Once upon a time I used to think it was kind of nice to see little Cessna planes “mixing in” with huge jumbo jets at my local airport. Now I am not so sure, and it has nothing to do with safety but with privacy.
In an article released by Reuters entitled: “U.S. using fake cellphone towers on planes to gather data: WSJ.”
According the article:
“An agency of the U.S. Justice Department is gathering data from thousands of cell phones, including both criminal suspects and innocent Americans, by using fake communications towers on airplanes, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday…The planes use devices made by Boeing Co that mimic the cell phone towers used by major telecommunications companies and trick mobile phones into revealing their unique registration data, the report said.”
The article also explained:
“A Justice Department official would not confirm or deny the existence of such a program, saying such discussion would allow criminal suspects or foreign powers to determine U.S. surveillance abilities, but that department agencies comply with federal law, including by seeking court approval.”
In other words (I majored in translating government-speak!) there is such a program and nobody knows if it completely complies with federal law or not. They are (forgive the pun), winging it. Once again, it is them and us.
Hello mom, I just landed!
The little, innocent looking aircraft that are ever-so-cute, have devices in them that are apparently named “dirtboxes.” There are six planes in the little dirtbox fleet. As the planes and their dirtboxes, fly around our major airports, they listen to our calls. This is in addition to the National Security Agency that also listens into our calls, and who knows who else? The Farm Bureau and the toy testers at the Consumer Product Safety Commission for all I know.
Though the Justice Department does not want to explain the program, according to the article:
“People familiar with the program are saying that the device used in the program decides which phones belong to suspects and ‘let’s go’ of non-suspect phones…It also bypasses telephone companies, allowing authorities to locate suspects directly.”
Though I don’t always agree with the ACLU, they are calling it a “dragnet surveillance program,” and I could not agree more.
The problem, ethically, is who is keeping track of our conversations? If I am at the airport waiting for the taxi to take me to mom’s house, and while on the phone, I ask her for the recipe to her chocolate-chip cookies, why do I want the Justice Department to know? Of course I am being silly. Let me ratchet it up a bit.
Let’s say I am an inventor of technology and I am talking to my R&D team on a confidential basis or suppose I am in the middle of a serious family matter and I am discussing the matter with a lawyer or perhaps there is an important financial decision, who in the Justice Department needs to know about these things?
Yes, I remember
I will always remember the morning of 9/11. It awakened a sleeping country to the realities of terrorism. I am also looking at the maniacs from ISIS who would undoubtedly like a crack at us. I understand the need for surveillance and for vigilance; we must try to keep track of the bad guys.
However, I am not a bad guy. You are not a bad guy. So why can’t the Justice Department ease our fears and tell us how they are handling the information they don’t need? I am not asking for assurances in the form of a handwritten letter signed by everyone in congress and all of the Supreme Court Justices, I just want to know what happens to the information they collect. Is that too much to expect?
I would also like to know why the Justice Department can’t be more forthcoming. I am a citizen, I pay my taxes, I have an above-average IQ, why am I not more aware of the government’s peeking into my personal life?
What have been the results of these efforts? Can we at least have that information? Try something like this:
“We do have our merry little fleet of ‘dirtbox planes’ and after circling around 25 airports, and collecting the records on ten million of you, we are pleased to report we have questioned the owner of a fish market in Amarillo who was saying something fishy.”
We don’t even have that. We have nothing.
Call me an Ethical Pollyanna, but I think that the more we talk to each other the better chance we have of catching the bad guys. The more we communicate and observe and share, the better off we will be. Nothing beats vigilance from citizen to citizen.
Ignorance gets us nowhere.