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Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

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41–50 of 98 posts

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#42
post #11

Huh. Is there a good, open, secure encryption messaging system you can get on Android?

Signal by Open Whisper Systems is far and away the most popular right now.

Isn't WhatsApp more popular? I understood it to be more popular and accessible while still using the Signal protocol.

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#43
post #9

I've lived in Fort Worth, TX for about a year. I was already aware of the existence of these devices. I had no clue that my local PD was spending such an insane amount of money on surveillance. It's also worth mentioning that our population is only 792K. I've lived in Texas most of life and in general I think the people here are great. However, Texans do have a tendency to blindly support anything the Military and Po…

It's not just Texas. I've lived in big and small cities in several east coast states and the blind support is always something I just can't grok. the only difference over here is nobody has an issue with big government.

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#44

Do the cell site simulators spoof existing towers? How hard would it be to write an app to detect when you connect to another tower and shut the phone down. Unless Google and Apple don't let you programmatically shut down the phone.

https://cellularprivacy.github.io/Android-IMSI-Catcher-Detec...

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No production basestation ever used the "no encryption" mode. No handset should ever accept using it, just as no browser will accept to using the NULL cipher. So what is the justification 25 years on?

I remember seeing "lawful intercept" being mentioned somewhere in the GSM standards, and it seemed they were certainly not opposed to it...

[deleted]

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No production basestation ever used the "no encryption" mode. No handset should ever accept using it, just as no browser will accept to using the NULL cipher. So what is the justification 25 years on?

I remember seeing "lawful intercept" being mentioned somewhere in the GSM standards, and it seemed they were certainly not opposed to it...

they don't have the option to oppose (in the US, at least):

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Assistance_fo...

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#47
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are options between stop it and do nothing. I would assume cellphone companies can easily give access to any conversation from their internal network so that's probably a more cost effective solution at all levels. The question becomes, why do police feel the need for other tools?

Power. Invoking public fear. Using that as an end-around the 1st Amendment.

You mean the 4th Amendment?

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#48
post #9

I've lived in Fort Worth, TX for about a year. I was already aware of the existence of these devices. I had no clue that my local PD was spending such an insane amount of money on surveillance. It's also worth mentioning that our population is only 792K. I've lived in Texas most of life and in general I think the people here are great. However, Texans do have a tendency to blindly support anything the Military and Po…

>However, Texans do have a tendency to blindly support anything the Military and Police want to do, while at the same time complaining about big government.

I did observe that. Why is that so? Historically was the police or sheriffs independent from the government?

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#49

Do the cell site simulators spoof existing towers? How hard would it be to write an app to detect when you connect to another tower and shut the phone down. Unless Google and Apple don't let you programmatically shut down the phone.

Stingray's inner workings are supposedly not disclosed but it is said to mimic a nearby cell tower. I bet the device just echoes & amplifies the signal to trick your phone to connect.

If that's how it works, then If you know what each tower relative strength from that given position must be and you note a new surge in strength, that will tell you. You could also use triangulation with cooperating devices.

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#50
post #9

I've lived in Fort Worth, TX for about a year. I was already aware of the existence of these devices. I had no clue that my local PD was spending such an insane amount of money on surveillance. It's also worth mentioning that our population is only 792K. I've lived in Texas most of life and in general I think the people here are great. However, Texans do have a tendency to blindly support anything the Military and Po…

>However, Texans do have a tendency to blindly support anything the Military and Police want to do, while at the same time complaining about big government. I did observe that. Why is that so? Historically was the police or sheriffs independent from the government?

I never understand why America spends an obscene amount of money to make technology to kill other people. Education is suffering, public transportation and healthcare is ridiculously behind western nations but military still gets an insane budget.

I would like Google and Apple to really up their game on security.

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