US rejects reports of secret mobile phone snooping

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has dismissed the authenticity of a programme to gather data from thousands of mobile phones as the secret operation by the US Marshals Service, noting the agency wouldn’t preserve a database of Americans’ cellphones.

The latest move comes after The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the Cessna aircraft have been equipped with devices dubbed ‘dirtboxes’ that imitate cellphone towers of major telecom firms and hoax cellphones into reporting their registration data.

The US DoJ official was quoted by Sputnik as saying: "Any investigative techniques which the Marshals Service uses are deployed by the Marshals Service only in furtherance of ordinary law enforcement operations, such as the apprehension of wanted individuals, and not to conduct domestic surveillance or intelligence-gathering."

However, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) spokesperson Kim Hart said: "We were not aware of this activity."

Using the technology, investigators will be able to gather data from tens of thousands of devices within a single flight, stealing their number and general location, the WSJ added.

The latest revelation comes after the US National Security Agency (NSA) was reportedly uncovered for gathering millions of text messages from global individuals, marking the second such event in the past year.

US Senator for Massachusetts Ed Markey told the WSJ: "Americans are rightfully disturbed by just how pervasive collection of mobile-phone information is, even of innocent individuals.

"While this data can be an important tool for law enforcement to identify and capture criminals and terrorists, we must ensure the privacy rights of Americans are protected….The collection of American’s personal information raises significant legal and privacy concerns, particularly for innocent consumers.”