Privacy advocates gained access to a powerful tool bought by U.S. law enforcement agencies that can track smartphone locations around the world. Abortion clinics, places of worship, and individual people can all be monitored without a warrant.

Privacy advocates got access to Locate X, a phone tracking tool which multiple U.S. agencies have bought access to, and showed me and other journalists exactly what it was capable of. Tracking a phone from one state to another to an abortion clinic. Multiple places of worship. A school. Following a likely juror to a residence. And all of this tracking is possible without a warrant, and instead just a few clicks of a mouse.

  • Jtotheb@lemmy.worldEnglish
    133·
    6 hours ago

    You really think you came up with an airtight solution to device tracking that nobody in the industry has considered on a whim?

      • Jtotheb@lemmy.worldEnglish
        204·
        5 hours ago

        That was possible over a decade ago.

        Link Link Link Link

        Also to be clear, you suggested that you bring a burner phone and set up call forwarding. That implies a phone that’s on. If you’re carrying a burner phone that’s off, I do have a novel solution, just don’t bring it

        • capital@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          44 minutes ago

          Hm. I said without power. Not switched off.

          Judging by the upvotes you’re far from the only one who forgot about simply removing the battery.

          I suggested no power but not for the entire trip. Put the battery in when you’re sufficiently far from your house so as not to be associated with it. Remove it again when you’re sufficiently close to your house.

          Use your imagination. It helps.

        • midnightblue@lemmy.caEnglish
          3·
          4 hours ago

          No that’s not easily possible on every phone. It’s a specifically crafted FakeOff malware, used by the NSA for targeted attacks. This is not something that just randomly gets deployed on every phone, it’s only used against individual targets. Use GrapheneOS to harden your Android device as much as possible, to defend against such malware getting installed in the first place.

          You really think the NSA will get involved to track someone who wants to get an abortion?

          That was possible over a decade ago.

          You know what also existed over a decade ago? Faraday bags. This concept of physics isn’t new.

          Just stop spreading fear and misinformation.

          • Zink@programming.devEnglish
            1·
            3 hours ago

            You really think the NSA will get involved to track someone who wants to get an abortion?

            Probably not, unless it’s an exceptional case where they are already interested for another reason.

            But if, say, county sheriffs across the country also got access, I would be surprised if I didn’t hear about women’s and doctors’ lives being ruined by them.