U.S. Government can track cellphones without carrier co-operation

Some chilling revelations have come out recently, indicating that the U.S. government has far more power to track its citizens than previously thought. Documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation under a Freedom of Information Act request suggest that "triggerfish" technology can be used to pinpoint the location of cell phones without involving cell phone providers at all. By posing as a cell tower, triggerfish, also known as cell-site simulators or digital analyzers, trick nearby cell phones into transmitting their serial numbers, phone numbers, and other data to law enforcement.

As one of the documents intended to provide guidance for DOJ employees explains, triggerfish can be deployed "without the user knowing about it, and without involving the cell phone provider." That may be significant because the legal rulings requiring law enforcement to meet a high "probable cause" standard before acquiring cell location records have, thus far, pertained to requests for information from providers, pursuant to statutes such as the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) and the Stored Communications Act.

This is certainly news that will make you look at your BlackBerry a little differently. Ars Technica has an excellent article on the news; to learn more click the link below.

|via Ars Technica| (c) BlackBerry Cool for BlackBerry Cool, 2008

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