Mass Surveillance: Cops Turn Individuals' Phones Into Spying Devices, they now admit

Well, no kidding. I always tell people visiting me to leave their cell phones in their car because I do not like talking to all the various police agencies that spy on me through the phone. If they won't do that, I say little and keep it superficial and boring. Of course the CIA and FBI already has the car and house bugged, but the cops get at you through phones and wifi. Keep those out of the room or turned off.

Look up DIRTBOX, STINGRAY, etc. If you doubt the above.

DB

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,
It’s for their own good, of course! A New Jersey police department has unveiled technology that will allow 911 operators to stream video from callers smartphones. And ANY COP who wants to at any time, 24 hours a day.

For the time being, callers have to turn on the live video stream, meaning they are consenting and giving the police permission to see what’s happening as they call. This is the first step to automatic surveillance upon calling people who are assumed to be there to help. According to RT, the technology allows the 911 operators to use the phone’s camera and microphone. This is the first step down a very slippery slope.

911eye, developed by Capita Secure Solutions and Services in conjunction with West Midlands Fire Service in the UK, represents a step toward a terrifying surveillance infrastructure that can turn any internet-capable device into a remote-activated surveillance tool. West Midlands Police were the first to embrace “pre-crime” technology in the UK, developing the National Data Analytics Solution to sniff out potential offenders and divert them with ostensibly therapeutic “interventions.”

If the fact that it was developed by the people behind the real-life version of ‘Minority Report’ isn’t enough reason to give 911eye a wide berth, take a look at Carbyne911, one of its competitors. Funded by deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein through former Israeli PM Ehud Barak, Carbyne911 markets itself as the solution to mass shootings. The program – founded by current and former Israeli intelligence personnel, which isn’t at all worrisome given that this country spies on the US so extensively it scares Congress – lets emergency dispatchers commandeer the camera and microphone of any internet-capable device within a certain range of the person who made the call. –RT

Investors in this technology include Peter Thiel. Thiel’s company Palantir has been described as “using war on terror tools to track American citizens,” and its advisory board includes Patriot Act co-author Michael Chertoff, the former Department of Homeland Security chief. At least two US counties have reportedlyadopted Carbyne911, despite obvious privacy issues and basic human rights concerns. Not to mention the fact that while most of its employees and personnel have military-intelligence connections, few have a background in emergency services, which should also alarm anyone who wants their freedom and privacy in a world where they have neither.
Keep waving those flags and repeating “I am free.”  This message brought to you by the U.S. Ministry of Truth. 

Police forces across the United States have been transformed into extensions of the military. Our towns and cities have become battlefields, and we the American people are now the enemy combatants to be spied on tracked, frisked, and searched. For those who resist, the consequences can be a one-way trip to jail or even death.

------------

It's too late. His article is 20 years too late and now with wifi and smart phones and Siri and Alexia, and RING, the clowns and jokers have every possible surveillance angle covered.

And these perverts listen and watch you in the bedroom, because they are satanic degenerates. 

Gizmodo Study Proves Without A Doubt That Your Phone Is Spying On You

 

Academics at Northeastern University have just proven that your phone is recording your screen - as in taking video - and uploading it to third parties.
 
For the last year, Elleen Pan, Jingjing Ren, Martina Lindorfer, Christo Wilson, and David Choffnes ran an experiment involving more than 17,000 of the most popular Android apps using ten different phones. Their findings were alarming, to say the least.

As Gizmodo points out, during the study, the researchers started to see that screenshots and video recordings of what people were doing in apps were being sent to third-party domains. For example, when one of the phones used an app from GoPuff, a delivery start-up for people who have sudden cravings for junk food, the interaction with the app was recorded and sent to a domain affiliated with Appsee, a mobile analytics company. The video included a screen where you could enter personal information - in this case, their zip code.

GoPuff did not disclose in its terms of use that its app was recording users screens and uploading this data to a third party. What’s more, when they were contacted by the researchers GoPuff merely added a disclosure to their policy acknowledging that “ApSee” might receive users PII.

The fact that these apps can record your screen without you knowing and use this data is chilling. It illustrates how easy it would be for a malicious actor to be able to look at your private messages, personal information, passwords, photos, and videos. None of this is stopped by your phone’s security either as it is a function built into the apps and you don’t have an option to disallow it.

According to Gizmodo, the researchers will be presenting their work at the Privacy Enhancing Technology Symposium Conference in Barcelona next month. (While in Spain, they might want to check out the country’s most popular soccer app, which has given itself permission to access users’ smartphone mics to listen for illegal broadcasts of games in bars.)

As for the theory that your phone is listening through your mic, the researchers could not debunk it. Due to the nature of the study — using automated programs to interact with apps — the spying apps may have not been triggered the same way they would if a human was using them.
Although they didn’t find evidence your phone was listening to you, this does not mean it doesn’t still happen.

“We didn’t see any evidence that people’s conversations are being recorded secretly,” said David Choffnes, one of the authors of the paper. “What people don’t seem to understand is that there’s a lot of other tracking in daily life that doesn’t involve your phone’s camera or microphone that give a third party just as comprehensive a view of you.”

The authors of the study, titled Panoptispy: Characterizing Audio and Video Exfiltration from Android Applications, concluded:

Our study reveals several alarming privacy risks in the Android app ecosystem, including apps that over-provision their media permissions and apps that share image and video data with other parties in unexpected ways, without user knowledge or consent. We also identify a previously unreported privacy risk that arises from third party libraries that record and upload screenshots and videos of the screen without informing the user. This can occur without needing any permissions from the user.

In the age of technology, privacy and security are the only things that separate us from a total surveillance grid. Unfortunately, as this study illustrates, we have very little of both.

I can’t believe that this is what the United States has become. When I was young I remember reading about this sort of thing in Nazi Germany, the USSR and Communist China, but I never imagined that it would happen here.

I can’t believe that this is what the United States has become.  When I was young I remember reading about this sort of thing in Nazi Germany, the USSR and Communist China, but I never imagined that it would happen here.  For years I have been warning about this growing “Big Brother police state control grid”, and I wish that more Americans would realize how evil all of this government surveillance truly is.

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
As far as Big Brother is concerned, nothing that you do on your cell phone is ever private.  And if the government really wants to see what is on your cell phone, they are going to get that information one way or another, even if that means resorting to physical violence.   On Monday, NBC News provided us with yet another glaring example of how the United States is being transformed into a Big Brother police state.  On January 1st, Akram Shibly and Kelly McCormick from Buffalo, New York were coming back home from a trip to Toronto, and they didn’t anticipate any unusual problems when they got to the border.  Unfortunately for them, U.S. Customs & Border Protection agents decided to take their cell phones, demanded their passwords, and kept them in custody for the next two hours as they searched for anything that might be incriminating on those phones.
You might be thinking that sounds like it should be illegal, and you would be correct, but sadly federal courts have ruled that our constitutional rights do not apply to border searches.  So authorities use this legal loophole to do pretty much anything they want at the border.
If that young couple from Buffalo would have had something illegal on their phones, they could have been immediately arrested and put in prison.
And we haven’t even gotten to the worst part of the story yet.  Just a few days later Akram Shibly and Kelly McCormick took another trip to Canada, and this time border agents physically assaulted Akram when he did not immediately turn over his phone.  The following comes from NBC News…

Three days later, they returned from another trip to Canada and were stopped again by CBP.

“One of the officers calls out to me and says, ‘Hey, give me your phone,'” recalled Shibly. “And I said, ‘No, because I already went through this.'”

The officer asked a second time.

Within seconds, he was surrounded: one man held his legs, another squeezed his throat from behind. A third reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone. McCormick watched her boyfriend’s face turn red as the officer’s chokehold tightened.

Is this still America?
I can’t believe that this is what the United States has become.  When I was young I remember reading about this sort of thing in Nazi Germany, the USSR and Communist China, but I never imagined that it would happen here.  For years I have been warning about this growing “Big Brother police state control grid”, and I wish that more Americans would realize how evil all of this government surveillance truly is.
You can watch an interview where this couple from Buffalo talks to NBC News about this recent incident at the border right here.
It is so disgusting that this is how we are treating law abiding people when countless numbers of drug dealers and gang members are pouring across unprotected sections of our border every single day.
Unfortunately, cell phone searches at the border appear to be rising at an exponential rate.  According to NBC News, more cell phone searches were conducted at the border during the month of February 2017 than in the entire year of 2015…

Data provided by the Department of Homeland Security shows that searches of cellphones by border agents has exploded, growing fivefold in just one year, from fewer than 5,000 in 2015 to nearly 25,000 in 2016.

According to DHS officials, 2017 will be a blockbuster year. Five-thousand devices were searched in February alone, more than in all of 2015.

And of course it isn’t just searches at the border that you need to be concerned about.
Not too long ago, it was being reported that the CIA has helped the Justice Department with technology that allows law enforcement officials to scan “data from thousands of U.S. cellphones at a time” from the safety of a plane…

The Central Intelligence Agency played a crucial role in helping the Justice Department develop technology that scans data from thousands of U.S. cellphones at a time, part of a secret high-tech alliance between the spy agency and domestic law enforcement, according to people familiar with the work.

The CIA and the U.S. Marshals Service, an agency of the Justice Department, developed technology to locate specific cellphones in the U.S. through an airborne device that mimics a cellphone tower, these people said.

So the next time a strange plane flies over your house, this may be what is happening.
Here is more on this disturbing new technology…

The program operates specially equipped planes that fly from five U.S. cities, with a flying range covering most of the U.S. population. Planes are equipped with devices—some past versions were dubbed “dirtboxes” by law-enforcement officials—that trick cellphones into reporting their unique registration information.

I have a feeling that if this program was ever challenged in court that it would be ruled unconstitutional, so let’s hope that happens as soon as possible.
But then again, the NSA has been collecting and storing all forms of electronic communication for years and nothing is being done about.  We have even had a 36-year veteran of the NSA named William Binney come out and publicly admit that all of our phone conversations “are being monitored and stored” and still nothing is done to stop it.
So don’t do anything on your cell phone that you wouldn’t want the government to see, because someday they could use it to nail you.
Of course we also need to use discretion regarding the things that we know the public will be able to see.  When you post something to Facebook or Twitter, you may think that it is harmless, but it could end up costing you big time.  In fact, I just came across an article about how a number of pastors have actually been fired because of what is on their social media accounts…

“It’s not fair I lost my job,” the pastor told me.

“My church members post a lot worse things than I do on social media. It’s a double standard.”

He’s right. It is a double standard. But it’s reality. And, with greater frequency, more pastors and church staff are losing their jobs because of what they post, particularly on Facebook and Twitter and, to some extent, their blogs.

By the way, churches will not always tell the pastor the specific reason for the firing. But, once we begin to infuriate our church members with our posts, many will find a myriad of reasons to give us the boot.

Like the title to this article says, what you do on your cell phone could come back to haunt you.
For many Americans, cell phones have become an essential part of modern life, but the truth is that those little electronic devices can also destroy our lives if we are not careful.
So if you are going to use them, use them wisely, because people are watching.

Wikileaks' Vault7 Reveals Massive Spying Program on Americans

Even if you power off your cell phone, the U.S. government can turn it back on.

it's a crafty hack. You press the button. The device buzzes. You see the usual power-off animation. The screen goes black. But it'll secretly stay on -- microphone listening and camera recording.
How did they get into your phone in the first place? Here's an explanation by former members of the CIA, Navy SEALs and consultants to the U.S. military's cyber warfare team. They've seen it firsthand.
Related: Google testing super-secure email
Government spies can set up their own miniature cell network tower. Your phone automatically connects to it. Now, that tower's radio waves send a command to your phone's antennae: the base-band chip. That tells your phone to fake any shutdown and stay on.
A smart hack won't keep your phone running at 100%, though. Spies could keep your phone on standby and just use the microphone -- or send pings announcing your location.
John Pirc, who did cyber security research at the CIA, said these methods -- and others, like physically bugging devices -- let the U.S. hijack and reawaken terrorists' phones.
Related: Cybersecurity: How safe are you?
"The only way you can tell is if your phone feels warm when it's turned off. That means the base-band processor is still running," said Pirc, now chief technology officer of the NSS Labs security research firm.It used to be that way, but no longer. They run RFID spy chips added on to the case of smart phones which require NO POWER from the battery to enable the system circuitry to be operational.

Defend yourself against cellphone spoofing

(INTELLIHUB) — Over the past year or so we have heard how the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and even local law enforcement agencies have deployed cell-site simulators or cellphone-tower spoofing units. This technology is marketed via a variety of names: DirtBox, StingRay, and TriggerFish.
Technically they are known as IMSI catchers. IMSI is defined as International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI). A mobile identity is assigned to each phone which transmits its identity to whichever network it is transmitting and receiving through. Unfortunately for the general public these IMSI catchers scoop up most if not all cellphones operating within their transmission and reception perimeter, which in turn violates the privacy of hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent citizens.
Additionally, many of these IMSI catchers are deployed by the handful on a daily basis throughout major American cities without a warrant.
According to GlobalResearch, “When a suspect makes a phone call, the StingRay tricks the cell into sending its signal back to the police, thus preventing the signal from traveling back to the suspect’s wireless carrier. But not only does StingRay track the targeted cell phone, it also extracts data off potentially thousands of other cell phone users in the area.”
“Originally intended for terrorism investigations, the feds and local law enforcement agencies are now using the James Bond-type surveillance to track cell phones in drug war cases across the nation without a warrant. Federal officials say that is fine — responding to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) and the First Amendment Coalition, the Justice Department argued that no warrant was needed to use StingRay technology.”
So much for our right to privacy. Originally this technology would set back a local law enforcement agency more than $100,000, but that is not the case anymore. Suitcase-sized devices are now available, hackers have assembled effective units for a few thousand dollars, and federal funds given to local law enforcement agencies by the Department of Homeland Security (via “Partner Programs”) is often utilized to purchase military-grade technology and weapons.
Now there is one solution to help avoid being caught up in this dragnet, or at least technology which will give you a heads-up as to when your cell-phone is linking up to an unknown tower. It is an easy-to-install software referred to as an IMSI-catcher-detector.
Now since technology rapidly evolves the detection software may not be fool-proof. As I have said many times, the feds have technology which is many (yes many) decades in advance of what the public is aware of. Therefore one can only guess what they have deployed without our knowledge. The software available to the general public is pretty easy to install and seems to be available only for Android phones.
Basically, once you install the software, you download a database of the cellphone towers your cell-service provider utilizes in addition to uploading a “ping” map once you have had the software installed for a day or two. Then if your signal is intercepted by an unknown tower (a.k.a. IMSI Catcher), an icon on the phone will change color, it will record the time and give you the latitude and longitude of the spoofing location.

The software is available from SecUpwN and is quite user-friendly. Here is a screen-shot of the interface.
In addition to the free software, SecUpwN also gives a really good description of how the technology is being used by law enforcement. Once again since the IMSI-catching technology deployed by law enforcement is advancing so rapidly, this is not a fool-proof route to protection. But in many cases it should work for you and give you a bit more comfort considering what we are all up against in a society which is leaning towards such pervasive intrusion.
If there are any tech-savvy Intellihub fans who have more to add regarding IMSI-catchers and other protective measures, I encourage you to share what you know with the other readers in the comments section below.

How to see what government agency is spying on your phone

Stop Cell Phone Spying, Cell Phone Privacy Product Test

How to see what government agency is spying on your phone

Why Nothing You Do On Your Phone Will Protect You From Surveillance, Spy...

FBI Uses Surveillance "Air Force" To Monitor US Citizens, AP Finds

In the wake of the violent protests, looting, and riots that shook Baltimore to its core and left parts of the city smoldering in late April, Benjamin Shayne — who had just sat down in his backyard to enjoy a radio broadcast of an Orioles game — inadvertently uncovered a secret FBI aerial surveillance program when he noticed a small plane circling overhead and asked Twitter if anyone could explain the aircraft’s low, circular flight pattern. As it turned out, one of Shayne’s followers had some answers:

@scanbaltimore It's registered to NG Research: http://t.co/mCWpUzvndp
For some other info: http://t.co/cbCehxiCS0 pic.twitter.com/eGXFIKXCgr

— Pete Cimbolic (@pete_cimbolic) May 3, 2015

That exchange would culminate in a Washington Post article which outlined the “aerial support” provided to the Baltimore Police Department by the FBI. 
We went on to take a closer look and, in “Meet The FBI’s Secret Eye In The Sky Overseeing The Baltimore Riots”, we postulated that the Cessna’s monitoring the riots may have been equipped with night vision equipment provided by Persistent Surveillance Systems, a company which has worked with the Baltimore PD in the past. Here’s a schematic (via WaPo):

On the heels of the revelations, AP followed up and has much more on the FBI’s aerial surveillance program.
Via AP:

The FBI is operating a small air force with scores of low-flying planes across the country carrying video and, at times, cellphone surveillance technology — all hidden behind fictitious companies that are fronts for the government, The Associated Press has learned.

The planes' surveillance equipment is generally used without a judge's approval, and the FBI said the flights are used for specific, ongoing investigations. The FBI said it uses front companies to protect the safety of the pilots and aircraft. It also shields the identity of the aircraft so that suspects on the ground don't know they're being watched by the FBI.

In a recent 30-day period, the agency flew above more than 30 cities in 11 states across the country, an AP review found.

The FBI claims the program is "not secret" and does not aim to collect "mass surveillance", but as we discussed in depth in the article linked above (and as you can see from the graphic), it's difficult to believe that the equipment on the planes is powerful enough to be of use to the FBI but somehow not capable of the types of mass surveillance that the planes over Baltimore were capable of. More from AP:

"The FBI's aviation program is not secret," spokesman Christopher Allen said in a statement. "Specific aircraft and their capabilities are protected for operational security purposes." Allen added that the FBI's planes "are not equipped, designed or used for bulk collection activities or mass surveillance."



But the planes can capture video of unrelated criminal activity on the ground that could be handed over for prosecutions.

Some of the aircraft can also be equipped with technology that can identify thousands of people below through the cellphones they carry, even if they're not making a call or in public. Officials said that practice, which mimics cell towers and gets phones to reveal basic subscriber information, is rare.

AP discovered the names of many of the shell companies the FBI has used to conduct the operation and in an ironic twist, the government asked the news agency not to reveal the names because then the Bureau would simply have to create new companies, a process which would cost taxpayers money. In other words: "if you reveal this information to taxpayers, it will cost them."

U.S. law enforcement officials confirmed for the first time the wide-scale use of the aircraft, which the AP traced to at least 13 fake companies, such as FVX Research, KQM Aviation, NBR Aviation and PXW Services.

During the past few weeks, the AP tracked planes from the FBI's fleet on more than 100 flights over at least 11 states plus the District of Columbia, most with Cessna 182T Skylane aircraft. These included parts of Houston, Phoenix, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis and Southern California.

The FBI asked the AP not to disclose the names of the fake companies it uncovered, saying that would saddle taxpayers with the expense of creating new cover companies to shield the government's involvement, and could endanger the planes and integrity of the surveillance missions. The AP declined the FBI's request because the companies' names — as well as common addresses linked to the Justice Department — are listed on public documents and in government databases.

At least 13 front companies that AP identified being actively used by the FBI are registered to post office boxes in Bristow, Virginia, which is near a regional airport used for private and charter flights. Only one of them appears in state business records.

The moral of the story: if you're ever in your backyard relaxing and listening to a baseball game and happen to notice a Cessna making concentric circles overhead remember, it's not paranoia if they're really watching you.

AS WE NOTICE FREQUENTLY WHEN OUT HIKING OR BIKING OR CAMPING.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-03/fbi-uses-surveillance-air-force-monitor-us-citizens-ap-finds

“Encryption Doesn’t Matter In a World Where Anyone Can Plant Software On Your Phone and See What You’re Seeing”

John McAfee invented commercial antivirus software. He may be a controversial and eccentric figure … but the man knows his technology.
Earlier this month, McAfee told security expert Paul Asadoorian that encryption is dead.  Specifically, he said:

• Every city in the country has 1 to 3 Stingray spy devices … Bigger cities like New York probably have 200 or 300

• When you buy a Stingray, Harris Corporation makes you sign a contract keeping your Stingray secret (background here and here)

• Stingray pushes automatic “updates” – really malicious software – onto your phone as soon as you come into range

• The software – written by the largest software company in the world – allows people to turn on your phone, microphone and camera, and read everything you do and see everything on your screen

• Encryption doesn’t matter in a world where anyone can plant software on your phone and see what you’re seeing.  Protecting transmission of information from one device to the other doesn’t matter anymore … they can see what you see on your device

• There are many intrusions other than Stingray.   For example, everyone has a mobile phone or mobile device which has at least 10 apps which have permission to access camera and microphone

• Bank of America’s online banking app requires you to accept microphones and cameras. McAfee called Bank of America and asked why they require microphones and cameras. They replied that – if you emptied all of the money in your account and said “it wasn’t me”, they could check, and then say:

Well, it certainly looks like you. And it certainly sounds like you.

• In order to do that, B of A’s app keeps your microphone and camera on for a half hour after you’ve finished your banking

• In addition, people can call you – and have you call them back – and plant software on your phone when you call them back