NSA Cell Phone Snooping

[mjoplin]

Starting to feel like I should be wearing the proverbial tin foil hat.... I am a Verizon wireless customer and have an iPhone 4GS. I noticed my battery life dramatically shortened in the past few days and in looking at the screen noticed the location services icon and Bluetooth icon on. I killed every task except the phone app on the device and the GPS would not turn off. Normally when you get out of the map app which I use frequently, the gps powers down, not recently though. I finally went into settings and turned off location services and this did it. Strange enough...

Bluetooth, which Houston transtar uses for location and timing on the freeways, was turned on also. I ALWAYS have that off as I don't have anything Bluetooth. Both seem odd. I've got a C&R FFL and am active on a few gun forums. Is it paranoia on my part or has anyone else here seeing the same thing on their cell phone?

[Keith B]

Go into Settings, General, Privacy, Location Services and see what app is using them. It should be purple on the active app that has locaiton services running. Even closed there are some apps that will have it running in the background.

As for Bluetooth running it may have gotten turned on by an app or an update.

[VMI77]

Starting to feel like I should be wearing the proverbial tin foil hat.... I am a Verizon wireless customer and have an iPhone 4GS. I noticed my battery life dramatically shortened in the past few days and in looking at the screen noticed the location services icon and Bluetooth icon on. I killed every task except the phone app on the device and the GPS would not turn off. Normally when you get out of the map app which I use frequently, the gps powers down, not recently though. I finally went into settings and turned off location services and this did it. Strange enough...

Bluetooth, which Houston transtar uses for location and timing on the freeways, was turned on also. I ALWAYS have that off as I don't have anything Bluetooth. Both seem odd. I've got a C&R FFL and am active on a few gun forums. Is it paranoia on my part or has anyone else here seeing the same thing on their cell phone?

Unless you're specifically being targeted for some reason (which you'd know), I doubt the general snooping by the NSA would have any effect on your phone or be in any way detectable by you. From what I've read the NSA snooping is entirely passive. The FBI has the ability to take control of your phone and turn on the mic without you knowing it but that kind of real-time snooping is highly unlikely unless you've done something to warrant that kind of attention. The general snooping is recording data (and probably calls, though they haven't admitted that yet publicly), but while the data is searchable there is no evidence that they are actively monitoring all the calls they're snooping on in real-time --or that they even have the capability to monitor more than a few thousand calls in real-time. I'm pretty sure you'd have to have done something serious enough, or be in communication with someone who has done something serious enough, to warrant that kind of attention in real time.

[mjoplin]

pretty sedate life so I can't imagine being on any kind of list....

will attribute this one to user error on the iPhone

[AEA]

pretty sedate life so I can't imagine being on any kind of list....

will attribute this one to user error on the iPhone

That's exactly what they want you to do until they surround your house!

[The Annoyed Man]

Go into Settings, General, Privacy, Location Services and see what app is using them. It should be purple on the active app that has locaiton services running. Even closed there are some apps that will have it running in the background.

As for Bluetooth running it may have gotten turned on by an app or an update.

My Verizon iPhone 4 does not have a "privacy" tab under Settings >> General. When you enter Settings, Privacy is one of the top-level selections.

[Keith B]

Go into Settings, General, Privacy, Location Services and see what app is using them. It should be purple on the active app that has locaiton services running. Even closed there are some apps that will have it running in the background.

As for Bluetooth running it may have gotten turned on by an app or an update.

My Verizon iPhone 4 does not have a "privacy" tab under Settings >> General. When you enter Settings, Privacy is one of the top-level selections.

Sorry, was doing it from memory instead of looking. Settings, then Privacy, Location Services. All iPhones will be the same. Should be no differences for any carrier on their iOS.

[LSUTiger]

Very tame, but perhaps a little too suggestive for moderator approval, yet funny and sadly applicable to the topic of conversation.......

http://anongallery.org/8806/hey-baby" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Abraham]

We should be just as irked by commercial information gatherers.

Every time you turn on your computer, access the internet, use your credit card, fire up your dish/direct tv, etc. - every bit of that information (where you went, what and where you bought, what you watched) is harvested and stored.

It ain't just big brother playing this game.

[Wes]

This bothered me just as bad, mandatory alerts on your phone from the president. No way to turn it off. If he can send info to your phone without your say, what else can he do? This just popped up this past weekend. Not too happy about it. To say they only passively do things is a bit of a stretch when carriers are providing them outlets to do this kind of stuff. They can say its only alerts all they want.

http://pulse2.com/2013/06/17/att-wirele ... rts-88079/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RustES]

Starting to feel like I should be wearing the proverbial tin foil hat.... I am a Verizon wireless customer and have an iPhone 4GS. I noticed my battery life dramatically shortened in the past few days and in looking at the screen noticed the location services icon and Bluetooth icon on. I killed every task except the phone app on the device and the GPS would not turn off. Normally when you get out of the map app which I use frequently, the gps powers down, not recently though. I finally went into settings and turned off location services and this did it. Strange enough...

Bluetooth, which Houston transtar uses for location and timing on the freeways, was turned on also. I ALWAYS have that off as I don't have anything Bluetooth. Both seem odd. I've got a C&R FFL and am active on a few gun forums. Is it paranoia on my part or has anyone else here seeing the same thing on their cell phone?

Unless you're specifically being targeted for some reason (which you'd know), I doubt the general snooping by the NSA would have any effect on your phone or be in any way detectable by you. From what I've read the NSA snooping is entirely passive. The FBI has the ability to take control of your phone and turn on the mic without you knowing it but that kind of real-time snooping is highly unlikely unless you've done something to warrant that kind of attention. The general snooping is recording data (and probably calls, though they haven't admitted that yet publicly), but while the data is searchable there is no evidence that they are actively monitoring all the calls they're snooping on in real-time --or that they even have the capability to monitor more than a few thousand calls in real-time. I'm pretty sure you'd have to have done something serious enough, or be in communication with someone who has done something serious enough, to warrant that kind of attention in real time.

Well since its passive and its only used to catch really bad people, because thats what they said its only used for, then we are all ok. Wheww...and I was begining to think that the government cant be trusted...with anything.

[Abraham]

I wonder if this will ultimately apply to pre-paid phones?

I have no plans to upgrade to any kind of i-phone. A pre-paid is the only way to go for me, but I can live without it just fine. It's a relatively new phenomenon for me anyway...though I'm sure some would rather die than give up their i-bother everyone around me phone...

They can take their mandatory edicts and, well, you understand...

[VMI77]

Starting to feel like I should be wearing the proverbial tin foil hat.... I am a Verizon wireless customer and have an iPhone 4GS. I noticed my battery life dramatically shortened in the past few days and in looking at the screen noticed the location services icon and Bluetooth icon on. I killed every task except the phone app on the device and the GPS would not turn off. Normally when you get out of the map app which I use frequently, the gps powers down, not recently though. I finally went into settings and turned off location services and this did it. Strange enough...

Bluetooth, which Houston transtar uses for location and timing on the freeways, was turned on also. I ALWAYS have that off as I don't have anything Bluetooth. Both seem odd. I've got a C&R FFL and am active on a few gun forums. Is it paranoia on my part or has anyone else here seeing the same thing on their cell phone?

Unless you're specifically being targeted for some reason (which you'd know), I doubt the general snooping by the NSA would have any effect on your phone or be in any way detectable by you. From what I've read the NSA snooping is entirely passive. The FBI has the ability to take control of your phone and turn on the mic without you knowing it but that kind of real-time snooping is highly unlikely unless you've done something to warrant that kind of attention. The general snooping is recording data (and probably calls, though they haven't admitted that yet publicly), but while the data is searchable there is no evidence that they are actively monitoring all the calls they're snooping on in real-time --or that they even have the capability to monitor more than a few thousand calls in real-time. I'm pretty sure you'd have to have done something serious enough, or be in communication with someone who has done something serious enough, to warrant that kind of attention in real time.

Well since its passive and its only used to catch really bad people, because thats what they said its only used for, then we are all ok. Wheww...and I was begining to think that the government cant be trusted...with anything.

I think you misread my remarks. Where did I say it was only used to catch really bad people? In the first place, I don't believe anything this government says. I consider most of what they're saying about how they're snooping to be lies, some of which have already been exposed. These revelations aren't even new.....years ago an ATT technician testified in Federal Court that the NSA was collecting EVERYTHING: internet searches, email, phone conversations, what you stream, web sites you visit, etc, via direct connections with ATT. We're under the control of a criminal government, with criminal intent, led by a high percentage of sociopaths.

My remarks solely address real-time snooping capability, which is much more limited than their off-line snooping capability. The likelihood that an individual is being targeted in real-time is very small, and it is highly unlikely any such individual is being targeted unless they are part of a specific investigation. Furthermore, I'm not suggesting that every investigation targeting individuals is legitimate --the IRS, FBI, EPA revelations pretty much prove that. Still, those targeted had a high political profile. You can also bet that if you're a member of Congress, on a Congressional staff, or filling a high level government position you're being targeted, as well as flag rank military officers. I'd guess they're targeting governors and other high profile state level politicians as well, and possibly big city mayors, as well as anyone with any political power who has publicly expressed any dissent. Yeah, they are recording everything you do and can look at it any time, but people being snooped and examined in real-time or near real-time likely number in just the thousands --I'd guess somewhere between 10,000 to 20,000.

Finally, there shouldn't be a bit of doubt for any informed person that this government cannot be trusted with anything on any level.

[cb1000rider]

I wonder if this will ultimately apply to pre-paid phones?

It already does if you bought one on Verizon's network.
Most of the pre-paid carriers are rebrands...

:-)

[bizarrenormality]

The wholesale eavesdropping in PRISM makes the whole Watergate scandal seem quaint.