The Stingray

In this day and age, our cell phones hold a plethora of private information on them. We keep our cell phones on us at all times because of the private information on it and because everything we need is at the tip of our fingertips. Being able to have all of that information in the palm of our hands is extremely convenient, but it is also very dangerous. You would expect this article to talk about how criminals can steal your information from your phone, but it is scarier than that. This article discusses how law enforcement uses technology which can look at that private information on your phone.

The Privacy Risks of Stingray Technology in Modern Law Enforcement

Law enforcement uses a device known as the Stingray. The Stingray can determine your call history, text messages, and can locate where you are at. To understand how the Stingray works, a little background information is needed on cell-site towers. Whenever you use data like making a phone call, your phone generally will connect to the nearest cell-site tower. The cell-site tower will then connect your phone to the network.

The Stingray is a cell-site simulator. The Stingray tricks the phone into believing that the Stingray is the cell-site tower. So instead of your phone connecting to your network cell-site tower, it connects to a law enforcement Stingray device. The Stingray then collects all of your phone’s data, but the Stingray diverts the actual phone call to the cell-site tower. The major problem is that the Stingray does not simply target one phone; ALL phones in that cell-site’s area will be intercepted by the Stingray.

We should have some privacy concerns because information from potentially thousands of phones is being collected when the Stingray is used. The worry is that we cannot hide from something like this, unless you leave your phone off – which is nearly impossible in today’s society. The 4th Amendment protects you from unreasonable searches and seizures, and it requires law enforcement to get a search warrant if law enforcement wants to search or seize something in your possession. The Stingray clearly violates the 4th Amendment and tramples on our Constitutional rights because law enforcement does not have a warrant to invade thousands of people’s privacy with the Stingray.

The drafters of the Constitution would roll over in their graves if they knew about the invasive policies and devices being used by some law enforcement agencies. In fact, the Stingray has been analogized as British soldiers during the Revolutionary War going door-to-door, searching American homes without suspicion. Even if law enforcement had a warrant to target a single person, the Stingray is incapable of focusing on one phone due to its expansive technology. The Stingray device soaks up personal information from phones like a sponge, and it calls into question the legality of its use.

The most troublesome concern is that you do not know when it is happening. With a few exceptions, you do not have a remedy if you found out a Stingray device soaked up your information. These are the sort of privacy concerns that Americans face when technology surpasses the scope of the Fourth Amendment.