The high-tech tools behind cops' protest surveillance
a year ago
- #privacy
- #protest
- #surveillance
- Anonymity as a constitutional right is being undermined by advances in surveillance technology.
- Law enforcement uses automated methods for mass deanonymization of protesters.
- Surveillance methods include facial recognition, metadata collection, and location tracking, often without warrants.
- Protesters continuously emit data through social media, phone metadata, and purchases, accessible to law enforcement.
- President Trump may expand the national surveillance state for political purposes.
- Avoiding tracking is nearly impossible, but steps like leaving cell phones behind can help.
- Technologies used for surveillance include Stingrays, geofencing, data brokers, social media monitoring, gait recognition, ALPRs, drones, and biometric identification.
- Stingrays (IMSI catchers) impersonate cell towers to collect SIM card IDs, enabling mass data collection without warrants.
- Geofence warrants collect location data from all devices in a specified area, increasingly used against protesters.
- Data brokers aggregate public and private data, selling comprehensive profiles to law enforcement.
- Social media monitoring tracks protest organization and participant connections, using fake accounts and data analysis.
- Gait recognition technology identifies individuals by their walking patterns, with potential for automated use in the US.
- Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) track vehicle movements, with limited options for avoidance.
- Drones, private CCTV, and body cameras enhance surveillance capabilities, with facial recognition on the rise.
- Biometric identification uses tattoos, iris scans, and DNA, with vendors developing advanced recognition algorithms.