By Mustafa Caglayan
NEW YORK
U.S. law enforcement agencies equip small planes with spy technology to collect Americans' cell phone data, according to media reports.
The Wall Street Journal quoted unnamed sources Thursday that the Justice Department flies Cessna airplanes deployed with special devices, known as "dirtboxes," that mimic cellphone towers in order to locate cellphones linked to individuals under government investigation, including fugitives and drug dealers.
This enables the devices to obtain the communications details of its targets, as cellphones are automatically programmed to network with the strongest cell tower signal.
The system also collects information on cellphones belonging to users who are not criminal suspects, but "lets go" of them when it determines a user is not a suspect, the sources said.
The technology is also capable of preventing certain phones from making calls, including to 911 for emergency help, according to the newspaper.
The program marks the latest example of the extent to which the U.S. law enforcement agencies have enhanced the government's ability to collect and analyze private information from American citizens.
The Guardian newspaper in the UK reported in July 2013 that a classified Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order instructed Verizon, one of the U.S.'s largest telecommunications firms, to hand over the phone recordings of millions of U.S. citizens to the National Security Agency. In another report published the same month, the Washington Post said another secret surveillance program, called PRISM, obtained communications data from several prominent American companies.
The recently exposed program bypasses phone companies in the search for suspects, the Wall Street Journal said.
In the last several years, American media claimed that law enforcement agencies criticized cellphone companies for being slow to act in providing inaccurate information.
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