Rise of 'Stingray' Cell-Phone Trackers Prompt FCC Probe

<p>The "Stingray" is a neat little device that fools a cell phone into connecting to it as though it were a cellular phone tower. Once connected, the Stingray can record the device's unique ID, monitor the device's traffic, and even triangulate the cell phone's position.</p>
<p>It's also questionably legal. In June, unsealed documents revealed that <a title="Legal experts: Cops lying about cell tracking 'is a stupid thing to do'" href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/legal-experts-cops-lying-abou... target="_blank">Florida police were caught lying</a> about using information from a Stingray to obtain warrants. As Ars Technica reports, officers were instructed to "refer to the assistance as 'received information from a confidential source regarding the location of the suspect.'" They were also <a title="Internal Police Emails Show Efforts to Hide Use of Cell Phone Tracking" href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-technology-and-liberty/inter... target="_blank">told never to refer to the Stingray in police documents</a> and to re-submit warrant affidavits that referred to them, according to the ACLU.</p>
<p>Lies notwithstanding, we still don't know any more about Stingrays, and <a title="FCC to examine 'unauthorized' cell snooping devices" href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/08/fcc-to-examine-unauthorized-c... target="_blank">now the FCC wants to get involved</a>.</p>

Read more at http://blogs.findlaw.com/technologist/2014/08/rise-of-stingray-cell-phon...
. Also see "How Stingray Devices Work" at the Wall St. Journal site here: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/09/21/how-stingray-devices-work/