SECRET MASS SURVEILLANCE - FBI Behind Mysterious Surveillance Airplanes Flying Over U.S. Cities

 
we now know more about the FBI's fleet of small surveillance planes that are flying over US cities. It's no secret the aircraft have been used for years to aid the Bureau's efforts on the ground, but recent flights were equipped with cameras and cellphone-tracking technology. The FBI says mass surveillance isn't the purpose of the group of mostly Cessnas (like the one above), maintaining the gear is only used for ongoing investigations -- more often than not, without a warrant. The FBI isn't denying the existence of the aircraft, but the AP linked the fleet to at least 13 fake companies that coordinated over 100 flights in 11 states during a 30-day span starting near the end of April. According to the Bureau, measures are taken for "operational security purposes" and for pilot safety. The FBI also says the phone-tracking tech is rarely used. However, much like the its Stingray devices, the cellphones of nearby people are caught up in the net -- not just the intended target.

erizon, the US’s largest wireless telecom company, is developing technology with Nasa to direct and monitor America’s growing fleet of civilian and commercial drones from its network of phone towers.

According to documents obtained by the Guardian, Verizon signed an agreement last year with Nasa “to jointly explore whether cell towers … could support communications and surveillance of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) at low altitudes”.

That $500,000 project is now underway at Nasa’s Ames Research Center in the heart of Silicon Valley. Nasa is planning the first tests of an air traffic control system for drones there this summer, with Verizon scheduled to introduce a concept for using cell coverage for data, navigation, surveillance and tracking of drones by 2017. The phone company hopes to finalise its technology by 2019.


An independent journalist first uncovered a fleet of secret airplanes registered to fake corporations and apparently created by the Department of Justice. Aerial surveillance represents a changing frontier for law enforcement, providing what the government maintains is an important tool in criminal, terrorism or intelligence probes. But the program raises questions about whether there should be updated policies protecting civil liberties as new technologies pose intrusive opportunities for government spying. to collect “dialing, routing, addressing, or signaling information” including telephone numbers dialed and Internet metadata such as IP addresses and email headers. There are two pen register statutes, one for foreign intelligence surveillance and one for law enforcement. Both rely require only that the pen register be likely to obtain information relevant to a national security or criminal investigation respectively. Until the end of 2011, the NSA used the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) pen register statute to conduct mass surveillance of Internet metadata, much as it still uses Section 215 for mass collection of telephone records.

“What you think is totally irrelavant,” warned Binney, pointing out that the government will decide what constitutes suspicious activity when it comes to placing a person under blanket surveillance.







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