Anomaly 6 claims to be able to track billions of mobile phones, including those belonging to some of America's top spy agencies.
There exists an underworld data broker market devoted to auctioning off your information to the highest bidder. It's an industry populated by professional creeps who buy and sell mobile data collected via invasive if legal means, often from nosy apps. A new report shows that one such company demonstrated just how creepy it could be by spying on some of America's three letter agencies to show off its product.
The Intercept and Tech Inquiry report that a little-known Virginia data firm called Anomaly Six, or A6, displayed its surveillance capabilities by tracking mobile phones used by employees of the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. The company reportedly uses highly accurate GPS data purchased from mobile apps to triangulate when and where a specific phone user is at any given time. This, along with other collected data points, allows the company to track 3 billion devices in "real time," marketing materials viewed by the outlets suggests.
The alleged snooping on America's spies was revealed during a demo unveiled at a meeting between A6 and another surveillance startup, Zignal Labs, which is known for sucking up reams of social media data from Twitter. The two companies were in the midst of talks regarding a potential partnership and, to impress Zignal, A6's rep, Brendon Clark, allegedly used the firm's tech to track a mobile phone from the parking lot of the NSA to a military training base in the Middle East.
[Source]: Gizmodo
So, who else is left to be tracked ??
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 24 2022, @01:11PM (2 children)
This is how you land a lucrative government contract. Or how you land in a ditch.
Regardless, I don't mind pitting the military-industrial complex of the US against the marketing surveillance complex, which is mostly from the same country. But at least the marketing surveillance complex sells itself to the highest bidder, thereby making the process more democratic.
Maybe we should crowdfund an effort to cross-reference all cell phone movements between capitol hill and known surveillance peddlers. Let the senators experience the beast they've created themselves.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 24 2022, @03:26PM (1 child)
The best way to get a law passed is if you can make it personal to the lawmakers.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday April 25 2022, @03:14PM
Watch John Oliver Blackmail GOP Congress Members Over Data Policies on ‘Last Week Tonight' [collider.com]
"Blackmail" is a bit of a stretch but definitely a funny example. I hope we get to see the list!
(Score: 3, Touché) by MrGuy on Sunday April 24 2022, @01:12PM
…when it starts being you.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by zafiro17 on Sunday April 24 2022, @02:28PM (2 children)
This all seems perfectly legit to me. And a highly effective business demo. That data is out there in the real world, and it can be used for anything. This is just an example.
I'm also remembering when those undercover military bases got covered up in Niger/Mali because American soldiers wearing Stravas were recording their morning runs around the base perimeter, outlining the thing in near perfect accuracy.
Shame on these spooks for being so easily tracked.
Note to self: ditch smartphone. GPS seems to be its biggest data exfiltration mode.
Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 24 2022, @02:53PM (1 child)
Shame indeed. It would be interesting to know if these were tracked regardless of whether they switched off location services. Also why the TLA let operational staff carry commercial phones, that would be shameworthy, but less so if not "undercover", more so if it was an "official" handset.
(Score: 2) by zafiro17 on Monday April 25 2022, @01:50AM
Just guessing here: you work for the CIA so they give you some sort of locked-down device. But you also want to stay in touch with your friends back home, so as you leave on the business trip to south shittystan, you also take your personal cellphone so you can play games, chat, watch movies, etc.
Easy to get tracked on your personal device. No need to crack the govt device at all.
Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 24 2022, @04:30PM (2 children)
so, like is this like setting up a 15 man mobile carrier?
is there a law that sayz how many employees and customers and ownz mobile tower you need until you can apply for a license to be a "mobile phone carrier"?
i mean i need to know where all potential " targets" that my 15 "customers" want to call are... for billing/routing purposes, right?
hmmm... which kindda opens a can of worms?
(Score: 1, Troll) by anubi on Sunday April 24 2022, @11:38PM (1 child)
Uh-huh, kinda like the Harris Sting-Ray.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2022, @08:23AM
Great example of how broken the "moderation" system is. Someone marked his post "troll".
1) I don't think people know what "troll" really is. I think they just enjoy their sick little narcissistic power to downmod someone.
2) The post is not troll, nor is the poster.
3) The turd-eating downmodder probably ASSumed you were referring to US VP Harris. Turd-eaters don't know things like the electronics company Harris Corporation, which has NOTHING to do with VP Kamala Harris.
A proper moderation system would include a review board which would remove incorrect downmods (or possibly upmods) and would sanction the abuser of mod power.