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posted by takyon on Tuesday December 15 2015, @02:48AM   Printer-friendly
from the sending-out-an-sls dept.

Digital analyzer. IMSI catcher. Stingray. Triggerfish. Dirt box. Cell-site simulator. The list of aliases used by the devices that masquerade as a cell phone tower, trick your phone into connecting with them, and suck up your data, seems to grow every day. But no matter what name cell-site simulators go by, whether they are in the hands of the government or malicious thieves, there's no question that they're a serious threat to privacy.

That's why EFF is launching the cell-site simulator section of Street Level Surveillance today.

EFF's Street Level Surveillance Project unites our past and future work on domestic surveillance technologies into one easily accessible portal. On this page, you'll find all the materials we have on each individual technology gathered into one place. Materials include FAQs about specific technologies, infographics and videos explaining how technologies work, and advocacy materials for activists concerned about the adoption of street level surveillance technologies in their own community. In the coming months, we'll be adding materials on drones, stingrays, and fusion centers.


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  • (Score: 1) by Some call me Tim on Tuesday December 15 2015, @05:26AM

    by Some call me Tim (5819) on Tuesday December 15 2015, @05:26AM (#276529)

    It's all well and good to know what these things do but how the heck would you know if you were connected to one? Build a device to detect these simulators or a phone app to detect them and disable data transfer and make it available to the public, open source for the win.

    --
    Questioning science is how you do science!
  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday December 15 2015, @05:47AM

    by frojack (1554) on Tuesday December 15 2015, @05:47AM (#276534) Journal

    Exactly.

    If you live in an area with few cell towers, you could monitor the towers for a new one. But that is far too geeky for most people. A simpler approach might be to have an app that mapped signal strength were ever you go in your routine, and then anytime there was a significant change (stronger signal than previously measured) it would notify you. That way each user would build their own private database, and it would not require any exchange of data that might attract police attention.

    There are a few apps in the app store that suggest they can detect these things, but most of them look pretty dodgy to me.

    The EFF page offers nothing to help you out or even report the location of a suspected stingray (reporting one might get you more attention than you bargained for, and I don't even know if it is legal to reveal a stingray location. They may have a warrant. (Don't laugh, it could happen! Couldn't it?).

    --
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    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday December 15 2015, @06:04AM

      by frojack (1554) on Tuesday December 15 2015, @06:04AM (#276541) Journal
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 15 2015, @07:03AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 15 2015, @07:03AM (#276559)

      Once detected, you could use the GPS from multiple users or positions to triangulate it as well.

      However, for me to use such a tool, I would have to turn on the cellular radio.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 15 2015, @01:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 15 2015, @01:17PM (#276630)

      Even if they have a warrant, general warrants are unconstitutional. Since Stringrays are mass surveillance devices, warrants don't really matter.