Never forget that Big Brother is watching. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, the U.S. Marshals Service, which is the U.S.'s oldest federal law enforcement agency, has been running a program that has been in operation as far back as 2007, uses fake cellphone towers mounted on small aircrafts to dupe mobile phones into connecting to them instead of legitimate cellphone towers, giving the U.S. Justice Department access to information regarding location and unique registration information that can be used to trace users identity and other personal information.
The original report says that the program uses Cessna aircrafts and can cover most of the U.S. population by flying from five different airports around the country. The Justice Department does not confirm, nor deny, the existence of such a program.
"Discussion of sensitive law enforcement equipment and techniques would allow criminal defendants, criminal enterprises or foreign powers to determine our capabilities and limitations in this area," an official said.
