New police mesh network in Seattle tracks everyone

[Brian4Liberty]

This is a very long, technical and detailed article. Well worth a read.

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/you-are-a-rogue-device/Content?oid=18143845

A few highlights here:


You Are a Rogue Device

A New Apparatus Capable of Spying on You Has Been Installed Throughout Downtown Seattle. Very Few Citizens Know What It Is, and Officials Don’t Want to Talk About It.

If you're walking around downtown Seattle, look up: You'll see off-white boxes, each one about a foot tall with vertical antennae, attached to utility poles. If you're walking around downtown while looking at a smartphone, you will probably see at least one—and more likely two or three—Wi-Fi networks named after intersections: "4th&Seneca," "4th&Union," "4th&University," and so on. That is how you can see the Seattle Police Department's new wireless mesh network, bought from a California-based company called Aruba Networks, whose clients include the Department of Defense, school districts in Canada, oil-mining interests in China, and telecommunications companies in Saudi Arabia.

The question is: How well can this mesh network see you?

How accurately can it geo-locate and track the movements of your phone, laptop, or any other wireless device by its MAC address (its "media access control address"—nothing to do with Macintosh—which is analogous to a device's thumbprint)? Can the network send that information to a database, allowing the SPD to reconstruct who was where at any given time, on any given day, without a warrant? Can the network see you now?
...
Seattle's mesh network is only one instance in a trend of Homeland Security funding domestic surveillance equipment. Earlier this month, the New York Times ran a story about a $7 million Homeland Security grant earmarked for "port security"—just like the SPD's mesh-network funding—in Oakland.
...
It's reasonable to assume that locally gleaned information will be shared with other organizations, including federal ones. An SPD diagram of the mesh network, for example, shows its information heading to institutions large and small, including the King County Sheriff's Office, the US Coast Guard, and our local fusion center.

Fusion centers, if you're unfamiliar with the term, are information-sharing hubs, defined by the Department of Homeland Security as "focal points" for the "receipt, analysis, gathering, and sharing" of surveillance information.

If federally funded, locally built surveillance systems with little to no oversight can dump their information in a fusion center—think of it as a gun show for surveillance, where agencies freely swap information with little restriction or oversight—that could allow federal agencies such as the FBI and the NSA to do an end-run around any limitations set by Congress or the FISA court.
...

Much more:
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/you-are-a-rogue-device/Content?oid=18143845

[aGameOfThrones]

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. " C.S. Lewis.

[Brian4Liberty]

Last 1000 places visited limitation is probably just local storage. Once transmitted to DHS, it can be stored forever.


EXCLUSIVE: Documents Reveal Seattle’s Secretive DHS Funded “Mesh Network” Surveillance Grid

Seattle residents have begun questioning the installment of several mesh network devices attached to utility poles in the downtown area, purchased by the Seattle Police Department last February using cash from a $2.7 million Department of Homeland Security grant.
...
According to reports from Kiro 7 News, the mesh network devices can capture a mobile user’s IP address, mobile device type, apps used, current location and even historical location down to the last 1,000 places visited.
...
Read more: http://www.storyleak.com/documents-reveal-seattles-highly-secretive-dhs-funded-mesh-network-surveillance-grid/

[DamianTV]

No Warrants needed to collect this Data, no Warrants needed to use it as Evidence in the Courts of the Just-Us System.

You are all Guilty, and your Sentence is Slavery to the Banks, Corporations, and your Employers.

And again, they have all this Surveillance, but cant figure out that the Real Criminals are the ones that hijacked our Financial System to create a War Economy at the cost of all Freedom.

[CPUd]

Step 1, get one of these:

http://i.imgur.com/uRUHkJh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/F1vEJBy.jpg

Open window to remove cat.



Step 2:



_______ ________ __
| |.-----.-----.-----.| | | |.----.| |_
| - || _ | -__| || | | || _|| _|
|_______|| __|_____|__|__||________||__| |____|
|__| W I R E L E S S F R E E D O M
-----------------------------------------------------
ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT (12.09, r36088)
-----------------------------------------------------
* 1/4 oz Vodka Pour all ingredients into mixing
* 1/4 oz Gin tin with ice, strain into glass.
* 1/4 oz Amaretto
* 1/4 oz Triple sec
* 1/4 oz Peach schnapps
* 1/4 oz Sour mix
* 1 splash Cranberry juice
-----------------------------------------------------


https://openwrt.org/




Step 3:



If one access point is good, 53,000 must be better.

Black Alchemy's Fake AP generates thousands of counterfeit 802.11b access points. Hide in plain sight amongst Fake AP's cacophony of beacon frames. As part of a honeypot or as an instrument of your site security plan, Fake AP confuses Wardrivers, NetStumblers, Script Kiddies, and other undesirables.

http://www.blackalchemy.to/project/fakeap/



Step 4 (optional):

http://i.imgur.com/rSzm1Ym.jpg

[tangent4ronpaul]

Here's another article that talks about this, but the first half basically quotes the stranger article. What's interesting here is that they talk about 2 other and different city surveillance grids - one in Los Vagas, NV and the other in Oakland, CA.

http://rt.com/usa/seattle-vegas-spy-tools-546/

In Vegas, the latest tool there might be even more Orwellian.

Sin City is one of the latest locales to purchase a line of highly-functional lampposts sold by Michigan’s Illuminating Concepts under the branding of “IntelliStreets.” As RT has reported in the past, however, the devices do much more than light up sidewalks. These lampposts are also Wi-Fi-ready to stream passers-by localized information and even audio and graphics, but it’s what Intellistreets collect that’s really shocking. In addition to broadcasting information, the lampposts are equipped with microphones and cameras that can record anything within an earshot and send it to a server to be analyzed.

On the IntelliStreets website, the company says, "Intellistreets provides a platform and many developed applications to assist DHS in protecting its citizens and natural resources.”

“We want to develop more than just the street lighting component,” Neil Rohleder of the city’s Public Works Department told KSNV News. “We want to develop an experience for the people who come downtown.”

As the technology spreads in cities unopposed, however, it could lead the other towns to journey down a slippery slope that ends with relinquishing even more personal information down the road.

“This technology, you know is taking us to a place where, you know, you’ll essentially be monitored from the moment you leave your home till the moment you get home,” local civil rights activist Daphne Lee told the network.

“At what point do we say this is the land of the free,” Lee said. “People have a right to a reasonable amount of privacy.”

As the NSA scandal has shown the world, however, one person’s idea of privacy might vastly differ from another’s. Revelations made possible through Mr. Snowden’s leaks have shown that the US government routinely collects information about the dialer and recipient of nearly every phone call made in the country, and even America’s allies, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, are subject to NSA-issued surveillance.

Meanwhile, other cities along the West Coast are seeing a surge in surveillance tools that started before the first Snowden leak but are still being set in place. Federal grants totaling around $7 million to Oakland, California are being used to ensure that the city has an eye on seemingly everything by next summer, and requests by a growing number of law enforcement agencies for spy drones is expected to involve eventually equipping bureaus across the country with unmanned aerial vehicles by the dawn of the next decade.

-t

[HOLLYWOOD]

Why is the DHS pumping so much money into local police forces? It's borrowed money to boot!


This is the big CON GAME of Harry Reid not passing the House Budget and all these CRs. DHS is being funded the same amount and have nowhere else to send the money except to give it to LE at the state level, and until Congress negotiates and passes an actual budget (instead of these continuation of the sequester BS), there's no way for anyone to cut that money off.

[DamianTV]

Why is the DHS pumping so much money into local police forces? It's borrowed money to boot!


This is the big CON GAME of Harry Reid not passing the House Budget and all these CRs. DHS is being funded the same amount and have nowhere else to send the money except to give it to LE at the state level, and until Congress negotiates and passes an actual budget (instead of these continuation of the sequester BS), there's no way for anyone to cut that money off.

Why? Got cant launch the US Military against us, but they CAN send the Police after us. That is why, and that pretty much sums it up. The rest is just the messy details.

[Brian4Liberty]

It would probably be safe to assume that these devices can pick up more than Wi-Fi signals. They will probably also capture your data connection and cell phone signals intended for your cell provider. Turning off Wi-Fi would not stop data collection.

[Brian4Liberty]

No Warrants needed to collect this Data, no Warrants needed to use it as Evidence in the Courts of the Just-Us System.


Yep, tracked and turned over to DHS. No warrants, no FISA court, nothing.

Somebody better let Angela Merkel know that Obama is still tracking her.

[tangent4ronpaul]

It would probably be safe to assume that these devices can pick up more than Wi-Fi signals. They will probably also capture your data connection and cell phone signals intended for your cell provider. Turning off Wi-Fi would not stop data collection.

http://cloud.arubanetworks.com/products/175

http://cloud.arubanetworks.com/images/product_images/p-5.png

Ruggedized to withstand exposure to harsh conditions, plus support for high numbers of devices.
Ruggedized for outdoors
Two software-configurable dual-band radios
2x2 MIMO, 300 Mbps per radio
External four antenna connectors
One Gigabit Ethernet uplink
For pole or wall mount outdoors

Data sheet here:
http://www.arubanetworks.com/pdf/products/DS_AP175Series.pdf

-t

[RickyJ]

Voluntary tracking through cell phones is just the start. Eventually tracking will not be voluntary and everyone will be required to be implanted with a chip. Only slaves are tracked, and that is what we are to them, slaves.

[RickyJ]

It would probably be safe to assume that these devices can pick up more than Wi-Fi signals. They will probably also capture your data connection and cell phone signals intended for your cell provider. Turning off Wi-Fi would not stop data collection.

Turning off your phone or leaving it in airplane mode is the only way to avoid this kind of tracking besides just not carrying a phone around.

[ghengis86]

Turning off your phone or leaving it in airplane mode is the only way to avoid this kind of tracking besides just not carrying a phone around.

Not true. Only removing the battery truly deactivates the phone. Just pop out the battery on you iPhone...oh, wait...

[HOLLYWOOD]

Why? Got cant launch the US Military against us, but they CAN send the Police after us. That is why, and that pretty much sums it up. The rest is just the messy details.here's a good read of tyranny expenditures: http://www.public.navy.mil/dodeaformda/MDA%20News%20and%20Information/dhs-mda-info-sharing-accomplishments-fy10.pdf

[CPUd]

Not true. Only removing the battery truly deactivates the phone. Just pop out the battery on you iPhone...oh, wait...

I think AntiFederalist has some bags you can put a device in to contain the signal.

[Brian4Liberty]

I think AntiFederalist has some bags you can put a device in to contain the signal.

Good point. Someone posted a link about those in some other thread. Probably sold for $5 on Amazon.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Good point. Someone posted a link about those in some other thread. Probably sold for $5 on Amazon.

The RF forensic evidence bags? More like $85

-t

[Brian4Liberty]

The RF forensic evidence bags? More like $85

-t

$5.62, free shipping...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0058FDCA2/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

[tangent4ronpaul]

$5.62, free shipping...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0058FDCA2/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

Good find!

however, you need to read customer reviews. This one isn't great in the stars dept, but seems to work. Most important feedback:


This product worked for the smaller phones but not for the newer phones, I can barely get the phone in and out of it. Great idea though.

I did see they had a customers that looked at this also looked at for one that was about $8.

The one AF pointed to was larger, would fit tablets or a whole HS party worth of smartphones...

-t

[tod evans]

Problem;


http://cloud.arubanetworks.com/images/product_images/p-5.png
-t

Solution;
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee215/CA357/riggingaxe.jpg

[CaseyJones]

Seattle police deactivate surveillance system after public outrage

http://rt.com/usa/seattle-mesh-network-disabled-676/


Police in Seattle, Washington have responded to a major public outcry by disabling a recently discovered law enforcement tool that critics said could be used to conduct sweeping surveillance across the city.

Last week, Seattle’s The Stranger published an in-depth look at a little known new initiative taking place within the city that involved the installation of dozens of devices that would create a digital mesh network for law enforcement officers. The devices — small white-boxes equipped with antennas and adorned on utility poles — would broadcast data wirelessly between nodes so police officers could have their own private network to more easily share large amounts of data. As The Stranger pointed out, however, those same contraptions were able to collect data on internet-ready devices of anyone within reach, essentially allowing the Seattle Police Department to see where cell phones, laptops and any other smart devices operating within reach were located.

The SPD said they had no bad intentions with installing the mesh network, but The Stranger article and the subsequent media coverage it spawned quickly caused the system to receive the type of attention that wasn’t very welcomed. Now only days after citizens began calling for the dismantling of the mesh network, The Stranger has confirmed that the SPD are disabling the devices until a proper policy could be adopted by the city.

"The wireless mesh network will be deactivated until city council approves a draft policy and until there's an opportunity forvigorous public debate," Police Chief Jim Pugel told The Stranger for an article published late Tuesday.

"Our position is that the technology is the technology," Whitcomb said, "but we want to make sure that we have safeguards and policies in place so people with legitimate privacy concerns aren't worried about how it's being used."

[Thor]

http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-StrongHold-Bag/dp/B00AZ71E8A/ref=sr_1_1?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1384447475&sr=1-1&keywords=faraday+bag

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CJJc4w5LL._SY300_.jpg

Wireless StrongHold Bag

[Origanalist]

The SPD said they had no bad intentions with installing the mesh network,

No, of course not, I believe them. Just like I believe they deactivated it.

[Origanalist]

Problem;


Solution;
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee215/CA357/riggingaxe.jpg

One of these would work nicely too;

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Maul-1.jpg/200px-Maul-1.jpg

[tod evans]

One of these would work nicely too;

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Maul-1.jpg/200px-Maul-1.jpg

Mine fits in a hammer hoop..:o

[Origanalist]

Mine fits in a hammer hoop..:o

Plus you can destroy a lot more of them without getting tired. :)

[tangent4ronpaul]

One of these would work nicely too;

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Maul-1.jpg/200px-Maul-1.jpg

You guys are going to need a pair of poll climbers too. That or a cherry picker. Those things are way up there...

-t

[Natural Citizen]

Reported. All of you...

Hey, lookit what I found though. Heh. :toady:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsBB93IqJkE

[tod evans]

You guys are going to need a pair of poll climbers too. That or a cherry picker. Those things are way up there...

-t

.22 air rifle, same solution for overhead speed cameras...

Quiet and effective..
http://www.gamousa.com/images/rifles/detail_whisper.jpg