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“Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”

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Re: “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”

#41

Post by higherpurpose »

f_salmon wrote: post #20
route66 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> police everywhere can now just record the phone numbers I remember that the dutch police some years ago already used so called "sms-bombs" to contact mobile phone subscribers that were around a crime scene months before. It is simply inherent in the technology. You wear a mobile phone? (not even smart ) So you are traceable with all consequences. The solution? In any case not technical in nature. We will see.

There is only 1 real solution: Put your cell phone in flight mode and use it exclusively as a PDA/music player/etc. Let people contact you on a landline and email - more than enough.

That's a good idea. You won't be able to stream something live anymore, though, but I guess either you record it and later upload it to websites, or some people will have to take the chance to stream it.

Re: “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”

#42

Post by vitalique »

That happened yesterday, and at least two major Ukrainian mobile operators stated [1,2] that they have nothing to do with these SMS broadcasts and that pirate base stations were probably used in the area of the disturbance.

[1] Kyivstar FB page: https://www.facebook.com/kyivstar (Ukrainian) [2] MTS Ukraine FB page: https://www.facebook.com/MTSUkraine (Ukrainian)

Re: “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”

#43

Post by ctdonath »

spindritf wrote: post #21

This is just a cellular version of a guy with a megaphone calling on people to disperse. BTS is the megaphone. The problem is not in the technology. It isn't even all that useful to the regime. They already know where the protesters are. The problem, as always, is in the baton they hold in the other hand.

It's not an issue of where the protesters are, it's who the protesters are.

I'm getting increasingly concerned that (USA in particular) police focus on staying out of the way and, so long as things don't escalate much, letting the situation run its course ... while documenting the participants by any means, so they can be individually & quietly apprehended & prosecuted later. Cell phone metadata, face recognition from video recordings, license plates, etc - all can be applied to identify who was involved, accusing them of all sorts of crimes just for being present if not for particular documented transgressions.

Much easier to apply the baton later when the mob can be handled as lone individuals. Gotta know who though, and that's not hard now.

Re: “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”

#44

Post by dictum »

XorNot wrote: post #38
slashdotaccount wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend (I don't know him in person, we work together remotely) told me that he has 3 cell phones: one at home, one at the work-place and one always turned-off in his car (for emergency). He doesn't wear a cell phone with him. When someone wants to contact him he/she calls him on one of his home/work phones judging from the day time, if he doesn't answer the call he calls back when he reaches home/work place and se…

Or you could just, you know, not carry a radio-transmitter on you while committing some possibly illegal/disruptive activity?

One could not want to have some legal but disruptive to certain interests or usable as future blackmail material captured, stored and analyzed.

Re: “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”

#45

Post by spindritf »

higherpurpose wrote: post #35
spindritf wrote: post #21

This is just a cellular version of a guy with a megaphone calling on people to disperse. BTS is the megaphone. The problem is not in the technology. It isn't even all that useful to the regime. They already know where the protesters are. The problem, as always, is in the baton they hold in the other hand.

I disagree. When they use a megaphone they don't know who the people are, as they are telling them to disperse. Now they have exact lists of who participated. Every person's name is in that list. They can target them individually one by one, home by home, if the revolution fails to overthrow the government, now. Also, when you build authoritarian systems, they are going to be used by authoritarians, sooner or later.…

When they use a megaphone they don't know who the people are

Of course they do. Communists had been kicking people out of universities, withholding passports from protesters, and organizing mass internments back in the 80s and before.

They'd take pictures and ask around the opposition circles. Or arrest a few people and make them give up the rest. Not to mention willing, paid, or coerced informers planted in the invigilated organizations. And you can bet many people working for security forces in Ukraine today remember those times and techniques well.

There have been authoritarian regimes as far back as written history goes. We here like the tech angle, but let's not attach too much weight to it. It's a great story, I upvoted, but technology is not crucial.

Re: “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”

#46

Post by ctdonath »

apostlion wrote: post #11

It's amazing people don't understand this is an elaborate mass prank. Pirate base stations have been present in the area since the disturbances began, already being used for nefarious purposes before (SMS/money transfer fraud and so on). Whoever operates these is a petty criminal, not a nefarious government – if I'd have an opportunity to send thousands of protesters anything I want, I'm sure I'd pull a prank like th…

The only valid angle to your theory is that the government may very well not bother sending such a text - they'd just register the participants and arrest them later.

It's not the message that's the concern, it's knowing who to send the message to.

Re: “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”

#47

Post by Fuxy »

slashdotaccount wrote: post #24
route66 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> police everywhere can now just record the phone numbers I remember that the dutch police some years ago already used so called "sms-bombs" to contact mobile phone subscribers that were around a crime scene months before. It is simply inherent in the technology. You wear a mobile phone? (not even smart ) So you are traceable with all consequences. The solution? In any case not technical in nature. We will see.

My friend (I don't know him in person, we work together remotely) told me that he has 3 cell phones: one at home, one at the work-place and one always turned-off in his car (for emergency). He doesn't wear a cell phone with him. When someone wants to contact him he/she calls him on one of his home/work phones judging from the day time, if he doesn't answer the call he calls back when he reaches home/work place and se…

That's ok if you have the money.

But if you hang out just a little bit with pot heads in eastern Europe you know the best solution is to turn off your phone and take the battery out when you don't want people tracing you or lightening to your conversations.

Re: “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”

#48

Post by icebraining »

slashdotaccount wrote: post #24
route66 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> police everywhere can now just record the phone numbers I remember that the dutch police some years ago already used so called "sms-bombs" to contact mobile phone subscribers that were around a crime scene months before. It is simply inherent in the technology. You wear a mobile phone? (not even smart ) So you are traceable with all consequences. The solution? In any case not technical in nature. We will see.

My friend (I don't know him in person, we work together remotely) told me that he has 3 cell phones: one at home, one at the work-place and one always turned-off in his car (for emergency). He doesn't wear a cell phone with him. When someone wants to contact him he/she calls him on one of his home/work phones judging from the day time, if he doesn't answer the call he calls back when he reaches home/work place and se…

He's not being paranoid enough. A guy with a cellphone that never leaves the home? Any decent data analysis software should flag such an odd behavior. If one's not willing to fully disappear off the map, the safest behavior is to provide "boring" data in order to blend in with the crowd.

Re: “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”

#49

Post by rcxdude »

XorNot wrote: post #40
f_salmon wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is only 1 real solution: Put your cell phone in flight mode and use it exclusively as a PDA/music player/etc. Let people contact you on a landline and email - more than enough.

I'm pretty sure this doesn't work. i.e. even in flight mode, the baseband processor is still powered and will passively listen for cell-tower requests, so presumably it can still be told to wake up? I know its true of phones that are "off" without the battery removed - stands to reason it applies in flight mode too.

I've not seen any evidence this is the case without explicit tampering with the phone (i.e. installing spyware which then fakes the 'off' state in software).

Re: “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”

#50

Post by Trufa »

ck2 wrote: post #5

Well at least they notify first. US police would just start beating you and throwing you into pens, if you are lucky you won't get coated in pepper spray or hit by a sound cannon. Watch the DNC and RNC conventions next year for examples with their multi-million dollar taxpayer funded "security". But I guess this indicates police everywhere can now just record the phone numbers of everyone in the area to mark people f…

I'm sorry, but it's cute when Americans think they have it worse.
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