Local Police May Be Tracking Your Cell Phone Calls

Boyd

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Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
The tower dump data helped police choose about 500 people who were asked to submit DNA samples.

This is what especially bothers me. It's not just cell phones - police are also driving around South Jersey randomly harvesting license plate numbers with cameras permanently mounted on their cars. And of course there are security cameras and red light cameras popping up everywhere. Are we headed for a world where this kind of thing will be the norm? Whenever a crime is committed, is everyone who even drove past the site going to be "asked for a DNA sample"? At least it appears they needed a court order to take that step here.
 

manumuskin

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Jul 20, 2003
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About ten years ago I went to WV for a week and a couple weeks after returning to NJ I get a letter in the mail informing me that they had taken my license plate photo along 95 somewhere and wanted to do a survey of where I was going and why and for how log YADA YADA.I wrote them back and told them to mind their own damn business.Last I heard from them.Hope I wasn't picking my nose.
 

1Jerseydevil

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Feb 14, 2009
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When was the last time any of you read the book 1984 by George Orwell, high school english?
Another book that should be required reading after age 50, so you understand it is Animal Farm also by Orwell.
 
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Boyd

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It also brings to mind the character of Koko, the Lord Hight Executioner in the satirical 19th century Gilbert and Sullivan opera...

As some day it may happen that a victim must be found,
I've got a little list — I've got a little list
Of society offenders who might well be underground,
And who never would be missed — who never would be missed!
 

46er

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Mar 24, 2004
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I don't have a problem with law enforcement getting a court order to track the movements or phone calls of people who are suspected of criminal acts, but this type of blanket surveillance of everybody is getting out of control. How long before they're watching you in your own home?

If the feds can do it and more, is it so surprising that locals would not try?
 

Gibby

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Apr 4, 2011
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Can anyone remember the dark ages when we had resort to the archaic form of communication by knocking on my friend's front door at an appropriate time while enjoying the warm interaction of speaking face to face with another human being or by leaving a personable hand written note in order to discuss plans? We never had to deal with the idea and stresses of dropped calls, being monitored by the government or breaking a five hundred dollar phone. Hmmmm...
 
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Boyd

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it's a Brave New World :rolleyes:

In the introduction to a 1956 radio adaptation Huxley said:

"Brave New World is a fantastic parable about the dehumanization of human beings. In the negative utopia described in my story, man has been subordinated to his own inventions. Science, technology, social organization -- these things have ceased to serve man. They have become his masters.

A quarter of a century has passed since the book was published. In that time, our world has taken so many steps in the wrong direction that if I were writing today, I would date my story not 600 years in the future but at the most, 200. The price of liberty and even of common humanity is eternal vigilance."
 

noboat

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Can anyone remember the dark ages when we had resort to the archaic form of communication by knocking on my friend's front door at an appropriate time while enjoying the warm interaction of speaking face to face with another human being or by leaving a personable hand written note in order to discuss plans? We never had to deal with the idea and stresses of dropped calls, being monitored by the government or breaking a five hundred dollar phone. Hmmmm...
943434_662599953765525_1048211107_n.jpg
 

Boyd

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Has anyone else ever actually made a "telephone" with tin cans and string like the picture in noboat's post? I remember doing that in the cub scouts back in the 50's - it was fun, LOL. Things were simpler then, we didn't need any "apps". OTOH, the world was a pretty ugly place then too - we had drills going down into the basement fallout shelter at school. Racial injustice was widespread. We had commercials on TV with doctors saying which brand of cigarettes were best.
 

46er

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Mar 24, 2004
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Wait until OBD-III gets here, probably in a few years; it is being tested; where else, on the west coast. :ninja:

Keep that old OBD-II or earlier vehicle in good shape :D

From SEMA, re OBD-III. Make sure you read the request for proposals, especially the 'cooperative techniques' section.

http://lobby.la.psu.edu/_107th/093_...atements/SEMA/SEMA_OBD_frequent_questions.htm

LEGAL ISSUES
  • OBD-III imposes sanctions based on "suspicionless mass surveillance" of private property
    • Random, possibly frequent testing
    • No advanced knowledge vehicle will be tested
    • Results of testing not immediately available (unless roadside pullover follows)
    • No opportunity to confront or rebut
    • Possible use of system for other purposes (Police pursuit/immobilization, tracking, cite speeders)
  • OBD-III raises 4th Amendmentsearch and seizure privacy issues:
  • ''The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated...'' (emphasis added; also see Art. I, Sec. 19 of Calif. Constitution)
  • From legal perspective, it is unprecedented: previous cases have looked at surveillance of individuals
 
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