Federal agencies go to utmost lengths to keep powerful speech sound spying gear hidden — and unexampled information read just how the governing pressure investigators to keep it under wraps .
Documentsobtainedby the American Civil Liberties Union , published today , show how the Department of Justice urge detective to blot out its surveillance techniques from the public . This headphone spying trust on a gadget made by the Harris Corporation . do it as a “ Stingray , ” it mimic prison cell - earphone towers to grab data from speech sound . And the government really does n’t need anyone to know more than that .
“ It is imperative that investigators understand that they must minimize , to the greatest extent lawfully possible , any testimonial by TOG personnel or the disclosure of TOG techniques throughout the judicial process , ” adocumentstates . ( “ TOG ” stands for the USMS “ Technical Operations Group . ” )
“ Such revealing could significantly impair the future effectiveness of the technique and jeopardize the safety of ongoing and succeeding surveillance operations by both the USMS and other investigative government agency . ”
It ’s essentially saying this : The the great unwashed building cases against criminals involve to keep a lid on how Stingrays and like equipment are used , or it ’ll deflower things for everyone .
What ’s more , the written document say authorities workers preparing for trial that they need to conspire to conceal the use of this engineering : “ Any police detective take in run preparation in which TOG technique were employed must contact their TOG inspector for steering . ”
US Marshalspurchasedat least $ 10 million in sophisticated speech sound - spying equipment from Harris Corporation between 2009 and 2014 . And the documents released to the ACLU do n’t even touch on dirtboxes , another type of phone surveillance toolused by the USMS .
These are not rarefied putz only trotted out in terrorist act or national security investigations . Both Union and local constabulary enforcement use Stingrays and related devices too , sometimes for matters as commonplaceas 911 hangups .
Yet the fetishistic obsession with hidden surveillance should not be old-hat . We already screw the FBI is so aggressive about privacy that it encourages law enforcement tolet criminals walkrather than break how police caught them using Harris Corporation phone surveillance geartrain . We also experience that the US Marshalshave seized police recordsin the past to keep its Stingray surveillance maneuver blot out .
“ It ’s all part of the same very disturbing pattern of concealment , ” ACLU attorney Nathan Wessler tell Gizmodo .
Civil LibertiesPrivacySurveillance
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