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Sites like Amazon, eBay, and Gumtree (UK online classifieds) sell miniaturized 2G mobile phones with minimal metallic components that can be conveniently stored in the human rectum. UK Member of Parliament, Secretary of State for Justice, and Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain David Lidington wants to put a stop to that:
Justice secretary David Lidington has called on Amazon, eBay and Gumtree to block all sales of miniature mobile phones. These tiny handsets, often less than eight centimetres long, can be bought for £25 online and easily smuggled into prisons. Many are advertised with the slogan "Beat the BOSS," a reference to the Body Orifice Security Scanners (BOSS) used by prison officers to detect knives, firearm components and other small metallic objects. During a speech for the British think tank Reform, Lidington said he had written to all three asking them to take down products clearly intended to "evade detection measures in prison."
"It's pretty clear to me that these miniature phones are being manufactured and sold with the purpose of being smuggled into prisons," he said. "Why after all are they also advertised as being without any metal components?" Lidington said everyone, including retailers, had an interest in tackling organised crime. Miniature phones can be sold for up to £500 in prison, forcing desperate inmates into a lifetime of crippling debt.
Also at Boing Boing.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 22 2017, @01:45PM (6 children)
They miniaturized electronics and listening equipment and made them cheap and mass-producible so they could spy on every human being without getting caught all the time. So now they are spying on all of us, all of the time, 1984 style, and cheaper than telescreens.
When they complain of phones being smuggled into prisons, they can shove their complaints right up their asses.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 22 2017, @02:05PM (1 child)
This gives "Butt dialing" a (w)hole new meaning.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Friday December 22 2017, @05:32PM
A: Would you quit butt-dialing me?
B: I can't help it--they keep serving us corn.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday December 22 2017, @02:52PM (2 children)
What about manufacturers who make tiny phones that are NOT INTENDED for smuggling into prisons?
Just like companies that make crowbars NOT INTENDED for breaking and entering?
Or other companies that make computers NOT INTENDED for posting illegal material, such as uncomplimentary things about the Dear Orange Leader?
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Nerdfest on Friday December 22 2017, @03:07PM (1 child)
... I'm guessing those would be the tiny phones covered with spikes.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday January 02 2018, @02:17PM
Spikes would seem to make a tiny phone not very useful for most ordinary legitimate purposes unrelated to smuggling.
Tiny phones might be useful for recording police at a constitution free stop, for example.
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 3, Informative) by fyngyrz on Friday December 22 2017, @07:55PM
Orwell was an optimist [fyngyrz.com]