StingRay, a suitcase-size surveillance tool, mimics a cellphone tower, allowing authorities to track individual cellphones in real time. Users of the device, which include scores of law enforcement agencies across the country, sign a non-disclosure agreement when they purchase it, pledging not to divulge its use, even in court cases against defendants the device helped capture.
That is one of the concerns of civil liberties groups, that cellphones unconnected with a law enforcement investigation are also captured by the device. While some cell-site simulators allow 911 emergency calls to pass through to legitimate towers, other calls routinely fail. Should an emergency unfold, cell users in the vicinity probably would find their calls dropped or signals jammed.
"Even if there is a 911 pass-through feature, there are still plenty of other calls that people might want to make," said Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union. "You might want to call your children's school. You might want to call your wife or husband."
It's hard to know with certainty how many innocent cellphone users have experienced jamming due to police use of cell-site simulators. Federal restrictions on information about their use prevents collecting such details.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday December 27 2016, @04:28AM
I suspect that these devices are *limited* cell towers: they work *only* as repeaters, so can intecept calls that get bounced to *other* towers.
*Normal* cell towers also often have connections to the "wired" phone network, to calls calls other networks, old-fashioned trunk lines and international cables.
Thes things are portable, small, and often battery operated. They won't have landline connections.
Also, it probably won't have the capacity for simultaneous calls like a normal tower.
A call will be bounced to the next available tower, but if the stingray (or similar) is overloaded, or the next tower over is overloaded, the call will drop.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex