Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by CoolHand on Thursday April 30 2015, @02:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the this-explains-why-we-never-have-bars dept.

The US government will be forced to explain why its cell network kill-switch plans should be kept secret today.

Under Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) 303, the US government – in particular the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – is allowed to shutdown cellphone service anywhere in the country, and even across an entire city if it feels there is a crisis situation.

However, the actual content of the policy remains secret, raising fears that it is open to abuse. For example, it's not clear who is authorized to make such a decision nor under what circumstances.

There are also groups concerned that killing of cellphone service during an emergency could make things worse.

In a frequently quoted example, San Francisco's rail system BART flipped a cell network kill-switch in several subway stations in 2011 amid a protest over a BART cop who shot and killed a drunk homeless man ( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/12/bart_polioce_cut_mobile_phone_service/ ). Charles Hill allegedly threw a knife at an officer before the police opened fire.

The fact that the network shutdown was ordered against a public demonstration raised immediate concerns over how the policy is written and implemented.

In February 2013, sparked by the BART event and a refusal by the DHS to release the policy under a Freedom of Information Act request, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) sued the DHS ( https://regmedia.co.uk/2015/04/27/epic-case-dhs-phone-kill-switch.pdf ) [PDF] in order to get it to disclose the details.

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday April 30 2015, @11:08PM

    by kaszz (4211) on Thursday April 30 2015, @11:08PM (#177304) Journal

    America is whatever you want as long as you can pay K-street enough :P
    (and voters can just watch themselves being fucked over regardless of their standard type of voting)

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday April 30 2015, @11:50PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday April 30 2015, @11:50PM (#177320) Journal

    I think you're right, so I'll pose another question: If this government does not work for the vast majority of the people in the country, why not scrap it and build something better?

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by kaszz on Friday May 01 2015, @12:01AM

      by kaszz (4211) on Friday May 01 2015, @12:01AM (#177325) Journal

      Guess who hold the controls? the media, school curriculum, power of organized violence, business opportunities, thug law etc.
      Why would they ever remove themselves? ;) and how do you wake up individualized people to a common goal in an environment that makes stress, poverty, drone choirs etc a common fact of life.