Disable 2G On Android To Block Stingray Devices
1) Pull up the phone dialer and dial *#*#4636#*#* (that spells INFO)
2) This brings you to the testing screen, select “Phone/Device information”.
3) Scroll down a little to “preferred network type”, select the arrow.
4) Change it to LTE/WCDMA Only.
It will now stay on 3G/4G/4GLTE and avoid the old school GSM 2G Data towers.
If you reboot your phone you will have to turn it off again.
But now you have to turn your Google tracking off.
Can I block a Stingray?
The Stingray is only worth a damn on a 2G Network. Who uses 2G anymore? You can flat out disable 2G all together and never have to worry about connecting to a fake cell tower. Right?
I myself have an Android phone and can tell you how to do this but if you have an iPhone please comment below with instructions or just go Google it. If it is not possible on an iPhone then ha, yet another reason for Droid Life.
The GSM is 2G and when it is set to LTE/WCDMA Preferred, if someone jams the 3G /4G LTE service then your phone hops down to the 2G GSM tower which would be the Stingray. So by saying 4G, LTE, and 3G Only, when they jam your service you simply will have none at all instead of connecting to the surveillance tower on the 2G GSM Network. Stingray blocked.
There is a lot of talk about local police departments such as OPD listening to your phone conversations at protest lately so here is information below to block those ancient Stingrays.
Stingray Technology And Local Police Departments
This did force me to do more in depth research on the Stingray Cell Phone Towers that have been around for quite some time. I wanted to know if the Oakland Police and other local departments had access to them and exactly what information they could obtain.
I found out that OPD does indeed have an old Stingray and that they have been using it for many years. The earliest maintenance record dates 2009 but who knows how long they had it before it was maintained. The information has been made publicly available after a public record request was put in.
Oakland Police released a lot of information about the current Stingray Hardware and apparently have been rejected grants for the newer Hailstorm technology needed to listen to your calls. The upgrade would cost the city $460,000 dollars, which they do not have right now. More importantly, what the heck is a “Thru-Wall camera”? It’s listed on OPD’s document.
But what exactly can police do with this device?
Nothing if you disable your 2G Data. The Stingray has to be upgraded to a Hailstorm to “track” 4G LTE phones. Whatever track even means anymore.
How does it work?
The Stingray will “intercept” data traveling from your phone to a 2G tower. If your phone even does that. I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure my plan only uses 3G / 4G and if those 2 were not available it would do nothing, no data no phone calls. However, in the case that your phone does connect to a 2G tower and make calls / browse online / text or whatever, they would force you to connect to the police operated Stingray 2G GSM Cell Tower and from that tower connect you to your cell phone providers tower. So they just stand between you and the tower and sift through the transmission first. This means they can now intercept data on that transmission. I don’t know what they can do with it and there is no real clear information on what data they can get. They do say meta data and access the cellphones internal storage so that is enough to want to block the Stingray.
What can Hailstorm do?
Hailsotrm, the expensive upgrade that most police departments do not have is needed to get your info on a 4G cell phone. We’re still unclear as to what it does though. Luckily they are far less frequent and I have found that Oakland Police do not have it due to the high cost. In fact, the only record I see of one is Oakland County Michigan for some reason.
Christopher Soghoian, a senior policy analyst and principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the devices can identify all phones in a targeted radius and ascertain what numbers each called. What’s particularly worrisome is there is no telltale sign they’ve been used, Soghoian said: “It doesn’t leave a trace. No one would ever catch you.”
Can’t they find out what numbers you’ve called anyway by asking your phone service provider?
“Stingray Ii to Hailstorm Upgrade, ETC. the Hailstorm Upgrade is Necessary for the Stingray System to Track 4g Lte Phones”
Easier way to block stringray devices: Don’t pay your phone bill.
They may be convenient, they may even be fun, but nobody NEEDS a cell phone unless you’ve convinced yourself that you do. On the down-side, they’re a huge health risk, and they put a ton of intelligence-gathering capabilities into the enemy’s hands.
Land line and answering machine are still doing a fine job of meeting all my communications needs.
Or, as the late Mitch Hedberg liked to say, “If I want to talk to my friend, I turn my head to the side and say, ‘Hey!’.”
While I get all the “nobody needs a cell phone”
Comments
I would think on a site like this
What we really should be saying is
Nobody needs a government like this
And when do we find a way to have what we want without their constant invasion of privacy ?,, is it going to take a revolution or just a few hangin’s?
EotS,
If more people would just not give a flying KCUF what they think or say any longer maybe they would get the idea that we are not scared of anything they are trying to do. Why because as you said it’s either a hangin or revolution the combination of the two or just public service announcements daily of the next KCUF who is in violation of the bill of rights and constitution hangin from a rope.
This can happen on even a small scale(growing too many) where as many as possible are taken out by an individual followed by more attacks and physical destruction of government buildings and people of any sort who have either hurt or killed that first individual(including their gov trough feeder families). So from the above it’s going to have to be a revolution.
And the next idiot that tells me we need to stand on some moral high ground I am about to go punch you in the INKCUF throat because if you had not noticed morals are not one of their best attributes including with the fact they are dam right out looking to kill all of us this includes you and your family (see above about theirs). The war for freedom will never be won by those who allow themselves to be controlled by some alleged moral code when there is none in war there is only winning or loosing period.
/End of rant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo9buo9Mtos
Not directed at you EotS it just gets very frustrating knowing what needs to be done about this Foot Too Ass Cleanup Project needed in this country and around the world since we know very well it is not just here in America that needs the FTACP but the entire planet.