Stingrays, the Government's Spy Tool

 

A stingray is a controversial surveillance tool that impersonates a legitimate cell tower to trick mobile phones into connecting to them and revealing their location.

Law enforcement agencies around the country have routinely used the devices without obtaining a warrant from judges. In cases where they did obtain a warrant, they often deceived judges about the nature of the technology they planned to use. Instead of telling judges that they intended to use a stingray or cell site simulator, they have often mischaracterized the technology, describing it as a pen register device instead. Pen registers record the numbers dialed from a specific phone number and are not, for this reason, considered evasive. Because stingrays, however, are used to track the location and movement of a device, civil liberties groups consider them to be much more invasive. They can, for example, be used to track a device inside a private residence.

Read the article in Wired.

You may also be interested in this previous post about Stingray Cell-Phone Surveillance.