• artyom@piefed.social
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      16 hours ago

      They’ve gone on record that they have not found anything at any protests so I’m not sure what you mean by “tested”.

        • ServantOfRa@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          6 hours ago

          “So far Rayhunter has not turned up any evidence of cell-site simulators being used to spy on protests in the US — though we have found them in use elsewhere.”

          The article does point out that there are cheaper and easier options available that might be of greater concern.

  • earthworm@sh.itjust.works
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    23 hours ago

    In case you, like me, were wondering wtf stingrays are (besides a type of fish). This is from their report :

    Cell-site simulators, also known as “Stingrays” or IMSI catchers, are devices that masquerade as legitimate cell-phone towers, tricking phones within a certain radius into connecting to the device rather than a tower.

    Cell-site simulators operate by conducting a general search of all cell phones within the device’s radius, in violation of basic constitutional protections. Law enforcement use cell-site simulators to pinpoint the location of phones with greater accuracy than phone companies. Cell-site simulators can also log IMSI numbers (unique identifying numbers) of all of the mobile devices within a given area.

    The fact that government agencies are using these devices without the utmost consideration for the privacy and rights of individuals around them is alarming but not surprising. The federal government, and in particular agencies like HSI and ICE, have a dubious and troubling relationship with overbroad collection of private data on individuals.

      • Chozo@fedia.io
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        17 hours ago

        Whatever you do, you shouldn’t accidentally spill saltwater on it. That could destroy a very expensive piece of spying equipment, and would be a terrible, tragic accident that could interfere with the advance of nazism.

      • dhork@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        Based on this link, the proper thing to do should be to report it to the FCC. I am not sure how much Trump’s FCC will pay attention to the report, though…

        • MTZ@lemmy.worldOP
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          22 hours ago

          Also alert your friends/colleagues that there are IMEI/IMSI scanners at the event, so that they can prepare accordingly by leaving their phone at home, putting it in a farraday bag, etc.

          • artyom@piefed.social
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            16 hours ago

            It doesn’t matter if there are IMSI catchers or not, they should be leaving their phones at home.

  • hypna@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    Fucking cool, and also remember to leave your phone at home, or at least on airplane mode.

    • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works
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      18 hours ago

      Modern phones will still ping the Bluetooth low energy networks like Find My for Apple devices even when off or on airplane mode. That’s how things like AirTags work.

    • TheWhetherMan@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      In airplane mode and even while turned off, phones have been known to still transmit data via background services. Leaving it behind, or a Faraday bag are the only assured options I’m aware of

        • bagsy@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          Thats not correct. Iphones and androids are never truly off. There are a few privacy focused phones by small makers with hardware switches for each radio. You can run android or linux on them.

        • Metz@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          There is no such thing as “off” on modern Smartphones. Even if you power it down things like the baseband prozessor and bluetooth still stay active most of the time.

          If the battery is integrated into device there ist no real way to completely shut this things down.

          • PrimeMinisterKeyes@leminal.space
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            18 hours ago

            100%. That’s why Snowden asked every visitor from the press to put their phones in the microwave before they started their interviews. Of course he didn’t turn it on, it was to function as a Faraday cage.

                • SinAdjetivos@lemmy.world
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                  6 hours ago

                  Yes. However the frequency it blocks is ~2.45GHz which is the same frequency as WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. and used to be the only other antenna other than the cellular antenna, where the frequency ranges from 600MHz-2.5GHz.

                  This used to be good practice because you would first remove the sim card disabling the LTE communication, unless the hardware was compromised, and then place it in the microwave to disable all other signals.

                  With the introduction and proliferation of eSIM on both devices and carrier sides, removing the SIM card no longer provides much protection and the additional of many other communication methods, most notably 5GHz 802.11x, the microwave trick doesn’t really do anything either.

                  But it used to work.

    • seraphine@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      22 hours ago

      defeats the whole point of a phone imo. (for me personally) i only use it for music and communication. if I didn’t want communication i would just use a desktop