Cops refuse to say if they secretly snarf cellphone data

The key is to drive (very, very) fast

Mobile data networks are only engineered to maintain signal lock if the mobile platform is moving up to about 100 MPH. It actually works fine a bit beyond that speed (ah, so I've read...). But if you can get up beyond 140 MPH or so, then your Iphone may break signal lock and won't know where it is (sans GPS).

Thus, if you wish to keep your location data incomplete, speed.

IMSI catchers

are not new

Couple of obvious points

If you record the cell tower ID and the signal strength to it, you can calculate the phones range to that tower within a dozen meters. If you add a second and third tower you can triangulate your phones position quite accurately. Add time / date stamps on those records and you can build a fairly accurate map of where that phone has been. This is without any GPS functionality on your phone at all and is how many 911 calls have been traced in the past.

Even if you kill that process on the phone, the cell towers still record that data as your phone transmits to the tower(s) every 2 seconds as long as it is turned on. In the past, law enforcement needed warrants to get the cell tower info, but it has been available to them since cell towers were established and will continue to be so.

That law enforcement has additional technology today that can track a specific cell phone is hardly surprising as they were using that same technology to successfully position Osama on his VHF radio at Tora Bora in Dec 2001. The only difference was the frequencies involved.

People never seem to get that the Internet is a two way street. If you can get to the world, then the world can get to you (for good or evil). Same goes with your cell phone because it is in effect a small computer. Where you go, what you do and for how long is recorded by several systems. The only option to not have your phone track you is to not have a phone or keep it turned off.

innovative features :)

> The American Civil Liberties Union has called on Michigan State Police to account for several pieces mobile hardware in its possession that can quickly download cellphone data without the owner's knowledge.

Just who build phones with such innovative features built-in ?

give government a device, or power, or ability

and it *will* be used, period. Which means, giving power and ability to government because "your guy" is in power, is stupid and shortsighted. because "your guy" will be replaced by "the other guy" eventually and everything he does you will consider "misuse".

The solution? Don't give government abilities beyond the basic minimum needed for government to handle the infrastructure government was already specifically assigned to do. Doesn't matter if you're left, right or center-more power *always* will bite your beliefs in the @rse later on, guaranteed.

It helps to remember, at least here in America, that the population does *not* exist to make government's job easier, but the reverse. Sure some cellphone reader makes the police work easier, even if it potentially violates guaranteed civil rights...but that does *not* justify it's use by police, or even it's mere possession by patrol officers.

the only tool cops need is the ability to enforce the laws they have, and not be second guessed by attorneys playing ridiculous word games or by playing race cards in the Court of Public Opinion. Mandatory sentencing for serious crimes, and a shift towards punishing criminals instead of preemptive penalizing of the law-abiding at the highest policy levels is what's really needed

Technology will set you free!

...or not :(

slurp - the big gulp

Humm I've got 32gb of storage on my phone, about half full atm, but I can fix that :D

full with maybe 2-3k txts - mostly of the "do you want stuff at the shops" or "I'l be there in 5" but quite a few long personal sharing, maybe a few discussing medical stuff...

1k+ photos & vids (friends with babies, dogs and cats being cute, etc)

Slurping that should keep their little device busy for a long while!

Of course if a device like this was used to archive the data on my phone - and NOT part of a criminal investigation, then I have the opportunity to assert my copyright on the contents (maybe not on most of the texts, but certainly on all photos and video)

Wonder if we can 3-strikes the entire police force off the net?

Taliban fanbois

The Taliban are famously iPhone addicted, but have recently demanded cell towers be disabled at night. The reason given was to keep their whereabouts from being reported by observers. Now we know the truth- the observers were their own traitorous infidel iPhones!

Steve the Infidel, of course.

Philip K. Dick was better than Nostrodamus at presaging the future

In his short story "The Minority Report" PKD predicted targeted advertising based on the ability to know specifically who was nearby the holgraphic advert projector.

Steve Jobs liked the short story/bad movie so much that he built the iPhone specifically to collect the GIS location data so Apple could sell it to advertisers, more than likely so the advertisers could target the locations of signs and billboards, not to mention the value of knowing the number of people who spent ridiculous money on an iPhone who walk through a particular area or route.

When NFC (Near field communications) comes to all phones, you can bet the intrusive nature of advertising will become so granular as to send personally targeted ads and discount offers directly to your phone if not on a holographic display.

All of this data is worth so much money it would boggle your mind, let alone the privacy and personal rights issues.

Jobs, AT&T & Verizon should PAY US to use the damnable things instead of us paying them.

I'm going to predict a few things myself right now.

The makers of CrapCleaner are probably hard at work making an app that will scrub your iPhone/iPad as clean as a whistle;

Jobs will be hard at work making these files impossible to remove;

Sales of aluminium Faraday cases for iPhones wil skyrocket;

ALL Security/Police/Military agencies worldwide will be banning anything with an "i" from being used internally whilst simultaneously try to figure out how to tap this information from anyones phone via satellite/cellular/you name it wireless network.

Privacy activists will whine while they are on their Apple Information Stealing Device.

Big Business will give Jobs BILLIONS to make sure his products collect even more information without our knowledge or permission.

By the way, my phone can barely text and I like it that way.

Reality is a lot more scary than fiction, paranoia is not a mental disorder only a defense mechanisim for the pragmatic.