Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

Re:Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London by underbluewaters on Friday January 15, 2016 @12:35PM (#10910737)

Is it completely legal to warn users of suspicious network activity like this? If for example Apple built detection into iOS and gave all users a warning that could do a lot for raising awareness and maybe some support for change. "The network you are using is likely being surveilled. Your identity, online activity, and phone calls may be monitored by government or criminal equipment"

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Re:Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London by themartorana on Friday January 15, 2016 @12:57PM (#10910877)

Can you stifle free speech when it's informed by public information and not knowledge of secret activities? That is, if all it's doing is flagging signals it's antenna receives, is it even possible for that to be illegal?

Also, how do laws treat waves in public (radio, light) - do they get the same "privacy" treatment as people (that is, no expectation of if in public)?

Edit: actually since joining/browsing an open WIFI network can be considered criminal...

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Re:Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London by underbluewaters on Friday January 15, 2016 @01:08PM (#10910962)

> Also, how do laws treat waves in public (radio, light) - do they get the same "privacy" treatment as people (that is, no expectation of if in public)?

I believe this area is legally fuzzy but courts have determined that police cannot drive around with say, a thermal imager and observe en-mass people in their homes. One could argue that it's just thermal radiation you are viewing from public space.

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Re:Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London by CWuestefeld on Friday January 15, 2016 @06:17PM (#10913025)

Frequently on my town's facebook page, somebody will post "speed trap near the elementary school, better slow down there", and people jump all over the poster about helping people get away with speeding.

It seems to me that if you really want people to slow down near the elementary school (as opposed to just issuing tickets and collecting fines), this is EXACTLY what you want to have happen. If you put a cop there, and people warn others of it so they all slow down... mission accomplished!

By analogy, if you've got a target very valuable to the enemy (maybe a stadium for a high-profile sporting event), having phones alert users that they're being monitored might help to ensure that nobody tries anything during the event.

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Re:Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London by stvswn on Friday January 15, 2016 @06:38PM (#10913154)

With that in mind, maybe the government should seek to warn us that we're being monitored, even if/when we aren't in reality. Just to keep us on our toes.

To be really effective, it would be seem specific and personal: text messages that say things like "We can see you. We know what you're up to." Stuff like that.

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