8 Alb. Govt. L. Rev. 001 (2015)
Heath Hardman
How do you catch a hacker that has stolen thousands of dollars,
stolen multiple identities, and evaded capture for years? If you’re
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), you use a Stingray of
course. If you’re puzzled right now, you probably also have an
expectation of privacy within your home, and it has never
occurred to you that the FBI could use a device to cause your
phone to emit a signal, without your knowledge, for the purpose
of locating it—and you. That device is the Stingray—a cell-site
simulator—and the story of the hacker is not a fictional one.
Technology constantly adapts, updates, and changes, and with it
so does the law and society. Once again, we are faced with an
emerging technology that the legal community must deal with.
First, however, the legal community must understand the
technology in order to spot the issues, argue causes, and apply
analogous law until laws that are on-point are developed.
This article will cover the public awareness concerning cell-site
simulators in section I. In section II, pertinent elements of
cellular network technology will be discussed, which will be
crucial to the legal community’s ability to apply the law and
create new laws. Section III will merge the technological
information and other information publicly available to outline
possible methods that have been, or could be, used. Finally,
section IV will point to certain legal issues raised by cell-site
simulator technology and the need for possible legislation or
regulation. The technology explained, and the legal issues raised,
will enable following efforts to explore the brave new world of
cell-site simulators.