Home » topic sections » Liberties

Cell phones are essentially spies in your pocket. And now cops don't need a warrant to use them.


What's truly amazing is not that you can use a cell phone to track people (we've known that for a long time), but that judges are letting the cops track your mobile without a warrant.

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.

Judges who allow tracking without warrants should be impeached. If it's widespread, impeach them all.

In the meantime, as the article notes, cell phones are essentially spies in your pocket. So what can you do about it?

  • Your phone can also be turned on and used as a mobile bug. Take the batteries out of your phone when you don't want to be listened in on or tracked.
  • Use different phones and pre-paid sims every day if you need a mobile phone. (This is what one opposition leader in Pakistan was advised to do when he was on the run from Musharraf).
  • Your home phone can very efficiently be used as a bug--at least the old rotary ones could, and I'd be shocked if the more modern ones can't be also. So pull it out of the jack if you're having a conversation about your next peace march or anti-free trade demonstration.
  • Finally, making a call and hanging up before they "complete the trace", as shown in the movies, doesn't work. The line can be held open. Expect that if you make a call under such circumstances, you are compromised, whether by landline or mobile, and ditch the phone or get away from the landline, fast. (Leaving your mobile on a bus works wonders.)

Does any of this apply to you? Well, a lot of peace activists and so on read this blog. Odds are strong that it does apply to some of you.

So use the knowledge.

Image from W.A.R.T.


Editor November 24, 2007 - 12:00pm
Editor's diary | printer friendly version | digg
( categories: Liberties | Technology )

Finally, making a call and

Finally, making a call and hanging up before they "complete the trace", as shown in the movies, doesn't work. The line can be held open.

Wrong. So old school!

The phone company keeps a databse of ALL calls, both the calling number & the called number. As soon as you have finished dialing, we know who you are and what you want!

Synoia November 24, 2007 - 9:04pm
login or register to post comments
Use Skype.

Skype apparently has a pesky scrambling algorithm that spook agencies haven't cracked yet. Of course, they could just be saying that...
.
"Adapt or perish." Murphy's Law? Nope, Darwin's Guarantee.

Jimbo92107 November 24, 2007 - 10:09pm
login or register to post comments
My cell phone hate finally pays off.

/flex

Lesly November 24, 2007 - 10:33pm
login or register to post comments
Can you elaborate?

Your home phone can very efficiently be used as a bug--at least the old rotary ones could, and I'd be shocked if the more modern ones can't be also. So pull it out of the jack if you're having a conversation about your next peace march or anti-free trade demonstration.

Assuming that no one gets into my home, how does this work?

Petronius November 24, 2007 - 11:58pm
login or register to post comments
In the old phones

iirc (from a conversation with a friend who worked at Bell in the 80's) they'd burn out the capactor connected to the hook-switch, which would keep the circuit open all the time. Voila, instant bug.

Ian Welsh November 25, 2007 - 2:08am
login or register to post comments
Buty...

that would also create a continuous off-hook condition and the subscriber would soon catch on. Later phones have varistor protection against line surges that would make this impossible.

On a modern phone, trying that would likely burn out a critical component in the unit rendering it inoperable.

Petronius November 25, 2007 - 1:43pm
login or register to post comments
I assume

you mean resistor protection. As I understand it you can send a large enough surge down the line to burn out the resistor, if you're doing it deliberately. If you keep a line open, there's no noise. Modern phones can be modified easily, though I don't know if it can be done remotely, but I wouldn't be surprised if it can be done - not through a surge, but by some other method. Might not be possible, as I say in the article, I don't know. But it's dead easy to turn them into a bug.

Ian Welsh November 25, 2007 - 4:58pm
login or register to post comments
Nope...I mean varistor

not resistor--the heart of any surge protector strip and part of most modern corded phones. Try sending enough current to take out an MOV and you'll fry the innards of the phone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varistor

Or, one can simply use a wireless phone. When the handset's in the cradle, the voice circuits are disabled and no amount of tinkering on the phone line will change that. Of course, once someone gains admission to your house, they can modify your phones as bugs, but it's simply easier to plant a bug.

Of course, one must always beware of Greeks (or any one else) bearing gifts:

Petronius November 25, 2007 - 5:11pm
login or register to post comments
Might have applied...

...when phones used all 4 wires, but they've only used 2 for nearly 20 years.

Gordon November 27, 2007 - 10:11pm
login or register to post comments
Not Surprising

Why is this so surprising? Honestly...are you really that naive? Government agencies and law enforcement have been doing this for years! They don't care what the law says!! Laws are for you...the public...not them...they are the LAW!! I'm sorry, but I really have to point this out...GROW UP and stop believing the myth that you are actually free...

ProDem November 25, 2007 - 9:21am
login or register to post comments
Oh please -

I have AT&T - fuck! enuf said. (They bought out Cingular....so...)

ecophem November 25, 2007 - 9:30am
login or register to post comments
Two points:

Two points:
1. Real "terrorists" know all this and that's why they use low tech solutions such as messengers to communicate.

2. Enforcement agents know that "terrorists" know that they know, so they aren't trying to find such people by wiretapping or tracking, so what are they really up to?

The ultimate purpose of spying on a civilian population is to control political dissent. Not violent dissent, any dissent. Recent examples can be seen in Russia and Pakistan. Those being imprisoned or driven out of the country belong to rival political parties.

I have an essay on how the transition from fighting foreign threats morphs into suppression of political opponents on my web site. I used an historical example so as not to muddy the water with debates over current events. When I wrote it I didn't think I'd see history repeat itself so quickly, I used Russia under the Czars as the starting point!

Surveillance vs Civil Liberties

robertdfeinman November 25, 2007 - 11:06am
login or register to post comments
yea dude

all these measures are obviously not very relevant to any authentic terrorist with decent tradecraft.

can't forget "chilling effects" from that damn panopticon feeling you get.
--
Hongpong.com

HongPong November 25, 2007 - 11:53pm
login or register to post comments
Of course

http://www.zapchecker.com/
This device is sensitive enough to detect your running microwave three rooms away. In fact today's microwave ovens operate at 2.4 Ghz only slightly higher in frequency than .958 Ghz cell phone bands.

In urban areas you will find the zapchecker never shuts up on it's most sensitive setting, well that is because you are literally standing in a sea of microwave frequency type radiation.

http://www.3nw.com/pda/radar_with_cell_phones__look_at_celldar.htm
And here we go, mainstream confirmation, businessweek.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_42/b3854113.htm

Lasthorseman November 27, 2007 - 7:09pm
login or register to post comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.