[liberationtech] Belarus/Ericsson/GSM

John R Sundman postmaster at wetmachine.com
Mon Jan 17 10:26:18 PST 2011 

At a reception following an FCC hearing at Harvard (the so-called Net  
Neutrality/Comcast hearing), I spoke with (then) FCC chairman Kevin  
Martin about this very issue.  He mentioned having come back from the  
meeting in Davos, where a representative of the the Chinese telephone  
co boasted that could tell the government the identties and location  
of every person attenting the Olympics.

I said, "Well, doesn't that give you pause? It was you, after all,  
who pushed for mandatory GPS info in cell phones."

He said that this kind of thing wouldn't happen in the US because  
warrants were required before GPS data would be handed over. I said,  
given that the telecomunications companies had already been caught  
giving all kinds of information without warrants and otherwise  
breaking the law, why should any citizen have any faith at all in  
either the government or the telecos?  He didn't have an answer.

My account of the conversation appears in this blog post about the  
hearing:

http://my-thoughts-exactly.wetmachine.com/content/the-fcc-holds-a- 
hearing-on-net-neutrality-and-you-are-there

By the way, there are only a very few times in my life when I've  
preferred a Republican over a Democrat in any position. But from what  
I can tell, Martin was better than the current incumbent on issues of  
concern to this list.

jrs

On Jan 17, 2011, at 11:41 AM, Douglas Finley wrote:

> Conceptually,
>
> Does anyone know how effective a mobile version of Tor would be?
> Same server/client relationship strictly related to WiFi.
> I know using the service over 3G would be futile, but if your phone  
> had a
> mobile Tor app..you would be able to talk/text/web on your mobile more
> securely right?
> Does anyone know if Mobile languages (iOS, Android, etc) give you  
> API access
> to what you need to make something like that work?
>
> On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 10:10 AM, elham gheytanchi  
> <elhamucla at hotmail.com>wrote:
>
>>  when I was in Iran two years ago, I met up with three activists  
>> (women's
>> rights activists) and none of them brought their cell phones to  
>> our meeting
>> place. when I asked them why: they said they have learned- by  
>> trial and
>> error- that it is best to turn off their cell phones, take the sim  
>> card
>> out and leave it at home because otherwise they are traced by the  
>> security
>> forces.
>>
>> Best,
>> elham
>>
>>> From: cfarivar at cfarivar.org
>>> Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:54:22 +0100
>>> To: AllnuttL at rferl.org
>>> CC: liberationtech at mailman.stanford.edu
>>> Subject: Re: [liberationtech] Belarus/Ericsson/GSM
>>
>>>
>>> For what it's worth, Nokia Siemens Networks basically said the same
>>> thing about the kit they sold to Iran pre 2009 election.
>>>
>>> -C
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 2:41 PM, Luke Allnutt <AllnuttL at rferl.org>
>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Dear All,
>>>>
>>>> I'm a journalist from RFE/RL working on a story about the recent
>> crackdown
>>>> in Belarus. Our Belarus Service is reporting that hundreds of cell
>> phone
>>>> owners are being summoned for interrogation by police and the KGB
>> because,
>>>> on December 19, they were using their phones at the site of the
>>>> antigovernment protest.
>>>>
>>>> We are trying to ascertain whether the phone operators were  
>>>> asked to
>> supply
>>>> the information about their customers' phone calls or whether  
>>>> the KGB
>> was
>>>> able to track these calls on their own. Both scenarios seem  
>>>> plausible.
>>>>
>>>> If anyone has any insight into what might have happened here and  
>>>> how
>> easy it
>>>> would be for the KGB to get that location data on their own, it  
>>>> would
>> be
>>>> much appreciated.
>>>>
>>>> My second question, if I may, would be about Ericsson, who have
>> supplied
>>>> Belarus operators with GSM equipment. I spoke via email to  
>>>> Ericsson,
>> and
>>>> from what I can make out, the GSM equipment they've supplied  
>>>> Belarus
>> with is
>>>> pretty standard and contains capabilities for "lawful  
>>>> intercept," which
>> they
>>>> say is entirely in keeping with worldwide standards and norms.
>>>>
>>>> I've spoken to a few experts to try to ascertain whether  
>>>> Ericsson is
>> doing
>>>> anything inappropriate here. Should they, for instance, sell  
>>>> different
>>>> equipment to countries with less-than-democratic records? How  
>>>> difficult
>>>> would it be for Ericsson to reengineer their systems so lawful
>> intercept
>>>> capabilities were taken out? And how difficult would it be to  
>>>> put those
>>>> things back in?
>>>>
>>>> I apologize if these questions seem overly simplistic or off-the- 
>>>> mark.
>> I
>>>> have only a fairly limited understanding of the engineering  
>>>> questions;
>> thus
>>>> why I'm turning to you people.
>>>>
>>>> If anyone would have the time to answer my questions on list or off
>> list, I
>>>> would be hugely grateful. Many thanks for your time.
>>>>
>>>> Best Wishes,
>>>>
>>>> Luke
>>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> ----------------------------------------
>>> Cyrus Farivar
>>> "suh-ROOS FAR-ih-var"
>>>
>>>  Freelance Technology Journalist
>>> cfarivar at cfarivar.org
>>>
>>> DE: +49 163 763 3108 (m)
>>> US: +1 510 394 5485 (m)
>>>
>>> AIM: FarivarCJ
>>> Twitter/Skype/Yahoo/gChat: cfarivar
>>>
>>> http://www.cyrusfarivar.com
>>>
>>> "Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the
>> Internet."
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