FBI taps turned-off cellphones (aka "roving bug").

[razorburn]

Oh but there is a "powerful mic" built into most cell phones. Ever used the speakerphone mode?

When I use speakerphone, I still have to talk into the speaker, but it transmits what's said more loudly. It doesn't hear something far away or muffled. No matter how great of sound filters they have, it doesn't make any difference if the base material it's filtering, the phones mic is just not good enough to pick up sounds when they're muffled and far away from the phone. It can refine the sound, but it can't create somethinig from nothing. I still don't buy it.... maybe if there's more sources, but not something that sounds so improbable from a lone source.

 

[Lucky]

Thanks for the tips, what a list! This place lists a lot of the common phone-bugging ways. Apparently you think your phone's speaker doesn't pick up well, but they filter it with an audio amplifier and it works great.
http://www.tscm.com/phonemods.html

I don't understand CO/REMOBS Monitoring (Central Office Remote Observance) even though they explained it.

 

[Thin Black Line]

Cellphone monitoring has come a long way since the days when the 3 watt
bag phone in the car would mysteriously turn on......

 

[benEzra]

Caveat emptor. If you don't research the model of cellphone you buy in a deeply technical sense before you buy it, it's your own fault if you're carrying around a bug. Myself, I not only got one that will noticably change its external display and can be set to make a noise if any active links besides service handshaking are "running", but I hooked it up to a Mac and poked about its firmware besides, completely disabling the locator feature. It also helps to buy one designed and made for, say, the Japanese market and only imported here, since something made in Tokyo or Singapore is far less likely to include Homerland Sekurity "features".

Anyone who leaves their cellphone's location feature on, even by not selecting "turn off" from a menu, is carrying a tracking device that is actively reporting each and every place they go every day. And it's not just .gov that might use this, but marketing companies want to see just where you go so they can spam you with more junk mail and "personalized offers" while building a consumer profile of you.

Yes, any cellphone can be tracked in a relative sense via triangulation between signal towers, but that's imprecise and takes a concerted effort by a technician to do for one phone. The location feature constantly reports to automated systems that may keep logs.

Be informed, make informed decisions, or be part of the unthinking herds.

Manedwolf, where would one find more info on the topic?

 

[ilbob]

http://news.com.com/FBI+taps+cell+p...ol/2100-1029_3-6140191.html?www.dailytech.com

 

[SalTx]

I don't know anything about how electronic stuff works, ..but I know years ago, about when all the cell phones were taking off..our federal agency recieved intel reports of the drug traffickers activating cell phones left in seized loads, etc. to monitor and collect any intel to their benefit..i think this was just exploiting a existing capability of the specific phones..however, i do believe that the ability and practice of using "roving bugs" has been in use for a long time.