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ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods
- cdrnsf 9mo agoDissolve ICE. Prosecute and/or disallow all ERO agents from any future public service positions.
- i80and 9mo agoA decade ago I put this stance into my LinkedIn profile tag line, and was a little surprised how many engineers reached out to praise that decision. I think it's rapidly, finally, entering the realm of political viability.
- therobots927 9mo agoAll it took was a white mother (and US citizen) getting shot in broad daylight. As much as I hate to admit it, a large enough segment of the population needed something blatant like this to care.
- bruceb 9mo agoYou have it backwards. Police shooting a white person will get less attention than if they were not white.
- stavros 9mo agoIt's not flattering to the US that the mother who was murdered needed specifically to be white for people to care.
- FireBeyond 9mo agoIt's not. I was a "90 day fiance" immigrant (the concept, not the show). We had a sincere relationship, but we both agreed that our marriage, while genuine, was earlier than it would have otherwise been other than logistics of an trans-Pacific romance. We stayed together 5 years, then separated/divorced, amicably. In the midst of all that I missed a USCIS filing date. I was out of status briefly, but also in a situation where I was ostensibly entitled to stay (USCIS would have to demonstrate a belief that the marriage was under false pretences), so I hired an immigration attorney to straighten things out (which basically involved filing paperwork that I needed to file, and a letter from her and one from me explaining why I missed it. She did make the comment to me during all that though that I had no cause for concern above and beyond that, quote: "I hate that I can say it, but the reality is you're both 'the right color' and a high-earning male. USCIS has you so far down the list of their priorities for reconciliation you could stay here decades before them calling you to account".
- bruceb 9mo agoMost K1 applications are approved, most are female, most are not white. I doubt your case would have been any different had you not been a "'the right color' and a high-earning male".
- FireBeyond 9mo agoShe wasn't referring to K1 visas specifically, she was referring to USCIS and how they'd prioritize dealing with enforcement actions against people in non-compliance with their visa obligations. And I'd suspect as an immigration attorney, she likely had first-hand experience of same.
- bruceb 9mo agoThe K1 approvel rate seems a decent proxy instead of 1 lawyer's opinion. Acceptance went up during V1 of the current administation. https://visagrader.com/visa-approvals-and-refusals/K1 https://visagrader.com/visa-approvals-and-refusals/K1 Jamaica, not known for having lots of people with pale skin, has basicaly same approval rate as Germany. https://visagrader.com/visa-approvals-and-refusals/K1/jamaica-jam https://visagrader.com/visa-approvals-and-refusals/K1/jamaic... https://visagrader.com/visa-approvals-and-refusals/K1/germany-deu https://visagrader.com/visa-approvals-and-refusals/K1/german... Would be unlikely that the USCIS radically changed their approach when dealing with paperwork messups for populations if these different countries while apparently approving applications at basically the same exact rate.
- FireBeyond 9mo agoYou're not understanding. This has nothing to do with the K1 visa. Or approval rates. I came from a low risk country. This is about adjustments of status, for any visa, and people who fall out of compliance and are in a period of being "unauthorized" to be/stay/work in the country. And sorry, given ICE's mandates, ruled temporarily okay by SCOTUS, that color of skin, accent, name are effectively "probable cause" for detention, I'd say her perspective is absolutely aligned with current enforcement priorities.
- vkou 9mo agoDon't worry, it's worse. Half the country has branded her as a terrorist, and her killer as a hero.
- suzdude 9mo ago> It's not flattering to the US There's such a long list of things one could say that about. In this instance the "representation matters" thought process seems to bear out. Folks talk about aspiring to role models who look like them. People also react strongly when this sort of thing happens to someone who looks like them.
- stavros 9mo agoThe problem is that you can slice representation every which way. It could be "I only identify with 6'3" males who live in Idaho and like trains", or it could be "I identify with humans". The fact that US culture chooses to identify with people of the same colour is telling, though I don't know, maybe that's a human thing and my country is too homogeneous for me to think otherwise.
- iugtmkbdfil834 9mo agoOdd. I thought she was a legal observer. It is funny how quickly the narratives changed given how little traction was gained on 'observer' status.
- steele 9mo agoShe can be both, she will become lots of things over time depending on agenda. Her background was decidedly under-reported, for a few justifications, including preventing a preferred audience from sympathizing with the victim. Not sure what your point is other than volume of information available increases over time.
- iugtmkbdfil834 9mo agoYou do have a point. My point is that we are constantly a part of informational warfare and it is getting old. I would love nothing more than people to look at it all with a cold eye and say something akin to: oh, I recognize this pattern. Instead, I attempts of various power centers to frame it in a way beneficial to them. Some of us are rather tired of this.
- SpicyLemonZest 9mo agoBut why is your own framing exempt from the analysis? The idea that you should see a murder and "look at it all with a cold eye", to try and dispassionately understand whether it might have been justified, is a non-obvious idea that's quite advantageous to power centers that expect to be shooting people frequently.
- iugtmkbdfil834 9mo agoAm I suggesting that you do not do it? Hardly. That said, I am simply not buying my newly assigned martyr.
- SpicyLemonZest 9mo ago
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- jacobsenscott 9mo agoTrump watched the video in front of a bunch of reporters and said "meh". Nothing will change for 3.5 years minimum. 40% of the country thinks he's doing great, and a greater percentage of those 40% vote vs the people who vote from the other group.
- i80and 9mo agoIf midterms go well, and the special elections last November suggest they may, then at least we may be able to blunt some of the harm. But the underlying point that about 35% of Americans just fundamentally do not seem to value civilization is a problem that has to be worked around.
- dylan604 9mo agoThe only way elections will change anything is if the Senate flips to 2/3 control by the Dems. I doubt enough GOP will vote to convict to reach 2/3. So even if a 51% House impeaches, it will go no further. We've already seen this scenario. Twice.
- JKCalhoun 9mo agoVideo analysis is depressing: https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000010631041/minneapolis-ice-shooting-video.html https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000010631041/minneapolis...
- chasd00 9mo agoI wonder what conclusion the FBI's investigation will come to because it sure doesn't look good for ICE to me. Best case, those two agents get sentenced to life for murder but the damage is done and a life taken. If the officer fired two shots and she died at the scene then it seems reasonable to me the bullets didn't go through the windshield and, instead, went through her rolled down window while she was turning away from the officer. If that's the case then I'm predicting riots everywhere over the next couple weeks. // i know pretty much zero details of what happened and it will be impossible to get any actual facts that are not politicized for weeks
- i80and 9mo agoI don't want to be a doomer, but I think the FBI is highly unlikely to do an honest good-faith investigation here.
- dylan604 9mo agoLooking at the video in the link GP provided, it is obvious first shot went through the windshield. The others went through the side window.
- cdrnsf 9mo agoGiven that this administration appointed the head of the FBI due to his loyalty to Trump, the most likely reason they took over the investigation is to shield ICE from any accountability.
- dredmorbius 9mo agoThe US FBI now seems to act much as the National Enquirer does, as a "catch and kill" tool. In the case of the Enquirer, this was through buying exclusive rights to inconvenient stories and refusing to publish them. In the case of the FBI, it's by claiming exclusive jurisdiction over incidents and quashing or impeding independent investigation. See "Former National Enquirer boss breaks his silence on 'catch and kill' as lead witness in Trump trial" (2024) <https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/23/media/national-enquirer-catch-and-kill-trump-trial/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/23/media/national-enquirer-catch...> and <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_and_kill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_and_kill> (concept) and <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_and_Kill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_and_Kill> (Ronan Farrow book).
- like_any_other 9mo ago[flagged]
- RickJWagner 9mo agoSo you did it when Obama ( and the current ICE management ) were handling deportations?
- panja 9mo agoHe did say 10 years ago so...
- newfriend 9mo ago[flagged]
- cdrnsf 9mo agoImmigration can be enforced without murdering, gassing and viciously assaulting bystanders. Never mind the violations of human rights (like sending deportees to hellholes like CECOT), lying about citizen observers and continually having lawsuits tossed by grand juries. It's a rogue agency with no accountability that will continue to cause untold harm while making everyone less safe.
- newfriend 9mo ago[flagged]
- SpicyLemonZest 9mo agoI don't care what you think is viable anymore, because the current US immigration enforcement authorities are themselves criminals and murderers. Until Kristi Noem and Greg Bovino are in prison jumpsuits, I will never support the enforcement of US immigration laws and wholeheartedly endorse all lawful efforts to obstruct it.
- newfriend 9mo ago[flagged]
- SpicyLemonZest 9mo agoIt was not originally my ultimate position! During the Biden administration I was on exactly the opposite side: we have to enforce immigration law, it can't be subject to a heckler's veto, because if the government tells voters they're not allowed to have the immigration laws they want they're just going to elect a different government that allows it. I was heavily considering voting for Nikki Haley if she won the primary, and I think e.g. Canada and the UK are quite wise to see what's happening in the US and be more open to the idea of strict enforcement. But Trump and his minions have worked hard to radicalize me over the past year, constantly arguing that everyone who personally dislikes Trump should be miserable and fear his wrath. They succeeded, so I no longer respect their authority and support all lawful efforts to obstruct anything they try to do. Perhaps in the future there will be a government I consider legitimate; if they can root out all of the goons Trump planted in DHS, I would endorse their authority to enforce immigration law again.
- phillipcarter 9mo agoThe most maximally vindictive candidates are earning my votes in the coming election.
- jtfrench 9mo agoWhat if their maximally vindictive traits just makes them want to use the same invasive tools and techniques?
- phillipcarter 9mo agoLike today? It’s entirely possible to prosecute the heads of all of these horrific things into the stone age, comb through internal data and throw every agent who’s murdered someone in jail, and not punish everyday people who just cast a vote.
- wyre 9mo agoCompared to the alternative of staying on our current path of American fascism and WW3? I’ll take the odds for vindictiveness.
- NeutralCrane 9mo agoThey already are. Playing nice and hoping the other side will come to their senses and return to normalcy doesn’t make sense when they’ve already shown you they will try to destroy you regardless.
- antonvs 9mo agoCareful, without any further qualification you just endorsed Stephen Miller.
- wantlotsofcurry 9mo ago404 continues to do great work.
- nemomarx 9mo agoAny tips on how to avoid this? I suppose those tin foil signal blockers might be useful?
- doublerabbit 9mo agoNot use any device that has GSM/LTE, or Bluetooth. Alternatively, broadcast a hidden SSID WiFi AP via an enabled RPi and use only devices that's have WiFi. Hand them out to people for free to increase the spread. Attach magnets to the RPi's and go rogue by sticking them to buses, cars and trains et cetera to increase range.
- nemomarx 9mo agoAre there decent wifi communicators on the market? I looked into some Lora projects for this but they never seem to actually ship or get past prorotypes
- unoti 9mo ago> Are there decent wifi communicators on the market? I looked into some Lora projects for this but they never seem to actually ship or get past prorotype Yes, 100%. Meshtastic and Meshcore both do this, but I'd recommend Meshcore. Here in the Seattle area we have a network that fairly reliably delivers messages from Canada through the Seattle metro area all the way down to Portland. Fully encrypted with dual key cryptography. Meshcore uses a different strategy than Meshtastic, which enables Meshcore to work more reliably. To see what's happening in your area for Meshcore see https://analyzer.letsmesh.net/map https://analyzer.letsmesh.net/map Is very fun to set up a repeater for under $50 and see a noticeable difference in the coverage area. Is a fun technical project that combines the best of hiking/walking/driving geocaching style, ham radio (but without a license requirement), antenna building, and more. I'm getting acquainted with people in my neighborhood too which is a bonus. Figuring out what hardware to buy that'll actually work can be a challenge, to get started search amazon for "heltec v3" and make sure you get something that includes a battery, and you'll see 2-packs of radios for $60. There's a web flasher at the above link that'll put the software on the radios for you.
- saubeidl 9mo agoThey're building 1984. They're building the Social Credit system they claimed China was building. Don't let them!
- titzer 9mo agoWait until they find out what Google Location Services collects.
- standardUser 9mo agoI wish this country had a libertarian right that cared one iota about widespread suppression of civil liberties instead of only whining about taxes.
- pixl97 9mo agoNa, the libertarian right just wants to make money without laws first... then be authoritarians.
- empath75 9mo agoThe dirty secret about American politics is that people care about any of that stuff only to the extent that it supports their actual ideological goals. Freedom of religion, freedom of speech, state's rights, all of it. They want it for them, and don't care if anybody else has it _at best_, and actively want to take it away from others at worst. Documents like the Declaration and Constitution only get written after centuries of bloodshed that we are far removed from, and people forget why anybody cared about such abstract principles to begin with.
- Hizonner 9mo agoUm, what "ideological goals"? "My friends and I get to do anything we want and fuck everybody else" isn't much of an ideology. Ideology means "abstract principles".
- dredmorbius 9mo agoIt was power-lust dressed as ideology, the latter largely to make it attractive to a larger, and highly gullible, it turns out, cohort.
- Terr_ 9mo agoIts collapse / take-over / mask-off over the last decade (interpretations vary) has been very disappointing. I mean, FFS, what kind of principled third-party invites the authoritarian "opposition" candidate as the keynote speaker to their convention?
- everdrive 9mo agoSo this is getting to be pretty real and pretty scary. How many of you have actually considered just not using your mobile phone any longer? Turning it off, only powering it on when you need it, and not bringing it when you leave your home? Within a lot of our lifetimes, this was the norm. Are these devices so useful that put up with carrying a tracking / listening device on us at all time?
- cdrnsf 9mo agoAnecdotally, Joseph from 404 does not use a mobile phone at all.
- spicybright 9mo agoMy only comment is being able to call emergency services wherever you are is very useful. Pre-cell phone times was just hoping there was a landline somewhere. And you weren't able to get instructions from the operator and be with a fallen person at the same time.
- dandellion 9mo agoCan't you just put your phone in a shielded bag, and take it out if you need to use it?
- mercanlIl 9mo agoJust one anecdotal perspective: I do not of know a single person in my extended family/professional network/social circle who has had location tracking or app eavesdropping directly impact their life. The only impact I’ve seen is via advertising exposure. (For me) The convenience of Google Maps for navigation, and messaging for communication, is too beneficial. The _impact_ of these technologies as surveillance tools _in my life_ is hypothetical.
- icameron 9mo agoWhen I first heard the advice to ditch your phone when you go a protest, I thought maybe that's a little extreme. But it's a real threat. We already knew post Snowden there is an extensive big brother apparatus. We saw post 911 that all rights can be taken away in the name of counter-terrorism. Now with a government that's operating outside the law and labeling peaceful protesters as terrorists, I don't think we can rely on telcos to protect our identity. The mass surveillance will fingerprint a device, and the telco will know your name so it's not at all an extreme precaution to ditch your phone.
- daheza 9mo agoIf we all ditch our phones then how will we record the abuses of power?
- chaps 9mo ago....cameras exist :)
- daheza 9mo agoTrue, cameras can be taken away or smashed after the fact destroying evidence. With my phone I can stream video to a cloud so that it can't be deleted. The ACLU used to have an app specifically for this but it seems to have been discontinued. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACLU_Mobile_Justice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACLU_Mobile_Justice
- chaps 9mo agoSure, just be careful not to fall into the trap of technosolutionism.
- Ccecil 9mo agoI have an Eye-fi SD card which can send photos via wifi. Wouldn't be too hard to make a receiver that send from a raspi or something automatically. Seems they are discontinued but there are other options that work similar such as "EZ Share"
- nphardon 9mo agoM.I.A.'s clothing brand is looking real good now. There are others but hers was the first I heard about. Seems like the waist bag would be critical for activists. From the Ohmni website: "...fabric's work by utilizing the principles of a Faraday cage to block or shield against electrical signals, electromagnetic radiation (EMR), and radio frequency interference (RFI)."
- filoleg 9mo ago>"[...] fabric's work by utilizing the principles of a Faraday cage to block or shield against electrical signals, electromagnetic radiation (EMR), and radio frequency interference (RFI)." But what's the point of bringing a phone at this point? Other comments mentioned valid points about tradeoffs of using an offline camera vs. a phone, with pro-phone arguments listing things like "being able to livestream and get the evidence out even if the device is damaged/destroyed" and "messaging/coordinating/comms". The anti-phone/pro-camera side also had good points, saying that those things also make it easier to track/identify you. The choice between those two options is definitely not clear-cut, and it is all about individual tradeoffs and risk assessment. But if you are rocking something that's essentially a wearable Faraday cage that block all signals (I am just assuming it works exactly as stated, without attempting to judge its efficacy), what's the point of bringing (an essentially fully offline) phone in the first place, as opposed to bringing a camera with zero connectivity?
- juuular 9mo agoYou can put it in your pocket and go somewhere else with less of a chance you'll be tracked
- nphardon 9mo agoThere's levels, for some, no-phone is the safest only route, for others, this could be a good solution. There's vids on her site showing how it works, it's very nice.
- gilrain 9mo ago> But what's the point of bringing a phone at this point? Really?? You can take it out of your pocket and use it to communicate.
- gruez 9mo ago>The material does not say how Penlink obtains the smartphone location data in the first place. But surveillance companies and data brokers broadly gather it in two different ways. The first is from small bundles of code included in ordinary apps called software development kits, or SDKs. SDK owners then pay the app developers, who might make things like weather or prayer apps, for their users’ location data. The second is through real-time bidding, or RTB. This is where companies in the online advertising industry place near instantaneous bids to get their advert in front of a certain demographic. A side effect is that companies can obtain data about peoples’ individual devices, including their GPS coordinates. Spy firms have sourced this sort of RTB information from hugely popular smartphone apps. Sounds like if you're denying location permissions to shady apps (why would you allow in the first place?), you're probably fine.
- aredienhcs 9mo agoNot really, if weather apps are sharing the location as it says, then a lot os people are unkowingly allowing theses apps to collect the location.
- dzdt 9mo agoIf you install 100 apps on your phone, and 50% are participating in the kind of ad network that this data is sourced form, and 10% of the apps convince you to enable location services either by having a plausible need for it or by dark patterns or by your carelessness, that means there are still multiple sources where this information gets out. The math is on the trackers' side, not the users'.
- gruez 9mo ago>If you install 100 apps on your phone Why do you need 100 apps? Moreover why do you need 100 apps that have location permissions? Both android and ios makes it easy to tell which apps have location permissions. The list should be a very small list, and limited to "while using app". >and 10% of the apps convince you to enable location services either by having a plausible need for it or by dark patterns or by your carelessness, that means there are still multiple sources where this information gets out. I'm not claiming that nobody is getting picked up by data brokers. The fact that they're in business implies that there's enough people careless enough to make it a viable business. But what I am claiming that such tracking isn't too hard to avoid. You can see some people in this thread who think otherwise, thinking that they need to go of the grid or switch to burner phones, when they all need to do is spend 1 minute to check the location permissions list.
- drnick1 9mo agoPaywalled.
- therobots927 9mo agoI’d like to personally thank the tech billionaires for inflicting a domestic paramilitary force on the US population under the guise of “enforcing immigration”. Now they have access to the same surveillance tools used by the IDF to track and murder innocent civilians with plausible deniability.
- anthk 9mo agoRichard Stallman was right. Buy a dumbphone, an actual one. Call's, SMS', nothing else. Did you know that women's period was tracked by propietary smartphone apps? There goes your freedom. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-61952794 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-61952794
- Hizonner 9mo agoYou can still be location-tracked with a dumb phone. Yes, even if the phone has no GPS. Any communication with the network gives away your location to the "right" people.
- mghackerlady 9mo agoit can, but it's significantly harder. With good enough opsec the info leaked through cell activity is practically negligible
- anthk 9mo agoPocket Faradays cages (and metallic clothes) exist. In the end if you use as a landline phone substitute it's almost a hardware issue and software would be just testimonial there.
- ck2 9mo agoI submitted this three hours earlier but apparently my links are now shadow-banned? eh at least it's being seen Be sure to read their other DHS coverage
- Jtsummers 9mo ago404media links are shadowbanned, not necessarily yours. They have been for years, people vouch for them to bring them back from the dead.
- dredmorbius 9mo ago404 Media has a fairly hard paywall, though Archive Today occasionally works. Email concerns to mods at hn@ycombinator.com. They can reverse autokills or help find alternative links.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- ChrisArchitect 9mo agoRelated: ICE Is Going on a Surveillance Shopping Spree https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46534581 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46534581
- ChrisArchitect 9mo agohttps://archive.ph/HYbBG https://archive.ph/HYbBG
- runjake 9mo agoThe book Means of Control by Byron Tau goes deep into this realm. I thought I knew all the methods and sources and this book opened my eyes to even more goings on. https://www.amazon.com/Means-Control-Alliance-Government-Surveillance/dp/0593443225 https://www.amazon.com/Means-Control-Alliance-Government-Sur...
- mmmlinux 9mo agoWhy isn't any one independently using this same information to track ICE officers? I'm sure they all carry phones.
- cdrnsf 9mo agoThere have been isolated cases of protestors using Grindr and other location-based apps to highlight ERO agents in enforcement areas.
- Shalomboy 9mo agoWell first off, it is very expensive. Vendors that supply to DHS and DOD have to be selective about who they sell their services to as well. Citizen-developed services to track ICE are routinely shut down by Apple and Google.
- mmmlinux 9mo agoSo make a real website and not an App.
- duxup 9mo agoThey can monitor you but according to this administration you can't even record ICE's activities legally. https://reason.com/2026/01/08/you-have-the-right-to-record-ice/ https://reason.com/2026/01/08/you-have-the-right-to-record-i... Rules for thee and not for me...
- cheald 9mo agoI suppose I'm showing my age here, but Stingrays/IMSI-catchers have been around and in use for decades by both federal and local governments, and the problem of mass surveillance is not particularly an ICE problem. In my lifetime, the level of surveillance of the population has increased so dramatically that I'm not sure that younger people actually understand what it was like to live in a world where your every move wasn't monitored, recorded, and archived. Privacy advocates have been fighting this battle for decades, but they have been utterly defeated because, by and large, people don't and can't be made to care about privacy until they learn the hard way (and when it's too late) why it's so important.
- DarkByte 9mo ago"can track phones without a warrant and follow their owners home or to their employer" sounds strangely like what was reported to be happening to Palestinians in Gaza. Penlink is in Israel. I think there is a good chance this tech was developed and used in the ongoing genocide against Palestinians and is now being resold to law enforcement here.