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posted by martyb on Wednesday July 12 2017, @12:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the police-just-want-their-privacy dept.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico has sued the city of Albuquerque, seeking records by the city's police department about its use of stingrays, also known as cell-site simulators.

In May 2017, the ACLU of New Mexico filed a public records request to the Albuquerque Police Department (which has been under federal monitoring for years), seeking a slew of information about stingrays. The requested info included confirmation on whether the police had stingrays, "policies and procedures," and contracts with the Harris Corporation, among other materials. Albuquerque denied many of these requests, citing a state law that allows some public records to be withheld on the grounds that they reveal "confidential sources, methods." So, last week, the ACLU of New Mexico sued.

As Ars has been reporting for years, stingrays are used by law enforcement to determine a mobile phone's location by spoofing a cell tower. In some cases, stingrays can intercept calls and text messages. Once deployed, the devices intercept data from a target phone along with information from other phones within the vicinity. At times, police have falsely claimed the use of a confidential informant when they have actually deployed these particularly sweeping and intrusive surveillance tools. Often, they are used to locate criminal suspects.

A lawyer for the police department did not immediately respond to Ars' request for comment.

APD spokeswoman Celina Espinoza told the Albuquerque Journal in a statement that the department "follows legal standards with the use of any technology," but did not answer further questions.

Source: Ars Technica


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  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday July 12 2017, @12:42AM (10 children)

    by kaszz (4211) on Wednesday July 12 2017, @12:42AM (#537875) Journal

    A spectrum analyzer and capture mechanism that is on board a drone flying above the city should find these kind of radio transmitters?

    As time goes on there will be more phones around that can identify this kind of abuse. Ie ones with a real OS and proper software.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @12:50AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @12:50AM (#537876)

    A spectrum analyzer and capture mechanism that is on board a drone flying above the city should find these kind of radio transmitters? Good way to get arrested on federal charges. The spectrum analyzer not so much, but if you capture and try to decode then good luck.

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:53PM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:53PM (#538071) Journal

      "The spectrum analyzer not so much, but if you capture and try to decode then good luck."

      Not sure about that. Maybe it's just a matter of terminology? You can own any radio RECIEVER, and you can capture, even record, anything on the airwaves. Now, the decoding is tricky. The police will tell you that it is illegal to own a decoder. Of course, the police will tell you a lot of things, right? "Encrypted" police radio traffic isn't really encrypted, so you're out of the woods on the encryption bit. I've always understood that it is illegal to decrypt radio traffic, but I'm not finding anything on the internet to back that up. Anyway - they aren't encrypting, so you don't need to decrypt.

      Some info in this video: https://www.quora.com/Why-are-local-police-departments-encrypting-their-radio-networks-is-this-legal [quora.com]

      More info here, regarding encryption, or the lack thereof: https://www.quora.com/Why-are-local-police-departments-encrypting-their-radio-networks-is-this-legal [quora.com]

      Ultimately, the states, counties, and cities HAVE NO AUTHORITY OVER THE CAPTURE OF RADIO TRAFFIC. The airwaves are controlled by the federal government, specifically the FCC.

      The right to listen to the police goes hand in hand with the right to record video of the police. Cops have told us for decades that recording a cop on the job is illegal - but the courts are slowly putting that issue right. If you can see a cop, you can record him. We need a few court cases to establish that if a cop is speaking on the air, you can listen to him.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:14AM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:14AM (#537885)

    Honestly, the drone would not be needed. You can't hide a cell tower, even a bugged one. Each cell has a number (several really but one for simplicity's sake), including the stingrays. It HAS to announce itself to the surrounding space and phones nearby automatically tune to it. LEOs and TLAs biggest fear is that the public will become so knowledgeable about these devices that they will be identifiable and black list radio cells that match. Unlike radar detectors they won't exactly be able to ban or jail you for using them. Then all this money they spent to develop this and keep it secret from us will all have been wasted. I'm waiting patiently for this inevitable outcome.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:19AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:19AM (#537887)

      I nominate cafebabe to bring this inevitable outcome to fruition.

    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:31AM (5 children)

      by frojack (1554) on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:31AM (#537892) Journal

      You can't hide a cell tower,

      The hell you say.
      A stingray will fit in the back of any generic white van, parked on any random controlled property, and you will never be able to get near it when its in operation. It will always be just over the fence, or just past the police line.

      And what good would it do you to find it anyway? Even if you knew the exact space number the van was parked in on the closed rooftop parking garage, who you gonna call?

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:40AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:40AM (#537894)

        A microwave magnetron in a pringles can.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:42AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:42AM (#537896)

        I think the idea is that you learn the roaming tower's identifiers.

        Legitimate pop-up towers set up for a large event would cause false-positives though.

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:58AM (1 child)

          by frojack (1554) on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:58AM (#537900) Journal

          There's an app for that. Seriously, there is.

          But so what? You could call the FCC and complain? How many divisions does the FCC have?

          --
          No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
          • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:58PM

            by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 12 2017, @01:58PM (#538076) Journal

            Record and publish the identifying information. If people know how to identify an eavesdropper, they won't use the eavesdropper.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @09:08PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @09:08PM (#538344)

        the mortar operator?