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from the but-we-have-to-be-able-track-everyone dept.
mrbluze writes:
"Columbia Tribune / AP reports of Police agencies' reluctance to divulge details about the Stingray cell-phone interception device, whose use has increased since a Supreme Court decision to prevent the use of GPS tracking devices without a warrant. The Stingray is reported to be a suitcase-sized device that pretends to be a mobile phone tower, tricking a cell phone to connect to it instead of the cellphone company's tower, but details on how this works are not revealed.
In one of the rare court cases involving the device, the FBI acknowledged in 2011 that so-called cell site simulator technology affects innocent users in the area where it's operated, not just a suspect police are seeking.
A December 2013 investigation by USA Today found roughly 1 in 4 law enforcement agencies it surveyed had performed tower dumps, and slightly fewer owned a Stingray.
However, a report by GlobalResearch.ca gives much greater detail, including photographs of the device:
When a suspect makes a phone call, the StingRay tricks the cell into sending its signal back to the police, thus preventing the signal from traveling back to the suspect's wireless carrier. But not only does StingRay track the targeted cell phone, it also extracts data off potentially thousands of other cell phone users in the area.
Although manufactured by a Germany and Britain-based firm, the StingRay devices are sold in the US by the Harris Corporation, an international telecommunications equipment company. It gets between $60,000 and $175,000 for each Stingray it sells to US law enforcement agencies."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Yog-Yogguth on Monday March 24 2014, @01:32AM
Revolution or not: for the most part what you're hearing are individuals moving from denial to anger (or so I think). Good for them (hopefully).
Don't get me wrong: there's no rosy future in sight no matter what. There's plenty of violence already and it would be strange if it didn't increase for all sorts of reasons, including a future continued series of failed attempts at "wagging the dog" like Syria, Ukraine, and pretending they've got worse satellite coverage than China (are we all supposed to believe they turn these things [wikipedia.org] off instead of running continuous global coverage?). The frenzied propaganda efforts tied into that kind of shit might just be the final nail in the coffin for the struggling "mainstream media", at least in Europe.
I think the main question is whether or not the US implodes before the big shit actually finally hits the fan some time during the next decades. If it implodes humanity might possibly have some small chance of collectively realizing what an ludicrously bad idea all of this was this time around as well just like all the other times but I wouldn't bet on it lasting beyond a generation or two until someone fucks it up again.
Or maybe this time will be the last, if it never ends.
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))