Federal Court Rules Cops Can't Arrest You for Secretly Filming Them

Contrary to popular belief, in many states, recording the police is a crime.

Laws in 38 states plainly allow citizens to openly film the police in public. However, there are 12 states–California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington–where wiretap laws prohibit citizens from secretly recording police. These states require “two-party consent,” which means every party must agree before they are recorded.

But in a victory against Boston’s police commissioner and district attorney, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday that a Massachusetts law used by Massachusetts police to target people who secretly recorded them was unconstitutional. more

Note to Spies: Get a retainer.

A former employee at UBS Group AG’s French unit whose spying helped build a $6 billion tax case against the bank found the value of her work after she lost her job: 3,000 euros ($3,400).

The relatively paltry sum is all Stephanie Gibaud -- who organized events for wealthy UBS France clients before she was fired in 2012 -- got from a lawsuit she filed last year against the government to obtain 3.5 million euros. The court made its decision Thursday.

The Paris administrative court acknowledged her contribution and recognized the “stress”  she suffered for it. Gibaud, 53, was also given an official status as “an occasional assistant to the public service” seven years after she aided investigators during a surveillance mission of UBS bankers and clients at an event organized around the 2011 Roland-Garros tennis tournament. more

What is Dumber than Spycaming a Police Station Restroom?

Not much. Give this dude a double Darwin!

A 28-year-old clerk has been accused of secretly recording other employees inside a restroom at the Long Beach Police Department’s headquarters, authorities said. 

Sergio Nieto of Downey was arrested late last month after he allegedly photographed and videotaped people inside a restroom at the department’s downtown offices...

Nieto was suspended pending further investigation... Investigators are trying to determine the scope of Nieto’s alleged misconduct, and how many people may have been illegally filmed. more

Infographic - Countries Where Private Security Outnumber Police

Whether they're patrolling shopping malls, conducting screening at airports or protecting VIPs, private security guards have become an increasingly common sight across the world. 

In many countries, they are armed with handguns and even dress in uniforms similar to the police.

The sector has experienced huge growth in recent years and today there are an estimated 20 million private security workers worldwide while the industry is worth approximately $180 billion. That is expected to grow even further to $240 billion by 2020, greater than the GDP of 100 countries including Portugal, Romania and Hungary.

According to research conducted by The Guardian, half of the planet's population lives in countries where there are more private security workers than police officers. more

Click to enlarge.

It is likely these are very conservative statistics, as they don't include security specialists, like: professional security consultants, Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) specialists, private investigators, computer security specialists, and people working in the alarm and video surveillance sectors. ~Kevin

Cell Phone Passcode of 1+2+3+4 = 18 Years in Prison

A man serving 18 years in prison in South Carolina for burglary was rightfully convicted in part because he left his cellphone at the crime scene and a detective guessed his passcode as 1-2-3-4 instead of getting a warrant, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

Lawyers for Lamar Brown argued detectives in Charleston violated Brown’s right to privacy by searching his phone without a warrant.

After storing the cellphone in an evidence locker for six days in December 2011, the detective guessed right on Brown’s easy passcode, found a contact named “grandma” and was able to work his way back to Brown.

The justices ruled in a 4-1 decision that Brown abandoned his phone at the Charleston home and made no effort to find it. The law allows police to look at abandoned property without a court-issued warrant allowing a search. more

Spycam: Aurora Cop Caught Spying on Ex-wife

An Aurora police officer will not be reinstated after he was fired for spying on his ex-wife through three cameras hidden in her Sugar Grove home, a judge has ruled. 

The decision by Kane County Judge David Akemann also cancels an arbitrator's ruling that would have reinstated Daniel Wagner to the Aurora Police Department this past January...

Wagner's now ex-wife found a hidden camera in her home in September 2016 and called police to investigate. Officers found a total of three cameras.
Records show she had filed for divorce in 2015, and Wagner installed the cameras during the divorce proceedings and reactivated them after it was final. more

Eavesdropping: Former Police Official Charged

A recently retired city police captain is now facing a felony charge of eavesdropping.

Brian Wentland, a former training captain who left the Lockport Police Department in February, was charged Friday, according to Niagara County District Attorney Caroline A. Wojtaszek.

The charges relate to a May 6, 2013 phone call involving his ex-wife and another person.

The timing of the charges was critical in the case.Wentland’s arrest was just two days before the five-year statute of limitations expired on the charge. more

The Case of the License Plate ICE Pick

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has officially gained agency-wide access to a nationwide license plate recognition database, according to a contract finalized earlier this month. The system gives the agency access to billions of license plate records and new powers of real-time location tracking, raising significant concerns from civil libertarians...

ICE agents would be able to query that database in two ways. A historical search would turn up every place a given license plate has been spotted in the last five years, a detailed record of the target’s movements. That data could be used to find a given subject’s residence or even identify associates if a given car is regularly spotted in a specific parking lot. more

As foreshadowed...

Mystery 911 Calls from Apple Repair Center

Apple is working with local police to remedy a surge in unintentional emergency calls to 911 that are originating from the company’s distribution and repair center in Elk Grove, California.

The influx of calls has been ongoing for months, averaging 20 accidental calls a day and totaling over 1,600 since October.

911 dispatchers hear silence and intermittent employee chatter when the calls come in. more

Seattle's $3,750,000.00 Lightpole Art Exhibit Closes, or Sightless in Seattle

Back in 2013, the Security Scrapbook featured Seattle's new citywide surveillance system.

"A New Apparatus Capable of Spying on You Has Been Installed Throughout Downtown Seattle. Very Few Citizens Know What It Is, and Officials Don’t Want to Talk About It."

2018...
Five years after activists forced Seattle's mayor to return the city's surveillance drones to their manufacturer, the city has announced that it is terminating its warrantless mass-surveillance program altogether.

The DHS gave the city a $3.6m grant to build out a mesh wireless network that could be enjoyed by the public and also provide communications services during emergencies -- but it was also specked to do continuous location-based surveillance as well as CCTV surveillance from lightpoles all over the city.

Activists worked with the ACLU to pressure the city to work with police to produce a privacy policy that would explain when this data would be gathered, how long it would be retained, and how it would be used. The devices were switched off while these questions were to be answered.

Five years on, the police and city were unable to articulate an answer to these questions, and so now they're spending $150,000 to tear all the gear (including the mesh networking access points) out, rather than accept any limitations on their use. more

One Million License Plates Misread by Spy Cameras in UK... every day!

UK - A network of ‘Big Brother’ spy cameras is misreading 1.2million number plates a day – meaning innocent motorists could be caught up in police investigations while criminals and terrorists escape scot-free.

A bombshell report by Britain’s surveillance tsar has warned of problems with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology, which senior officers insist is invaluable in preventing and solving serious crimes

Around 9,000 cameras across the country take photos of up to 40million number plates each day. more

UPDATE - PA State Police Investigating Possible Wiretapping... of them.

A New Milford man suspected of listening in to phone calls in the Gibson barracks had an assault-style rifle and bombs at home, state police said.  

Nathan J. Grover, 28, 512 Old Route 11, is sought on charges of weapons of mass destruction, prohibited weapons and drug-related crimes. Capt. Christopher Paris, commander of Troop R, which includes the Gibson barracks, confirmed Friday that Grover was not in custody.

State police became aware that Grover, who worked for North-Eastern Pennsylvania Telephone Co., may have been using his position to listen to phone calls at the Gibson barracks, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday by Sgt. Michael Joyce...

Anyone with information on his whereabouts should contact the Gibson barracks at 570-465-3154. more

PA State Police Investigating Possible Wiretapping... of them.

PA - Newswatch 16 has learned state police in Susquehanna County have been investigating a possible case of eavesdropping on their own barracks.

The man they've been investigating was one of the lead network techs at the phone company until recently.

At the Gibson state police barracks in Susquehanna County, all kinds of calls come in and out, and many of the phone conversations relate to active criminal investigations.

Back in September, troopers were investigating an alleged assault at Nathan Grover's home near New Milford. That's when someone told them Grover, 28, a self-proclaimed hacker, was eavesdropping on state police...

There are questions over two suspicious "trouble tickets" found during NEP Telephone's internal investigation. One was a request that didn't come from troopers that could essentially route a phone call made to state police anywhere.

Another was trouble on a phone line registered to a man near Nicholson that somehow was connected to the Gibson barracks account. more

The Patek Philippe Wiretapping Device

Patek Philippe is known for making some of the highest quality (and most expensive) watches in the world. But at some point, it also turned out an unexpected device: a wiretapping machine.

Auction Page

One of the lots in Antiquorum’s recent watch auction in Geneva was the Patek Philippe ZL 4 N and ZG 4, two desktop modules which the listing describe as “a fine and very rare, electronic wiretapping device and clock used by the Swiss police.” Hodinkee’s Jack Forster points out that it looks not unlike a clock synchronizing apparatus: the higher unit could be used to set the time, while the lower one has plugins for four coordinating timepieces.

But with all the testing, research, and verification that goes into high-end auctions (the units sold for CHF 11,250, about $11,366 at current exchange), this thing probably was used for what Antiquorum says it was: to listen in on the conversations of whoever was committing high crime in the world’s most famous neutral nation. As for having the Patek Philippe name attached, well, at least the Swiss police could count on knowing exactly what time any espionage they overheard was going to occur. more

Additional Information from a 2009 auction...
Description: Two Patek Philippe Master Clocks A. Electronic Master Clock Patek Philippe, Genève, Model L4031. Made circa 1975. Very fine, Electronic Center Seconds Master Clock. B. Digital Time Display Master Clock Patek Philippe, No. 841637 & No. 851900, Model ZG 4 & ZL 4. Made in the 1970s. Fine and rare, electric 110/220v aluminium and blue coated LED digital master clock display with day and month indication and control unit. To be sold without reserve C. Rectangular with two handles, wood-effect sides. D. Black with Arabic numerals, outer minute divisions, outer Arabic fivesecond numerals and divisions, brushed fascia with buttons for adjusting the 1/10 and 1/1000 seconds. White baton hands. M. Electronic, a very powerful Master Clock System capable of controlling an almost unlimited number of "slave" clocks and can be regulated to 1/1000th of a second. Dial and case signed. more

"So, we created a picture of our suspect from DNA sweat found on the bugging device."

Damn interesting...
Identification of Individuals by Trait Prediction Using Whole-genome Sequencing Data

Researchers from Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI) have published a study in which individual faces and other physical traits were predicted using whole genome sequencing data and machine learning. This work, from lead author Christoph Lippert, Ph.D. and senior author J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Click to enlarge.

The authors believe that, while the study offers novel approaches for forensics, the work has serious implications for data privacy, deidentification and adequately informed consent. The team concludes that much more public deliberation is needed as more and more genomes are generated and placed in public databases. more

They Always Blame the IT Guys and the Cops – Shocking

Malicious software bought by a London Police Officer can remotely hack users...

One of the officers of UK’s Metropolitan Police Service was caught in possession of a malicious software used for infecting computers and smartphones after gaining physical access to them.

It’s unclear as of yet whether this software was bought for official or personal use, but it does raise a question that why would an MPS’s officer need to buy a malware that can do things like intercepting phone calls, turning on microphones and taking pictures remotely via the infected device’s camera. Especially if the use of this malware wasn’t allowed, which would make it illegal. more


Former Expedia IT tech gets 15 months in jail for insider trading, stealing information from execs...

“This was not a one-time lapse in judgement – this defendant used his technology skills to repeatedly invade the email accounts of Expedia executives so that he could enrich himself at the expense of others,” U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes said in a statement. “Even after he moved on to a better paying position at a different technology firm he continued his crimes, all while trying to make it look like other employees were at fault...

As a “senior IT support technician” based in San Francisco, Ly routinely had access to Hotwire and Expedia employee login information and devices. Ly used those credentials to break into company files to get information he later used in stock transactions....

Ly tried to cover his tracks by using login credentials of other employees when using the service to look at sensitive information... Ly’s acts didn’t end when he left the company in April 2015. Ly kept a company-issued laptop that could connect to Expedia’s network, and he used other employees’ login information to continue breaking into Expedia files and emails. more

Police Chief Pleads Not Guilty to Eavesdropping

CA - David Paul Edmiston, an acting Kern High School District police chief accused of surreptitiously recording his officers, pled not guilty in Kern County Superior Court Wednesday to four counts of misdemeanor eavesdropping.

Edmiston was named acting police chief in August, after Chief Joseph Lopeteguy, who alleged high-level school district administrators were illegally using a sensitive police database, went on medical stress leave. more

Wiretap Warrant v. Data Warrant = Kinetic v. Static

A New Jersey appeals court has ruled that law enforcement agencies can view private messages and tweets from private accounts on Twitter if they get a warrant...

The case turned on what type of warrant is needed: a communications data warrant or a wiretapping warrant, which is needed for electronic communications in transit and has tougher legal requirements.

Essex County officials argued they were trying to access audio that had already been transmitted as opposed to live transmissions. The court agreed, ruling that law enforcement could use a data warrant.

According to Assistant Essex County Prosecutor Camila Garces, the court's ruling "ensures that the state can access electronic footprints when conducting a criminal investigation."

Defense attorney Lawrence Lustberg said that investigators should only have a right to see private message if they get a wiretap because they happen in real time. more

Pharmacy Bandits Nailed by GPS Cough Syrup

CA - The suspects had no idea that the bottle of cough syrup perched on a shelf at a Tustin pharmacy contained something more than cough relief. 

It wasn’t until the nondescript package was removed from the small Newport Avenue business by burglars that its secret ingredients went to work.

Concealed inside the bottle of cough syrup was a GPS device that began tracking the medicine thieves’ every move, according to police investigators...

Tustin police spokesman Lt. Robert Wright said investigators decided to drop the small piece of technology into a bottle of cough syrup after a half-dozen pharmacy burglaries this year. more

AT&T Requires Police to Hide Hemisphere Phone Spying

AT&T built a powerful phone surveillance tool for police, called Hemisphere. Every day, AT&T adds four billion call records to Hemisphere, making it one of the largest known reservoirs of communications metadata that the government uses to spy on us. Law enforcement officials kept Hemisphere “under the radar” for many years—hidden from courts, legislators, and the general public—until the New York Times exposed the program in 2013...

New documents published by The Daily Beast earlier this week reveal that AT&T required this corrosive secrecy. Specifically, the contract AT&T prepared for police seeking access to Hemisphere provides:

[T]he Government agency agrees not to use the data as evidence in any judicial or administrative proceedings unless there is no other available and admissible probative evidence. The Government Agency shall make every effort to insure that information provided by the Contractor is non-attributable to AT&T if the data is provided to a third-party.

In other words, the first rule of Hemisphere is: you do not talk about Hemisphere. more