and an aggressive proponent of secrecy around their use-has already been singled out for a questionable statement the company made to the FCC in a 2010 email. The Harris Corporation in Florida-the leading maker of stingrays for law enforcement in the U.S. >"If an emergency or important/urgent call (to a doctor, a loved one, etc.) is blocked or dropped by this technology, that’s a serious problem." If the companies that make stingrays failed to disclose the disruption of service to the federal agency, it would mean the devices had potentially been approved under false pretenses. The revelation in the court document is therefore significant and also begs the question: Who else knew about this capability and for how long? The Federal Communications Commission is responsible for certifying equipment that operates on radio frequencies to make sure that devices comply with certain technical standards and do not cause radio interference.
Law enforcement agencies have even gone so far as to intervene in public records requests to prevent the public from learning about the technology. In other cases they have withheld information from courts and defense attorneys about how the stingrays work, refraining from disclosing that the devices pick up location data on all systems in their vicinity, not just targeted phones. Stingrays can then determine the direction from which the phone connected with them, data that can then be used to track the movement of the phone as it continuously connects to the fake tower.Īlthough stingrays are designed to recognize 911 calls and let them pass to legitimate cell towers without connecting to the stingray, the revelation from the FBI agent raises the possibility that other kinds of emergency calls not made to 911 may not get through.Īuthorities in several states have been caught deceiving judges and defense attorneys about how they use the controversial technology or have simply used the devices without obtaining a warrant in order to avoid disclosing their use to a court. Stingrays emit a signal that is stronger than the signal of other cell towers in the vicinity in order to force mobile phones and other devices to establish a connection with them and reveal their unique ID. Stingrays are mobile surveillance systems the size of a small briefcase that impersonate a legitimate cell phone tower in order to trick mobile phones and other mobile devices in their vicinity into connecting to them and revealing their unique ID and location.
"If an emergency or important/urgent call (to a doctor, a loved one, etc.) is blocked or dropped by this technology, that’s a serious problem." "We think the fact that stingrays block or drop calls of cell phone users in the vicinity should be of concern to cell service providers, the FCC, and ordinary people," says Nate Wessler staff attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.
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