Author Topic: Met Police buying mobile device data extraction devices  (Read 9075 times)

Re: Met Police buying mobile device data extraction devices
« Reply #25 on: 20 May, 2012, 07:20:28 pm »
It's all fine as long as your definition of nothing wrong matches with everyone in powers definition of nothing wrong.
For the next 10 / 15 / 20 years or so - a radical (or reactionary) change of governement might see data mined in the prevoius decade in a different light to the way it has 'traditionally' been.

Practically I'm with Oscars Dad on this - I'm not a bad man, so what does it matter? But phillosophically I see a slide towards a state that the East German secret police would be envious of, with our faces tracked everywhere on CCTV, car numberplates automatically following our journeys, and our spending habits tracked on card records increasingly etc etc etc.
There is the tension - pragmatism and politics.
Too many angry people - breathe & relax.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Met Police buying mobile device data extraction devices
« Reply #26 on: 20 May, 2012, 08:30:19 pm »
But whereas the East Germans imposed such a state by force and maintained it by fear, we have voted for it ourselves. Largely with our wallets.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Met Police buying mobile device data extraction devices
« Reply #27 on: 20 May, 2012, 08:48:16 pm »
But whereas the East Germans imposed such a state by force and maintained it by fear, we have voted for it ourselves. Largely with our wallets.

POTD!  :thumbsup:
If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is...

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Met Police buying mobile device data extraction devices
« Reply #28 on: 21 May, 2012, 08:03:22 am »
But whereas the East Germans imposed such a state by force and maintained it by fear, we have voted for it ourselves. Largely with our wallets.

Very true.  And the vast majority of UK adult citizens can stand for Parliament and if successful effect change.  You can even effect change without being an MP.

As mentioned earlier, I know I'm a member of a privileged majority but I'm really struggling to see where the real-life threat to civil liberty lies. 

Re: Met Police buying mobile device data extraction devices
« Reply #29 on: 21 May, 2012, 05:31:32 pm »
I forsee a market for a thermite phone jacket.  Prototyping commences!

Unfortunately I think the Thermite would just get you arrested on some new charges?  A better solution would be a phone that was smart enough to tell it was being "slurped", at which point it would report that your address book contained the phone numbers (office and private!) for the local chief constable, your local MP and the Justice Secretary!

Charlotte

  • Dissolute libertine
  • Here's to ol' D.H. Lawrence...
    • charlottebarnes.co.uk
Re: Met Police buying mobile device data extraction devices
« Reply #30 on: 24 May, 2012, 02:14:52 pm »
Oh look - moar toys for the met:

Mobile fingerprint scanners to be adopted by Met Police

Now, in fairness, I've seen Police Interceptors.  I know that this technology isn't new.  It's just that the devices have gone from being the size of a lunch box to the size of a mobile phone. 

The thing is - I've also seen Gattaca, so I know where this ends.  At the same time as having your crotch sniffed by a spaniel at the tube station, the less intelligent side of the policing duo will be asking you to pop your finger on the reader and plug your phone into this cord, Sir...
Commercial, Editorial and PR Photographer - www.charlottebarnes.co.uk

Re: Met Police buying mobile device data extraction devices
« Reply #31 on: 24 May, 2012, 02:17:50 pm »
Plug my phone in? This one?  Oh, what's that, there is smoke coming out of your gadget, Mr Policeman?  That's terrible, my phone must be faulty, maybe a faulty battery. I'll have to take it back to the shop and complain.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

sas

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Re: Met Police buying mobile device data extraction devices
« Reply #32 on: 25 May, 2012, 12:58:50 am »
So, what do we do?  Ban the technology on the basis that we can't find anyone trustworthy enough to use it?  Or, ensure the agencies who want to use these gadgets are grown up enough to use what could be very useful tech that could keep us all safer?
Ideally the latter. The problem is how do you do that, in particular how do you do that for a minority of cases where it can have a big negative impact?

Bear in mind that banning the police from using this isn't the same as banning the public from using/carrying X (where X is anything...knives, etc). In the latter case there's the general presumption that the public should behave responsibly and that a ban shouldn't be disproportionate. In the former the police are there to serve the public, are given additional powers, and should therefore be held to a higher standard.
I am nothing and should be everything

Rig of Jarkness

  • An Englishman abroad
Re: Met Police buying mobile device data extraction devices
« Reply #33 on: 02 June, 2012, 08:09:36 am »
Anything that helps the police and courts put more criminals behind bars, quicker, cheaper, and with a higher conviction rate is good news in my book.
Aero but not dynamic

Re: Met Police buying mobile device data extraction devices
« Reply #34 on: 02 June, 2012, 10:54:56 am »
bit late on this post but I don't see why this has only just surfaced, the police already have the ability to monitor mobile phones
and anyone with a receiver with the correct frequency can tune in, I can remember back in '81 radio shack used to do a unit that you could tune into almost anything that was being transmitted , it was of course not very legal and was soon withdrawn, 
on the other hand if you've been nicked they will take your phone and go through it with a fine tooth combe and you won't get it back until your either released from bail or your properly nicked, the one thing to do if this does happen to you is get ride of your phone and change your number, me, paranoid ? never.

or have I got the wrong end of the stick as usual :)    IGMC

sas

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Re: Met Police buying mobile device data extraction devices
« Reply #35 on: 02 June, 2012, 11:22:17 am »
This has got me thinking, is there any way to encrypt the contents of a phone, or at least the SD card? Would come in handy if it's stolen.
I am nothing and should be everything

rr

Re: Re: Met Police buying mobile device data extraction devices
« Reply #36 on: 02 June, 2012, 04:28:50 pm »
This has got me thinking, is there any way to encrypt the contents of a phone, or at least the SD card? Would come in handy if it's stolen.
Yes, All the Blackberries issued at my work are encrypted and wipe themselves if the wrong password is entered too many times.

sas

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Re: Met Police buying mobile device data extraction devices
« Reply #37 on: 02 June, 2012, 06:40:53 pm »
I should probably have mentioned it's for Android.
I am nothing and should be everything