Privacy, encryption vs. Surveillance state

Welcome to the Precious Metals Bug Forums

Welcome to the PMBug forums - a community supported watering hole for folks interested in gold, silver, precious metals, sound money, investing, market and economic news, central bank monetary policies, politics and more.

Register a free account to join the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including access to market data/charts and additional members only rooms (including one for trade/barter with the community).

WOAH 🚨 Texas State Police purchased new vehicles that have surveillance systems that will READ YOUR PHONE as you’re driving down the highway

Phones will soon be monitored. “Texas State Police recently bought vehicles equipped with technology that can intercept mobile phone data”

The Texas Department of Public Safety approved an emergency $4,487,500 purchase of four 2026 Chevrolet Tahoe Police Pursuit Vehicles loaded with Cognyte FalcoNet gear. Only $600,000 of that was for the trucks themselves. The rest bought the surveillance systems

Purchase order included:

- Four FalcoNet core systems: $2.85 million
- 5G perpetual licenses: $280,000
- Backpack-portable units so it can leave the vehicle
- Antenna kits, amplifiers and mounting hardware

Once connected, the system pulls identifying phone information like your IMSI, IMEI and location data. 3 system can be operational in about 3 minutes and process THOUSANDS of devices per minute

(Holy sh*t)

The surveillance state is expanding in America and Texas seeks to be leading the way

“I'm in Houston, the largest city in Texas, where authorities are quietly building a web of cameras, drones, sensors and AI systems”

- The cameras at some businesses like gas stations are required by law in Texas and police can request the footage
- Roads are getting a new AI traffic camera system
- Houston scrapped its old gunshot detection system after opposition, but it's approved a new one which can detect gunshots, cars screeching and glass breaking
- Drones are also being used. Police used them during the World Cup, but won't say how many they have now

“And is my phone being monitored? Texas State Police recently bought vehicles equipped with technology that can intercept mobile phone data… and the most controversial tool right now, Flock license plate readers. Officials here won't say how many they have or where they are, but there's at least 3,800 in the county alone”

The police vehicles equipped with this new surveillance system will look like ordinary state police Tahoes. Antennas are concealed behind a raised false roof



Well. That's the final straw for me. Time to order a Faraday cage bag for my phone (plus extras for the family) for use when driving around. I'm looking at this one at the moment:

 
This post may contain affiliate links for which PM Bug gold and silver discussion forum may be compensated.
^^^^

Just leave your phone at home. Take with you an obsolete cellphone, with no number assigned to it...by LAW it MUST connect to the 9-1-1 operator in the region it's active in, even if there's no account or number assigned.

FWIW, I have tested that. At least in my area it's absolutely true - I was in communication with the emergency switchboard. To be sure they didn't send the SWAT team out to my geofenced location, I told the operator it was a butt-dial accident. She accepted that...and I knew it was a good emergency resource.

The Faraday bags...I forgot where, but someone seemingly-competent, tested about six Amazon bags, and only one worked. It was not the most-expensive one, either.

Of course glowing product reviews on Bezoszon, mean nothing.
 
Just leave your phone at home. Take with you an obsolete cellphone, with no number assigned to it...by LAW it MUST connect to the 9-1-1 operator in the region it's active in, even if there's no account or number assigned.
If in airplane mode, I don't think it'll do that. It still needs access to the cell network and airplane mode tirns the cellular transmitter off.
....and wi-fi can be turned on with airplane mode on. So you can still connect to the internet.
 
We all gotta find the solution we can live with.

IF you find an actual, effective Faraday Bag...and put the phone in...I know from experience, back from when the various G networks were NOT completed and ubiquitous...once out of signal, the phone will literally cry itself to sleep (dead battery) looking for a way to link to the Mothership.

It will wear your battery down in short order. My last DummPhone was good three days on a charge, normally. But, take it up into the mountains, it would search, and search, and shut down with LO BATT after about six hours unless I turned it off.

I expect that would be even more a problem with a StupePhone that can't get the signal, either to find out where it is, or to report it to the Fruit Company or Microsquish.
 
... Just leave your phone at home. ...

Not an option for me. I need to be able to reach and be reached by family.

... The Faraday bags...I forgot where, but someone seemingly-competent, tested about six Amazon bags, and only one worked. ...

They are easy enough to test yourself and I plan to do that immediately. If it doesn't work, I'll just return it.

... the phone will literally cry itself to sleep (dead battery) looking for a way to link to the Mothership. ...

Not if you turn it off before putting it in the cage, which is what I plan to do. Phone will be off and in the cage while I'm traveling. On and out of the cage when I'm where I want to be (and have need/use for it).
 
Airplane mode turns the cell radio off.

The faraday bag stops it from using gps to track you.
The phone has to use battery power to communicate - identify itself.

I don't know the mechanics of it, but I don't believe just a ping from a tower to a phone not using any current, will identify the phone. It could MAYBE return a static ping, that yes, there's some sort of transponder there...but not who/what/where.

They SAY that turning the phone off doesn't stop it. Probably true.

But then, it's using battery power while "off."

Here we are, arguing basic electronic technology...just about every Tech Bro in the phone field, knows the answer, but somehow they're not saying.

Probably because they're all autistic deviants and have common-consent not to talk about it. Because these damn spy-phones are how they can elevate themselves to being the Normies' taskmasters.
 
The phone has to use battery power to communicate - identify itself.

I don't know the mechanics of it, but I don't believe just a ping from a tower to a phone not using any current, will identify the phone. It could MAYBE return a static ping, that yes, there's some sort of transponder there...but not who/what/where.

They SAY that turning the phone off doesn't stop it. Probably true.

But then, it's using battery power while "off."

Here we are, arguing basic electronic technology...just about every Tech Bro in the phone field, knows the answer, but somehow they're not saying.

Probably because they're all autistic deviants and have common-consent not to talk about it. Because these damn spy-phones are how they can elevate themselves to being the Normies' taskmasters.
The whole reason for airplane mode is to turn off the cellular radio.

No cellular radio, no pinging.

Wi-fi can still be used if you turn it on.

Ie: you can put it in airplane mode and toss it in a faraday bag and it won't be able to connect to anything until you take it out of the bag.

Airplane won't work on it's own because of gps. It'll still know location* and cough that data up soon as you turn off airplane mode or connect to wi-fi.

*gps location is done by receiving data, not sending, so airplane mode doesn't turn that off
 
This post may contain affiliate links for which PM Bug gold and silver discussion forum may be compensated.
Back
Top Bottom