Law enforcement tech from two-years ago: New police radars can 'see' inside homes

[Weston White]

Highlights:

At least 50 U.S. law enforcement agencies quietly deployed radars that let them effectively see inside homes, with little notice to the courts or the public.

The radars work like finely tuned motion detectors, using radio waves to zero in on movements as slight as human breathing from a distance of more than 50 feet. They can detect whether anyone is inside of a house, where they are and whether they are moving.

The judges expressed alarm that agents had used the new technology without a search warrant, warning that "the government's warrantless use of such a powerful tool to search inside homes poses grave Fourth Amendment questions."

By then, however, the technology was hardly new. Federal contract records show the Marshals Service began buying the radars in 2012, and has so far spent at least $180,000 on them.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/01/19/police-radar-see-through-walls/22007615/

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

I'm pretty sure the OP article is about backscatter radar.

These 4 take advantage of WiFi inside sensed from outside:
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/enterprise/ct...tion_through_walls-_Woodbridge_and_Chetty.pdf

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-07/seeing-through-walls-wireless-router

http://hackaday.com/2012/08/11/seeing-through-walls-using-wifi/

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&arnumber=6020778


This approach uses "special" equipment and is useful for mapping/tracking for gaming, etc:

By "special" it's mainly additional antennas inside along with software to do the tracking. I believe it also uses radio signals at a different frequency in addition to WiFi if I didn't mix them up.

http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2013/new-...ccuracy-through-wall-3-d-motion-tracking-1211

http://www.gizmag.com/witrack-motion-tracking/30112/

WiTrack and WiSee
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-12/12/witrack


http://witrack.csail.mit.edu/witrack-paper.pdf

see refs 10, 21, 13 and 14 above (probably others) that are a bit more about using a standard WiFi router to track people using their bones as antenna with applications being games and VR. Most WiFi routers are insecure... You know where I'm going with this...

-t

 

[Working Poor]

You know where I'm going with this...

No I don't know but I want to. Does this mean that lead foil is going to be in style this year?

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

It means that in theory someone could break into your router and use it to track where you are and what you are doing, sending the results back out your Internet connection.

Basically anything wireless is really bad for privacy and security. From baby monitors, surveillance cameras, intercoms, smart phones, smart meters (utility companies), and the whole IoT (Internet of Things ie: smart homes) and then there are computers with built in mikes and camera's and gaming systems, if your refrigerator spying on you wasn't bad enough.

-t

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

This one is close but relies on a single body worn sensor:


-t

 

[Working Poor]

Is the solution no more wireless routers? Is there away to secure a wireless router?

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

Is the solution no more wireless routers? Is there away to secure a wireless router?

Easy answer: hardwire everything. no more wireless anything. Pull the antennas off and maybe take the router apart and clip wires. Remember it's in laptops and computers plus smartphones. At a min, turn it off in software.
Hard and expensive answer: retrofit your home as a SCIF (faraday cage)

Better videos with no sensor on the body:




-t

 

[NACBA]

New Police Radars can 'see' Inside Your Home

WASHINGTON — At least 50 U.S. law enforcement agencies have secretly equipped their officers with radar devices that allow them to effectively peer through the walls of houses to see whether anyone is inside, a practice raising new concerns about the extent of government surveillance.

Those agencies, including the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service, began deploying the radar systems more than two years ago with little notice to the courts and no public disclosure of when or how they would be used. The technology raises legal and privacy issues because the U.S. Supreme Court has said officers generally cannot use high-tech sensors to tell them about the inside of a person's house without first obtaining a search warrant.

The radars work like finely tuned motion detectors, using radio waves to zero in on movements as slight as human breathing from a distance of more than 50 feet. They can detect whether anyone is inside of a house, where they are and whether they are moving.

Current and former federal officials say the information is critical for keeping officers safe if they need to storm buildings or rescue hostages. But privacy advocates and judges have nonetheless expressed concern about the circumstances in which law enforcement agencies may be using the radars — and the fact that they have so far done so without public scrutiny.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/01/19/police-radar-see-through-walls/22007615/

 

[DamianTV]

Why dont they just cut to the chase and demand we all get CHIPPED and put fucking CAMERAS in every room in our house and make it Mandatory, oh and to add insult to injury, make us pay for it?

 

[Acala]

"Current and former federal officials say the information is critical for keeping officers safe if they need to storm buildings or rescue hostages."

Really? Don't they need a warrant to storm a building? If so, why can't they include in the warrant the use of the new radar? Why do they need to use it WITHOUT a warrant?

 

[Dr.3D]

Why did the other thread on this get locked?
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?467073-New-police-radars-can-see-inside-homes

 

[Natural Citizen]

Why did the other thread on this get locked?
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?467073-New-police-radars-can-see-inside-homes

I think the same article got posted 3 or 4 times.

 

[Dr.3D]

I think the same article got posted 3 or 4 times.

They usually just move each successive thread to the end of the first one that was posted.

 

[Natural Citizen]

They usually just move each successive thread to the end of the first one that was posted.

I know but it was the same exact article and nobody commented on the article when they shared it. So if they moved each successive thread to the end of the first one then we'd have a thread with the same article in it a few times and nothing else. That'd be dumb.

Of course, maybe there is another reason. I just happened to be flipping through this morning and saw them is why I mention that possibility. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

[Dr.3D]

I know but it was the same exact article and nobody commented on the article when they shared it. So if they moved each successive thread to the end of the first one then we'd have a thread with the same article in it a few times and nothing else. That'd be dumb.

Of course, maybe there is another reason. I just happened to be flipping through this morning and saw them is why I mention that possibility. Maybe I'm wrong.

I see and you are probably correct.

It's just that the first thing I saw when I logged in this morning was that thread and it made me wonder why it was locked. Perhaps it would have been better if the person locking it had made a note or at least a link to one of the other threads on the same subject.

Now at least I can understand why it was locked.

 

[DamianTV]

It means that in theory someone could break into your router and use it to track where you are and what you are doing, sending the results back out your Internet connection.

Basically anything wireless is really bad for privacy and security. From baby monitors, surveillance cameras, intercoms, smart phones, smart meters (utility companies), and the whole IoT (Internet of Things ie: smart homes) and then there are computers with built in mikes and camera's and gaming systems, if your refrigerator spying on you wasn't bad enough.

-t

Just wait until your Hands Free (and Internet Ready) Toilet gives you a Drug Test every time you take a piss! And screens your Sodium levels, and pregnancy test, and every other test that can be done by urine. Water wasters will be fined. Drug users will be arrested. High Sodium Levels will have your ObamaCare Premiums increased and will then never decrease. Oh, and since it will have a Camera too, in order to tell the difference between a turd and toilet paper, others will be able to remotely access that camera and look at your "junk".

Nothing to hide? Really?

 

[osan]

Highlights:



http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/01/19/police-radar-see-through-walls/22007615/

Need to develop gamma-frequency lasers, precisely targetable via software to zero in on the source and shower it with very hard gamma pulses. Bet that would get someone's attention. A month later the melon-sized mass of undifferentiated cells should be enough to pretty well put the root cause of the intrusion out of service for a very long time.

We cannot trust the courts to stop this. Therefore, commercial development of privacy countermeasures is the realistic response.

 

[DamianTV]

I thought this was kinda funny, but in a creepy ironic way...