ICE Is Using Fake Cell Towers to Spy on People's Phones

Re:ICE Is Using Fake Cell Towers to Spy on People's Phones by perihelions on Tuesday September 09, 2025 @01:39PM (#45185503)

It'd be flatly unconstitutional to approve a dragnet warrant targeting a protest.

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Re:ICE Is Using Fake Cell Towers to Spy on People's Phones by dmix on Tuesday September 09, 2025 @01:52PM (#45185662)

They wouldn't necessarily be targeting the whole protest, the IMSI catcher would work broadly and from that the warrant would require them to narrow down to one and ignore rest. Unless I misunderstood the technical details the parent comment posted.

This broad dragnet nature of Stingray collection has always been why it's been a major privacy issue. Like doing a wiretap by tapping the whole neighbourhood and filtering phone calls for a certain address.

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Re:ICE Is Using Fake Cell Towers to Spy on People's Phones by cosmicgadget on Tuesday September 09, 2025 @02:06PM (#45185902)

After reading Kavanaugh's latest concurrence I am not so sure.

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Re:ICE Is Using Fake Cell Towers to Spy on People's Phones by Yeul on Tuesday September 09, 2025 @04:32PM (#45188504)

Whoever thought it was a good idea to let a president appoint the supreme court was a naive fool.

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Re:ICE Is Using Fake Cell Towers to Spy on People's Phones by dylan604 on Tuesday September 09, 2025 @05:26PM (#45189433)

Appoint, yet still needing Senate approval is probably what made this palatable to the founding fathers. I'm guessing the old white dudes in wigs never thought that the Senate would abdicate its role by become subservient to one old dude if not in a powdered wig at least in powdered face

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Re:ICE Is Using Fake Cell Towers to Spy on People's Phones by vkou on Tuesday September 09, 2025 @05:04PM (#45189101)

Given that the Supreme Court has managed to appoint[1] two presidents in the past thirty years, I'd say that the Gordian knot has tightened.

[1] Bush 2000, and less directly but far more dangerously, by making Trump unprosecutable in the run-up to 2024.

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Re:ICE Is Using Fake Cell Towers to Spy on People's Phones by smcin on Wednesday September 10, 2025 @02:54AM (#45194183)

But the Senate Judiciary Ctte and then the full Senate get to vote.

Remember Kavanaugh's confirmation vote in 2018 was 50-48, Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted against, Susan Collins for, Joe Manchin (D-WV) also for [0]. Susan Collins' reluctant-voice-of-moderation act has run out of steam, finally, probably decades overdue

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brett_Kavanaugh_Supreme_Court_...

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Re:ICE Is Using Fake Cell Towers to Spy on People's Phones by Yeul on Wednesday September 10, 2025 @06:31AM (#45195708)

Unfortunately American politics has completely deteriorated to a civil war between red and blue.

Which I suppose is another thing that was predicted but not acted upon: the establishment of political parties.

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Re:ICE Is Using Fake Cell Towers to Spy on People's Phones by tiahura on Tuesday September 09, 2025 @01:50PM (#45185631)

In a recently-unsealed search warrant reviewed by Forbes, ICE used such a cell-site simulator in an attempt to track down an individual in Orem, Utah.

Maybe you missed it when you read the article?

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Re:ICE Is Using Fake Cell Towers to Spy on People's Phones by perihelions on Tuesday September 09, 2025 @01:58PM (#45185773)

The article[0] I'm replying to is about a political protest in Tukwila, Washington.

[0] https://san.com/cc/exclusive-evidence-of-cell-phone-surveill...

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Re:ICE Is Using Fake Cell Towers to Spy on People's Phones by loeg on Tuesday September 09, 2025 @02:59PM (#45186984)

(It establishes that it is possible to obtain a warrant to use this device. One could have been obtained in Tukwila.)

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