Author Topic: Cell Phones (Read 1137 times)

uberhun · « **Reply #30 on:** December 07, 2006, 10:43:08 AM »

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Originally posted by Maverick
Most people don't need artificial enhancements to talk to themselves. I'm really surprised you admitted this.....

Oh your not that suprised......Your just jealous that you can't hear the voices inside my head telling me to do things to small petshop rodents. I like to hide em!:O

SFRT - Frenchy · « **Reply #31 on:** December 07, 2006, 12:00:18 PM »

I wonder if it's why I'm always out of batteries ...

x0847Marine · « **Reply #32 on:** December 07, 2006, 01:34:41 PM »

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Originally posted by Thrawn
What the hell can be the reasoning behind this...wait a minute, I now what the reasoning is, "Lets control some more ****.".

I ment, what is the excuse behind this?

This is their reasoning; the mob enjoys their rights to privacy. Back in the day if you frustrated the .gov and got away with poop, thats just the way it went until they got enough evidence.. if it took years, so be it. Frustrate the .gov these days, they just peel away whatever privacy / rights get in their way.

"The FBI's "applications made a sufficient case for electronic surveillance," Kaplan wrote. "They indicated that alternative methods of investigation either had failed or were unlikely to produce results, in part because the subjects deliberately avoided government surveillance.""

Remember the loss of habeas corpus?, sure it's supposed to be aimed at "terrorists" et al, but when you frustrate the .gov by enjoying your rights, they'll use whatever "tools" at their disposal, completely perverting the spirit of the law.

Maverick · « **Reply #33 on:** December 07, 2006, 02:51:26 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by uberhun
Oh your not that suprised......Your just jealous that you can't hear the voices inside my head telling me to do things to small petshop rodents. I like to hide em!:O

Maverick · « **Reply #34 on:** December 07, 2006, 02:53:34 PM »

FWIW, if you want secure communications do not use a cell phone or any other broadcast medium. Once you put it on the air it is subject to interception by anyone who wishes to get the proper equipment.

Nilsen · « **Reply #35 on:** December 07, 2006, 03:12:25 PM »

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Originally posted by Sandman
By law all new phones have GPS, AFAIK.

What?

Global Positioning System via satellites have to be installed in all US cellphones??

Chairboy · « **Reply #36 on:** December 07, 2006, 03:13:53 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Maverick
FWIW, if you want secure communications do not use a cell phone or any other broadcast medium. Once you put it on the air it is subject to interception by anyone who wishes to get the proper equipment.

Over the air, over the wire, on paper in the mail, anything. This is one of the reasons why encryption is important to liberty in an electronic society.

The real problem here isn't that these people were talking on the cell phone, it's that their cell phone (which was on their person) turned into a "bug" and recorded conversations that were taking place around them. Short of segregating all of your electronics in faraday cages when you want privacy, there aren't a lot of ways to insure it.

Product idea: A "cell phone case" that's sound proof that you store your phone in. It has one of those "blink when a cell phone is communicating" lights on the outside so that it tells you when you're being called (and works with any cell phone) but keeps your phone from bugging you in the meantime.

Personally, I don't think it's unreasonable to predict a future where cell phones casually listen to conversations around them and AIs listen for key phrases to send to law enforcement, all "in the interest of protecting us from the (insert threat here)". Computing power gets cheaper, sound processing gets easier, cell phones become more ubiquitous.... why _wouldn't_ a government take advantage of being able to bug essentially the entire population (for its own good) other than nut jobs like me and Lazs objecting? I notice that the number of people on this board that tacitly accept that the government will never do wrong is increasing, and I wonder if it reflects the rest of society. You don't have to be a chicken little (who constantly panics and says "the gubmint is coming! the gubmint is coming!") to be wary of an organization that has recently shown a casual disregard for the rights and liberties that shape our nation.

Chairboy · « **Reply #37 on:** December 07, 2006, 03:15:30 PM »

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Originally posted by Nilsen
What?

Global Positioning System via satellites have to be installed in all US cellphones??

Nope. The carriers need to have some method for determining roughly where a phone is (for emergency purposes only, of course) and can choose between GPS or a method that involves radio triangulation from cell towers.

Nilsen · « **Reply #38 on:** December 07, 2006, 03:21:47 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Chairboy
Nope. The carriers need to have some method for determining roughly where a phone is (for emergency purposes only, of course) and can choose between GPS or a method that involves radio triangulation from cell towers.

That makes more sense as it would cost a bundle to insert a GPS module in every cellphones. Im prolly gonna get GPS in my next cellphone but they are very expencive.

Since the dawn of GSM phones they have been easy to track down using triangulation to within a few meters depending on buildings and whatnot so that is easy. We even had a box on our ship in the navy to sniff for folks using their cellphones when they were not allowed to. It could not detect were in the ship it came from (of course) but if we did "hear" one there would be a search done and the guilty one would get a flogging and or/ held under water for 30 minutes.

Shamus · « **Reply #39 on:** December 07, 2006, 03:28:34 PM »

Wow!!, imagine if your tv or puter could be used as a listening or video device, how scary!!!...say that would make for a cool science fiction book.

shamus

Nilsen · « **Reply #40 on:** December 07, 2006, 03:30:42 PM »

Well... wasnt there a story about about the CIA putting chips in printers (or was it copyers) delivered to Iraq that made them "call home" when they got online?

Chairboy · « **Reply #41 on:** December 07, 2006, 04:20:23 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Shamus
Wow!!, imagine if your tv or puter could be used as a listening or video device, how scary!!!...say that would make for a cool science fiction book.

shamus

At the same time, optimize the language to foster proper mental hygiene. Perhaps some sort of newspeak would be appropriate?

PS, we have always been at war with pacifica.

x0847Marine · « **Reply #42 on:** December 07, 2006, 06:18:27 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Maverick
FWIW, if you want secure communications do not use a cell phone or any other broadcast medium. Once you put it on the air it is subject to interception by anyone who wishes to get the proper equipment.

Proper equipment was nothing more than a hacked Radio Shack scanner 10 years ago, un hacked you could still get "ghost" cell transmissions off local cells and just about every cordless phone (39.14 to 42.00 and 900.00 ish) out there. You can still hear lots of cordless phones if you know where to look.

Its still that easy, but not as cheap... the mother of all monitoring equipment can be purchased at http://www.winradio.com the Euro unlocked PCI cards / USB can scan, log, record and with proper software decode just about any scrambled signal submitted into the airways in the USA.. the US versions have these freqs blocked... but thats what e-bay is for.

Its scary easy, my buddy is a HAM / radio nut who has the Euro one with some wazoo software he got from the newsgroups.. we were listening to some cool random stuff..

ByeBye · « **Reply #43 on:** December 07, 2006, 10:32:29 PM »

A Code Division Mulitple Acess (CDMA) is pretty much impossible to hack into and listen in on.

CDMA is WWII technology and is VERY secure.

Before digital, the AMPS ( Advanced Mobile Phone System) was very easy to listen in on at least one side of a cell trasmission. Motorolla phones could be placed in test mode and made to listen to specific channels.

That's all gone now with CDMA.

GSM is secure too, but not as secure as CDMA.

Chairboy · « **Reply #44 on:** December 07, 2006, 11:32:17 PM »

For private citizens to hack into, perhaps. But if you don't think the government has the capability to just hook in at the central office, yer mistaken. In fact, that's one of the demands they're making of VoiP software makers because they're worried they won't be able to listen in on these encrypted streams over the internet.