Thursday, September 22, 2011

Stingray your Fourth Amendment Rights

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution;
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
WSJ carries a story today of some new tech that "helps" Law Enforcement sidestep the above impediment to their mission.

Introducing the Stingray.
Harris Corporation
Really no biggie. Uses your cellphone to track your location.


Apparently the wicket gets sticky only in regards to the "pen warrant" and lack of data retained for review. At least this is getting reviewed by the Supremes. Any money that the SCOTUS finds no problem with it?

Add the above tech with a covert entry search warrant, layered with other ENHANCED SURVEILLANCE PROCEDURES to confirm for yourself that "privacy" is a quaint outdated concept in America.
Regarding that nasty Fourth Amendment ... the problem is words like "unreasonable". When your mission is total control of a citizenry, there's almost nothing that falls into the category of "unreasonable"

2 comments:

Tam said...

With modern technology, "privacy" as it was known by previous generations is a fiction.

Unless one lives completely off the grid, paid in cash under the table, and never uses a cell phone or the internets, you are in The Matrix.

The genie isn't going back in the bottle, so the question is, how do we propose to deal with this?

Art said...

Personally, knowing that privacy is an extinct concept leads me to a life of open truthiness and virtue.

Poverty will lead to "off grid living" faster than political acts.
Same with commerce ... Poverty leads to barter. Controlled economies lead to black markets.

The command and control society is just another bubble. The only question; How big will it get before it bursts?