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Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests

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Re: Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests

#71

Post by VectorLock »

blantonl wrote: post #15
bochoh wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was investigating starting a small personalized Scanner app with an AI twist but found that you're no longer granting licensees for mobile app developers - basically stopping all innovation in this area. "The broadcastify audio feed catalog API is only available to approved licensees. We are currently not issuing addtional licenses to mobile device developers at this time. " Can you explain the rational here?

Yes, it's pretty simple. There has been a proliferation of apps that all do the same thing - front end our feeds, and so we're protecting the investment that our core partners have made to write apps. We are extremely plugged in to AI efforts that are occuring around the use of our feeds, and so we have a pulse on what is going to work and not going to work in those area. You are more than welcome to use the feeds to…

Just wanted to say I appreciate how candid and direct your answer is, even though it might be displeasing to some people to hear.

Re: Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests

#74

Post by sterwill »

I haven't done the work to sign up at Broadcastify, but if you're in Durham NC and want to listen hit http://home.tinfig.com:9999 with VLC (or mplayer or whatever you like).

It's an HTTP+Ogg+Opus stream from my BCD536HP. It's scanning the local P25 trunked radio system (Durham police, fire, EMS, ops, etc.).

P.S. As I write this I'm hearing chatter about responding to an airplane crash... no more details yet.

Re: Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests

#75

Post by LinuxBender »

kennxfl wrote: post #6
blantonl wrote: post #2

Hi there! I'm the owner and operator of Broadcastify, which is the platform that powers all the apps that provide police scanners and public safety communications online. I'm an active HN reader and would be glad to answer any questions folks have. It's an interesting business to be in these days...

Is there a way of legitimately detecting Stingrays? I understand this is the kind of situation where they are actively deployed despite all the social awareness.

Sweet talk a cellular network engineer into giving you the engineering firmware for your phone and a list of all the cell ID's.

Re: Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests

#76

Post by kebman »

blantonl wrote: post #2

Hi there! I'm the owner and operator of Broadcastify, which is the platform that powers all the apps that provide police scanners and public safety communications online. I'm an active HN reader and would be glad to answer any questions folks have. It's an interesting business to be in these days...

Isn't police radio usually scrambled? It is where I am in Norway. It was legal to listen to it before it was scrambled though. Not sure if it's legal to de-scramble it, if it's at all possible. AFAIK you can still listen to the ambulance channel, though, but sometimes the details are ... grisly.

Re: Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests

#78

Post by jackhack »

swebs wrote: post #30
kennxfl wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a way of legitimately detecting Stingrays? I understand this is the kind of situation where they are actively deployed despite all the social awareness.

I guess if you were to build a map of static cell towers, it would be easy to see if a new one suddenly pops up.

additional temporary "towers" are sometimes added when very high but transient network loads are anticipated (such as a music festival, or county fair, etc.). not all new towers are sniffers.

Re: Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests

#79

Post by gruez »

LinuxBender wrote: post #75
kennxfl wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a way of legitimately detecting Stingrays? I understand this is the kind of situation where they are actively deployed despite all the social awareness.

Sweet talk a cellular network engineer into giving you the engineering firmware for your phone and a list of all the cell ID's.

stingrays can't spoof cell ids?

Re: Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests

#80

Post by LinuxBender »

gruez wrote: post #79
LinuxBender wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sweet talk a cellular network engineer into giving you the engineering firmware for your phone and a list of all the cell ID's.

stingrays can't spoof cell ids?

They can and do, but they and the other cell sites can't up and move around. All cell sites have multiple transceivers that are directional. Each site has a unique cell ID and each transceiver has a unique ID. Your phone has GPS. If you drive around, you can find out who doesn't belong. Be careful about publicly disclosing this information.
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