ACLU going after "Stingrays"

[MatthewSmith]

The ACLU has a hard-on for these cell phone detection devices.

https://www.aclu.org/node/37337

Not too familiar with them. Any thoughts?

[So Fla Cop]

The ACLU has a hard-on for these cell phone detection devices.

https://www.aclu.org/node/37337

Not too familiar with them. Any thoughts?

They swim very gracefully.

[MatthewSmith]

They swim very gracefully.

Ha!

[Loren Pechtel]

The ACLU has a hard-on for these cell phone detection devices.

https://www.aclu.org/node/37337

Not too familiar with them. Any thoughts?

If they are constitutional why is such an effort being made to conceal things?

[So Fla Cop]

If they are constitutional why is such an effort being made to conceal things?

Really?

[Miller11x]

They swim very gracefully.

I'm sure Steve Irwin would say the same.

[JasperST]

The ACLU supports big government then doesn't like big government. What a bunch of idiots.

[Loren Pechtel]

Really?

Are you denying that there is an effort to keep them out of the public eye and the courtroom???

[So Fla Cop]

Are you denying that there is an effort to keep them out of the public eye and the courtroom???

No. Not at all.

[Iowa #1603]

I once almost bought a 1976 Corvette Stingray............................I never thought it would be unconstitutional.

[So Fla Cop]

Here is an American Clam Lover Union member (in disguise) going after a stingray...

[Monty Ealerman]

What the X? Why would anyone suppose that a publicly available data transmission device location would or should be reliably secret? You're broadcasting from a single location, which means you can be found pretty much anywhere by pretty much anyone -- e.g. David Pogue gets his stolen phone back. Why should the ACLU be upset that the Police can do it too? If you want your location to be secret use a relay.

[L-1]

If they are constitutional why is such an effort being made to conceal things?

Records of intelligence information, security procedures and investigative methods of law enforcement agencies have traditionally been exempt from public disclosure laws.

Were this information to be made public, criminals would use it to find ways to circumvent police investigations, keep from being arrested and continue committing crimes.

Disclosing such information makes as much sense as putting signs like this on the cars of undercover cops.

[codemanski]

"Were this information to be made public, criminals would use it to find ways to circumvent police investigations, keep from being arrested and continue committing crimes."

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Exactly!

[MatthewSmith]

What the X? Why would anyone suppose that a publicly available data transmission device location would or should be reliably secret? You're broadcasting from a single location, which means you can be found pretty much anywhere by pretty much anyone -- e.g. David Pogue gets his stolen phone back. Why should the ACLU be upset that the Police can do it too? If you want your location to be secret use a relay.

I think some might argue that: 1.) The common cell phone user does not understand the concept of "broadcasting" and 2.) That people opt-in to services like "Find my iPhone" and are the sole authorizer in locating their missing equipment —*they don't expect police to surreptitiously spy on all cell phones within a certain area en masse in order to find the proverbial bad guy "needle" in an otherwise innocuous haystack.

On the other hand, there's an argument to be made that people who use the public airwaves are no different from police who use the public airwaves — police scanners are made public, so why shouldn't cell phone signals? Also, the StingRays seem to only collect metadata, the same stuff you'd see on your phone bill, not the actual contents of calls. Why wouldn't you want your local police department to have a tool that can hunt down bad guys, especially if the metadata is not terribly invasive?

The notion that bad guys might alter their activities if more is known about these devices might be valid — after all, the government claims terrorists have modified their communication techniques post-Snowden, making it really difficult to track people who want to do harm to our citizens. It's also hard to argue against the idea that the government is a little too quick to blanket anything it doesn't want publicly known as a "homeland security" issue.

Verdict: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯