These days it's difficult to take a leak without worrying you may be making a splash on YouTube and having a private life just keeps on getting harder. It has now emerged Big Brother may be listening in on people's mobile phone conversations in the UK via fake mobile phone towers called Stingers.
According to a recent report in The Independent, stinger technology is currently being used by police forces all over the world and is very useful for catching criminals. But there is a sting in the tail—the towers are unable to differentiate the difference between criminal and non-criminal activity. So if you went out and had too much to drink last night, urinated somewhere you shouldn't, and shared the tale via mobile phone, don't be surprised if the Thought Police come knocking at your door.
Investigators from Sky News located more than 20 of the mobile phone-tapping towers in just 3 weeks, so how many are actually active in the UK is anybody's guess.
When Sky News quizzed the London Metropolitan Police about the controversial technology Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe appeared to be determined to protect the force's privacy.
Refusing to confirm or deny allegations made about the use of the suspect technology he said: "The only people who benefit are the other side, and I see no reason in giving away that sort of thing."
Keith Bristow, director-general of the National Crime Agency, was equally loathed to speak on the subject. "Some of what we would like to talk about to get the debate informed and logical, we can’t, because it would defeat the purpose of having the tactics in the first place," Bristow said. "Frankly, some of what we need to do is intrusive, it is uncomfortable, and the important thing is we set that out openly and recognize there are difficult choices to be made."
A legal expert who specializes in surveillance law told Sky News: "We don’t know how they’re being overseen. We don’t know the statutory basis that’s being relied on, as a consequence we don’t know who—if anyone—is overseeing that use."
The Stinger masts work by tricking phones into thinking they are normal towers and then hi-jacking the signal and recording the information as it passes through them.
Pretty scary stuff! It just keeps getting harder and harder to have a private conversation these days. So if you think your iPhone is a smart phone
you might want to think again. Big Brother is smarter and he could be listening to you right now.
photo credit: (c) Catherine (2014) CC Licence
