."
In recent protests in Hong Kong the government shutdown cell service in the area of the protests. The protesters used FireChat to get around the restrictions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2015, @12:53PM
NSA: Hey turn off the civil IMEI's.
AT&T: OK. We still completely safe from any prosecution or litigation?
NSA: You betcha.
AT&T: Cool.
[AT&T runs script to SET KIM_JONG_UN_MODE = 1 && reboot]
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Sunday August 16 2015, @01:02PM
Probably closer to the truth than you think, including a large portion of the population thinking that the government is doing them a favour.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday August 16 2015, @01:09PM
Minor FTFY (favours may or may not be granted. But the sheeple see the entitlement to protection as their inalienable right)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2015, @10:07PM
A fake right that they believe overrides all of our other constitutional rights.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by zocalo on Sunday August 16 2015, @01:36PM
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gravis on Sunday August 16 2015, @02:32PM
the DHS abused this power by cutting cell service to protesters. it seems like the court recognized this was bullshit and thus are exposing them to counteract said bullshit.
the lesson here is that if you abuse your power, you will lose your power.
(Score: 2, Funny) by btendrich on Sunday August 16 2015, @03:21PM
You almost sound as if you believe that...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JNCF on Sunday August 16 2015, @03:59PM
I'm not sure that the DHS was the one to shut down cellphone service. A naive reading of the summary/article would seem to suggest that, but it doesn't explicitly say it. It simply says that the request to the DHS was made chronologically following the shutdown, not that the DHS was involved in the shutdown. I remember previous articles on the subject acting like it was the Bay Area Rapid Transit Police who shut down service. According to BART, [bart.gov]
Cell phone service was not interrupted outside BART stations.
Not that we can trust them, or the DHS, or anyone.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday August 17 2015, @02:31AM
the lesson here is that if you abuse your power, you will lose your power.
You're right of course. If the Supreme Court abuse their power by going against the DHS's wishes, they'll lose their power.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2015, @04:02AM
In case you haven't noticed the DHS is becoming the Communist/SJW enforcement arm... that arm should be cut off at the neck.
(Score: 2) by DrMag on Monday August 17 2015, @02:52PM
Since when does a letter to the court asking them to do something equate to the court perhaps actually doing that thing?