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I stayed in The City during the holidays and at one point walked close by the Police hq. After continuing on I enabled gps for a moment and even though I was ha

I stayed in The City during the holidays and at one point walked close by the Police hq. After continuing on I enabled gps for a moment and even though I was half a mile a way my gps was showing me smack dab in the center of the police hq for about 15 minutes... I realized then what was happening and that I should have known better, but I had forgotten to ask a friend to take his faraday cage laptop bag and phone bag... I knew better and am still kicking myself for it. The UK's level of surveillance is extremely unsetteling to me, and quite frankly I think a lot of Americans have forgotten all the reasons why the UK might not be as good of an ally as everyone thinks since the 47 USUK agreement. Thr point being that I really hope our politicians dont start adopting That level of surveillance just because they do it to. It seems we have quietly been in a surveillance arms race, which isnt good for the population at all.

vidarh 11y ago
City is "special". While there are reasons to be concerned about surveillance elsewhere in the UK too, City has its own police force, and surveillance levels that makes even the rest of London seem like total anarchy. In the rest of London there are certainly other buildings that are covered by extensive government surveillance, but most of the surveillance in London - and the rest of the UK - is privately owned, and rarely more than passively recording. The level of street level monitoring in the UK is often vastly exaggerated - police often can't be bothered even trying to check CCTV because getting hold of footage is a lot of effort and rarely is of much help. GCHQ surveillance of networks is another matter.
- switch007 11y ago
  It's not clear if the OP meant the City of London police HQ (Wood Street), or the Met HQ (Scotland Yard, not in the City)
doogle88 11y ago
Sorry if I'm being a bit slow here, but what was happening? Why was your gps showing you in the middle of the police hq?
- arca_vorago 11y ago
  A bug in the imsi catcher not properly relaying the info, so I was seeing the imsi catcher's location data temporarily instead of my own.
  - foldr 11y ago
    Isn't the phone just displaying its location based on the GPS signal? I don't get how intercepting your phone's transmissions would cause it to report an incorrect location.

vidarh 11y ago

City is "special". While there are reasons to be concerned about surveillance elsewhere in the UK too, City has its own police force, and surveillance levels that makes even the rest of London seem like total anarchy. In the rest of London there are certainly other buildings that are covered by extensive government surveillance, but most of the surveillance in London - and the rest of the UK - is privately owned, and rarely more than passively recording. The level of street level monitoring in the UK is often vastly exaggerated - police often can't be bothered even trying to check CCTV because getting hold of footage is a lot of effort and rarely is of much help. GCHQ surveillance of networks is another matter.

switch007 11y ago
It's not clear if the OP meant the City of London police HQ (Wood Street), or the Met HQ (Scotland Yard, not in the City)

doogle88 11y ago

Sorry if I'm being a bit slow here, but what was happening? Why was your gps showing you in the middle of the police hq?

arca_vorago 11y ago
A bug in the imsi catcher not properly relaying the info, so I was seeing the imsi catcher's location data temporarily instead of my own.
- foldr 11y ago
  Isn't the phone just displaying its location based on the GPS signal? I don't get how intercepting your phone's transmissions would cause it to report an incorrect location.