‘Legal’ does not mean ‘appropriate’: Why police shouldn’t watch political activists online

Manhattan DA wants you to think his office is starving for information, but they know more about you than ever before

_{Photo credit.}

The New York Times today published a fear-mongering op-ed by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, warning that commercial encryption services offered by Apple and Google endanger society by protecting criminals from police and prosecutors.

The absurdity of police secrecy on cell phone tracking equipment

Anyone who watches cop shows on television knows that police can track cell phones. Despite this widespread knowledge, the police and FBI go to extreme lengths to keep secret the details about how they obtain and use high tech cell phone snooping equipment, most of it manufactured by the Harris Corporation.

FBI surveillance planes warrantlessly track cell phones across major cities nationwide: report

New militarization recommendations a good first step, but we need action on surveillance purchases, too

_{Cops in Watertown ride on the back of a BearCat in April 2013. Photo: Gabe Camacho.}

Washington state shows the nation how it’s done, unanimously passing cell phone tracking legislation

FBI admits it helped Baltimore police with aerial surveillance

The Baltimore Sun is reporting that the FBI has acknowledged it provided spy planes to the BPD to monitor people on the ground in the wake of protests and rebellion after the police killed unarmed black man Freddie Gray.