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Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

citylab.com

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Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#51

Post by sjg007 »

dsl wrote: post #27
sh-run wrote: 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 also worth mentioning that our population is only 792K. Most of the homeland security money funding surveillance is likely tied to DFW being along a major drug distribution corridor coming up from Mexico, and has nothing to do with the local population.

Thank god for the Wall!!!

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#52

Post by visarga »

nojvek wrote: post #50
sreenadh wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

It's a consequence of the puritanical roots of US. It's a fetish for punishment.

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#53

Post by [deleted] »

sreenadh wrote: post #48
sh-run wrote: 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?

[deleted]

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#54

Post by naasking »

upofadown wrote: post #38
Retric wrote: 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?

Casual ad hoc surveillance can be very useful for law enforcement. It can save a tremendous amount of time and money keeping track of where people are and where they are planning to be. The fact that the information gained is not admissible in court is not important. From the article: >“You guys picking up any information? Where they're going, possibly?" Law enforcement has become somewhat dependent on this sort of a…

> Law enforcement has become somewhat dependent on this sort of access and would not be able to do their job as effectively without it.

I've seen this claim repeated, but never with any evidence.

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#55

Post by Too »

troncheadle wrote: post #24

So what is the move if you are caught with your pants down, and a LEO is requesting access to your actual phone? Does a factory restore wipe all data, or is in necessary to wipe, fill up with bunk data, wipe again? I don't know about everyone else but my phone is has data including me talking about controversial opinions, intimate photos, and various other data that I would not want anyone else to have.

Use full drive encryption.

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#56

Post by SturgeonsLaw »

hughw wrote: post #42
simplyluke wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

More popular, but also closed source and owned by Facebook (make of that what you will)

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#57

Post by notatoad »

2_listerine_pls wrote: post #49
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #41

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.

Note that cell providers will install perfectly legitimate temporary towers to handle increased demand, so simply looking for a surge in signal strength over "normal" levels doesn't necessarily indicate surveillance.

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#58

Post by ptaipale »

tastythrowaway2 wrote: post #46
userbinator wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

And the same has been true in practically all countries, democratic or not, developed or not, ever.

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#59

Post by SCHiM »

dredmorbius wrote: post #30
M_Grey wrote: post #11

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

Android is your first problem there. I'm inclined to say there's no reliably secure mobile platform, though idlewords (Maciej Ceglowski) and tptacek (Thomas Ptacek) are presently recommending iPhone or iPad. (I'm writing this on an Android device I fear, dread, and detest.)

Looking at the price for 0-day exploits for phones one would also conclude that iPhones are the more secure option. Right now an Android 0-day root exploit fetches up to $200.000 while one for the iPhone goes for $1.500.000.

https://www.zerodium.com/program.html

Re: Cellphone Spy Tools Have Flooded Local Police Departments

#60

Post by spyder »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #41

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.

Snoopsnitch:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.srlabs.snoo... ( requires a rooted device with Qualcomm chipset)

Cell Spy Catcher:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.skibapps.c...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kz.galan.antis...

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