Subject: Privacy World's June 2014 Newsletter Issue 3 Jun
> Privacy World - The WORLD'S SHREWDEST PRIVACY
NEWSLETTER
>
> The US Government Doesn't Want You To Know How The
Cops Are
> Tracking You
>
> Thought the NSA was bad? Local police and the Obama
administration
> are hoovering cellphone location data from inside
your house,
> and a crackdown could lead to surveillance reform
>
> "The Guardian" - 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. As Nathan Freed Wessler of the ACLU
explained on Thursday,
> "In one Florida case, a police officer
explained in court that he
> 'quite literally stood in front of every door and
window' with his
> stingray to track the phones inside a large
apartment complex."
>
> 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. The AP noted:
>
> Federal involvement in local open records proceedings
is unusual. It
> comes at a time when President Barack Obama has said
he welcomes a
> debate on government surveillance and called for
more transparency
> about spying in the wake of disclosures about
classified federal
> surveillance programs.
>
> Some of the government's tactics to hide Stingray
from journalists
> and the public have been downright disturbing. After
the ACLU had
> filed a records request for information on
Stingrays, the local
> police force initially told them that, yes, they had
the documents
> and to come on down to the station to look at them.
But just before
> an ACLU rep was due to arrive, US Marshals seized
the records and
> hid them away at another location, in what Wessler
describes as
> "a blatant violation of state open-records
laws".
>
> The federal government has used various other
tactics around the
> country to prevent disclosure of similar
information.
>
> USA Today also published a significant nationwide
investigation about
> the Stingray problem, as well as what are known as
"cellphone tower
> dumps". When police agencies don't have
Stingrays at their disposal,
> they can go to cell phone providers to get the
cellphone location
> information of everyone who has connected to a
specific cell tower
> (which inevitably includes thousands of innocent
people). The paper's
> John Kelly reported that one Colorado case shows
cellphone tower
> dumps got police "'cellular telephone numbers,
including the date,
> time and duration of any calls,' as well as numbers
and location
> data for all phones that connected to the towers
searched, whether
> calls were being made or not."
>
> It's scary enough to think that the NSA is
collecting so much
> information, but this mass location and metadata
tracking at the
> local level all may be about to change. This week,
the ACLU won
> a historic victory in the 11th Circuit Court of
Appeals (serving
> Florida, Alabama and Georgia), which ruled that
police need to get
> a warrant from a judge before extracting from your
cellphone the
> location data obtained by way of a cell tower. This
ruling will
> apply whether cops are going after one person, the
whole tower
> and, one can assume, Stingrays. (The case was also
argued by the
> aforementioned Wessler, who clearly is this month's
civil liberties
> Most Valuable Player.)
>
> This case has huge implications, and not just for
the Stingrays
> secretly being used in Florida. It virtually
guarantees the US
> supreme court will soon have to tackle the larger
cellphone location
> question in some form - and whether police across
the country have
> to finally start getting a warrant to find out where
your precise
> location for days or weeks at a time. But as Stanford
law professor
> Jennifer Granick wrote on Friday, it could also have
an impact
> on NSA spying, which relies on the theory that
indiscriminately
> collecting metadata is fair game until a court says
otherwise.
>
> You may be asking: how, exactly, are the local cops
getting their
> hands on such advanced military technology? Well,
the feds are,
> in many cases, giving away the technology for free.
When the US
> government is not loaning police agencies their own
Stingrays, the
> Defense Department and Homeland Security are giving
federal grants
> to cops, which allow departments to purchase the
gear at the cost
> of $400,000 a pop from defense contractors like
Harris Corporation,
> which makes the Stingray brand.
>
> Speaking of which, the New York Times's Matt Apuzzo
wrote another
> essential, overlooked story this week detailing all
of the other free
> military gear - like machine guns, armored vehicles
and aircraft -
> that police are receiving from the Pentagon. An
example from his
> story about the militarization of what used to be
routine police
> activities also comes from Florida: "In Florida
in 2010, officers
> in SWAT gear and with guns drawn carried out raids
on barbershops
> that mostly led only to charges of 'barbering
without a license.'"
>
> Like Stingrays, and the NSA's phone dragnet before
them, the
> militarization of America's local cops is a
phenomenon that's only
> now getting widespread attention. As journalist
Radley Balko, who
> wrote a seminal book on the subject two years ago,
said this week,
> the Obama administration could easily limit these
tactics to "cases
> of legitimate national security" - but has
clearly chosen not to.
>
> No matter how much President Obama talks about how
he has "maintained
> a healthy skepticism toward our surveillance
programs", it seems the
> Most Transparent Administration in American History
remains much
> more interested in maintaining a healthy, top-secret
surveillance
> state
>
> The above by Trevor Timm
>
> Until our next issue stay cool and remain low
profile!
>
> Privacy World
>
> PS - Need a highly anonymous cell phone and
anonymous offshore
> sim card (mobile number?) Email and place
"Freedom Phone" in your
> subject heading for details.
>
>
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we will talk after this passes,
