A report by The Stranger, a weekly Seattle newspaper, is reporting that the off-white boxes attached to utility poles in downtown Seattle are using wi-fi networks that can record the last 1,000 locations of a person using their cellphone’s MAC address. This little unconstitutional 4th Amendment violation is brought to you via DHS who funded the program with $2.7 million of your tax dollars.
Aruba – the company that provided the boxes to the Seattle Police Department – brags in its technical literature about how the boxes can keep track of “rogue” or “unassociated” devices, in other words your cellphone even if you have refused to let the system access your device’s wi-fi component.
The user’s guide for one of Aruba’s recent software products states that “the wireless network has a wealth of information about unassociated and associated devices.” That software includes a “location engine that calculates associated and unassociated device locations every 30 seconds by default and then stores the last 1,000 locations for each MAC address.
When local reporters Matt Fikse-Verkerk and Brendan Kiley asked the Seattle Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security to explain what the boxes were for, DHS refused to comment and Seattle Police detective Monty Moss would only state that the department “is not comfortable answering policy questions when we do not yet have a policy.” Perhaps the reason they are “uncomfortable” answering questions relates to the fact they know what they are doing is unconstitutional.
They attempt to justify the “mesh network” by claims that the system is to allow police, firefighters and other first responders to communicate and stream surveillance video on a “private” [government-owned] uncluttered network during an emergency. Police also claim that the network “would not be used for surveillance purposes” without City Council’s approval and court authorization. Note that they didn’t say the mesh network couldn’t be used for surveillance, only that it wouldn’t – at least until certain people in power say they can. That’s the equivalent of a “trust us” and a hands shake.
Yet InfoWars released a new file entitled the “Police Video Diagram” that proves the ability for police to access and control live-video feed from the city’s expansive collection of surveillance cameras, all from the comfort of their police cruisers. Outside agencies shown on the diagram were given acess and control of cameras tied into the mesh network. One of these outside agencies is the controversial Homeland Security-run Fusion Center which was labeled a “useless and costly effort that tramples on civil liberties” by the United States Senate.
The SPD has also indicated that it plans “citywide deployment” of the network, opening the door for mass unfettered surveillance of Seattle’s 634,000 residents.
This is just another example in a long line of government surveillance being installed on public streets. Hi-tech street lights called Intellistreets that are linked via a ubiquitous wi-fi network and can record personal conversations are popping up in major cities across America. Intellistreets lighting systems can analyze voices, act as surveillance cameras and make loudspeaker security announcements. They can also track people who wear RFID tags. These hi-tech street lights are linked back to a central data hub via a wi-fi network allowing police and other “government” entities to track people via their cellphone’s MAC address.
Another network of sensors installed in at least 70 major cities named “ShotSpotter” are designed to alert authorities to gunshot locations but they also have the capacity to record personal conversations using microphones, according to a 2012 NY Times article. Even the ACLU warned that this system was a clear violation of the 4th Amendment.
When these technologies are combined with the fact that virtually every new consumer item can be linked to the internet (and therefore tracked and wiretapped), this represents a surveillance grid that makes NSA wiretapping of phone calls and emails look antiquated in comparison.
“The way things are supposed to work is that we’re supposed to know virtually everything about what they [the government] do: that’s why they’re called public servants. They’re supposed to know virtually nothing about what we do: that’s why we’re called private individuals.” Glenn Greenwald
Update: November 14: A spokesman for the Seattle police department says that “The wireless mesh network will be deactivated until city council approves a draft policy and until there’s an opportunity for vigorous public debate. Our position is that the technology is the technology but we want to make sure that we have safeguards and policies in place so people with legitimate privacy concerns aren’t worried about how it’s being used.”
Hopefully enough pressure will be applied to City Council and the police department that the program will be totally eliminated but that is doubtful.
