For quite a while, the government was able to use these gadgets to collect information on regular citizens’ cellphone use and no one was the wiser.
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A Guardian report in April revealed a non-disclosure agreement that local police and prosecutors were forced to sign with the Federal Bureau of Investigation before using Stingrays, which mandated them to withdraw or even drop cases rather than risk revealing their use, and in September it emerged that this withholding of discovery evidence by police in Baltimore could lead to as many as 2,000 cases being overturned. However, we still haven’t learned the full depth of StingRay use, as a new report makes clear.
The Internal Revenue Service was revealed to by one of the many federal agencies that spent tens of thousands of dollars on controversial technology that tracks people by their cellphones. The agency made other purchases, but most of the details are redacted.
Nate Wessler, a staff attorney with the speech, privacy, and technology project at the ACLU, told the Guardian: “The info showing that they are using Stingrays is generally consistent with the kinds of investigative tactics that they are engaging in, and it shows the wide proliferation of this very invasive surveillance technology”. The Guardian got in touch with a former IRS deputy commissioner, Mark Matthews, and he claims that even inside the IRS there was no talk of using StingRays. It’s unclear why the agency bought the devices, but they could have been for its criminal investigation division, which sometimes does investigations (related to things like money laundering or the drug trade) with full-time law enforcement agencies.
Most documented Stingray use stems from court orders called PEN registers, which allow law enforcement to “track and trace” someone’s location, not the content of their phone conversations – but Stingrays can also be used as wiretapping devices. Additionally, state or local police in 22 states and the District of Columbia have also owned the devices, according to the civil liberties groups.
Other federal agencies known to use the technology include the FBI, the NSA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Drug Enforcement Agency. Does it worry you?
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Yeah, I don’t know, I just don’t think we have to declare it. How would anyone ever find out?
