A secret U.S. spy program used fake cell phone towers attached to airplanes to scan citizens' cell phones and collect their data, the Wall Street Journal reports.
What the hell.
The scheme, carried out by the Technical Operations Group of the U.S. Marshals, uses devices known as "dirtboxes" to mimic powerful cell tower signs. These dirtboxes are strong enough to trick phones to automatically switch over to their signals, even if a real tower is nearby. The plan aims to help the Justice Department catch criminals. I'm all for putting the bad guys away, but the way this is being carried out involves bogarting a TON of other peoples' data in the pursuit of incriminating evidence. Sources say they "let go" of the data after they've determined that a phone does not belong a suspect, but what that means exactly is unclear.
When these planes go over cities, they cast an insanely broad airplane data dragnet that sucks up information from phones even if they're not in use: Full story...
Related posts:
What the hell.
The scheme, carried out by the Technical Operations Group of the U.S. Marshals, uses devices known as "dirtboxes" to mimic powerful cell tower signs. These dirtboxes are strong enough to trick phones to automatically switch over to their signals, even if a real tower is nearby. The plan aims to help the Justice Department catch criminals. I'm all for putting the bad guys away, but the way this is being carried out involves bogarting a TON of other peoples' data in the pursuit of incriminating evidence. Sources say they "let go" of the data after they've determined that a phone does not belong a suspect, but what that means exactly is unclear.
When these planes go over cities, they cast an insanely broad airplane data dragnet that sucks up information from phones even if they're not in use: Full story...
Related posts:
- USA spent $136 billion on spying in two years...
- US mail subjected to widespread government surveillance program...
- ‘Facebook a gift to intelligence agencies’ - Laura Poitras
- Edward Snowden: State surveillance in Britain beyond anything seen in the US...
- Thousands of Germans rally to end government spying...
- NSA collecting millions of faces from web images...
- How the NSA & FBI made Facebook the perfect mass surveillance tool...
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