Conspiracy theorists go nuts over white boxes popping up in Seattle (how much, home)

[Andy Patrizio]

Techies, your thoughts?

What Are The Off-White Boxes That Are Going Up On Utility Poles All Over Seattle? | InvestmentWatch

The Big Brother control grid is constantly growing and expanding all over America. Right now, a “wireless mesh network” is in the process of being installed in Seattle thatsome believe will ultimately have the capability of tracking the location of every wireless device in the city. If you live in downtown Seattle, just look for the little off-white boxes that are being attached to utility poles all over the place. You can see a bunch of pictures of these little boxes right here. Meanwhile, other major U.S. cities have been installing vast networks of surveillance cameras and listening devices. We are being told that such measures will help police “solve more crime”. We are being told that such measures will “keep people safe”. But what about our privacy? Doesn’t that count for something? What about the Fourth Amendment? Are our most cherished liberties and freedoms going to be thrown into the trash just because we live “in a more dangerous world”?

The Stranger is a Seattle newspaper that recently did a major story about this “wireless mesh network” that has been going up all over the city. What they found out is extremely disturbing…

If you’re walking around downtown Seattle, look up: You’ll see off-white boxes, each one about a foot tall with vertical antennae, attached to utility poles. If you’re walking around downtown while looking at a smartphone, you will probably see at least one—and more likely two or three—Wi-Fi networks named after intersections: “4th&Seneca,” “4th&Union,” “4th&University,” and so on. That is how you can see the Seattle Police Department’s new wireless mesh network, bought from a California-based company called Aruba Networks, whose clients include the Department of Defense, school districts in Canada, oil-mining interests in China, and telecommunications companies in Saudi Arabia.

The question is: How well can this mesh network see you?

How accurately can it geo-locate and track the movements of your phone, laptop, or any other wireless device by its MAC address (its “media access control address”—nothing to do with Macintosh—which is analogous to a device’s thumbprint)? Can the network send that information to a database, allowing the SPD to reconstruct who was where at any given time, on any given day, without a warrant? Can the network see you now?

The Seattle police did not want to talk to the newspaper about this.

Neither did the Department of Homeland Security.

But the newspaper did find some technical experts that actually work with Aruba products that were willing to talk…

After reviewing Aruba’s technical literature, as well as talking to IT directors and systems administrators around the country who work with Aruba products, it’s clear that their networks are adept at seeing all the devices that move through their coverage area and visually mapping the locations of those devices in real time for the system administrators’ convenience. In fact, one of Aruba’s major selling points is its ability to locate “rogue” or “unassociated” devices—that is, any device that hasn’t been authorized by (and maybe hasn’t even asked to be part of) the network.

Which is to say, your device. The cell phone in your pocket, for instance.

The user’s guide for one of Aruba’s recent software products states: “The wireless network has a wealth of information about unassociated and associated devices.” That software includes “a location engine that calculates associated and unassociated device location every 30 seconds by default… The last 1,000 historical locations are stored for each MAC address.”


Read more at What Are The Off-White Boxes That Are Going Up On Utility Poles All Over Seattle? | InvestmentWatch

[jambo101]

Another article on the strange boxes.
People's Blog for the Constitution » Seattle’s use of mesh networks appear constitutionally murky

I think its a prelude to Obama the destroyer of worlds calling in the main galactic invasion force.
Resistance is futile.

[pnwdoge]

If the government is watching/spying on us, which it no doubt is already doing, it sure as hell wouldn't resort to something like a box on every street corner. Simple logic can tell us that it would be too easily compromised and far too obvious. Don't get me wrong, just because it's obvious doesn't make it okay.

I won't directly shut down that idea though, it could be so, conspiracy theorists aren't always crazy.

[Andy Patrizio]

I'll cruise over to Godlike Productions at some point for a laugh. Those guys are nuts.

[Hemlock140]

I just walked through Belltown and took the bus down 2nd and can verify the existence of the white boxes, and my phone did show each wireless network identified by the intersection. They were secure, need a password/key to get onto them. Interesting. Also saw one called NSA surveillance van. Probably someone's home network trying to be clever.

[mkarch]

Gosh, next thing you know they'll be putting GPS chips in our cell phones!

[RotseCherut]

Originally Posted by mkarch

Gosh, next thing you know they'll be putting GPS chips in our cell phones!

Actually, the government can track your location through your cell phone, already. LOL .. As well, thanks to Uncle Obama and the NSA, all your cell phone conversations are monitored, recorded and placed into a digital vault where the government will have access to the conversation for years to come.

[eskercurve]

Logging in to the internet with my mind!~

I'd be more curious to see how much this is costing me as a taxpayer than any intrusion.

[mkarch]

Originally Posted by RotseCherut

Actually, the government can track your location through your cell phone, already. LOL .. As well, thanks to Uncle Obama and the NSA, all your cell phone conversations are monitored, recorded and placed into a digital vault where the government will have access to the conversation for years to come.

Yeah, that's why I can't believe people are getting all up in arms about wifi tracking via mac address.

[RotseCherut]

Originally Posted by mkarch

Yeah, that's why I can't believe people are getting all up in arms about wifi tracking via mac address.

At least a computer can be an anonymous purchase, however, with a phone, all your information is registered with the phone company, which can and has been acquired by the government via shady organizations like NSA.