Time to take the battery out of your cell phone
By louisehartmann
On Tuesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth District threw the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution out the window, ruling that police can track cell phone GPS data – and thus track you – without a warrant. The case of United States v. Skinner centered on a suspected drug trafficker who was tracked through his cell phone and arrested by the DEA. The Judge in the case, John Rogers said in his ruling, “Skinner did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the data emanating from his cell phone that showed its location.” He went on to say, “Law enforcement tactics must be allowed to advance with technological changes, in order to prevent criminals from circumventing the justice system.”
There are two ironies to this decision. One, the Supreme Court ruled in January that cops could not place GPS tracking on someone’s car without a warrant, so yesterday’s ruling affirms that cops can track cell phones but not cars. Two, the ruling comes on the heels of the discovery of TrapWire – the massive law enforcement surveillance system that is tracking every Americans’ whereabouts to detect terrorist threats. So, Judge Rogers’s worries about cops being able to circumvent the judicial system are unfounded.
Never before in history, has law enforcement had this much surveillance and technology to keep tabs on Americans.
Comments
#2
We have lived in a surveillance state for years in one way or another. It's just becoming more annoyingly present and intrusive, and I might add, almost entirely without value to anti-terror agencies. Perhaps one way to slow this down, at least on paper, would be to look carefully at the Congressional voting record on security votes on programs, publish a summary from say 2000 through present, and start to call people out on this.
#3
Looks as thought the Gestapo Nazi court has taken away another of our rights. There is no end and if the Romney/Ryan ticket wins in November I fear for our country. ANYONE WHO HAS ANY IDEA THAT THEY WOULD EVER VOTE FOR THOSE TWO SHOULD FIRST READ HITLERLAND. That is the way they would take us. Costa Rica anyone? On no - that is where Rush said that he was going to move if the court upheld President Obama's health care law. Any other suggestions? How about all of us who have half a brain get off of our dead asses and VOTE! FOR! PRESIDENT OBAMA! AGAIN!
#4
Think the drones are already there watching us. Saw a program on TV the other night that there is a small version of the drones available for sale to the public for their use however they want. Piss off your neighbor? He'll start tracking your movements. Your employer doesn't like the way you live? Look skyward. What in the hell has happened to our country? Howard Zinn was so right before he died when he spoke of reverting to the not so peaceful activism as was done during Vietnam when he was arrested several times. As he said, we get the type of government we deserve and if we are not willing to put ourselves out there and even take the chance of being arrested for our actions then we need to just shut up and take what comes. If any of you reading this are too young to remember Howard Zinn, look up some of his stuff and read it.
#5
I generally don't listen when there's a guest host. Tom's been gone for like two weeks now? I hope he and Louise are ok!! Listeners like myself would appreciate some prominent note on the website explaining Tom's absence, to ease our concern. Thanks!!
#6
Oh hum. Same old same old.
Hoover did the same thing from the thirties through the 60's. Only without the easy access of cell phones or internet.
Worried about the government? Don't use cell phones, don't play with the internet and put on your aluminum hat so they don't know you exist. THEY are here to stay! Weather you want them to or not.
If you're not on a list somewhere, you're not doing your part...........Get used to it.
#7
Huffington Post had an article about subjecting people who receive food stamps with the "implant" in their hands. The reason given was, "to stop misuse of the food stamp program", of course. I was surprised by the number of comments that agreed with the plan, "after all our cell phones can be tracked". My response was that while the technology is able to track people through the cell phone it is against our right to privacy, a cell phone can be thrown away (just watch the Bourne movies). To submit to an implanted chip in order to receive one of the basic needs for survival, food, not only would be an intrusion of one's privacy, it would be forced by the same government elected to protect its citizens welfare. And it is immoral in its intent because it will subject the poor as the class that depend upon food stamps for sustenance.
Our nation has a generation that has matured after 911 and the powers of Homeland Security, FEMA, a court system that regularly abuses the rights of its citizens, laws that further deny the principles of the Constitution. Add to these the militarization of our police forces, trained and armed with military grade weapons, which have created a wave of police brutality. Everywhere we have cameras and soon drones. The changes in how we are monitored, with police and government sanctions have become the new normal. While the older generation views the encroachment of privacy rights with concern; the younger ones view these changes as normal without knowing the dangers.
#8
Wait till poor people have to get big ugly tattoos on their foreheads in order to get food stamps. I never heard about the RFID chip implantation into their hands..but it doesn't surprise me any.
#9
I have heard of these smaller drones...some look like small helicopters...others look like model planes with cameras installed.
I certainly agree about Howard Zinn! He was great!
#10
I watched the RT CrossTalk program today about the use of Drones. And it was mentioned that 82% of Americans in a recent poll agrees with the use of Drones in the Middle East. It was also mentioned that one of the reasons why they might approve so highly is that, contrary to what they broadcast internationally (ie: the truth), the American media covers up and doctors the truth so that Americans do not know that the drones kill more civilians than the so-called "bad guys".
They also talked about how the US Military manipulates just who are "the bad guys" so that they minimize the collateral damage just by their saying so. The argument for the use of drones is to kill the "bad guys" so that they cannot kill our troops. But if we got our butts out of the Middle East, where they don't belong in the first place, then our troops would not be in danger. And not only that but contrary to what some argue...that "we have to kill them over there so they don't kill us over here"...is pure malarkey. In fact, our use of drones and murdering so many innocent civilians is making our country a lot less safe because we are really, really, ticking these people off and begging them to be "terrorists" to attack us in our country.
It's called blow back. And the military industrial complex loves stirring up these people and hopes that they do try to attack us because it works in their favor of ostensibly "protecting us from the bogeyman" in exchange for us giving up any ideas of freedom and liberty.
What if George Zimmerman....was walking down the street and saw someone in a hoody glare at him...so GZ pulls out a machine gun and kills everything in sight including all the women and children behind and to the sides, maybe even in front, of the hooded guy. He believed that the hooded guy was an enemy that might do damage to them some day. GZ says that most of these people killed were Al Qaida (oops, I mean aiders and abettors of the hooded guy...that they were all plotting again them and all deserved to die.). The few that might have actually been, indisputably, actual bystanders (innocent civilians) ...GZ would quip..."Oh, I am very sorry that I cause some collateral damage but it was all quite necessary to protect others!" And then the major news media all over the US reported on the heroic actions of GZ and didn't even mention all of the innocent bystanders that got killed.
The damn military and the damn politicians and the damn stupid Americans who support the use of drones by the military is no better than George Zimmerman. In fact, a million times worse.
The other thing was in the first few minutes of the Thom Hartman show..the host said that the reason why there was a shift in the 2010 elections was because of all of the massive outside spending to influence those elections.
That might have been part of it but another part might have been that so many Democrats were so ticked off at the lack of true Democrat representation by their elected Democrat officials that they just decided to throw them out. If they are not going to do the job we elected them for then we may as well just kick their butts out of office. They are no better than Republicans. Hear that Obama????!!!
#11
"Law enforcement tactics must be allowed to advance with technological changes, in order to prevent criminals from circumventing the justice system.”
Of course, our "rights" never evolve along with it. Weird how that works.
#12
Hi Louise,
There are still many cases, when GPS tracking is saving lives. So, I can't say it's too bad we have it. I figure everybody should bolster the astonishing activity Nature Protection Group and every one of these individuals are doing. GPS tracking systems for animals in oceans intend to comprehend that their activity isn't overlooked, that we as a whole acknowledge what they are doing (notwithstanding when it appears like individuals couldn't care less, give it a second thought). I just got it, and I will keep bolster them and do my best to help. Much obliged to Essayforcollege guys too and all the astounding individuals attempting to spare our planet!
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Cell phones don't track people, cops do. Before cell phones, they were tapping land line phones, opening mail, and then they set up UKUSA then Echelon. They skirted US law, in monitoring the citizens in the US, by having their partner countries spy on us and then the partner countries, like the UK, would relay that data to the NSA. Technically, it wasn't "illegal" for another country to spy on us and then exchange that "spy" data with other countries. But it sure convinced some people, in the US, when our politicians said: "The US does not spy on it's own citizens..it's illegal...we have laws that prevent that".
Since 911, nearly any means of spying on US citizens is fair game. The people who wanted to spy on us, manipulated assets, destroyed evidence of decades of illegal financial activity, and now control us in every way, what we think, what we do, how we act, and what we believe has been given a relatively free reign since 911. Why do you think 911 happened? Follow the money and the results of 911...Qui Bene? Who benefits? Who benefited the most from 911...certainly not the people. The few who now have a stranglehold on America benefited greatly.
Sure, you can take your battery(ies) out of your cell phone but that will be, for most people, a very bothersome endeavor and would often forget about doing it. But you just can't trust the on-off switch to really totally turn off your phone. It could look totally dead but be rigged in such a manner as to really be broadcasting your location to the satellites or land based towers. I guess one indication would be less than expected battery drain. Of course, if one had a multimeter and a few jumper wires...they could monitor the battery current (not voltage or resistance) when the phone is off....they would have to put the multimeter in series with the batteries and the circuit...which is what the jumper wires are for...depending on the kind of battery terminals you have.
But, of course, they will still be able to track you and monitor what you say when your phone is on and you are talking to someone...or leaving messages on the internet.
Back in the 40s and 50s the Russians didn't even need a localized power source on the bug they put into the Pentagon and was activated remotely by a certain radio signal. Called the Great Seal Bug.
http://www.spybusters.com/Great_Seal_Bug.html
For many years now, spies can use a laser beam directed at a window and the conversation inside causes the window to act like a microphone and the laser beam is modulated by that window allowing the spies to hear what is said in the room..even from great distances...as long as there is a line-of-sight to the window. RFID chips, like the ones they put in debt cards and in various other products do not have an internal power source but reacts when an outside power source activates it and it has an antennae that picks up the external power which is then modulated by the RFID chip and re-radiated with the useful information. So, really you don't even need batteries in your cell phone..if your phone or even your debt cards have RFID chips then they can locate you.
I believe that the new power company digital meters that broadcasts the digital information about the amount of energy you used can also be used to broadcast anything that you do electrically, including what you do on your computer (even if you're have disconnected) from your router. If you can use your internal house wiring to act as a network then what you do electrically can be transmitted over the digital power meters.
And then there will soon be, if not already, drones flying the skies over our houses, picking up SigInt info on what we do in our houses. They have the ability to see through walls and quite probably roofs. I know this all sounds paranoid but I have read, over the years, about all of these things...and not from what some would question as unreliable sources.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/19/technology/xandem/index.htm
http://gigaom.com/mobile/technology-breakthrough-may-let-phones-see-thro...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120806130848.htm
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/stealthy-wifi-spy-sees-you-th...