Posted on 02/15/2017 10:37:20 AM PST by TBP
IImagine you are in the middle of your typical day-to-day activities. Maybe you are driving, spending time with family, or working. If you are like most people, your phone is at your side on a daily basis. Little do you know that, at any time, police and law enforcement could be looking at information stored on your phone. You haven't done anything wrong. You haven't been asked for permission. You aren't suspected of any crime.
The StingRay
Police have the power to collect your location along with the numbers of your incoming and outgoing calls and intercept the content of call and text communication. They can do all of this without you ever knowing about it.
At least 68 agencies in 23 different states own StingRays.
How? They use a shoebox-sized device called a StingRay. This device (also called an IMSI catcher) mimics cell phone towers, prompting all the phones in the area to connect to it even if the phones aren't in use.
The police use StingRays to track down and implicate perpetrators of mainly domestic crimes. The devices can be mounted in vehicles, drones, helicopters, and airplanes, allowing police to gain highly specific information on the location of any particular phone, down to a particular apartment complex or hotel room.
Quietly, StingRay use is growing throughout local and federal law enforcement with little to no oversight. The ACLU has discovered that at least 68 agencies in 23 different states own StingRays, but says that this "dramatically underrepresents the actual use of StingRays by law enforcement agencies nationwide."
The Violation
Information from potentially thousands of phones is being collected every time a StingRay is used. Signals are sent into the homes, bags, and pockets of innocent individuals. The Electronic Frontier Foundation likens this to the Pre-Revolutionary War practice of soldiers going door-to-door, searching without suspicion.
There are many concerns that agents are withholding information from federal judges to monitor subjects without approval.
Richard Tynan, a technologist with Privacy International notes that, “there really isn’t any place for innocent people to hide from a device such as this.”
The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution states that, “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
The StingRay clearly violates these standards. The drafters of the Constitution recognized that restricting the government from violating privacy is essential for a free society. That's why the Fourth Amendment exists. The StingRay is creating a dangerous precedent that tells the government that it's okay for them to violate our rights. Because of this, freedom is quietly slipping out the window.
Little Regulation
Law Enforcement is using StingRays without a warrant in most cases. For example, the San Bernardino Police Department used their StingRay 300 times without a warrant in a little over a year.
In 2010, the Tallahassee Police Department used a StingRay in a warrantless search to track down the suspect of a crime. A testimony from an unsealed hearing transcript talks about how police went about finding their target. The ACLU sums it up well:
"Police drove through the area using the vehicle-based device until they found the apartment complex in which the target phone was located, and then they walked around with the handheld device and stood ‘at every door and every window in that complex’ until they figured out which apartment the phone was located in. In other words, police were lurking outside people’s windows and sending powerful electronic signals into their private homes in order to collect information from within."
A handful of states have passed laws requiring police and federal agents to get a warrant before using a StingRay. They must show probable cause for one of the thousands of phones that they are actually searching. This is far from enough.
Additionally, there are many concerns that agents are withholding information from federal judges to monitor subjects without approval - bypassing the probable cause standard laid out in the Constitution. They even go as far as to let criminals go to avoid disclosing information about these devices to the courts.
If the public doesn’t become aware of this issue, the police will continue to use StingRays to infringe on our rights in secret and with impunity.
I agree with you. I’ve had one for years, and I don’t think I’ve made more than 4 calls on it. I use it mainly to listen to the radio at home.
It’s kind of creepy to me when I’m out in public, a dept. store or restaurant, and someone nearby is carrying on a loud and sometimes very personal conversation while they eat, shop, or walk around...not to mention the dangers of driving while texting/talking.
A buddy of mine owns a 63 split window in like new condition. He actually has it stored in a climate controlled bubble in his garage.....
Apologies for hijacking the thread. I don’t believe I’ve been so successful before, will try to curtail it in the future.
there is a USSC opinion prohibiting police from snooping randomly via infrared cameras into people’s homes. (unanimous I believe) Just because tech advances does not give the power to circumvent to the government.
Cell phones are not true telephones. They are really computers with vast personal data. All fourth amendment protected. Warrantless stingray, backdoors, and global warrants are just plain wrong.
LOL! Joke of the day.
And I'll bet that plastic wrap protects all its delicate electronics from being probed by the police, too!
“One problem is that far too many “conservative” judges are reflexively “pro-law enforcement”, even if that means supporting law enforcement trampling our Constitutional rights.”
Visit any Waco thread to watch the “pro-law enforcement” FR fascists advocate trampling our Constitutional rights.
“Visit any Waco thread to watch the “pro-law enforcement” FR fascists advocate trampling our Constitutional rights.”
OMG, I just responded to one of them!
Did not notice that when responding. Apologies again to the room.
Everyone hates populists. So whats the alternative? Follow the elites? As far as I know, there is the will of the people or the will of the elites. The people seem much more in tune with the limits of a constitutional republic.
The FR fascists weakly post to other threads to water down and legitimize their “pro-law enforcement” posts about murdering bikers at Waco, who they decided deserved to be killed.
“I still cannot understand how the Supreme Court upheld asset forfeiture laws as constitutional.”
Or abortion,
or the interstate commerce clause to include every single human activity,
Or the Kelo case,
or Obamacare,
The list is quite long.
“Psst. Rurudyne. Off switch. Just sayin’. LOL! “
No, actually the off switch won’t do you a bit of good. Only not having it with you, or having it inside some kind of faraday cage will work.
I’m thinking a nice stainless steel cigar case would make a jim-dandy faraday cage for those times when you would rather be dang-good-n-sure your iPhone is not being a tattletale. Just turning off the phone won’t work.
Even while turned off, the cellphone is still looking for cell towers or a stingray unit (same thing)
Why do you imagine while on 'Air Force One', you have to surrender your cellphone,.. and remove the battery ?
If stingray can reach into your phone, don't you think it also has the ability to turn it on, also ?
I had a 2014 Stingray. Chevy didn’t tell me about this.
DHS started funding grants for it in 2006, under Bush. I would say that GOPe “conservatives” like Bush are a bigger worry for not caring about unconstitutional BS like the use of Stingray than populists are.
These should be banned unless there is a specific target with a warrant. Any info from non-targets should be IMMEDIATELY discarded.
If we can’t ban this, then we need to arm ourselves with these devices and collect on all the politicians and judges who voted for this to be legal.
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