Millions of Phones tracked https://i.gyazo.com/
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Posted On: 06/01/2022 10:10:22 AM
Millions of Phones tracked
FBI's Backdoored Anom Phones Secretly Harvested GPS Data Around the World
Documents reviewed by Motherboard, including thousands of pages of Anom messages, show that the FBI's backdoored Anom phones collected more data than the content of messages.
Anom, an encrypted phone company marketed to criminals which the FBI secretly took over, surreptitiously recorded every message sent by the phones’ users.
But the truly global undercover operation had another secret: The phones also collected users' precise GPS location and transferred that information to authorities, according to multiple documents reviewed by Motherboard.
The news provides more clarity on the scope and capabilities of the backdoor managed by the FBI. So far the operation, known as Trojan Shield in the U.S. and Ironside in Australia, has led to hundreds of arrests worldwide and disrupted organized crime, with major drug traffickers now either arrested or on the run.
One document reviewed by Motherboard is a set of thousands of pages of Anom messages sent by an alleged drug trafficker who was arrested during the operation.
Next to many of the messages, which are sorted in a spreadsheet, is the alleged GPS location of the phone recorded when the message was sent. This also includes when the alleged trafficker sent a photo or other file attachment across the Anom platform.
A note written by authorities accompanying the material says that the Anom system was designed to always record this location information with the message data.
Sometimes the system failed to record that data, the note adds. But during the operation, authorities confirmed in multiple cases that the successfully harvested GPS coordinates are generally reliable, because they accurately match location data collected in other ways, the note says.
That, and there are also numerous cases where the actual content of the message, such as a photo, lines up with the GPS data, it adds.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/93b3ay/fbi-ba...s-gps-data
FBI's Backdoored Anom Phones Secretly Harvested GPS Data Around the World
Documents reviewed by Motherboard, including thousands of pages of Anom messages, show that the FBI's backdoored Anom phones collected more data than the content of messages.
Anom, an encrypted phone company marketed to criminals which the FBI secretly took over, surreptitiously recorded every message sent by the phones’ users.
But the truly global undercover operation had another secret: The phones also collected users' precise GPS location and transferred that information to authorities, according to multiple documents reviewed by Motherboard.
The news provides more clarity on the scope and capabilities of the backdoor managed by the FBI. So far the operation, known as Trojan Shield in the U.S. and Ironside in Australia, has led to hundreds of arrests worldwide and disrupted organized crime, with major drug traffickers now either arrested or on the run.
One document reviewed by Motherboard is a set of thousands of pages of Anom messages sent by an alleged drug trafficker who was arrested during the operation.
Next to many of the messages, which are sorted in a spreadsheet, is the alleged GPS location of the phone recorded when the message was sent. This also includes when the alleged trafficker sent a photo or other file attachment across the Anom platform.
A note written by authorities accompanying the material says that the Anom system was designed to always record this location information with the message data.
Sometimes the system failed to record that data, the note adds. But during the operation, authorities confirmed in multiple cases that the successfully harvested GPS coordinates are generally reliable, because they accurately match location data collected in other ways, the note says.
That, and there are also numerous cases where the actual content of the message, such as a photo, lines up with the GPS data, it adds.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/93b3ay/fbi-ba...s-gps-data
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