Why do you carry a combination bug and tracking device around with you wherever you go?

Unwarranted Intrusion: GPS and the Fourth Amendment | American Constitution Society is an article about a form of surveillance that most people seem to be unaware of.

Let me start by saying this as clearly and concisely as I can: YOUR CELL PHONE IS A COMPUTER WITH A CAMERA, A MICROPHONE, AND RADIO. IT RECEIVES AND BROADCASTS BOTH COMPUTER SIGNALS AND AUDIO/VIDEO SIGNALS. IT CAN BE TURNED ON FROM THE “OTHER END” WITHOUT YOUR KNOWING IT’S ON.

Even old cell phones can be used for tracking: first, the system certainly knows which of the thousands of cell towers your phone is using; second it knows the relative strengths of your phone’s signal to several other nearby towers, so an estimate of your location can be made to within a few dozen yards in populated areas, and a few hundred yards in unpopulated areas.

Newer cell phones have builtin GPS receivers which know where you are to within about ten feet.

Forty years ago, when AT&T/SBC built a new facility in downtown Houston, a friend of mine - a detective on the Houston Police - showed me (because I was an extreme rarity at that time, a computer guy) a room where he and his “associates” could sit and listen to and record telephone conversations associated with any phone number they wanted. All they had to do was type in the number on a teletype console. They had voice/signal-activated recorders, so they didn’t have to sit and wait for someone to call… the recorder started as soon as someone picked up a phone at the number in question, and the calling (or called) number was typed out on the teletype along with the date and time. He said it was nothing, I should see the ones down the hall, for the “Feds”… I asked “FBI?” and he just snorted and said “ALL of ‘em, bud, all of ‘em.”

I’m trying to make two points here. One is that this was the available technology FORTY years ago, so if you don’t think the access has “improved” by a couple of orders of magnitude, you’re a wishful thinker. The other is that they didn’t have to show anyone a warrant to get in the room or type in a phone number to track… they could do it whenever they wanted. If they got something useful, they’d go get a warrant and claim the tape was made afterwards. It seemed likely that there was probably more use being made of it for blackmail or other reasons, but who knows? And do you think anyone anywhere with access to the system isn’t going to use it? Keep in mind that today, right now, this very instant, intelligence agencies with access to the phone system are using that access the signals on it, to listen, to find, to copy emails, web site addresses… and don’t forget that “the internet” IS the phone system, so everything that goes on there is part of that data. If you surf your way to http://kill_a_raghead_for_jesus.org or http://redheads_rule.com or any other website in the universe… that surfing is - or can be - recorded. Given the immense amount of daily data storage alleged to be in progress, it’s a fair bet that if you are on anybody’s list of interesting people, your phone data, including internet, is being recorded and at least looked at by a computer.

One last question: if they’re really out to get you, is it still paranoia?

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