Posted on 12/01/2009 3:24:41 PM PST by Heartlander2
This October, Chris Soghoian — computer security researcher, oft-times journalist, and current technical consultant for the FTC's privacy protection office — attended a closed-door conference called "ISS World". ISS World — the "ISS" is for "Intelligence Support Systems for Lawful Interception, Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Gathering" — is where law enforcement and intelligence agencies consult with telco representatives and surveillance equipment manufacturers about the state of electronic surveillance technology and practice. Armed with a tape recorder, Soghoian went to the conference looking for information about the scope of the government's surveillance practices in the US. What Soghoian uncovered, as he reported on his blog this morning, is more shocking and frightening than anyone could have ever expected
At the ISS conference, Soghoian taped astonishing comments by Paul Taylor, Sprint/Nextel's Manager of Electronic Surveillance. In complaining about the volume of requests that Sprint receives from law enforcement, Taylor noted a shocking number of requests that Sprint had received in the past year for precise GPS (Global Positioning System) location data revealing the location and movements of Sprint's customers. That number?
EIGHT MILLION.
Sprint received over 8 million requests for its customers' information in the past 13 months.
(Excerpt) Read more at eff.org ...
More on this in Wired as well:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/12/gps-data/
That’s just Sprint, folks.
GPS data requests is not surveillance.
Oh thank goodness... I feel much much better now!
C'mon... there's absolutely no way law enforcement is making 22,000 calls to Sprint EVERY DAY. lol (And that's just Sprint... there's also Verizon, AT&T, etc)... I wouldn't worry.
Did you read this piece?
Ya might want to read it again.
How did you disable the GPS on your phone?
An Example: When there's an accident....say at 4th and Elm...the Cop plugs it into his GPS unit...That's his request.
It happens many times per day in just about every city and Town....except maybe Mayberry where Barney knows every nook and cranny of the Town.
READ THE ARTICLE!!!!
P.S. My buddy just got a GPS unit for his car. Says it takes him right to his son's driveway. Wonder how he got there before???
Only teasing. Have had a Garmin for years and love it.
I disagree.
GPS data base access by police innvestigatig citizens should require a search warrant.
Why? Because many investigations are politically motivated
fishing epeditions.
I disagree.
GPS data base access by police innvestigatig citizens should require a search warrant.
Why? Because many investigations are politically motivated
fishing expeditions.
Nothing about a cell phone is legally or even practically private. All communications on a cell phone are legally the same as if you were yelling to another person in a crowded public store.
To make matters worse, there is not only no privacy to government surveillance, but to *private* surveillance, either. There are hacking tools on the Internet right now that let you listen in on other people’s cell phone conversations. Other hacker tools allow them to determine your GPS as well.
And to make matters much, much worse, even when turned off, your cell phone can be used by anyone as a remote microphone. This means if you are at home with a friend, talking about your love lives, someone can easily listen in on what you are saying.
This last “feature” was specifically included so that the police could have an “instant bug” wherever there is a cell phone. But it was so poorly done that anyone can hack into it.
So watch your tongue. What you say around a cell phone, *any* cell phone, might come back to bite you.
GPS is not the only way. You can have your phone OFF and it’s still able to receive a signal.
You have to take the battery out in order to go off the grid.
Then why were the Martins found guilty and fined for tapping into the cell phone call of Newt gingrich back in the early 90's?
I carry the NYS quads in my car along with some local maps along with a log of GPS waypoints I've accumulated over the years.
Your cell phone transmits all the time to lock in on a tower. The companies save that data for a certain amount of time. If, within that time, someone subpoena’s your phone records, they can at least find out which cell tower your phone was near at any given time in the past up to the oldest saved historical data.
If they are accusing you of robbing a bank at a particular location and you say you were at home washing your hair, if you DID rob the bank and take your cell phone with you (and it is turned on) they can literally trace your driving route to a certain accuracy. You are absolutely nailed.
If you have an android or droid you can try it with your own phone. If you use google maps and ask for your location, but the GPS is turned off, it will give you not your location, but the location of the nearest cell tower.
I know all that...Have been actively involved with GPS for almost 20 years.
I do understand GPS, I am a professional navigator.
The GPS data base should not be accessable by police without a warrant. This is more crucial because the census now has its own data base of each of our home locations.
This is a data base access issue, not a technical issue.
Such is the intention of the consitution. My home is protected against unreasonable search.And my homes location data should require a warrant.My home location is entitled to such anomymity from the state and its agencies,(because I am presumed innocent under our system of law), without a warrant issued for probable cause.
Soon each of us will be only moments away from continuous satellite surveillance,or even drone surveillance, just because a neighbor may not like you or what you do.That is very bad news.
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