In recent years, federal agencies and local police alike have availed themselves of technology known as "stingrays," cell phone surveillance devices that essentially fool your phone into thinking it's a cell tower. As the ACLU notes, stingrays "also gather information about the phones of countless bystanders who happen to be nearby," which means police could be keeping tabs on your location and other info, sans warrant.
Now, a newly released document indicates that the local reach of the devices may be interfering with cell service, too. Because of how the stingray functions, "its use has the potential to intermittently disrupt cellular service to a small fraction of Sprint’s wireless customers within its immediate vicinity," wrote FBI Special Agent Michael A. Scimeca.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Colum McCann's 6 favorite books that take place at seaFeature The National Book Award-winning author recommends works by Ernest Hemingway, Herman Melville, and more
-
Jewish communities are wary of Donald Trump’s push to punish antisemitismIN THE SPOTLIGHT While the White House expands its effort to criminalize actions it deems harmful to Jewish Americans, not everyone in those same communities are on board with the president's purported assistance.
-
Book Review: 'Yoko: A Biography' and 'Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax of the Century, Its Enduring Impact, and What It Reveals About America Today'Feature The woman who shaped the Beatles and how the hoax of 'Report From Iron Mountain' fueled conspiracy theories
-
Trump, China up trade war risks with tariff threatsSpeed Read China said it would 'fight to the end' after President Donald Trump threatened an additional 50% tariff on Chinese imports
-
Supreme Court gives Trump 2 deportation winsSpeed Read The court ruled that the Trump administration could continue to deport Venezuelan migrants
-
Judge orders US to recall deported migrantSpeed Read The Trump administration has been ordered to retrieve one of the migrants it sent to a prison in El Salvador due to an 'administrative error'
-
Trump calls tariffs 'medicine' as stocks plungeSpeed Read 'Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,' the president said of his imposed 10% tariffs on imported goods
-
Trump axes NSA head, NSC staff after Loomer adviceSpeed Read On the recommendation of Laura Loomer, Trump fired the head of the National Security Agency and several National Security Council officials
-
Trump says tariffs 'going very well' as markets fallspeed read US financial markets had their biggest one-day drop since the advent of Covid-19
-
Trump rolls out tariffs on virtually all importsSpeed Read On "Liberation Day," Trump announced a 10% baseline tariff on all imports to America and higher reciprocal tariffs for some 60 other countries
-
Sen. Booker's 25-hour speech beats ThurmondSpeed Read He spoke for the longest time in recorded Senate history, protesting the Trump administration's policies
