• earthworm@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    In case you, like me, were wondering wtf stingrays are (besides a type of fish). This is from their report :

    Cell-site simulators, also known as “Stingrays” or IMSI catchers, are devices that masquerade as legitimate cell-phone towers, tricking phones within a certain radius into connecting to the device rather than a tower.

    Cell-site simulators operate by conducting a general search of all cell phones within the device’s radius, in violation of basic constitutional protections. Law enforcement use cell-site simulators to pinpoint the location of phones with greater accuracy than phone companies. Cell-site simulators can also log IMSI numbers (unique identifying numbers) of all of the mobile devices within a given area.

    The fact that government agencies are using these devices without the utmost consideration for the privacy and rights of individuals around them is alarming but not surprising. The federal government, and in particular agencies like HSI and ICE, have a dubious and troubling relationship with overbroad collection of private data on individuals.

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      22 hours ago

      Wait, people didn’t know about StingRays?

      They’ve been around for like a decade now.

      But uh, yeah, basically, they’re fake/spoof/honeypot cell towers that man-in-the-middle all nearby cell network traffic.

      This is how they do the whole… everything dragnet, all the time, basically all cop cruisers have them in them, active all the time, this is why you just don’t bring your phone to a protest unless you really know what you’re doing.

        • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          It’s a little less about reading what you’re saying or looking at on your phone, it’s mostly about tracking where your phone goes and figuring out who you are that way.

        • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          6 hours ago

          They don’t really need to.

          They get all your phone’s metadata, and thats usually enough to plug in to a bunch of other databases that they can add you to a watchlist of some kind.

          I mean really at this point we are all in a giganto mega watchlist, its just that its so big that the problem is actually sorting through that list and ‘accurately’ assigning threat levels, but thats what Palantir is for.

          Like, they get your IMSI code, unless you are somehow regularly/randomly resetting or spoofing that, uh, they can easily get a bunch of other info from cell providers, they just can’t (usually) specifically use that info alone to convict you of something, but…

          They know who you are, roughly where you were and when.

          So thats a pretty good starting point for a subsequent investigation, or just throwing it onto the dragnet data pile.

          • vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org
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            4 hours ago

            So good I need not fear about all this, because I said a very rare bunch of people to kick rocks (not directly, not knowing who they are, just in response to their words relayed anonymously by another person, and technically more rude, but I was told it was translated this way), and expressed my opinion about the current regime in my country with its leader’s biological daughter (by no measure the only one) in the room (also I was trying to fsck her), using prison castes’ names, and also my dad probably had ties to security services, making it almost certain I’m already as tagged as tagging goes personally and not by some combination of coefficients. There’s even a little probability that this has already saved my life once or twice.

            Can’t recommend it.

            • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              2 hours ago

              I… uh… … what?!

              You told off the leader of your country, to his daughter, in person, while apparently trying to fuck/date her, intentionally using some kind of insulting language variant I don’t think I fully understand…

              … and your dad is in or connected to some kind of intelligence service.


              Assuming you aren’t bullshitting and I am not misunderstanding what you said…

              I would be fucking disappearing myself, and telling your dad to get the fuck out as well, if I was in that uh, situation.

              … I don’t mean to be rude but this sounds like a movie plot.


              … I have once actually met and had a short friendship with a man who claimed he was an exiled, ex-yakuza, who uh, lets say, demonsrated proof of this to an extent that I as another practicioner of Japanese martial arts uh, found convincing…

              And I have had some… other encounters with people in my life that 99% of people would not believe actually took place…

              So I am not totally discounting the validity your story here…

              …but seriously?

              Good fucking luck!

              • vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org
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                1 hour ago

                You told off the leader of your country, to his daughter, in person, while apparently trying to fuck/date her, intentionally using some kind of insulting language variant I don’t think I fully understand…

                Thought she’s a daughter of some intelligence worker. I started accepting the thought like 10 years after the events, still not sure, a half-niece thrice removed perhaps.

                Nah, I was talking more generally, not even sure if that was the reason.

                Just that such an encounter is already enough visibility to get on many lists.

                … and your dad is in or connected to some kind of intelligence service.

                Kept some acquaintances, not the kind of connection.

                I would be fucking disappearing myself, and telling your dad to get the fuck out as well, if I was in that uh, situation.

                I said\did things she deemed loyalty\idiocy later. Also in “that, uh, situation” you wouldn’t have the opportunity to disappear.

                Assuming you aren’t bullshitting and I am not misunderstanding what you said…

                It appears she was less offended at me than those she pranked. Meaning that it may be the opposite.