Posted on 06/15/2014 10:50:44 PM PDT by chessplayer
Thought the NSA was bad? Local police and the Obama administration are hoovering cellphone location data from inside your house,
All across America, from Florida to Colorado and back again, the country's increasingly militarized local police forces are using a secretive technology to vacuum up cellphone data from entire neighborhoods – including from people inside their own homes – almost always without a warrant. This week, numerous investigations by major news agencies revealed the US government is now taking unbelievable measures to make sure you never find out about it. But a landmark court ruling for privacy could soon force the cops to stop, even as the Obama administration fights to keep its latest tool for mass surveillance a secret.
So-called International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) catchers – more often called their popular brand name, "Stingray" – have long been the talk of the civil liberties crowd, for the indiscriminate and invasive way these roving devices conduct surveillance. Essentially, Stingrays act as fake cellphone towers (usually mounted in a mobile police truck) that police can point toward any given area and force every phone in the area to connect to it. So even if you're not making a call, police can find out who you've been calling, and for how long, as well as your precise location.
Yet these mass surveillance devices have largely stayed out of the public eye, thanks to the federal government and local police refusing to disclose they're using them in the first place – sometimes, shockingly, even to judges. As the Associated Press reported this week, the Obama administration has been telling local cops to keep information on Stingrays secret from members of the news media, even when it seems like local public records laws would mandate their disclosure.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Guardian ratting out the Obama administration...
no american media will.
The Panopticon is growing.
I figured this was going on for a while so when ever I make a call, I always throw in comments on the perverted, peeping Toms who, when not peeping thru your window are listening to your phone calls. I usually add that at least it keeps the fat nieces of the sheriff employed. Then I add they can kiss my a55.
Doesn’t matter if it’s landlines or not, big guv’ will still listen in.
My land line phone can’t be overridden remotely to listen or turn on a camera to snoop in my home.
One’s cell phone can without any indication its being done.
Land line phones are much more likely to work in an emergency, especially an emergency that is common over a large area like an earthquake or power outage.
I’m sticking with land lines.
It would have to be targeted rather than universal. They don’t have enough resources to follow everyone in real time. So the real question is, who gets onto police or NSA lists and why are they there?
bmfl
We are also sticking with a land-line.
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