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Peter1469
01-06-2015, 06:11 AM
Cell Phones, privacy, the FBI, and search warrants (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/01/fbi-says-search-warrants-not-needed-to-use-stringrays-in-public-places/)

The FBI says it does not need a search warrant to listen in of cell phone calls made in public. And now this word: stingrays- cell-site simulators. I assume these are the fake cell towers that the news has been reporting on the last many months.


The Federal Bureau of Investigation is taking the position that court warrants are not required when deploying cell-site simulators in public places. Nicknamed "stingrays," the devices are decoy cell towers that capture locations and identities of mobile phone users and can intercept calls and texts.


The FBI made its position known during private briefings with staff members of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). In response, the two lawmakers wrote Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson, maintaining they were "concerned about whether the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have adequately considered the privacy interests" of Americans.

Captain Obvious
01-06-2015, 08:33 AM
Rights to privacy are for history textbooks.

Hooray for democracy...

PolWatch
01-06-2015, 08:37 AM
This should make everyone feel real secure in their privacy:

'Citing sources familiar with the operations, the newspaper said the U.S. Marshal’s Service program, which became fully operational in 2007, operates Cessna aircraft from at least five metropolitan-area airports to collect the data. The airports were not identified in the Journal story.The planes are equipped with devices that mimic cell towers of large telecommunications firms and trick cellphones into reporting unique registration information. The 2-foot-square devices allow investigators to collect data from thousands of cellphones in a single flight, the Journal reported. The devices collect their identifying information and general location.'

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/planes-mimic-cellphone-towers-collect-data/

Codename Section
01-06-2015, 09:57 AM
This is the shit that I'm talking about that Obama could do something about since he administers the law and the departments that do this shit...and before I hear everyone else does it/did it. That's really unproductive.

You want change, hold their feet to the fire while they are in office.

del
01-06-2015, 10:49 AM
if you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to worry about.

Cthulhu
01-08-2015, 02:08 AM
Cell Phones, privacy, the FBI, and search warrants (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/01/fbi-says-search-warrants-not-needed-to-use-stringrays-in-public-places/)

The FBI says it does not need a search warrant to listen in of cell phone calls made in public. And now this word: stingrays- cell-site simulators. I assume these are the fake cell towers that the news has been reporting on the last many months.
Neat.

Spiffy tech.

I can thwart this awesomeness with my own awesomeness.

I can buy a stamp. Or send an encrypted email. Or send a carrier pigeon.

Statist goons are so one dimensional...


Sent from my evil cell phone.

Peter1469
01-08-2015, 02:38 AM
Neat.

Spiffy tech.

I can thwart this awesomeness with my own awesomeness.

I can buy a stamp. Or send an encrypted email. Or send a carrier pigeon.

Statist goons are so one dimensional...

I have a new email account that can use encryption. And they don't sell your personal info.

Cthulhu
01-08-2015, 03:05 AM
I have a new email account that can use encryption. And they don't sell your personal info.
Groovy.

But with some rudimentary knowledge you can use any email as along as you do your encryption right. Even plain text.

I use gmail for mine. They can scan it and have fun with it. Until they gnaw thru PGP, they aren't getting the data. Even then, there are the key file combinations...

Point is, they can scan and steal it. But it is like trying to decipher a written message from a very large pile of fine saw dust.

Good Guys: 1

Statist Goons: 0

:cool:


Sent from my evil cell phone.

Redrose
01-08-2015, 04:04 AM
if you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to worry about.

That's true, but they may consider it wrong.

waltky
11-29-2017, 07:32 PM
Granny says, "Dat's right - get a warrant...
:cool2:
US Supreme Court Considers Limits on Government in Key Privacy Case
November 29, 2017 - The U.S. Supreme Court signaled Wednesday it may be open to new limits on the government's ability to track someone's movements by accessing data on that person's cellphone.


A case before the high court could result in a landmark decision in the ongoing debate over civil liberties protections in an era of rapid technological change. At issue is whether law enforcement will be able to access cellphone data that can reveal a person's whereabouts without having to first obtain a court-issued search warrant. The case stems from the conviction of Timothy Carpenter for a series of robberies back in 2010 and 2011. Prosecutors were able to obtain cellphone records that indicated his location over a period of months, information that proved crucial to his conviction.

Get a warrant

On Wednesday, lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union argued that law enforcement should be required to obtain a court-ordered search warrant before obtaining such information. They also argued that allowing law enforcement to access the cellphone data without a warrant would violate the prohibition on unreasonable search and seizures contained in the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. "It is impossible to go about our daily lives without leaving a trail of digital breadcrumbs that reveal where we have been over time, what we have done, who we spent time with," said ACLU attorney Nathan Freed Wessler, who spoke to reporters outside the Supreme Court following oral arguments. "It is time for the court, we think, to update Fourth Amendment doctrine to provide reasonable protections today."


https://gdb.voanews.com/B272AD8E-5BB8-47A3-A7F5-8DF24DCF44AE_w650_r0_s.jpg
American Civil Liberties Union attorney Nathan Wessler speaks outside the Supreme Court on Nov. 29, 2017, in Washington, following arguments in a case about the government's ability to track Americans' movements through collection of their cellphone data.

Some of the justices also raised concerns about privacy in the digital age. "Most Americans, I think, still want to avoid Big Brother," Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who often sides with the liberal wing of the court, said. Chief Justice John Roberts, who often sides with conservatives on the court, said the central question was whether the cellphone information should be accessible to the government "without a warrant."

Privacy versus security

Justice Department lawyers defended the process of obtaining the data without a court warrant, arguing that even though the technology has changed, the need to rapidly obtain such information for law enforcement has not. The government also argued that privacy rights are not at issue because law enforcement agencies can obtain information from telecommunications companies that record transactions with their customers. Justices Samuel Alito and Anthony Kennedy indicated they were open to the government's position in the case.

Legal experts say whichever way the court eventually rules could have an enormous impact on privacy rights in the digital age. "I don't think that this is a world that anybody anticipated a couple of decades ago," Stanford University law professor David Alan Sklansky said via Skype. "These new data capabilities are rapidly increasing the things that government can do for good and for evil. And figuring out how we allow the government to make full use of these new capabilities, without endangering political liberties and endangering the privacy that is necessary for us to have the kind of flourishing democratic social life we want, is a huge ongoing challenge."


https://gdb.voanews.com/6799F629-5DDE-4317-9856-77551FB11CC4_w650_r0_s.jpg
An iPhone is seen in Washington

Sklansky added that the United States "has historically been a leader in thinking about privacy rights, particularly with regard to privacy from the government." And he predicted that other countries will be closely following the high court case as they wrestle with similar conflicts. "This is a global problem. Countries around the world are trying to figure out how to deal with it. I think that people in all democratic countries should care about how the United States winds up resolving this question," he said.

Past rulings

Twice in recent years the Supreme Court has ruled in major cases related to privacy and technology and both times ruled against law enforcement. The court ruled in 2012 that a warrant is required to place a GPS tracking device on a vehicle. And in 2014, the high court ruled that a warrant is required to search a cellphone seized during an arrest. A decision in the current case, known as Carpenter v. U.S., is expected sometime before the end of June.

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-supreme-court-considers-limits-government-key-privacy-case/4142433.html