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corniss chopper
Mountain climber
san jose, ca
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Mar 25, 2010 - 08:16pm PT
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Additional info: That spy cam was sending images automatically
through its antennae good enough to read the guys license plate.
Frack!!!
That means they've spent the money to point a dedicated cell phone antennae at these locations of the spy cams.
And that means your cell phone will of course try to ping a connection
(here I am) as they always do automatically, which will identify you as camping there.
But the cell phone link will probably be programmed to not allow you to
call out. You may not have any bars. Just a guess.
Suggest turning off your phone and just to be sure wrapping it tightly
in aluminum foil to avoid active ID'ing pings of an OFF phone by an overly
sophisticated spy cam rig.
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Barbarian
Trad climber
The great white north, eh?
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Mar 25, 2010 - 08:26pm PT
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Abandoned camera found in the woods?
After 24 hours its Booty!
If they can haul my stuff down after 24 hours. I claim the same right. But not to worry, they can get their stuff back. I'll be selling it on eBay.
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corniss chopper
Mountain climber
san jose, ca
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Mar 25, 2010 - 08:37pm PT
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Rokjox - Well this does not look like a satellite phone antennae.
Looks like a dipole of the freq range used by cells.
Anyway the question begs of how did the Forest Service know to call the guy to get their spy cam back? Picture recognition for comparison to millions
of random drivers license faces?
Which still means the rig sent a photo with a usable image for tracking before the guy bagged it.
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corniss chopper
Mountain climber
san jose, ca
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Mar 25, 2010 - 09:00pm PT
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You're right Rok. He called the local LEO's who probably called the Forest Service spies guys.
So what do you think that antennae is for? It does look directional
unless its a fake.
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corniss chopper
Mountain climber
san jose, ca
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Mar 25, 2010 - 09:20pm PT
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No worries Rok.
And thats the east coast. Coverage for radio/phones has more overlap than
out here.
Guess I'd have to research that unit and see if it just transmits
"memory full" "come and service me" or if it does send real JPEG
images or a thumbnail or varieties of both.
It still seems way intrusive.
Imagine being arrested for supplying alcohol to a minor because when your
back was turned your teens snatched a few beers from the cooler and the
camera snapped images of the horrible 'crime'.
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MisterT
Trad climber
little blue truck
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Mar 25, 2010 - 10:09pm PT
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I found one once looking for firewood. I spun it around to face the opposite way. Maybe I should have picked it up like the trash it was.
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Wack
climber
Dazevue
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Mar 25, 2010 - 11:55pm PT
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A few years ago on the way out from the Wonderland near Pak Man Rock we found what we believed to be a counter. It was in a brown metal box about 2"H x 6"E x 8"L strapped to a rock under a bush. It was pretty light, the lens looked like a door peephole and it was unmarked. We hoped it was only to get a count on users so we did not recycle it as trash. Perhaps we were being generous as we found a Barker about a 100 yards out from the Gunsmoke spying on the climbers with a pair of binos.
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Minerals
Social climber
The Deli
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Mar 26, 2010 - 01:59am PT
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Yeah, ditto on the scientific monitoring devices, Wes and Peter. Please leave them be, folks! I have yet to see a device intended for scientific purposes that is not clearly marked as to who it belongs to and its (legitimate) purpose.
Last year, while poking around the abandoned Kaiser/Baxter fluorite mine (central Nevada), I noticed a black cable (looked just like the coax cable for a TV…) that popped out of the ground, but it was cut just a few feet up. The rest of the cable ran up the hill slope. Hmmm… So I walked up to the top of the hill and sure enough… found a steel fence pole mounted in concrete with a solar panel on top and an electronics box on the side, with an antenna attached to it. Nevada Seismo Lab – there was a metal plaque with all of the information that you needed to know as to what was going on, including phone numbers. Earthquake monitoring.
Yup, some redneck thought it would be fun to chop whatever cable they found, even though they probably had no idea what they were messing with. Lame. Do people really have to f*#k with things just to amuse themselves?
Back in town, while visiting my professor, I stopped by the seismo office to just say hello and tell them what I found (although I figured that they already knew, as if the dead signal wasn’t a clue…). They had known for a while, but it was fun to hear a little bit about their setup. Apparently, they ran cable down the main inclined mine shaft and the guy said that it was way gnarly to go down far enough to place the censor (sorry Cleo… help me out here!). Having looked down that shaft, and many others and adits that don’t look so inviting, I can imagine that it wasn’t the highlight of his job.
Oh, and for the “other” monitoring… Pffft… Like they don’t have tabs on me already… Cell phone? Heh… I can disappear from all of you into the abyss but if they really want to, they can watch me on any clear day with their space toys (and not like the F/A-18s don’t pinpoint the DS every day as it is… Common… Fly LOWER!!!). But I would imagine that it gets pretty boring to watch a geologist wander back and forth, from outcrop to outcrop, trying to figure out what the heck is going on.
Oh, schist… did I say outCROP??????
Anyways, more excessive rambling from a self-centered introvert… :)
What’s this? A still camera for scientific/environmental purposes? It showed up late season, about 10 or 12 feet up a lodgepole on the northwest side of the outlet of Tenaya Lake and is roughly pointed at Tenaya Peak.
10/18/2009, 10:10 AM
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Levy
Big Wall climber
So Cal
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Mar 26, 2010 - 02:52am PT
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This is one of the most interesting O.T. threads in a long, long time.
Thanks for sharing this!
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Radish
Trad climber
SeKi, California
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Mar 26, 2010 - 10:36am PT
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A quick scan of this post and I don't think I saw anything about growers. I don't know if any of you relize how prolific this activity is these days. Everywhere there's water is suspect. Yes, Everywhere. Yosemite and Sequoia has full time teams looking for the stuff. They use all possible tecnoligees.I'll bet most of these cameras are watching for this.
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 6, 2010 - 04:58pm PT
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What do you tech guys think would be the best device for under $400 to scan and find these cameras?
Saw this, which doesn't appear to be for sale yet, and looks like it will be way out of the $ range.
I saw this, but it seemed geared to finding a pinhole camera in a home, and not geared for driving up a FS road with one looking for a small camera in a large haystack so to speak. However, at $80, it seems priced right:-)
This looks like it might do the trick:
$295.00 - it's in the price range.
More info: http://www.spygadgets.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=LS4X&Category_Code=4
Anyone have any input on any of this or a better recommendation?
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Willoughby
Social climber
Truckee, CA
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Back in my Ph.D. days, I ran an array of four cameras at one of my study sites, aimed at bird nests. I was trying to identify nest predators.
Anyway, my system was set up to shoot VHF signals back to a central receiver, which dumped all the footage onto a computer that ran off of monster deep-cycle marine batteries (which I got to hump up the mountain and swap out almost every day, since the sun just wasn't keeping these things charged up).
I didn't learn a whole lot about my nest predators, but I did learn a lot about solar power and making stuff from Radio Shack parts and such, and the fact that VHF signals don't shoot through the woods very well. Not that long ago, but antique technology at this point.
I'll be putting some more modern gear out next winter here in Tahoe, to try and document the range and status of white-tailed jackrabbits. Any harvested, unmarked, big-brother gear would be a welcome addition to my supply closet, so all you would-be camera hunters, please keep me in mind.
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 19, 2014 - 10:00am PT
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Fort mental, the post courier link works, the West Slope link to that article wasn't direct but to their front page, of which this story is off by now. I see that link isn't working but you should be able to track it down here: http://www.westernslopenofee.org/
This is an interesting adjunct to that story which seemingly reinforces the top story. This story indicates that the Forest Service has bought license plate reader software, which they wouldn't need unless they had cameras tracking plates. I will copy paste the story for longevity, and the link at the bottom. I bolded the line about the FS, it wasn't printed that way. BTW, this doesn't mean that they only spend this much on license plate tracking software, they may have spent $10 million - who can say we may never know, but what this means is that they are definatly in the game.
"IRS Among Agencies Using License Plate-Tracking Vendor
By Kathleen Miller Apr 16, 2014 9:00 PM PT
The Internal Revenue Service and other U.S. agencies awarded about $415,000 in contracts to a license plate-tracking company before Homeland Security leaders dropped a plan for similar work amid privacy complaints.
Federal offices such as the Forest Service and the U.S. Air Force’s Air Combat Command chose Livermore, California-based Vigilant Solutions to provide access to license plate databases or tools used to collect plate information, according to government procurement records compiled by Bloomberg.
Vigilant, a closely held company, has received such work since 2009. In February, Jeh Johnson, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, ordered the cancelation of an immigration agency plan to buy access to national license plate data. While the technology can help solve crimes, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have said the mass collection of data infringes the privacy of innocent people.
“Especially with the IRS, I don’t know why these agencies are getting access to this kind of information,” said Jennifer Lynch, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based privacy-rights group. “These systems treat every single person in an area as if they’re under investigation for a crime -- that is not the way our criminal justice system was set up or the way things work in a democratic society.”
IRS officials awarded the company a $1,188 contract for “access to nationwide data” in June 2012, according to records available online. That contract ended in May 2013, according to federal procurement records.
Agencies Involved
“The IRS uses a variety of investigative tools similar to other law-enforcement agencies to assist with criminal cases,” Eric Smith, an agency spokesman, said in an e-mail. He declined to say how the IRS used the records in its investigations.
The Forest Service, part of the Department of Agriculture, awarded Vigilant a contract valued at as much as $47,019 for its “CarDetector” system in August 2009, records show. The product scans and captures license plate numbers, compares the data to law enforcement lists of wanted vehicles and sends alerts when such vehicles are detected, according to the company’s website.
Forestry officials also awarded the company a contract valued at about $7,500 in August for a subscription to its license plate database and other services, according to contracting records.
“License plate readers are helpful to our law enforcement officers with illegal activities on national forest system lands in California,” Tiffany Holloway, a spokeswoman for the agency, said in an e-mail. She declined to comment about what types of crimes the tools are used to investigate or provide examples of how the technology has helped law enforcement.
Vigilant’s Work
Vigilant provides some data for free to federal and state law enforcement agencies, Brian Shockley, the company’s vice president of marketing, said in an e-mailed statement. The information has been used to “solve crimes and save lives,” he said.
The company has local, state and federal agency customers, he said, declining to comment about its work for the federal government and how it may have supported national security.
Most of the federal contracts were awarded years before former contractor Edward Snowden last year exposed vast U.S. surveillance programs that intercepted the phone records of many Americans. In the aftermath, lawmakers in more than a dozen states weighed legislation this year to limit license-plate tracking, according to the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures.
ACLU Complaints
The ACLU, which also has pushed for state measures limiting use of the technology, criticized the Homeland Security Department for a February solicitation seeking to buy access to the data. The department’s Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency had planned to use the records to help locate and arrest “absconders and criminal aliens,” according to a federal document seeking companies’ proposals.
The agency halted the solicitation, saying immigration officials weren’t aware it had been posted.
Federal procurement records show it has awarded contracts valued at as much as $175,000 to Vigilant since 2011. Most are now expired. The other contracts with Vigilant are separate from the February solicitation, Barbara Gonzalez, press secretary for the immigration agency, said in an e-mail.
They provide “limited access to an already-existing database for a defined amount of time and only in conjunction with ongoing criminal investigations and to locate wanted individuals,” Gonzalez said.
Privacy Concerns
Even so, concerns about the government’s use of the data remain, said Kade Crockford, a project director with the ACLU of Massachusetts.
“The American public deserves to know the degree to which the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies are already tapping into these databases,” Crockford said in a phone interview. “The cancellation of the solicitation itself has no measurable impact on the existing reality, which is that we are all being tracked right now.”
Other federal offices, including the Justice Department’s Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Marshals Service, have awarded contracts to Vigilant for access to its records or tracking tools.
The Air Force’s Air Combat Command awarded Vigilant a contract for license plate readers valued at as much as $114,000 in September 2011, according to online federal data. The license plate readers are a “valuable tool” that help make base access “easier and more secure,” said Benjamin Newell, a spokesman for the Air Combat Command.
‘Stopping Crime’
“The more aware we are of who is entering a military facility, the better we are able to protect the lives and equipment on that base,” Newell said in a phone interview.
NetChoice, a Washington-based trade association that represents e-commerce businesses, is concerned that groups opposing the tools offer “no recognition at all of the benefits of license plate recognition in stopping crime or saving lives,” said Steve DelBianco, its executive director.
Companies that collect the data or sell the technology have strict guidelines about who can obtain records, he said.
“Our governments require us to display a plate on our cars, visible on the front and back in public, for a reason,” DelBianco said in a phone interview. “A lot of the concern is a knee-jerk reaction to Snowden revelations.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-17/irs-among-agencies-using-license-plate-tracking-vendor.html
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Apr 19, 2014 - 11:49am PT
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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140415/07371926919/la-sheriffs-dept-new-surveillance-program-we-knew-public-wouldnt-like-it-so-we-kept-it-secret.shtml
This was followed up by another statement from an LAPD official, who noted that frogs generally come around to the idea of being boiled to death.
The center’s commanding officer, Capt. John Romero, recognizes the concerns but equates them with public resistance to street lights in America’s earliest days.
“People thought that this is the government trying to see what we’re doing at night, to spy on us,” Romero said. “And so over time, things shifted, and now if you try to take down street lights in Los Angeles or Boston or anywhere else, people will say no.”
There's no honesty or accountability in these statements. There's only an admission that Los Angeles law enforcement feels the public is there to serve them and not the other way around. Hiding your plans from the public doesn't instill confidence that their rights will be respected. Neither does telling them they'll "get used to it." Instead, it creates an even more antagonistic environment, one where the public is viewed as a nuisance at best by people whose power is derived from the same citizens they so obviously have no respect for.
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Lorenzo
Trad climber
Oregon
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Apr 19, 2014 - 12:15pm PT
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There has been one on the mt st Hellen's South face route for years. Probably several since the place blew.
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Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
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Apr 20, 2014 - 12:20pm PT
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And what is Werner working on all day for the NPS?
From what I gather he is out saving and recovering mangled people . . . An extremely noble activity by any measure.
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zBrown
Ice climber
Brujo de la Playa
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Apr 20, 2014 - 12:30pm PT
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Can you rent the films on Netflix?
I met a guy who does installs for the Navy. There are miles and miles of cable in the ocean around San Diego. Rumour is that they also take photos from above.
Apparently this has been going on for some time.
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overwatch
climber
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Apr 20, 2014 - 01:07pm PT
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you can't even play with yourself in the woods without ending up on the Internet
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Reeotch
climber
4 Corners Area
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Hey, this provides an opportunity for those with a penchant for chopping bolts. You could switch to "chopping cameras" . . .
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