What if the sites you love were turned against you? CISPA turns sites into government spies. Protest to stop it!
In July, MuckRock’s Brandon Weiber filed a Freedom of Information Act request through California’s so-called Sunshine Amendment to try and find out about any plans the San Diego Sheriff’s Department has to acquire a drone. Requests for proposals, policies, departmental records and a bevy of other information was petitioned for in a plea sent July 12, but just a week later he was told, “The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has no records that are responsive to your request.”
Weiber, on the other hand, begs to differ.
In September, Weiber sent a follow-up letter directing the Sheriff’s Department to a sales quotation from Datron World Communications, Inc. detailing a drone that was being pitched to Sgt. Richard Williams of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept., Special Investigations Division.
Since when is the FBI available (for anyone with the right social connections) as a private troll-uncloaking cyber police force?
Do you have any idea how hard it is to get the FBI to take action on an actual online death threat case, if the recipient isn’t a well-connected “honorary ambassador” in the military social elite? The short version: it simply does not happen. This whole story smells.
As former Wired News reporter Ryan Singel tweeted, “If the Broadwell/Petraeus case doesn’t show how ridiculous the FBI’s powers are, I don’t know what will prove it to you.
wonderful technological advances
Did you know that commercial color photocopiers have a built in device that stop it from operating when it detects documents from governmental agencies?
Do you know how hard that makes it to get copies of stuff for a lawyer?
These sheeple don’t care if they have control over their cellphones or not.
I like to think that I’m indifferent to computer platforms, but this makes me clearer about sticking to Android, no matter what a mess the code tree is on the OS.
Suitcase-sized and portable, StingRays are used by law enforcement to track mobile phones in real time. The device electronically impersonates a cellphone tower and dupes the mobile phone into connecting through its own antennae.
Documents obtained by L.A. Weekly through the Freedom of Information Act show that the Los Angeles Police Department is quietly using the StingRay. (Police in Miami, Fort Worth and Gilbert, Ariz., also are known to have the devices.)
LAPD refuses to discuss how it uses the powerful tool, perhaps copying the FBI’s playbook, which argued in the Rigmaiden case that revealing too many details would cause serious harm to future investigations.
The department, through a spokesperson, refused to comment on the device, despite repeated requests from the Weekly. Through the department’s Discovery Unit, which handles requests from the public and media under the California Public Records Act, LAPD also declined to reveal any information on how the devices are used.
LAPD even refuses to say whether its detectives are required by police chief Charlie Beck and the Los Angeles Police Commission — all of whom are appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa — to obtain a search warrant before the StingRay is deployed against unsuspecting L.A. residents’ cellphones.
The FBI has argued that a search warrant is not required, a question at issue in the Rigmaiden case, and one that Beck’s people refused to address.
But LAPD is using the devices.
Drones to patrol skies over Republican convention
Oh, The Irony
Ottawa halts program to eavesdrop on travellers
Thanks, Reddit. I’d like to think that I’ve been proven wrong.
SEE UPDATE BELOW - Canada Has Hidden Microphones In Airports Recording Conversations
Who is the Prime Minister of Canada?
