FBI Says It Doesn’t Need Warrant To Spy On Cell Phones In Public
You can’t have a presumption of privacy from the government when talking on a cell phone.
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[su_thin_right_skyscraper_ad]The FBI won’t bother to obtain search warrants before it uses interception devices on people in public, according to a letter written by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and staffer Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). These devices include Stingrays, the cell-tower decoy interception devices used to scoop up data from devices around it. The FBI puts Stingrays and similar devices known as dirtboxes in cars and small airplanes as a way to quickly dragnet data from a large number of devices while it is hunting for a device that belongs to a suspect.
Stingrays, dirtboxes, and other surveillance tools help law enforcement catch criminals. That’s true. To do so, the decoys grab information from lots of innocent people by tricking their phones into sending data to the FBI before they can pinpoint a suspect. This is a substantial and wide-ranging intrusion, which is why the policy to forgo warrants is raising concerns.
Leahy and Grassley learned about this “What, me warrant?!” policy at private briefings…
…exceptions include using the spying tools on people in public, meaning the FBI doesn’t have to get a warrant to use them on anyone using their phone hanging out in a local park, walking their dog on the street, or doing anything else without the expectation of privacy they’d have at home.
tiredoftea January 5th, 2015 at 11:20 pm
Even the Roberts Court has problems with this, that’s how horrifying it is!
neworleans878 January 6th, 2015 at 12:11 am
drip…drip…drip…
what’s that noise?
our rights being eroded one drop at a time…
GreatLakeSailor January 6th, 2015 at 9:44 pm
like this…
http://media1.giphy.com/media/o75aUTOFKclq0/giphy.gif
Foundryman January 6th, 2015 at 12:58 am
“Civil Liberties?? What civil Liberties?? We don’t need no stinkin civil liberties!!” We’re the FBI!!
Hirightnow January 6th, 2015 at 7:05 am
Time for some of those bored genii to come up with some innocent device that gives the FBI all the information that they can wade through…maybe not real information, but something the FBI can spend their time analyzing.
Lots of time.
LOTS and LOTS of time.
fahvel January 6th, 2015 at 12:05 pm
hmmm, but it’s baaaaad if the public intercepts govt stuff eh? Let em snoop, and let the anarchists steal their “secrets”. It’s a fkn idiot world of little people all wrapped up in a virgin science that will eat us all.
Bunya January 6th, 2015 at 2:21 pm
I don’t understand how this surprises anyone. This isn’t new. The government just hasn’t stopped spying on us since Dubya’s administration. Why Snowden felt he had to hide out in Russia for telling us something we already knew, is beyond me.
GreatLakeSailor January 6th, 2015 at 9:48 pm
Umm because “the most transparent president in history” and his henchman want/did (not sure) charge him with the Espionage Act. And he didn’t pick Russia. He was trying for South America, got stuck in Russia.
Bunya January 7th, 2015 at 9:39 am
So? Why should it surprise anyone to find out that their government is spying on them? It’s like leaving the country because he’s finally going to reveal the fact that the sun rises in the east.
GreatLakeSailor January 7th, 2015 at 10:44 am
My post is in response to your fourth sentence, not one through three.
Bunya January 6th, 2015 at 2:21 pm
I don’t understand how this surprises anyone. This isn’t new. The government just hasn’t stopped spying on us since Dubya’s administration. Why Snowden felt he had to hide out in Russia for telling us something we already knew, is beyond me.