The NSA isn’t the only one grabbing your private cellphone data, law enforcement agencies have jumped on the “hell with the Constitution” bandwagon too! Without a warrant police can collect large amounts of data via cellphone tower dumps or use a small mobile device called the Stingray that masquerades as a cell tower to collect data!
I don’t care who started it, when, why or whatever excuse LE will use; even those good intentioned ones to find missing people. This spying and data collection on we the people has got to stop. Think about it under good cause to find a missing person they collect our data, but they don’t trash it they store it! That is a problem today because this intrusive govt is actively engaged in digging up and storing as much dirt as it can about everyone just in case they need to turn the screws on us one day.
Once again I ask where are the alleged champions of the Constitution and American people to put a stop to this? Our rights are being violated daily and the last time I checked under the Fourth Amendment a warrant was needed:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
But hey this is all in the name of your security and protection, so what the hell!
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Cellphone data spying: It’s not just the NSA
by John Kelly | USAToday
The National Security Agency isn’t the only government entity secretly collecting data from people’s cellphones. Local police are increasingly scooping it up, too.
Armed with new technologies, including mobile devices that tap into cellphone data in real time, dozens of local and state police agencies are capturing information about thousands of cellphone users at a time, whether they are targets of an investigation or not, according to public records obtained by USA TODAY and Gannett newspapers and TV stations.
The records, from more than 125 police agencies in 33 states, reveal:
• About one in four law-enforcement agencies have used a tactic known as a “tower dump,” which gives police data about the identity, activity and location of any phone that connects to the targeted cellphone towers over a set span of time, usually an hour or two. A typical dump covers multiple towers, and wireless providers, and can net information from thousands of phones.
• At least 25 police departments own a Stingray, a suitcase-size device that costs as much as $400,000 and acts as a fake cell tower. The system, typically installed in a vehicle so it can be moved into any neighborhood, tricks all nearby phones into connecting to it and feeding data to police. In some states, the devices are available to any local police department via state surveillance units. The federal government funds most of the purchases, via anti-terror grants…more