Americans’ Cellphones Targeted in Secret U.S. Spy Program

Americans’ Cellphones Targeted in Secret U.S. Spy Program
online.wsj.com

Cellphones are programmed to connect automatically to the strongest cell tower signal. The device being used by the U.S. Marshals Service identifies itself as having the closest, strongest signal, even though it doesn’t, and forces all the phones that can detect its signal to send in their unique registration information. Even having encryption on one’s phone, such as Apple Co. ’s iPhone 6 now includes, doesn’t prevent this process...

The program cuts out phone companies as an intermediary in searching for suspects. Rather than asking a company for cell-tower information to help locate a suspect, which law enforcement has criticized as slow and inaccurate, the government can now get that information itself. People familiar with the program say they do get court orders to search for phones, but it isn’t clear if those orders describe the methods used because the orders are sealed.

Also unknown are the steps taken to ensure data collected on innocent people isn’t kept for future examination by investigators. A federal appeals court ruled earlier this year that over-collection of data by investigators, and stockpiling of such data, was a violation of the Constitution.

This isn't exactly new. Harris' Stingray price list has AIRBRN-KIT-CONUS for sale for $9,000, dating back to 2008: https://info.publicintelligence.net/Harris-SurveillancePrice...

Here's a 2013 post on the so-called DRTBOX: http://electrospaces.blogspot.com/2013/11/drtbox-and-drt-sur...

And another blog post from 2013 saying "Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) purchased $3 million worth of Stingrays over several years, and are purchasing airborne mounting kits for both drones and manned aircraft": http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2013/03/bypassing-tele...

An earlier FOIA response from 2012: http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/479397/stingrayfoia.tx... "The training will cover all of Harris Stringray ll operations from an airborne platform.-Specifically, four students are to attend this special training on three different software packages GSM, and CDM mobile handsets) for the Program... The schedule is more unpredictable due to a large portion of the training taking place in an aircraft."

To summarize: if you live in the U.S.[1], your cell phone info (IMSI etc.) has been slurped up by flying FedGov "dirtboxes" without your knowledge, stored in perpetuity, without any law passed by Congress explicitly authorizing this, in violation of the Constitution's Fourth Amendment, and at best authorized by a secret court order from a secret court. Sigh.

[1] I presume most of the HN US readers live in or near metro areas, and the WSJ article says the program covers "most of the U.S. population." Obviously if you're in Idaho or Alaska, you're less likely to be caught in this particular data vacuum cleaner.

Maybe do something like what these guys did, but I'm sure they can come up with even more comprehensive protections:

http://www.wired.com/2014/09/cryptophone-firewall-identifies...