Feds Snatch Mobile Phone Tracking Records Away from ACLU
June 10th, 2014Via: Naked Security:
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a run-of-the-mill public records request about cell phone surveillance with a local police department in Florida.
The US Marshals Service last week reacted by swooping in and snatching those records out from under the ACLU’s nose just hours before they were supposed to review them.
After the Feds seized the surveillance records, US Marshals then moved the physical records 320 miles away, meaning the ACLU wouldn’t be able to learn how, and how extensively, police use snooping devices.
The ACLU promptly filed an emergency motion to get local police to disclose the records, which detailed how police had used a stingray to track nearby phones to a suspect’s apartment without getting a warrant.
A Florida judge last Tuesday granted the ACLU’s emergency motion.
A stingray is a surveillance device that sends powerful signals to trick cell phones – including those of innocent bystanders – into transmitting their locations and their IDs.
The ACLU called the records grab an “extraordinary attempt to keep information from the public”.
