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Keeping Tabs

Well as I and many others in the U.S. have known for awhile the FBI and other law enforcement agencies can eavesdrop on your cell phone calls.

That’s only the half of it. The stories have finally hit the mainstream news channels. The FOX news channel has reported today that the FBI has made known to the public that the eavesdropping of your calls can and has been done with the linking of the microphone of your cell.

“They can listen to everything you say even when your cell phone is off…” said the report.

What? Even if it’s OFF you say? Oh I have nothing to hide. Why should I worry?

I’m not saying that this is all bad … wait yes I am. Without even a warrant they can invoke the mic on your phone. The technique is called a “roving bug”. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that “the roving bug” was legal because federal wiretapping law is broad enough to permit eavesdropping even of conversations that take place near a suspects cell phone.”

“Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola Razr are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones,” said James Atkinson, a counter-surveillance consultant who has worked with government agencies. “They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room audio all the time,” he said. “You can do that without having physical access to the phone.”

Activation of built-in microphones by the government and private agencies s not new, here are a few of examples.

-An article in the Financial Times last year said mobile providers can “remotely install a piece of software on to any handset, without the owner’s knowledge, which will activate the microphone even when its owner is not making a call.”

- In 2003 a lawsuit revealed that the FBI was able to surreptitiously turn on the built-in microphones in automotive systems like General Motors OnStar to snoop on passengers’ conversations.

- Google has gone a step further by announcing that they will use in-built microphones to listen in on user’s background noise, be it television, music or radio – and then direct advertising at them based on their preferences.

- Digital cable TV boxes, such as Scientific American, have a in-built microphone inside them since the late 1990’s. The reason for the mic is for future advertising concepts.

Statistically, governments have been found to engage in more criminal activity than the general members of the public. A government engaging in escalating criminal actions and becoming more and more secretive should not be watching and tracking us as if we’re all criminals. We are told by the government to make our lives completely transparent or go to jail.

It is we (the public) who are under suspicion. Why should they know everything about us when they won’t tell us anything about them? It’s time we should be stepping up to monitor the government.

aymbt