Nevada Police Can Now Track Cellphones Without a Warrant (apnews.com)
- Reference: 0181750804
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/04/18/1926216/nevada-police-can-now-track-cellphones-without-a-warrant
- Source link: https://apnews.com/article/nevada-police-fog-data-cellphone-location-tracking-ab6f7d75864cf0bfb949f0c6770f3b44
> The software from Fog Data Science, adopted this January in Nevada through a Department of Public Safety contract, pulls information from smartphone apps in order to let state investigators identify the location of mobile devices. The state is allowed more than 250 queries a month using the tool, which allows officers to track a device's location over long stretches of time and enables them to see what Fog calls "patterns of life," according to [2]company documents from 2022. It can help them deduce where and when people work and live, with whom they associate and what places they visit, according to privacy experts... Traditionally, police [3]must obtain a warrant from a judge to access cellphone location information — a process that can take days or weeks. And while cellphone users may be aware that they are sharing their location through apps such as Google Maps, critics say few are aware that such information can make its way to police...
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> Other agencies in Nevada have been known to use technology similar to Fog. In 2013, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department acquired [4]something known as a cell-site simulator that mimics cellphone towers and can sweep up signals from entire areas to track individuals, with some models capable of intercepting texts and calls. Police have not released detailed information about the technology since then.
"Police in other states have said the technology (and its low price tag) has helped expand investigatory capacity," the article adds.
But it also points out that Fog Data Science has a web page letting individuals [5]opt out of all their data sets .
[1] https://apnews.com/article/nevada-police-fog-data-cellphone-location-tracking-ab6f7d75864cf0bfb949f0c6770f3b44
[2] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22273670-fog-data-science-portal-users-manual/
[3] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/supreme-court-rules-police-must-have-warrant-search-cell-phones
[4] https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/3455469-Las-Vegas/#document/p1
[5] https://www.fogdatascience.com/contact
Faraday bags (Score:2)
A Faraday bags would shield the cell phone from the surveillance state/
Re:Faraday bags (Score:4, Insightful)
And make the phone useless to the owner at the same time.
Genius! (Score:2)
> A Faraday bags would shield the cell phone from the surveillance state/
The summary says that Fog Data is providing the police with historical location data that was collected from apps such as Google Maps, and your genius solution is "I'll simply put my phone in a faraday bag. Surely, my map app will still work like that!"
Opt out of all FOG DATA SCIENCE data sets (Score:5, Insightful)
"Opt out of all FOG DATA SCIENCE data sets"
What -- exactly -- does that do, how quickly, and what are some of the side-effects?\
Underneath, it says "You will be removed from all our data sets." And yet I doubt that very much. Surely there will be an entry in a database somewhere saying "Device identifier ________-____-_____-_____-_____ requested removed date-and-time _____ from IP address _____", etc.
And does that only retroactively remove data? Suppose they snarf up another dataset, bought from someone else or collected by themselves. Is that data also removed from their datasets, or does another removal request have to be made?
Re: (Score:2)
I mean sure you can opt out of their data sets but they've got 50 shell companies at least. Good luck tracking down every single one of them and opting out of every single one of their data sets.
Re: (Score:1)
It seems strange to me that they are using advertising IDs. Google allows users to reset and delete their Android device's Advertising ID. If an advertising ID is deleted, the device will return a string of zeros when the ID is requested. Furthermore, Google does not permit the use of Advertising IDs for purposes other than advertising and app analytics, so I reported the company to Google.
A chuckle from Peter Thiel... (Score:5, Insightful)
Whatever Fog is doing in the relatively open, I assume Palantir is doing 100x worse without anyone knowing about it.
Once again will this change how anyone votes? (Score:2)
Are you going to prioritize this over other issues? Are you going to look past moral panic so I even try to understand what a moral panic is?
Are you going to keep voting for politicians that promise you low taxes and then do stuff like this?
Because if not then they can pretty much do whatever they want and when you go to vote you will prioritize some other thing over privacy and civil rights.
Warrant? (Score:4, Informative)
> Traditionally, police [1]must obtain a warrant [brennancenter.org]
That's not exactly what the linked page says. That appears to be about searching the content of your phone. Tracking (i.e.your location) is a separate issue.
Cell site emulators/IMSI catchers/Stingrays are also popular, particularly with the feds. Our state has some pretty strict privacy laws. But they mean nothing when it's the FBI/DoJ setting the sites up. Same for surveillance camera systems. Cities around me are pretty active about giving Flock and others the boot. But the feds operate their own systems, about which local and state governments have no say. And they are pretty well hidden compared to the Flock cameras (which I think are actually going for brand recognition with their obvious installations).
[1] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/supreme-court-rules-police-must-have-warrant-search-cell-phones
Set Android advertising ID to all zeros (Score:5, Interesting)
This should foil fogs data?
On stock systems, the UUID you are seeing is almost certainly the **Advertising ID** (Android) or **IDFA** (iPhone). Here is how to manage them:
1. **To Reset the ID:** Go to **Settings > Privacy > Ads** (or **Settings > Google > Ads**). Tap **Reset advertising ID**. This generates a completely new random UUID.
2. **To Delete the ID:** In the same menu, tap **Delete advertising ID**.
* *Result:* Instead of a random string, apps will see a string of zeros (`00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000`). This is effectively "randomizing" it by making it useless for tracking.
3. **Automatic Randomization:** Stock Android does **not** have a native setting to rotate this ID automatically (e.g., daily). Only privacy-focused ROMs like CalyxOS or GrapheneOS offer that "shuffle" behavior.
Fuck Nevada and Fuck Fog (Score:3)
To opt out you need to enter your phone's advertising ID, something that can't be retrieved without some third party app. Fuck your opt out! Fuck you Nevada. Fuck you Fog. Bull shit all around. Louis Rossmann will posting a video in 3..2..1.. I didn't spend 6 years in the Marine Corps to defend this sort of surveillance horse shit.
Re: (Score:2)
These are the new Intolerable Acts.
There's a reason you learned how to be a Marine. "Foreign and domestic."
Re: (Score:2)
Amen!
Turn off your advertising ID (Score:3)
The Fog Data Science data removal page wants your phone's advertising ID. If that's how they (and others?) track your device, then the solution is easy. For iPhones, go to Settings > Privacy & Security, then
1. Apple Advertising > Personalized Ads (turn off)
2. Tracking > Allows Apps to Request to Track (turn off)
3. If any apps are already listed under Tracking, revoke their permission to track
Increasingly, we're down to one option (Score:5, Interesting)
Steps can be taken to make casual surveillance by police and other bad actors a little more difficult, such as turning off location services unless you really need them enabled. As far as I can see, though, the only way to keep the long, flexible nose of our government and corporate rulers out of our business is to poison the data pool. In this particular case, I'd just start with the consideration that there's no requirement for your phone and you to always be in the same place.
Re: (Score:2)
Is there a reason for Google Location sharing?
Helping car traffic data (ehh, who really cares, my privacy comes first)
Storing my location history just for my own "data is cool" reasons? (do it yourself. You can receive GPS on your device and store it locally if you want.)
Letting loved ones know where I am (Do they need to know second by second, or is there some mode where they could query your location, then it's sent to them? Not stored in the cloud at all times)
Re:Increasingly, we're down to one option (Score:4, Interesting)
See, why not use a botnet to submit every possible 32 bit device ID, effectively shutting down these fuckers?
Re:Increasingly, we're down to one option (Score:5, Informative)
> Steps can be taken to make casual surveillance by police and other bad actors a little more difficult, such as turning off location services unless you really need them enabled.
Not really. Turning off GPS and location services might "fuzz" your location to a circular error probability of a hundred yards or so. But the cops can still track you using a feed from the telecoms triangulating you within a cell site. I listen to out local cops tactical channels on a scanner and it's pretty obvious when they can locate a vehicle within a parking lot or an individual down to which business they have entered.
> there's no requirement for your phone and you to always be in the same place.
This. But some people are so attached to their toys they just can't leave the behind. Or so impulsive that they just knock over convenience stores on a momentary impulse. With phone still in pocket.
Re: (Score:1)
> But the cops can still track you using a feed from the telecoms triangulating you within a cell site.
You seem to be having trouble separating the fictinal police procedurals you've been watching with reality.
What could possibly go wrong? (Score:2)
So I prefer to go for the joke? Even though that trick never works...
At bit hard to figure out your FP, but I think you are advocating for trying to muddle the data to prevent abuse. You really think you are such an expert that you can do it? Well then, congratulations, but I think you're more likely to break your phone than accomplish anything constructive or useful. There seems to a logical fallacy in thinking you can use a system that fundamentally depends on your location without revealing your location
You could stop voting for right wing politicians (Score:5, Interesting)
That seems to be the thing nobody is considering here. All of this crap comes from the right wing because this is about control and that's what the right wing is always about. If you go all the way back to when the right wing got its start it's literally the side the monarchists were sitting in at the French assembly.
The fundamental concept that underpins the right wing philosophy is that there is a natural order and hierarchy that we all fit into and that we should obey the people above us and commands the people below us.
With that kind of belief system you're going to get surveillance because you aren't going to be able to maintain control otherwise.
Re: (Score:3)
Trying to fight tracking and privacy violations one by one is a losing battle - there will be an ever increasing number of ways to surveil people. This can only be fixed by making the collection of this type of data from ANY source illegal - and I doubt there is the political will to do that.
The data is too valuable to corporations and the government.