The FBI is going to remarkable length to veil data about its surveillance program that intercept call and texts with equipment call Stingrays .
If you ’ve never heard of Stingrays , that ’s what the FBI need . They are stealth devices used by local and federal jurisprudence enforcement all over the US to gather location data point and tap entropy from people ’s phones . The agency has been notoriously taut - lipped about the sketchy exercise ; there is only one memorialize illustration where an FBI official has move on platter talk about Stingray programs , thisvideo of FBI director James Comeyfrom last October , which was recently pointed out by Motherboard .
Blaming the “Bad Guys”
The account for the secrecy is rich :
“ I do n’t want to say too much about that , because I do n’t require the regretful guys to know how we might be able to discover them . So it ’s one of the reasons that we ask local authorities who are working with us and using our equipment not to babble out about it . It ’s not cause I got something to hide soma good mass . I have lots to hide from spoilt people . ”
Comey ’s decision to set up the FBI ’s indisposition to discourse stingrays as a manner to stop “ bad guys ” is a simplistic platitude designed to appeal to that part inside each of us that really love NCIS and SVU and want the “ skilful guys ” to hitch malefic rapine - slayer by any means necessary , integral right hand be beshrew . As much as I recognize in my heart that Olivia Benson would be my admirer , I ’m not lessen for it . Neither should you : It ’s also just not true . It ’s alsoa troubling grab for impunity that tramples privacy .
The FBI , naturally , claims that enshroud any news about Stingray use is necessary to do its job of see killers and pedophile . The agency has send memos to that effect to local police , likethis missivecirculating in the Seattle Police Department :
It is important for us tokeep this sophisticated proficiency confidential . In fact , RCW 9.73.260 requires the pleadings ( and subsequent technique ) to be file under sealskin until further grade by the tourist court . Publically discussing the technique is considered a substantive menace to the interests of effective police enforcement , to public safety , and , depend on the case , to victims or witnesses . By their very nature , assurance to employ the tools ( Ping River and trailing ) must remain covert to be effective . Public disclosure of the technique could render this investigative tool useless
Now , of course the FBI and local law enforcement should not have to openly analyze ongoing investigations using Stingrays .
But want the FBI to investigate and work Union crimes does not mean you have to want to give the FBI immunity from all interrogative about its general methodology , or that you support yield politics representation carte blanche to ignore the Fourth Amendment . And there is expert reason to be worried about just that .
Privacy Concerns
The FBI so seriously want to keep information about Stingrays under ignition lock and primal itpressures local law enforcementto place notice whenever anyone test to utilise the Freedom of Information Act to learn more about the Harris Corporation , the companionship that makes Stingray gimmick .
The Stingray - powered programs are likely send signaling , traverse and picking up location data on people ’s phones inside their plate , without a warrant . That is , at the very least , refutable in damage of the Fourth Amendment . Plus , even though the Stingrays are n’t combing through the content of earpiece call , they are foot up serial number and other identifying information , which looks a spate like a dragnet , as the ACLU ’s staff attorney Nathan Wessler told me .
Wessler also acknowledged that there ’s compelling reason for secrecy when an investigation is still open . But what we should have a right to know are basic details about how often Stingrays and other gadget are used , and what kind of legal oversight exists when the government is using them . In gain , we need to sleep together whether there are protections for impeccant bystanders ’ data .
“ Those are the form of canonic detail that are necessary for us as a society to adjudicate whether the government activity is obeying the law and whether there postulate to be stricter tribute in place , ” Wessler said .
Crucially , these are not questions that jeopardize quests to trace down manslayer and kidnappers . These are questions that do to reasonable concern about the constitutionality of the programme .
“ There are ways to be transparent without sacrificing the power of legal philosophy enforcement to direct lawful surveillance . But so far the FBI has been unwilling to address the extent or even the authority for Stingray usance , ” Electronic Privacy Information Center elderly council Alan Butler told me via email .
It ’s not like Stingrays and similar technology have been rendered less good just because hoi polloi know about them . “ There is also tidy sum of publicly available information about how these machine exploit , so it is unclear at this breaker point how additional transparency from the FBI could possibly harm law enforcement efforts , ” Butler said .
In 2013 , for illustration , court documents in a lawsuit against identify thief Daniel David Rigmaiden revealed an at - the - sentence unprecedented amount of information about Stingrays and how Verizon act upon with law enforcement to use surveillance tools to catch Rigmaiden .
There is no grounds that the outlet of this info result in other criminal suspects somehowextrapolating style to escape surveillance .
“ The only way to fend off a Stingray is to essentially carry no prison cell sound around , or pony up big bucks for secure gimmick liketheCryptophone , ” Electronic Frontier Foundation older staff attorney Hanni Fakhoury told me . It ’s disingenuous to say release data about unsympathetic shell that spotlight the privacy considerations and absolute frequency of Stingray programs would have any consequence on using Stingrays to arrest “ bad guys , ” unless “ defective guys ” decided , upon hearing about how oft Stingrays were deploy , that they would cease to carry a cellular phone telephone altogether .
Who Gets Permission to Use Stingrays?
business organisation about the secrecy problems that far-flung , uncurbed stingray exercise creates is n’t set to groups like the EFF , EPIC , and ACLU , and writers like me . phallus of the Senate , who have gain admission to more entropy about how these stingray programs operate through briefings , are also worried . Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy ( D - Vt . ) and staffer Sen. Chuck Grassley ( R - Iowa ) compose a alphabetic character to Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson toexplain their concernsabout the FBI ’s position on stingrays .
We have concern about the scope of the exception . Specifically , we are interested about whether the FBI and other law enforcement agency have adequately consider the privacy interests of other individuals who are not the objective of the interception , but whose information is nevertheless being gather when these devices are being used . We realise that the FBI believe that it can treat these interests by maintaining that information for a short period of time of time and purify the information after it has been amass . But there is a inquiry as to whether this sufficiently safeguard privacy sake .
Senator Ed Markey ( D - Ma . ) has also written a letter expressingconcern about useof this kind of tech , involve for more detail about a program using Stingray - like gimmick call dirtboxes hidden in airplane .
There is some progress being made here . Judges in Charlotte , North Carolina have begun “ more tight take stock surveillance requests and asking when officers planned to employ a StingRay , ” thanks toreporting about the computer programme , according to the Charlotte Observer . That ’s just one of many place where jurisprudence enforcement use these machine , but it highlights that media attention is stimulate judges to rethink overly broad permission .
For court in space like Florida , Massachusetts , and New Jersey , where police are required by natural law to obtain hunting warrants for cellular localisation data , that the FBI is adjudicate to obfuscate the process environ its likely warrantless deployment of Stingrays may be an indication that the agency knows its habit are legally doubtful .
The public has access to information about how wiretapping works , and the process legal philosophy enforcement go through for tap , in a substantial amount of detail . This does not make vicious suspect less likely to be wiretapped .
Ultimately , all the public wants to know is how , and how often , the government is given permission to track people using Stingrays . Knowing the answer to those questions is n’t going to impede the creature from working .
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