Civil Liberties Advocates Voice Concerns Over Cell-Site Simulators
By George Miller
Is our government trying to end the Fourth Amendment or are they trying to protect us, or both, or even something more? That is being fought in the media and courts constantly. But, the bottom line is that the government has been taking more and more of your Fourth Amendment and privacy rights again in the name of security, even national security. If you did the same thing, you might be a criminal, so are they.
We have heard about this multiple times, but now it’s local. Oxnard civic activist Phil Molina sent us this, suggesting that area police forces are using suitcase sized “cell site simulators” which allow them to track cell phone location, calls and maybe even their contents, by spoofing:
Civil Liberties Groups Voice Concerns Over Cell-Site Simulators
It even implicates the Ventura County Sheriff. Molina has submitted an information request on this to our Sheriff today. So far, most law enforcement organizations are attempting to stonewall inquiries, but this may be coming to a head.
Some law enforcement and advocates are arguing that this is needed to keep up with modern technology to help solve and even prevent crime. Sometimes, they don’t even argue, but just do it. But, it’s arguably unconstitutional and also violates the privacy/rights of law-abiding people. There should be some interesting court case over this. You’ve probably heard about the Apple Iphone case where the FBI is trying to force Apple to rewrite their software to provide the FBI access to secured, encrypted phones. Even if Apple does, there may be other technologies from companies out of their reach that the bad guys could use.
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Even though I am also against the government trying to force a private business to do their illegal work, I must also say that for anybody that honestly thinks we have any privacy left, I have a real good piece of swamp land in Florida I would like to sell you.
Wouldn’t you prefer to trust your government? The problem is we’ve seen measurable evidence that it can’t be trusted. And as each new year comes and goes, the government grows and so does its tentacles into our personal lives.
Why does a person with little evidence he knows what he’s doing look better than a proven politician?
Why do you think that Trump has become so attractive? It’s we’ve had case after case where career politicians have said one thing and done another.
TRUST. The question that everyone that aspires to a political office needs to know that once it’s lost, it takes a herculean effort to get it back.