DOJ Documents Show Aerial Surveillance Collecting Cellphone Locational Data, EFF Says
The U.S. Marshals Service is flying small Cessna airplanes outfitted with "dirtboxes," which are devices that mimic cell towers that can capture locational data on tens of thousands of cellphones during a flight, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said it learned…
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from heavily redacted material obtained from DOJ via a Freedom of Information Act request. "The records we received confirm the agencies were using these invasive surveillance tools with little oversight or legal guidance," EFF staff attorney Andrew Crocker wrote in a blog post Wednesday. Citing stories from The Wall Street Journal, he wrote that the planes were based out of five airports and used by multiple DOJ agencies, and that the CIA even helped the Marshals Service in developing and testing the capability. The FOIA materials EFF obtained are mostly internal emails and presentations from the FBI dating back to 2009, but Crocker said they "paint a picture" similar to issues about StingRays and international mobile subscriber identity catchers: "The FBI began testing and then using dirtboxes on planes without any overarching policy or legal guidance on their place in investigations." The government now requires a warrant for using cell site simulators, though there are loopholes and the policy could later change (see 1603020026). Within the material obtained, Crocker said, only a single policy document came from the Marshals Service, with "scattered references to aerial surveillance and the use of cell site simulators, but nothing that documents the Marshals’ years of dirtbox use." He said "it's very hard to believe" a bigger paper trail such as contracts, purchase orders and legal memos hasn't been generated. A spokeswoman said in an email that the Marshals Services doesn't discuss or disclose any investigative techniques, but uses various ones "to pursue and arrest violent felony fugitives based on pre-established probable cause in arrest warrants issued for crimes such as murder, sex offenders, robbery, drug offenses, kidnapping, escape and other criminal activities which negatively impact public safety." She added the techniques are consistent with federal law and DOJ policies and are subject to court approval.