OH My My the RCMP fess up to doing what everybody already knew anyway

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/rcmp-surveillance-imsi-catcher-mdi-stingray-cellphone-1.4056750

RCMP reveals use of secretive cellphone surveillance technology for the first time

 766 Comments



Trevor Boone Helm

And I'm sure the RCMP uses these things to the letter of the law. And if you believe that then I have a bridge to sell you.

David Raymond Amos

@Trevor Boone Helm I am happy to see that other folks see the humour in this too

Johnny Wilkes

Wasn't Trudeau going to fix that law that allows Canadians to be spied on? Oh yeah, just another broken election promise.

David Raymond Amos

@Johnny Wilkes I have been making a list and checking it twice in order to keep a tally on who is naughty and who is nice. Thus far the second column is empty. Tut Tut Tut

David Raymond Amos

@Johnny Wilkes Now we all know why Bobby Paulson is exiting stage left ASAP N'esy Pas Mr Prime Minister Trudeau "The Younger" ???

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rcmp-commissioner-paulson-retirement-1.4011332

Ivan Nano

Keep up the good work CBC.

We need a strong, professional media to bring such things to light.

David Raymond Amos

@Ivan Nano Whom do you nominate as a strong, professional media?

 

David Gloag

Privacy? Taking a cell phone with you everywhere is like taking the authorities with you to watch and listen to your every move. Get used to it or get rid of it. Your choice.

David Raymond Amos

@David Gloag That exactly my point as well sir. Years ago anyone could listen to our analog cellphones. After all it is just a radio. When they switched to digital the Feds spy toys were already ahead of the game. Years later nearly everybody and his dog can pretend to be a cell tower if you have enough money to buy the toys and are inclined to do so.

 

Archie Stewart

If you use a wireless device expect someone, somewhere, to track it, without your permission and knowledge.

Dave MacKenzie

@Archie Stewart Unless....I know several ways around it, but I won;t ruin the surprise. You can use the power of the "internets" and find out how to get around the surveillance.

Cheers..

David Raymond Amos

@Dave MacKenzie Good luck with that plan. Trust that the CSE is way ahead of us all in that regard.

Ray Bungay

Whoa, yesterday everybody and their dog were saying it was not being done by police in Canada? Now they got caught, thank you CBC, they are admitting illegal spying. The RCMP should be forced to produce court approval, if they have it.

David Raymond Amos

@Ray Bungay SHHH now you should know that is secret stuff between the RCMP and their buddies the Justices of Federal Court

 
Bob Thompson

And people doubted Trump's claim

Nestor Pistor

@Bob Thompson

What...is Donald Trump now accusing the RCMP of tapppppping his phone?

Dude...I can't keep up!!! Next thing it will be the martians tappppppp..ppp..pp...ing his phone!

David Raymond Amos

@Nestor Pistor The CSE certainly are. Of that I have no doubt whatsoever. Particularly with NAFTA on the table while he talks to the Chinese bosses today.

 
Fletch Peterson

"Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Tuesday the devices detected did not belong to any Canadian police or intelligence agency."

Ralph Goodale is either:
1) Lying to Canadians about the Liberal spying efforts on Canadians
2) Completely un-aware of whats taking place in his portfolio and unfit for the job

Pick one.

David Raymond Amos

@Fletch Peterson I pick Number 1

Alice P Lynne

For years people have been called tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorist for pointing out the fact we live in a full blown police state.
Every single communication device, every single internet connection, every single debit or credit card transaction IS recorded/monitored.
And, here I thought, being a taxpayer that funds government, it was our right to know exactly what government was up to. Hahaha, the bitter irony is all too real.
Can anyone think of a reason government is so afraid of the general population to the point of spying endlessly?
This is not acceptable behaviour in an open and honest country, is it?

David Raymond Amos

@Alice P Lynne Google my name and see all the names they have been calling me since I sued 3 US Treasury Agents and a host of Yankee judges and lawyers etc in 2002

  

David Raymond Amos

Everyone in the know has known this since 2001

Alice P Lynne

@David Raymond Amos
This has been going on long before that.
Especially in the USA.

David Raymond Amos

@Alice P Lynne Not with regards to cellphone tech

Dave MacKenzie

@David Raymond Amos You are trying to reason with a nut job.

 

David Raymond Amos

@Dave MacKenzie FYI The RCMP call me a nutjob among many other nasty things

  

Charles Knowlton

Throw all of your rights of a free society out the window so the authorities can say they are protecting us. What a load of crap.

Colin Sikora

@Charles Knowlton ....ok....then what is your solution?
Easy to criticize....but you probably know only 10% of the real story. If you want to stay ahead of the criminal element, you need to be 1-2 steps ahead. It's not perfect, but it gives the good guys a chance.
I'll gladly give up some privacy if it makes this country safer. My guess is you'd be the first to whine if the bad guys did something that directly affected you. If you have nothing to hide, then you should have little to concern yourself with. Do you think the RCMP use this to figure out your wife's bra size, or that you put something in the recycle bin that didn't belong? No, it's my guess that they are looking at things that are much more substantial. Like you know, organized crime, terrorists, kidnappers...etc....

Michael Ehrmantraut

@Charles Knowlton maybe you should read the whole article.

Jon Holmes

@Charles Knowlton Those who sacrifice Liberty for Security...

Michael Parks

@Jon Holmes .............had better not because a quote from a politician who lived between 1709 and 1790, with no concept of the future and lived during a time when the muzzle loader was consider advanced technology, made a comment that has been butchered over the centuries.

https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-ben-franklin-really-said

google the quote and you'll find many articles similar when discussing the historical context of the quote and how it has been twisted

Charles Knowlton

@Michael Ehrmantraut

I read the whole thing. Re-read my comment and please tell me what I don't understand. It seems really clear to me.

Charles Knowlton

@Colin Sikora We have one of the LOWEST crime rates of my lifetime right now. We have had for a good many years, so this argument that law enforcement all of a sudden NEEDS these tools that slowly take away our right to privacy are nonsense.

David Raymond Amos

@Colin Sikora Trust that if it thought it would do some good I would argue people with that opinion everyday all day long but I suspect that it would be a waste of my precious time

David Raymond Amos

@Charles Knowlton For what it is worth I understand your comment and agree with you

Seth Whittaker

A government should be afraid of its people
People should not be afraid its government

Michael Parks

@Raul Alder Why would he paraphrase that comment UNLESS he was afraid ???

Ron Mitchell

@Michael Parks Nothing to hide nothing to fear?

David Raymond Amos

@Ron Mitchell You are wrong about that one. I know I lived it.

Fearon Steele

A society that sleepwalked right into 1984. Authorities no longer feel the need to get a warrant. They know that you only care about the Kardashians and hockey, so why bother with those pesky due processes thingies? Silence is consent and people purchasing new laptops, cell phones, televisions, microwaves and ovens all passively accept they will be spied on.

Martin Paradis

@Fearon Steele The general population is sleeping. Noam Chomsky said it best with Manufacturing Consent.

Alice P Lynne

@Fearon Steele
There are some of us that actually do go to their MP's office and question these sort of things.

David Raymond Amos

@Alice P Lynne Some of us have run for public office and debated the MPs about such things even though the media denies it. Here is the most recent occasion Please read all the comments to figure out who the other guy was. 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/fundy-royal-riding-profile-1.3274276

RCMP reveals use of secretive cellphone surveillance technology for the first time

After CBC investigation into suspicious signals in Ottawa, police offer new insight into their own tactics

By Dave Seglins, Matthew Braga, Catherine Cullen, CBC News Posted: Apr 05, 2017 2:30 PM ET

 

RCMP Chief Supt. Jeff Adam confirmed Wednesday that the national police force is using cellphone-tracking devices known as IMSI catchers. (Patrick Doyle/The Toronto Star)

The RCMP for the first time is publicly confirming it uses cellphone surveillance devices in investigations across Canada — but at the same time says the potential of unauthorized snooping in Ottawa, as reported by CBC News, poses a threat to national security.

"Absolutely," RCMP Chief Supt. Jeff Adam, who is in charge of technical investigations services, said in an unprecedented technical briefing Wednesday with reporters from CBC News, the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail.

The RCMP held the briefing in the wake of a CBC News investigation that found evidence that devices known as IMSI catchers may be in use near government buildings in Ottawa for the purpose of illegal spying.

'It is publicly known there is equipment out there that is not limited in its capturing of communications between devices.' - RCMP Chief Supt. Jeff Adam

"Not everyone uses the equipment in the way the RCMP does," Adam said. "It is publicly known there is equipment out there that is not limited in its capturing of communications between devices. And so it's a security risk when it is used in proximity to government and/or any other commercial enterprises."

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Tuesday the devices detected did not belong to any Canadian police or intelligence agency.

Adam told reporters that while he isn't "personally aware" of foreign agencies using the technology in Canada, "I can't rule that out."

The RCMP and CSIS are now investigating.

• CBC INVESTIGATES | Someone is spying on cellphones in the nation's capital
• RCMP, CSIS launch investigations into phone spying on Parliament Hill
• Devices that track, spy on cellphones found at Montreal's Trudeau airport

But on Wednesday, after shrouding their own use of the technology in secrecy for years, the RCMP took the unprecedented step of speaking publicly about the devices — also known as Stingrays or Mobile Device Identifiers (MDIs) — to address public concern amidst mounting questions about their use.

Other police forces have them, too

The RCMP says that MDIs — of which it owns 10 — have become "vital tools" deployed scores of times to identify and track mobile devices in 19 criminal investigations last year and another 24 in 2015.

He says in all cases but one in 2016, police got warrants. The one exception was an exigent circumstance — in other words, an emergency scenario "such as a kidnapping," said Adam, whose office tracks every instance where an MDI has been used by the RCMP.

"This technology is a vital tool in providing valuable assistance to criminal investigations," Adam said, adding some recent media reporting has misstated how police use MDIs and what the technology can actually do.

An IMSI catcher pretends to be a cellphone tower to attract nearby cell signals. When it does, it can intercept the unique ID number associated with your phone, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity, or IMSI. That number can then be used to track your phone. (CBC)

He says using an MDI requires senior police approval as well as getting a judge's order. And he says the technology provides only a first step in an investigation allowing officers to identify a device.

He says only then can police apply for additional warrants to obtain a user's "basic subscriber information" such as name and address connected to the phone. Then, he says, only if the phone and suspect are targets of the investigation can police seek additional warrants to track the device or conduct a wiretap to capture communications.

Adam says the RCMP currently has 24 technicians trained and authorized to deploy the devices across Canada. He knows other police forces own and use them too, but declined to name them.

RCMP device 'does not collect' texts, emails, calls

He said the RCMP's devices are restricted in their use, with software that only allows them to identify a mobile device and to potentially track the location of that phone.

"What the RCMP technology does not do is collect private communication," Adam said. "In other words, it does not collect voice and audio communications, email messages, text messages, contact lists, images, encryption keys or basic subscriber information."

There do exist interception tools that allow eavesdropping on phone calls and direct interception of digital messages but Adam said the RCMP does not own them or use them.

He said anyone operating in Canada without a proper licence or judge's authorization would be breaking section 191.1 of the Criminal Code that prohibits possession of these kinds of interception devices. He also said it would be a violation of the Radiocommunications Act.

RCMP lacked proper approval

Adam conceded that until two months ago the RCMP itself failed to get express approval to use MDIs from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED, formerly Industry Canada), the government body responsible for regulating technology that might interfere with wireless communications.

He said the RCMP believed at one point that an exemption introduced in early 2015 to the Radiocommunications Act allowing the use of cellular "jammers" might also exempt the use of MDIs — but ISED ultimately disagreed.

Otherwise, he said police have almost always sought a warrant, though he noted a few exceptions.
He said in recent years the law has changed to catch up with emerging technologies.

Police used to apply for a general warrant to use the technology. In 2015, Adam said there was a period of at least six months — between March and October — when the RCMP didn't seek a warrant at all, acting on advice from the Department of Justice and government prosecutors.

RCMP say that in the past five years — including this period — police used the devices without a warrant in 11 investigations.

Innocent users' data

IMSI catchers have been highly controversial for fear that hundreds of innocent device users can be swept up in the collection of cellular data.

Adam said all data collected is strictly protected, isolated and reported to judges, preserved until it is no longer needed and then destroyed.

A special cellphone made by ESD America and purchased by CBC and Radio-Canada that can detect when an IMSI catcher is trying to intercept it. (CBC)

"The data, once it is seized lawfully to the judge, will be secured and locked up for criminal court purposes. It will not be accessed other than the target information," Adam said.

He said the RCMP has been fully co-operating with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, which has been investigating police use of cellphone-tracking equipment in Canada.

He also said police are very aware that cell MDIs can potentially disrupt mobile users' signals and even, in older phones, interfere with the ability to dial 911.

Adam said the RCMP has developed protocols to ensure the MDIs — which essentially highjack all cellular signals in a given area — are only used for a few minutes at a time to limit potential disruption for users.

He said that while his office is tracking the numbers of warrants and applications, currently the law requiring police to report to Parliament on interception techniques does not expressly require them to detail how many times they use cellphone-catching technology.

"We're not averse to reporting, to a degree, on the number of times this technology is used, but there is as of yet no requirement to do so," Adam said.

 http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/3536607/RCMP-MDI-Breifing-April-5-2017.pdf