There is a lot of concern regarding privacy at the moment, especially in the wake of the Snowden reports which revealed that for the past few years, the government has been spying on its citizens. A recent study also revealed that a vast majority of adults feel like they have no control over their personal information anymore.
Well if all of that bothers you, then this might bother you even more. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal (via MacRumors), it has been revealed that the United States Justice Department has been using fake cell towers installed in airplanes to acquire cellphone data that is used to track criminals. Apparently this is a program that has been in place since 2007 and uses Cessna airplanes (not the commercial plans, thankfully) to operate out of at least five metropolitan area airports.
These planes have been outfitted with a “dirtbox” that is meant to replicate cellular towers, thus tricking cellphones into reporting information to them, which in turn is used to help track individuals who are under investigation. Given that non-criminals’ data can be captured in the process as well, there are some who are questioning the legality of the practice as well as raising concerns about the safeguarding of the information that they have captured in the process.
Verizon claims that the company was unaware of such a program and did not participate in it, while AT&T and Sprint have declined to comment on the matter.
Filed in . Read more about Legal.