Big Brother Is Listening

Fake mobile phone towers found to be “actively listening in” on calls in UK.

15:19 12 June 2015

A controversial surveillance technique uses fake mobile towers to eavesdrop on public conversations. 20 of these towers are found to be active in the United Kingdom. However, the police forces refused to reveal who is controlling them or what is being done with the gathered information. 

 

The technology is being used by police forces around the world to catch criminals by intercepting information on its way to the network. 

 

Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe would not confirm or deny that his force was using the technology, telling the channel that “the only people who benefit are the other side, and I see no reason in giving away that sort of thing”.

 

“If people imagine that we’ve got the resources to do as much intrusion as

 

Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, said that it’s time for police forces to make the public understand the technology. 

 

“This spying tool has featured in everything from The Wire to Zero Dark Thirty. Companies are selling them on the grey market to anyone who can pay. The only thing we don’t know is what the police are doing to protect people from their use by criminals, and when they use them, what legal frameworks ensures they’re properly used?

 

“In an urban space, thousands of people’s mobile phones would be swept up in that dragnet. What they do with that data, we don’t know. We know police have been using them for years, but this is the first time that it’s been shown that they’re being deployed in the UK.”