[kictanet] For sale: Systems that can secretly track where cellphone users go around the globe

[Dennis Kioko]

I'm not sure governments are getting any more value from such systems
besides trying to satisfy an unending appetite for spying on users.

At the end of the day, I don't see this being of much benefit to
governments, but will instead end up to them falling out of favour with
citizens.

The spying also risks not achieving the goal of stopping terrorism, if that
was the original goal rather than an excuse.
On 26 Aug 2014 07:39, "Martin Gicheru via kictanet" <
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> The more technology becomes necessary the more we lose our privacy. I
> think people are gradually accepting this fact, that we have been owned
> where privacy is concerned.
>
> Regards,
> Martin Gicheru
> Editor Techweez
> On 25 Aug 2014 23:33, "ICT Researcher via kictanet" <
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>
>>
>> By Craig Timberg August 24 at 7:02 PM
>>
>> Makers of surveillance systems are offering governments across the world
>> the ability to track the movements of almost anybody who carries a
>> cellphone, whether they are blocks away or on another continent.
>>
>> The technology works by exploiting an essential fact of all cellular
>> networks: They must keep detailed, up-to-the-minute records on the
>> locations of their customers to deliver calls and other services to them.
>> Surveillance systems are secretly collecting these records to map people's
>> travels over days, weeks or longer, according to company marketing
>> documents and experts in surveillance technology.
>>
>> The world's most powerful intelligence services, such as the National
>> Security Agency and Britain's GCHQ, long have used cellphone data to track
>> targets around the globe. But experts say these new systems allow less
>> technically advanced governments to track people in any nation -- including
>> the United States -- with relative ease and precision.
>>
>> Users of such technology type a phone number into a computer portal,
>> which then collects information from the location databases maintained by
>> cellular carriers, company documents show. In this way, the surveillance
>> system learns which cell tower a target is currently using, revealing his
>> or her location to within a few blocks in an urban area or a few miles in a
>> rural one.
>>
>> Read more at:
>>
>>
>> http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/for-sale-systems-that-can-secretly-track-where-cellphone-users-go-around-the-globe/2014/08/24/f0700e8a-f003-11e3-bf76-447a5df6411f_story.html?wpisrc=nl-tech&wpmm=1
>>
>>
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> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>
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