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NY Cops Used ‘Stingray’ Spy Tool 46 Times Without Warrant
- dmix 11y agoIsn't the whole idea to use it without having to get a warrant?
- wavefunction 11y agoWell, that's their idea, but that's also not legal.
- baldeagle 11y ago46 times in 51 months ... 1 time (at the end of the data collection period) with slightly less than a warrant. Not much 'judicial review' here.
- godgod 11y agoAll totally illegal by the way. Our constitution is being violated and no one cares.
- mapt 11y agoAt this point, we need more details than that to have any idea what happened. You don't get to use "times" as a word in this context anymore when one "time" can include getting an email service to provide an entire database dump for all customers. "46 times" could well mean "Set up 46 separate devices throughout the county and collected all calls for four years", or perhaps "Left one device running for 46 contiguous months in the center of town", with the way these people work.
- godgod 11y agoYou are correct. The explanation is vague at best. The Sheriff Timothy B. Howard straight up LIED to the public.
- kyboren 11y agoSorry to be so flippant, but you know how to click links, right? http://www.nyclu.org/files/20150331-ComplaintInfoReports-00041709.pdf http://www.nyclu.org/files/20150331-ComplaintInfoReports-000... Most incidents read like, "ASSIST TOWN OF HAMBURG POLICE WITH CELL TRACKING REGARDING OUTBACK ROBBERY ON 09/26/2011, MCKINLEY PKWY, HAMBURG, NY" Some others are even more vague: "ASSISTING NYS POLICE, HOMOCIDE[sic]" These give the impression that the use is targeted and for a limited time, but of course one can never be sure. I'd like to know: * For how long was the device used in each incident? * How was it deployed? * How many other cellular devices were picked up? * What happened to the irrelevant data collected?
- bastomi29 11y agohttp://wisataalamterbaik.tripod.com/airterjundikotabogor/ http://wisataalamterbaik.tripod.com/airterjundikotabogor/
- username223 11y agoAs a couple commenters on a related Ars article[1] point out, it seems weird that police would drop cases rather than reveal stingray details if it were just a matter of scooping up voice, text, and location data using a fake transmitter. Those things are pretty obvious, so why all the secrecy? [1] http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/04/fbi-would-rather-prosecutors-drop-cases-than-disclose-stingray-details/ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/04/fbi-would-rather-...
- shard972 11y agoBecause if we knew the government spies on us we would take steps to not be spied on and that would help the terrorists which are us.
- Deebot 11y agoThe more likely reason is that there is something these are capable of that hasn't yet been found out by the public, which would make the government and the companies who make these devices look very bad if it became public information.
- omarchowdhury 11y agoThat's it?
- godgod 11y ago46 times too many. This is totally illegal.
- mirimir 11y agoSpidey is an Android-based stingray (IMSI catcher) detector that uses machine learning to detect the presence of stingray devices which can be used to eavesdrop on cellular communication. http://signup.spideyapp.com/ http://signup.spideyapp.com/ Also see http://codesign.mit.edu/category/macluguardian-project/ http://codesign.mit.edu/category/macluguardian-project/
- appleflaxen 11y agoThe most insane part of all of this: there is already a way to get this data. All the police need to do is show probable cause. Which, for any reasonable application, is straightforward. I don't know if they are lazy, authoritarian, or both.
- Eye_of_Mordor 11y ago'secret' police
- talmand 11y agoSeems we have an amount of falsifying documents, lying to judges, illegal surveillance, and more potentially illegal activity going on. I'm sure we'll here about the upcoming investigation into these acts by the justice department any day now. I mean, there has to be court cases of some sort to be able to get a court to determine the legality of such activity, right? Except that the department of justice is involved and they do their best to avoid such court cases that could determine legality of these activities.
- omgitstom 11y agoThis isn't state wide data, just one county in NY, with a population under 1MM. When you start to extrapolate the data it starts to get a little interesting...
- mckoss 11y agoIt seems to me a Stingray is designed specifically to get around the need for a court order. OTW they would just subpoena the records of a cell carrier to get the information on a target they suspect.
- upofadown 11y agoSo the lesson learned here is that the police should not keep any records at all. The fact that this particular department ended up recording use could in some sense be considered an error. Law enforcement has been doing secret surveillance since before ever. The Stingray stuff is just an attempt to continue doing what they have always done in the face of encryption. It's probably time for society to have a discussion about this issue. Law enforcement can not protect us from ourselves if they don't know what we are doing. The War on Drugs pretty much mandates the use of secret surveillance for example. It's like asking a friend to help with your diet but at the same time forbidding them from looking in the cupboards or the fridge. If we don't like law enforcement snooping in our affairs then we should stop asking them to do so.
- wavefunction 11y agoThe police broke the law. Whatever equivocations you want to offer in their defense, they broke the law.
- upofadown 11y agoThat's sort of my point. If we want the police to stop breaking the law we should come out and tell them that. I really doubt that law enforcement likes being forced to break the very laws they are supposed to uphold. The police are our employees. We are being bad employers by asking them to do things that are impossible. Like most employees, they will do whatever it takes to do their job.
- salibhai 11y agoIt sounds like there should be a way to limit your cell phone to "trusted" towers. Is this possible?