Sheriff Admits to Cell Phone Spying Technology

[FroggyTaco]

They can do this if you're in your house, in private property etc.

"Research "Curtilege"

[IdeaStormer]

We've all seen the mass protests and how cops show up ASAP, well they can monitor the number of cell phones in an area, well there's been talk to stash a ton of phones in a car and drive so some nonsense area and have the cops en mass follow it while the protest goes on somewhere else.

[zacRupnow]

NSA has tracking satellites that can detect nipple piercings 

[Trik'Stari]

We've all seen the mass protests and how cops show up ASAP, well they can monitor the number of cell phones in an area, well there's been talk to stash a ton of phones in a car and drive so some nonsense area and have the cops en mass follow it while the protest goes on somewhere else.

I quite like that idea. Except that they would just see you with a thermal imaging camera on a satellite and know what's up.

[murratri]

Oh and a BIG NO-NO is to transmit a signal on 10Mhz. The feds will come to your door for that. Learned about that in my Communications class

What about 10mHz is a no-no, Google cant tell me what it is

[Ngrungebb91]

What about 10mHz is a no-no, Google cant tell me what it is

10Mhz is the frequency that the United States runs its atomic clock on. Canada has another frequency for their atomic clock.. I forget what it is.. If you have a low frequency radio receiver, listen to it on 10Mhz. It's really cool to hear.

[ionbasa]

What about 10mHz is a no-no, Google cant tell me what it is

Its basically all digital, but most of the 30 meter band (~10mhz) is actually used for things like LTE-A (cellphones), satellite communication, and I also believe that there is telemetry data allocated on that band as well.

[Murdoch]

the key word here is "unwarranted" which means they don't need any evidence that you're a criminal in order to use this to spy on you.

 

I would imagine that they are applying the NSA's interpretation of the law. Metadata is fair game and can be collected and looked at freely, it's also fair game to collect all the data (the actual contents of the texts / phone calls). But to actually look at the contents, as in listen to the call, they'd require a warrant. Of course, they can build a case with the metadata which makes obtaining the warrant a trivial task, then review the data they or the mobile carrier has already collected.

 

What's interesting here, is that this is exactly what the NSA does, but in a smaller more localised manner. But it's the same as everything, as soon as a technique is used or a law is passed to 'protect us against terrorists' eventually it'll be used on the general public for mundane crimes.

 

Edit: actually it seems they've been doing this for almost a decade, they are adamant they don't collect any 'call or text data' and the tech is being used 'infrequently'. So I dunno, perhaps in this instance it's not as bad as it sounds tbh.

[Askew]

We've all seen the mass protests and how cops show up ASAP, well they can monitor the number of cell phones in an area, well there's been talk to stash a ton of phones in a car and drive so some nonsense area and have the cops en mass follow it while the protest goes on somewhere else.

 

Or just don't take phones to the protest.

[IdeaStormer]

I quite like that idea. Except that they would just see you with a thermal imaging camera on a satellite and know what's up.

 

Yes they could use that but as far as the people arranging where the riot squad goes they will use the cell phone count first to send them, once they're there its a different story but I bet they will look for them for a good while before leaving.

 

Or just don't take phones to the protest.

 

Well that's the point and also a safeguard against any retribution by the powers that be, any smart protester isn't taking any such non invasive identification device, hence why the Guy Fawkes mask was being banned

[jezza39]

Hmmmm, that's quite interesting, how does normal triangulation work? I believe law enforcement has been using it for ages.

[Opcode]

Sweet, so when I lose my phone or someone steals it they can find it right? 

[IdeaStormer]

Sweet, so when I lose my phone or someone steals it they can find it right? 

 

You can do that today but what are the chances you will actually go to that place the phone is now? Its not like it will be out in the open, it will most likely be in some bad  side of town in a building/house you wouldn't enter in the middle of the day with half an army with a chance of getting out in one piece.