Growing Surveillance and Control

[Yokohammer]

This is just getting scary. My Number, the state secrets law, the push for state-of-emergency authority, media censorship, and now this little nugget.

Docomo makes smartphones covertly trackable by Japanese authorities

Mobile carrier NTT Docomo said Tuesday five new smartphone models will allow investigative authorities to track the phones’ locations without users being aware of it.

A spokesman said the company has already been providing such data in some circumstances, mostly relating to crime investigations.

“If requested, we provided positional information using the GPS systems on phones to emergency services such as the police, ambulance services and the Japan Coast Guard, in line with proper guidelines,” the spokesman told The Japan Times.

Current phone models alert their users when the GPS locator is activated remotely.

Long-running guidelines by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications required carriers to obtain the permission of users before providing such data to government entities. But in June 2015, the ministry dropped this requirement.

The spokesman said this change prompted the company to develop smartphone models that can be tracked discreetly.

...

This is just the beginning. There's no reason not to expect this type of surveillance to expand as much as the technology of the time allows.

Coming next: covert access to your smartphone camera?

*** shudder ***

[omae mona]

Yeah, I was going to post this news yesterday but ran out of time before I found any English version of the article. Sometimes in these cases - especially when it's the Japan Times - I end up arguing that the newspaper is exaggerating and twisting facts, and that the government is not as evil as the newspaper is making them out to be.

But in this case, so far, it looks pretty straightforward to me, and Japan Times actually matches other newspapers. And yep, looks like DoCoMo and the government are in cahoots to implement full tracking of all users, covertly. Pretty awful. All I can hope is that people get upset about this and send a message with their wallets. I am a 10+ year DoCoMo user and - after the dust settles on this news - if it's as clear cut as it seems to be, I might walk over to SoftBank or Au and convert my whole family.

[Yokohammer]

I'm wondering if Apple will eventually support the local authorities on this one. Different jurisdiction, different rules, maybe.

If the gov't can convince DoCoMo to play along, I'm pretty sure they can do the same with SoftBank and Au.

The Asahi article (in Japanese) hints that Au and SoftBank are likely to follow suit:

携帯のＧＰＳ情報、本人通知なしで捜査利用　一部新機種

Just depressing.

[wuchan]

I rooted my phone, deleted all docomo software and installed a clean OS. When I went to docomo to change a few things in my plan the look of horror when I explained what was done to the device was priceless.

[kurogane]

I rooted my phone.............

Glad to hear that, Randy

So, silly jokes aside that is a lovely idea, and I take serious joy imagining their expressions. Have you found any problems with the functions, etc. of the post-coital device? I am as techno-savvy as a burnt lump of coal but this sort of crap makes me want to go Thin Lizzy on any device I might buy. I like to poo poo the Chicken Littles but this is of a different order: the obsequious credulity of Corporate and Citizen Japan is really creepy lately, as YokoH has been saying.

And in that vein, any online references for this rooting procedure?

[Coligny]

If it's in the newspaper before it's implemented the term "covertly" want to kill himself...

And in this line... Better have the devil you know...

[wuchan]

I rooted my phone.............

Glad to hear that, Randy

So, silly jokes aside that is a lovely idea, and I take serious joy imagining their expressions. Have you found any problems with the functions, etc. of the post-coital device? I am as techno-savvy as a burnt lump of coal but this sort of crap makes me want to go Thin Lizzy on any device I might buy. I like to poo poo the Chicken Littles but this is of a different order: the obsequious credulity of Corporate and Citizen Japan is really creepy lately, as YokoH has been saying.

And in that vein, any online references for this rooting procedure?

Rooting an android isn't for everyone. The #1 problem is you need to reinstall the OS when there is a serious security update from google. The only things I can't get to work is the 1seg TV and Japanese osaifu-keitai. However, google pay works fine when I'm in a country that uses a real banking system.

[matsuki]

I think Yoko's right with iPhone being one device that won't fall in line....but as Wuchan pointed out, rooting and a clean install is also perfectly viable for most major models that are also sold overseas. (kuro - tons of support on the procedure et al for most)

1Seg...nothing worth watching anyways but how does the osaifu-keitai function fail when that shit works with the phone off?

[legion]

I rooted my phone, deleted all docomo software and installed a clean OS. When I went to docomo to change a few things in my plan the look of horror when I explained what was done to the device was priceless.

A couple of years ago I needed some screen shots from an Android phone for something at work. The guy I was working with proudly told me he would go home and root his wife's android and take the pictures

I should explain "to root" is UK slang for to fuck

I'm going to predict Japanese criminals will be snapping up these phones. Give your phone to your underling, tell him/her to go to the next prefecture, go and commit your crime, bingo, perfect alibi.

[Russell]

So, will Japanese authorities be allowed to track phones without court orders?

[legion]

They were tracking muslim residents of Japan pretty thoroughly without court orders.

[Coligny]

They were tracking muslim residents of Japan pretty thoroughly without court orders.

[citation needed]

[kurogane]

Rooting an android isn't for everyone.

I should explain "to root" is UK slang for to fuck

Tee Hee. You both said Root........

So, anyways, very interesting. I would cut out an eye before I'd watch TV on a 2 inch screen and I carry a wallet filled with those paper thingies so I can pay for shit, so none of that worries me but it does sound a touch fiddly for my needs. The only reason I am considering replacing my flip phone with a smartphone is the surging tide of hairy eyeballs received and the convenience of those Line type applications. It's getting socially awkward given how compulsory they have become. Other than that it's a phone with email and an alarm clock, and I can't imagine any other use for them.
Thanks for the info, and for opening the window for childish jokes.

PS Legion: that Yakuza trick would be a hilarious consequence if it happens. The Law, Order and Security candidate doing his level best to help the criminals. Feckin' 'ell, Randy, root me.

[chibaka]

I rooted my phone, deleted all docomo software and installed a clean OS. When I went to docomo to change a few things in my plan the look of horror when I explained what was done to the device was priceless.

Don't need to do that now, I imported my latest phone and got an MVNO sim, granted it's still docomo network.
Will never buy a phone from the telcoms again.....
On the phone hacking, took me 2 years to crack a Softbank phone... longest root ever

[legion]

They were tracking muslim residents of Japan pretty thoroughly without court orders.

[citation needed]

Do you know how to use an internet search engine?

[Russell]

Wasn't this guy in Okinawa who is suspected of killing that girl caught because his mobile phone was tracked to be near hers?

[wuchan]

They were tracking muslim residents of Japan pretty thoroughly without court orders.

[citation needed]

Do you know how to use an internet search engine?

he uses bing....

[Coligny]

They were tracking muslim residents of Japan pretty thoroughly without court orders.

[citation needed]

Do you know how to use an internet search engine?

that's not how conversation works... you shit on the carpet, you back your turd...

[matsuki]

Wasn't this guy in Okinawa who is suspected of killing that girl caught because his mobile phone was tracked to be near hers?

That crossed my mind as well...the explanation is vague though.

[legion]

They were tracking muslim residents of Japan pretty thoroughly without court orders.

[citation needed]

Do you know how to use an internet search engine?

that's not how conversation works... you shit on the carpet, you back your turd...

I know, you don't, if you want to know do some homework.

[dimwit]

Well, I remember about ten years ago when my cop friends told me they were very interested in finding out everything they could about the local muslims. The only question for me is whether or not they have the competence to hack phones, police don't need court orders -they're special.

[legion]

yup
and the Tokyo District Court ruled the threat of terrorism justifies the surveillance

[Samurai_Jerk]

Top court green-lights surveillance of Japan's Muslims

Legal challenge to police profiling of North Asian country's Islamic population dismissed by Supreme Court.

Tokyo, Japan - Mohamed Fujita used to host religious study groups at his home that were open to all Muslims. But today he's afraid to invite strangers, in case they're police informants.

Extensive surveillance has put many people of his faith on edge, he says, sowing mistrust.

A native of Japan who converted to Islam more than two decades ago, Fujita was one of 17 plaintiffs in a lawsuit that challenged blanket monitoring of the country's followers of Islam. His name has been changed in this story to protect his identity, after police documents labelling him a possible security threat were leaked online.

"They made us terrorist suspects," he says. "We never did anything wrong - on the contrary."

Fujita's wife first noticed the couple was being followed by law enforcement in the early 2000s. He says he would go out of his way to cooperate with officers when they would occasionally approach him. But they eventually asked that he report on other members of his mosque and he refused.

Then came the leak in 2010 of 114 police files, which revealed religious profiling of Muslims across Japan. The documents included resumé-like pages listing a host of personal information, including an individual's name, physical description, personal relationships and the mosque they attended, along with a section titled "suspicions".

The files also showed by the time the 2008 G8 summit was held in Hokkaido, northern Japan, at least 72,000 residents from Organisation of Islamic Conference countries had been profiled - including about 1,600 public school students in and around Tokyo.

Police in the capital had also been surveilling places of worship, halal restaurants, and "Islam-related" organisations, the documents showed.

Within a few weeks of the leak, the data had been downloaded from a file-sharing website more than 10,000 times in more than 20 countries.

Fujita and the other plaintiffs, many of whom were originally from Middle Eastern or North African countries, sued in the hope the courts would deem the police practices illegal. Their lawyers said police had violated their constitutional rights to privacy, equal treatment, and religious freedom.

After two appeals, the Supreme Court dismissed the case on May 31.

The justices concurred with a lower court that the plaintiffs deserved a total of ¥90 million ($880,000) in compensation because the leak violated their privacy. But they did not weigh in on the police profiling or surveillance practices, which a lower court ruling had upheld as "necessary and inevitable" to guard against the threat of international terrorism.

[...]

The Supreme Court decision generated few headlines and little public debate in Japan. Local media outlets had covered the legal proceedings by focusing on the leak of information, tiptoeing around the police surveillance issue.

[...]

Hiroshi Miyashita, a law professor at Chuo University who's an expert on privacy issues, says he believes the lawsuit was the first major legal case in Japan to focus on mass surveillance. However, he adds that a state secrets law that came into force in 2014 would shield the issue from scrutiny by the public and the courts in future.

"Even judges cannot access information" about police practices under the new law, he says.

[kurogane]

To be fair, I have eaten in some halal restaurants that seemed shockingly unclean, and Niemoller's Law aside they are Mohammedans, and some of them are converts Kind of weird even judges can't access the records, though. I could see it if they were Muslims too, but if they're real people that is sort of what judges do.

[wagyl]

I know that it is part of your purpose Kuro, but I am getting more and more pissed off at your faithist/ethnic slights.

The reason I am getting pissed off is that drip by drip, it encourages an environment where such hate is acceptable.

That doesn't help any of us.

And it isn't funny either, so it has no redeeming features.

[Coligny]

To be fair, I have eaten in some halal restaurants that seemed shockingly unclean, and Niemoller's Law aside they are Mohammedans, and some of them are converts Kind of weird even judges can't access the records, though. I could see it if they were Muslims too, but if they're real people that is sort of what judges do.

I wonder how long we can continue wasting intel manpower on bullshit... and realize that sigint don't work too well either...

[matsuki]

wasting manpower on bullshit

Did you forget what country this is?

[Coligny]

wasting manpower on bullshit

Did you forget what country this is?

I was thinking in a more global scale... like the no fly list which will soon contain half of the humans living or dead in the usa. those things should discriminate. It's their job... if you put all muslim in a terror list. sure you will also include the 1-2% ready to blow stuff... you will make them racist happy and he idiots feel safer...
But at the end of the day shit will blow anyway because you were too busy pretending you can look after the 98% that do nothing and missed the targeted 2%...

[kurogane]

And it isn't funny either, so it has no redeeming features.

Yeah, fair enough. Even I had to put my back into that one to such little effect. Point taken, thanks for the head slap. It used to be a good schtick, to be fair.

[Russell]

And it isn't funny either, so it has no redeeming features.

Yeah, fair enough. Even I had to put my back into that one to such little effect. Point taken, thanks for the head slap. It used to be a good schtick, to be fair.

It's not the first time you have been told, innit?