Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability (PPSA)
  • Issues
  • Solutions
  • SCORECARD
    • Congressional Scorecard Rubric
  • News
  • About
  • TAKE ACTION
    • Section 702 Reform
    • PRESS Act
    • DONATE
  • Issues
  • Solutions
  • SCORECARD
    • Congressional Scorecard Rubric
  • News
  • About
  • TAKE ACTION
    • Section 702 Reform
    • PRESS Act
    • DONATE

 NEWS & UPDATES

Stingrays and the Spy in Your Hand

1/20/2022

 
Picture
Credit: eff.org
Hat tip to Cooper Quintin and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for noticing that Google has introduced a new feature to its Android operating system that allows customers to operationally disable 2G in their smartphones.
 
Why is this important?
 
When 2G was first introduced, George H.W. Bush was still president and Americans were watching Murphy Brown and Cheers. Like an ancient ruin underneath a modern office building, 2G persists in our phones – and with this old technology, it perpetuates vulnerabilities for our privacy.
 
As Quintin explains it, 2G uses weak encryption between a cell tower and the device, making it susceptible to having calls and text messages intercepted. Worse, 2G offers no authentication of the tower to the phone, which allows federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to employ cell-site simulators, known as “stingrays,” to impersonate a cell tower and suck up the data in our phones.
 
EFF helpfully offers a tutorial on how to disable 2G on your Android device. And the EFF page also has a “take action” button that allows you to send a message to urge Apple to follow Google’s example on 2G.
 
While it is important for Google, Apple and Samsung to look for ways to defeat attempts to surveil our phones, the rapid pace of technological development ensures that government will almost always find a way to our data. Legal solutions are needed as well as technological ones.
 
That is why PPSA supports a stingray bill introduced by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) that would require the government to get a warrant before it deploys stingrays. “The Fourth Amendment means what is says, even in the digital age,” Rep. McClintock said.
 
Momentum for such effective legislative action would be enhanced by more disclosure of how many stingrays are operating in which jurisdictions, and basic information about the policies for their use.
 
In July, 2021, the Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to compel 18 federal offices and agencies – including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Office of the Attorney General – to comply with our ignored Freedom of Information Act request to produce records on the policies of cell-site simulators.
 
Google is to be commended for taking a strong step in the right direction. But much more will need to be done, in law as well as in technology, to protect the wealth of personal information in our phones.

Comments are closed.

    Categories

    All
    2022 Year In Review
    2023 Year In Review
    2024 Year In Review
    Analysis
    Artificial Intelligence (AI)
    Call To Action
    Congress
    Congressional Hearings
    Congressional Unmasking
    Court Appeals
    Court Hearings
    Court Rulings
    Digital Privacy
    Domestic Surveillance
    Facial Recognition
    FISA
    FISA Reform
    FOIA Requests
    Foreign Surveillance
    Fourth Amendment
    Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act
    Government Surveillance
    Government Surveillance Reform Act (GSRA)
    Insights
    In The Media
    Lawsuits
    Legal
    Legislation
    Letters To Congress
    NDO Fairness Act
    News
    Opinion
    Podcast
    PPSA Amicus Briefs
    Private Data Brokers
    Protect Liberty Act (PLEWSA)
    Saving Privacy Act
    SCOTUS
    SCOTUS Rulings
    Section 702
    Spyware
    Stingrays
    Surveillance Issues
    Surveillance Technology
    The GSRA
    The SAFE Act
    Warrantless Searches
    Watching The Watchers

    RSS Feed

FOLLOW PPSA: 
© COPYRIGHT 2024. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. | PRIVACY STATEMENT
Photo from coffee-rank