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from the the-surveillance-that-never-sleeps dept.
Shaun Nichols over at The Register (El Reg) is reporting on a New York Civil Liberties Union report (NYCLU) detailing New York City Police Department (NYPD) use of IMSI catchers.
According to the NYCLU's report, the NYPD has used IMSI catchers (essentially mobile cell towers powerful enough to induce all nearby cellular devices to connect to them, rather than commercial cell towers) more than 1,000 times in the past seven years.
From the El Reg article:
According to the NYCLU report, between 2008 and May of 2015 police used stingray hardware 1,016 times, and that permission to deploy the devices required a court order rather than a harder-to-obtain warrant.
The use of stingray devices by police has become a point of contention between law enforcement and groups who see the devices as a violation of personal privacy. Long used by the FBI, stingray devices impersonate legit cellphone towers to monitor nearby mobile phones and track their movements.
[...] "If carrying a cell phone means being exposed to military-grade surveillance equipment, then the privacy of nearly all New Yorkers is at risk," said NYCLU executive director Donna Lieberman.
"Considering the NYPD's troubling history of surveilling innocent people, it must at the very least establish strict privacy policies and obtain warrants prior to using intrusive equipment like Stingrays that can track people's cell phones."
This kind of gives a little more zing to the old saw "Welcome to New York. Now go home."
(Score: 2, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday February 13 2016, @12:55AM
Giuliani turned the once-awesome New York City into an unlivable police-state.
DO Something about it, you useful idiots!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 13 2016, @01:00AM
Don't blame me. I voted for the other guy. Twice.
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Saturday February 13 2016, @01:51AM
New York City in 1988 (when I lived there) was a toilet, a dangerous toilet.
Not saying it is a paradise now, but it does smell better and I fear much less for my life and property when I walk the streets.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 13 2016, @03:00AM
be black then.
Or have ever been SWATed either.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 13 2016, @08:00AM
A better smelling toilet now, right?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday February 13 2016, @03:34PM
No, I agree with the GP. New York is a much better city now. In the late 80's it was a hell-hole. Now it's quite nice, and getting better. As to its being a toilet, that really only obtains around places like the Port Authority, where buses bring questionable people in from the Mid-West, or, *shudder*, New Jersey. Those people are not house-broken and piss and shit on everything while drunk. The city beyond that handful of locations is fine.
Washington DC delenda est.