Watergate was one of the biggest and widespread scandals in US history. For those unfamiliar, the synopsis of it is that Nixon had tape recordings that were attained without a warrant that, when found, became the cause of his resignation. Many restrictions were put in place to try and prevent such a lie being possible again. However, with the recent NSA goings-on, there has been a new revelation that Watergate has been happening once again.
New York's Eerie County police department had a dark secret they were trying to keep. However, thanks to the New York Civil Liberties Union, we now have information about their secrets. Apparently the Eerie County police department has been using a device called a stingray to gather evidence without the use of a warrant. Supposedly, the device has been used 47 times since 2013 and only once did the police department go to the court. Not to mention that the one time they did go to the court, it was simply fora court order which requires much more proof to be provided before a true warrant is... well warranted.
The main issue with the stingray device is that it not only captures data about the potential subject but also of innocent bystanders, according to the article. The device operates by emitting a cellphone signal stronger than nearby towers in order to connect to anyone's phone that was in the area and reveal their unique ID. This essentially means the police department can track the position of someone's cellphone's unique ID. Furthermore, the sheriff department signed a gag order with the FBI of all organizations to keep quiet about their use of the device. These are the same kind of orders that the NSA is accused of mandating to companies to sell out their information and not reveal and of the terms listed in their demands. However, this is just one police department in one county. Harris Corp., the main manufacturer of these stingray devices has signed a non-disclosure agreement with many police departments from around the nation. Even the U.S. Marshall's went so far as to grab records of Florida police departments using stingray devices to stop the American Civil Liberties Union from acquiring them.
However, even scarier a thought is the fact that the police department lied about the use of their stingray devices and called the pen register devices. Though pen register devices is a very broad term, stingray devices are much more invasive and therefore do not fall under the same category. Because of this, the court had no idea what the true intent of the police department was. Lastly, the public still doesn't know the full extent of what the stingray devices can do because of the secrecy that surrounds them. A lot of people believe that stingray devices not only acquire positional data but also collect content of phone call conversations.
New York's Eerie County police department had a dark secret they were trying to keep. However, thanks to the New York Civil Liberties Union, we now have information about their secrets. Apparently the Eerie County police department has been using a device called a stingray to gather evidence without the use of a warrant. Supposedly, the device has been used 47 times since 2013 and only once did the police department go to the court. Not to mention that the one time they did go to the court, it was simply fora court order which requires much more proof to be provided before a true warrant is... well warranted.
The main issue with the stingray device is that it not only captures data about the potential subject but also of innocent bystanders, according to the article. The device operates by emitting a cellphone signal stronger than nearby towers in order to connect to anyone's phone that was in the area and reveal their unique ID. This essentially means the police department can track the position of someone's cellphone's unique ID. Furthermore, the sheriff department signed a gag order with the FBI of all organizations to keep quiet about their use of the device. These are the same kind of orders that the NSA is accused of mandating to companies to sell out their information and not reveal and of the terms listed in their demands. However, this is just one police department in one county. Harris Corp., the main manufacturer of these stingray devices has signed a non-disclosure agreement with many police departments from around the nation. Even the U.S. Marshall's went so far as to grab records of Florida police departments using stingray devices to stop the American Civil Liberties Union from acquiring them.
However, even scarier a thought is the fact that the police department lied about the use of their stingray devices and called the pen register devices. Though pen register devices is a very broad term, stingray devices are much more invasive and therefore do not fall under the same category. Because of this, the court had no idea what the true intent of the police department was. Lastly, the public still doesn't know the full extent of what the stingray devices can do because of the secrecy that surrounds them. A lot of people believe that stingray devices not only acquire positional data but also collect content of phone call conversations.
I totally agree with the unethical way that all of this was done in. However, in my opinion, I would be totally open to the police doing this if I knew exactly how it all works. I’m even ok with the NSA snooping on everyone. I just wish I knew the methods they used. Data mining now adays is everywhere and there is no use complaining about the government doing it when we are ok with major companies like Facebook doing it. I would rather the police have this device to stop or capture bad guys and loose a bit of privacy, then have my privacy and have these killers on the loose. I think it’s a very small price to pay in the end.
ReplyDeleteBased on what I read from your post and the “Stringray phone tracker” Wikipedia page my suspicion that this device works based on the GSM protocol appears to be confirmed. This means they are able to capture approximately half of all potential US cellphone communications because AT&T and T-Mobile use the GSM protocol while Sprint and Verizon use CDMA (just two different cell phone communications protocols). However, this is not to say that they do not also have a CDMA tracking device that is separate from Stingray. The Wikipedia page also mentions that the Stingray devices are able to capture the content of communications, which I believe should need a warrant. The most important thing about issues like this is to somehow make sure the public is informed, and that is not often the case as shown by John Oliver's interview with Edward Snowden (many people in NYC didn't even remember who he is). Now is even more an important time to be informed on privacy because Section 215 of the Patriot Act will expire and be voted on this June.
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