Tracking Cell Phone Signals
By John Amato Thursday Nov 22, 2007 7:40pmAnd you wonder why we've taken such a principled stand on the NSA/FISA debate:
Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers.
In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives.
Such requests run counter to the Justice Department's internal recommendation that federal prosecutors seek warrants based on probable cause to obtain precise location data in private areas. The requests and orders are sealed at the government's request, so it is difficult to know how often the orders are issued or denied.
We are a nation of laws and this is a subversion of that tenet, but how often have we seen this already during the Bush years. Do you still want to give the big Telecoms retroactive immunity for their willing participation in the NSA program? Captain Ed, please, it's all related....And where will it stop? From tracking drug dealers to protesters that wear "Impeach Cheney," t-shirts is not out of the question, I kid you not.
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hey ....if you don't have anything to worry about........whats the problum?
we have not been a nation of laws since that oaf gerald ford pardoned that criminal nixon
start with all the congress members and their staff
track all of them for a year or so and then start with the corporate elite.
after that you can start with law enforcement and the judiciary.
eventually you can come down the general populace.
And don't forget about disgruntled trouble-makers who post comments here.
I found ten tracking cookies on my cumpooter during my security check.......what that means I don't know....I fix it and they keep coming back......
Used to be you only had to worry about the significant other like shown in the movie Shou ji (Cell Phone). Would removing the battery be sufficient?
And hear about the 911 Alarm? Call 911 (at least with Verizon) and an audible alarm sounds. Great if you need to silently call for help, isn't it?
Ah cell phones. How did we ever live without them?
ask the telecoms if they will hand over their business records without a proper warrant,they probably have double standard hey!
Tapping into your cellphone with a GPS tracker, microphone and even a camera..hell ya keep packin on the features.
Its probably 'cause they want to control us.
Lollimom @ 4:
Most definitely. But, then again, this is an open forum. Now if C&L were to give up ip addresses (as if the feds can't get those on their own, anyway), I'd be frightened.
In the end, however, I find myself not givin' a flyin' fuck whether we are bein' monitored. I'd be righteously indignant- if not a bit proud- to be arrested fer any of the loose thoughts I've spilled out into the intertubes.
Lollimom @ 4:
I know i am disgruntled, but am i causing trouble? I certainly hope so.
MHealy @ 8:
You don't need a gps option on your cell phone for your telecom company to know where you are.
xoites defends Constitution @ 11:
I think it's a reference to tyree. :D
Just kiddin', tyree!
Andy K @ 13:
Ok, i accept second best to Tyree. :)
"We are a nation of laws..".
What country do you live in?
LongTooth @ 15:
I don't know about you, but i live in a Republic.
A Bannana Republic.
with all of bush's illegal takeover of the govt and judicial branch, this invasion of private citizen's rights and wanting the the very agencies(telecoms) to co-operate without question does not warrant ever giving these telecoms immunity for breaking the law and definitely not retro-immunity. FUCK BUSH and his fascist dictatorship.
Do something:https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?alertId=321&pg=makeACall
Maybe Bush's intrusion into our private lives is not as sinister as it seems. Perhaps he is just trying to find out what to do to make Laura have an orgasm.
The "war on drugs" and its erosion of the right against unwarranted search and seizure established the precedent used for the current wiretapping of citizens to find terrorists.
the War on Drugs, RICO, and the Patriot Act are enough to find something about anybody, for anything..
I don’t believe this cell phone tracking capability.
Next you’ll be telling me that they have surveillance cameras everywhere
that they have LRAD soundwave guns
that they have Microwave heat guns on Humvee platforms
that they have warrantless wiretaps on phones, email, internet traffic
that they have a privatized prison system
that Halliburton got a posh contact for containment camps in America
that they have set up the legal basis for martial law.
that we live in a emerging police state.
Hello. Alex Jones has been covering the global panopticon for years now - was mocked for black helicopters and tinfoil hattery - and now this is mainstream news.
Well, well.....Crooks and Liars and other websites can get anyone's ISP number it wants and the government can get what it wants as well.....so, so, I do not know what to think....Privacy from all fronts is a mess at this point in the USA. I wish website owners were not as free to get people's personal data like ISP numbers or that the government did not attempt to do what the private sector and private internet site owners are able to do, either. Oh well, I guess if one wants to come to a certain site or own a cell phone, there are always strings attached an individual must be prepared to deal with.
I do not have a cell phone for one and never will get one either. Katharine Albrecht is an expert on these matters and I suggest people listen to her radio program online for she talks about RFID chips all the time.
I guess from website owners having the ISP numbers of all its traffic and those who post from the government, that Americans are all subject to be tracked down in one form or another these days.
xoites defends Constitution @ 20:
gotta hit that joy buttun doncha know....gotta keep the women folk happy!
a potatoe republic, more likely.
And Captains Quarters!!? egads. I had nearl forgot bout him.
We are a nation of laws and this is a subversion of that tenet...
News bulletin: We're not a nation of laws. In declaring impeachment "off the table", we're a nation of the decider, the unitary executive. Seems to me, our "decider" has violated felony provisions of the wiretapping laws, and now seeks immunity for his co-conspirators even as he says no laws were broken.
In order to be a nation of laws, the constitution needs to be the supreme law of the land, instead of the advisory document that it is treated as today. From Dems looking to weaken the 2nd amendment through gun control legislation, to the Republicans trying to weaken the rest of the Bill of Rights, the public is being sold on the concept that constitutional rights can be overridden by legislation, particularly, the Patriot act.
In my opinion, we stopped being a nation of laws with the first drunk driving checkpoints, where drivers were pulled over without probable cause or reasonable suspicion. Now, around here, you can get pulled over to make sure your seat belt is fastened. The "war on drugs" has been a war on the 4th amendment with banks now routinely required to provide records of transactions to the feds. Remembering that the Bill of Rights was enacted to protect the public from the government, it is going to be the natural tendency of the government to erode those rights.
Anyhow, in order for this government to be a government of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation, it is helpful to be a nation of the unitary executive, not a nation of laws. Being a nation of laws is pre-911 thinking - get with the modern times.
Is your politician a "free-trader" or a "free-traitor"?
mudshark @ 23:
Geez, and all along I thought the answer was porn. Thanks fer the good lookin' out, pal.
xoites defends Constitution @ 17:
Completely and absolutely.
*
Hey Vrizun, jus keep an eye on those damn protesters will yer at it, okie dokie?
When not having a cellphone is outlawed only outlaws will not have cellphones.
And where will it stop? From tracking drug dealers to protesters that wear “Impeach Cheney,” t-shirts is not out of the question, I kid you not."
Actually, the Indypendant seems to think that "The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007, (H.R. 1955), passed by the House of Representative in a 404-6 vote Oct. 23 would address people opposed to globalization, otherwise known as free trade. Sponsored by Jane Harman (D-Calif.), this bill appears to involve the Rand corporation. The concern here is that people merely opposed to free trade presents sufficient cause to be monitored by the feds to prevent their activities from going "violent".
According to Rand, “Anti-globalists directly challenge the intrinsic qualities of capitalism, charging that in the insatiable quest for growth and profit, the philosophy is serving to destroy the world’s ecology, indigenous cultures and individual welfare”
Actually, this anti-globalist would merely point out that the point of free trade is to create competition between domestic and foreign labor pools, in order to drive down wages, in order to enrich those parties who derive their incomes from the labors of others (dividends) and harm wage-earners. Seems to me, other than competition in labor markets, these people oppose competition, in communications with media consolidation, telecom consolidation, protection of the drug industry from Canadian drug purchases and so forth.
Is your politician a “free-trader” or a “free-traitor”?
Andy K @ 26:
Hey....I'd do anything for a friend ..........bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
as others here have noted, the "War on Drugs" was/is the fascist infrastructure for the "War on Terror."
If you think the Government using your cell phone to track you is scary, wait until they figure out how to remotely turn on the mic and camera, if they haven't already. 1984 indeed.
Prediction: The "war on terror" will go the way of the "war on drugs," and the people will not be free until the herb is free.
OnStar can already listen in on your in-cabin conversations and track your movements.
This is not a surprise, look around there are cameras everywhere!..We live in a televised democracy, where reality is fiction and Real World is a show. The companies
that install the cameras are part of whats known as the Military Industrial Complex. And all the data those harmless cameras produce, get sold to many different companies for profit. And they claim Intellectual Property Rights on all data and images produced. So if they get to have that info why shouldn't they give it to the Feds. for contracts and even better POWER.
Why isn't any one any one canceling their Cable T.V. and the Cell Phone in Protest? Hit them in the pocket. I got rid of Cable TV 4 years ago. It was the best thing I've ever done for my Family. If America is to survive a fascist takeover we have to have a plan. I don't NEED my cell phone. Sure it makes life a lot easier when ordering a pizza... and safer. But we must do something ..so start something.
f this stasidom. Our parents and grandparents got soaked for trillions by the Pentagon to fight the cold war onto to use East German tactics later on
There used to be a saying about individual rights during the Cold War:
How did the US manage to become a communist country?
Are there any controls on how this information is used? Specifically the monitoring of conversations (verbal or text). Never mind the black-mail possibilities. What prevents an industrious person from collecting and sifting through the information for inside financial info?
Hmmm, I wonder if this is one of the reasons why the "No-Fly List" keeps getting bigger and bigger?
The Bush administration (the most corrupt administration in American history) has been using cell phone triangulation-of-signal intercepts to go after right-wing religious fundamentalist terrorists overseas.
So, starting with Ashcroft and then Gonzales, the Bush administration must have realized that they could use the same triangulation-of-signal tracking technique domestically. Of course, one significant overlap with this federal spying technique being used inside the United States would be any data from local law enforcement entities involving "hot crime" areas. Ergo, the telecom companies collecting and storing cell phone signal locations could program their super-computers to highlight these "hot crime" areas, with all cell phones located in or crossing through these "hot crime" areas getting a higher priority.
One possible scenario.
You're driving your car, going to work, the store, or just cruising, but just happen to pass through an area designated as one of these "hot crime" areas (which you are probably not even aware of). You get a cell phone call or call out while passing through this area, the telecom companies register this, the link is made via the computer that the street you were driving down is a "hot crime" area (drug dealers, prostitution, whatever), and your name is added to a "suspect list." Because of the increasinly incestuous relationship between local police ("suspect list") and federal authorities ("No-Fly List"), your name could then migrate to the "No-Fly List," with you having no idea why you have been designated a flying risk. And all you had done was use your cell phone while driving, and been caught up in a Total Information Awareness dragnet.
So, you end up on the "No-Fly List," having no connection at all to any right-wing religious fundamentalist terrorist groups, and with no way to challenge the inclusion of your name on this list, because, if a challenge were possible, the Bush administration would have to reveal in court the extent of their illegal spying on U.S. citizens and the illegal methods being used...with the help of compliant and complicit telecom companies.
Oh, this is why the Bush administration (and the telecom companies) are adamant about retroactive amnesty being given these criminals by Congress.
Privacy issues have gone down the tube, if you are worried about privacy on the net, set up your browser to use a proxy. Don't know what that is, Google on how to set up a proxy in a browser.
Your privacy is there for you to take back on the net if you want it.
Where will it end you ask? Real-time tracking data is only the tip of the iceberg... read this:
Excerpt:
FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: December 1, 2006, 2:20 PM PST
update The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.
The technique is called a "roving bug," and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him.
Nextel cell phones owned by two alleged mobsters, John Ardito and his attorney Peter Peluso, were used by the FBI to listen in on nearby conversations. The FBI views Ardito as one of the most powerful men in the Genovese family, a major part of the national Mafia.
The surveillance technique came to light in an opinion published this week by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. He ruled that the "roving bug" was legal because federal wiretapping law is broad enough to permit eavesdropping even of conversations that take place near a suspect's cell phone.
SNIP!
The U.S. Commerce Department's security office warns that "a cellular telephone can be turned into a microphone and transmitter for the purpose of listening to conversations in the vicinity of the phone." An article in the Financial Times last year said mobile providers can "remotely install a piece of software on to any handset, without the owner's knowledge, which will activate the microphone even when its owner is not making a call."
Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola Razr are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones, said James Atkinson, a counter-surveillance consultant who has worked closely with government agencies. "They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room audio all the time," he said. "You can do that without having physical access to the phone."
Because modern handsets are miniature computers, downloaded software could modify the usual interface that always displays when a call is in progress. The spyware could then place a call to the FBI and activate the microphone--all without the owner knowing it happened. (The FBI declined to comment on Friday.)
http://www.news.com/2100-1029_3-6140191.html
So Bush wants immunity from prosecution for the telecoms eh? He won't even tell what crimes they might have committed, but anyone want to bet it has been wide spread bugging of phones by using this technique?
The phone doesn't even have to be turned on... they can trigger a maintenance mode in the phone to turn it into an active bug in your home and the only way to prevent it is to take the battery out of the phone!
No retroactive immunity! Hammer your reps, call them everyday. e-mail them, hammer away.
What fucking country do we live in? Where is Poindextor?
Another possible scenario
Real ID laws will soon require everyone to have a drivers license with an RFID chip. Some law gets passed or is already passed to require everyone to carry 'proper' identification for 'security reasons'.
The technology is only limited by the scanners not the chip. Massive scanners can and will be able to scan an entire crowd. For example, protesters are funneled down a street, with two big vans on either side, or maybe even cops with scanners in small backpacks. They basically catalog all the people and begin a data base on the dissenters. Not the passive ones but the ones willing to protest.
For national security reasons and to ensure 'continuity of government', dissent that seeks to disrupt this 'continuity' , economy (general strike) or some other claptrap becomes illegal. Protesters become aware of the scanning and identification and hence protesting and protesters diminish. Except for the hardcore that get shipped to the 'safety zones'.
related news item
Yahoo In Legal Hot Seat For Cooperating With Chinese Gov't
The lawsuit contends that Yahoo provided identifying information about the Plaintiffs, in violation of the privacy agreements and assurances made to the Yahoo’s customers and users, that led to their arbitrary arrest, indefinite detention and torture. Yahoo had acceded to the Chinese government to provide this information.
Comment: Too bad that Yahoo doesn't have President Bush and his Republicans to give it immunity.
homer www.altara.blogspot.com
I say to hell with the Impeach Cheney and/or Bush tee-shirts. At this point I think the term "overthrow" is more apt. As is our Constitutional right. This government is treasonous, pure and simple and they're destroying America. Aided and abetted by the spineless shits in Congress.
Non-violent revolution is what is required now before Bush pulls a Musharaff next year.
First, the war on drugs is stupid. Let's end it.
Second, Bush might just cite national security as a reason to take away people's freedom. This is what Hitler did. Want to spy, get a warrant. Show probable cause why.
No it's not John, you are right. What for so long many of us considered paranoid fantasies is now something we MUST take seriously and give full and real attention to.
Why has no one sold a cell ring tone of a strong voice singing 'Impeach Bush' over the background music of 'Amazing Grace', or 'Onward Christian Soldiers, or 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic', or.............?
rasta @ 3:
Most likely, that is what was done pre 9/11. They wholesale wire tapped thousands of phones. They probably found at least one skelleton in every closet in DC. After that, the Bush Admin could do whatever they wanted. Those who opposed, were kept silent because of sensitive info.
Rasputin @ 40:
EVEN IF YOU TAKE THE BATTERY OUT, THERE IS A BATTERY THAT KEEPS THE DATE AND TIME CORRECT............
Congress doesn't even write our laws anymore, they let the highest bidder write whatever they want.
You all need to understand the dirty little secrets of Cell Phones:
1) There are programs that run in the background that you have no access to manage via the menu programs provided by the cellular phone company or manufacturer.
2) Those programs can enable monitoring (microphone activation) even without any indication whatsoever.
3) Your phone can be turned on remotely, and not show any signs or display normal indications.
4) All new phones must comply with GPS tracking rules.
5) Your phone can be remotely turned on, microphone and GPS tracking enabled...without any outside indication of the phone.
6) Verizon and AT&T route all calls through their MPLS network hubs, where the NARUS 6400 packet collector is resident.
7) Only removing the battery and putting your cell phone in a bucket of water will disable those features.
Your tracking is not just "where you are at this moment", but where you have been over the last several months, at regular poll intervals of 10-seconds.
Who has called your phone? Does that person have someone who calls them that is being monitored? Who have you called? Who did they call? All of that is being monitored, stored and archived.
I am not a ranting paranoid, but have worked in the telecom industry for 20 years.
On-Star (GM)... your car can be remotely turned off, your microphone can be remotely turned on, your tracking is constantly being monitored.
Technology is not a tool which only the US government can exploit. The technology can be used to prosecute US government officials for illegal spying, war crimes, and breaches of the laws of war.
Admissible
Most non-encrypted US government cell phone communications can be intercepted. The Communications can be admitted into evidence for war crimes. Congress may choose to do nothing. But the world can use the US telecom capabilities to prosecute US government officials. It's also possible to access the US government communication records retained by private telecoms. This is admissible as evidence.
The cell tracking system can be applied against the US government officials.
1. Commercial Communication Systems Breached
The US government officials also use non-encrypted commercial software when doing official business. This is known outside the intelligence community.
2. War Crimes Evidence: Implicating US legal counsel making frivolous legal arguments in re war crimes
Cell phone data can be linked with US government officials and contractors on rendition and prisoner abuse war crimes. CIA agents in Italy, making calls on private cell phones, can be linked with unlawful activity.
gawd damn cell phones...I hate those damn things.
xoites defends Constitution @ 12:
Somewhat true. If you live in an area which is full of cell-phone towers, each tower will determine a 'signal strength' on your phone before deciding which tower is used for the call. Anyone who knows how to triangulate knows that you can take 3 such 'signal strength' ratings and calculate a location from it.
Of course, this only works if there are at lest 3 towers -- as the 'tri'-angulation implies. If you live in an area with only one or two cell towers operating, then the triangulation doesn't work.
I'm waiting for some conservative dipstick to say, "I don't see what's wrong with it, the phone companies offer services so you can track your kids. We're simply tracking criminals." Businesses have given drivers/employees phones with GPS ... and then purchased software that allows those drivers to be tracked - supposedly to assure the employee isn't fucking off on the company's dime.
So the phone companies offered the service in order to desensitize the public to the egregious affront to privacy ... and now, the feds want to track criminals. (Note that 'terrorists' were not mentioned, so there's also mission creep involved ... increased surveillance isn't actually catching Islamofascist cell members, so it's being tasked to other purposes.)
Now, our home phone number is two digits transposed from a nearby motel. Every few months or so, we tend to get phone calls at odd hours of the night, usually from someone sounding stoned, asking for a room number. We're pretty sure it's someone hooking up with their supplier, or whatever, and that these people either go to ground or go to jail for months at a time.
So, seeing as the no-fly list has countless people on it who are in no way connected with terrorism, I figure our phones will be tapped in short order. The land line leads to the cell phones through the roving wiretaps which no longer require warrants because Alberto V-O-Spy just didn't have the time to do things according to the law.
But, given that the Democrats seem to be subscribing to the battered wife playbook, we need to face it - the land of the free ... ain't. It's an illusion. You're being tracked, monitored, spied upon and the government has the power to drop-kick your ass into a prison outside the legal system, hold you without charges, try you on secret evidence (that 'Star Chamber' thing), and torture you for information they think you have.
And since the Demos came in riding the 'we'll get you out of Iraq' but have reneged on that with 'wait until 2009' and 'it's going to take at least till 2013' (that's six friggin' years from now), I'd expect nothing but the same when it comes to our Constitutional rights. ("Oh, we'll fix all of that." "Well, it's a complicated issue, and we want to be able to fight terrorism ...")
Pay in cash. Don't use the phone. Don't shed any hairs.
30 years from now the gov't will know where everyone is at all times. Who is going to stop them?
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