Don't use a phone then. Identifying information is being collected and stored by the carrier for at least a month, which can then be handed to regular law enforcement upon subpoena. Federal level likely doesn't even need due process.
I'm not talking about carriers identifying you, I'm talking about people intercepting your IMEI and phone number and being able to uniquely identify you wherever you go. People have been drone strike'd based on the location of their phones.
Carriers being awful is a separate problem. My annoyance rests with the 2G protocol being awful.
I get that, and carriers are definitely stupid. But preventing people from gaining SS7 access is much easier than fixing a broken protocol in use by many devices. Blocking SS7 access is something carriers can do. Fixing 2G is just not possible, and anyone can break it, right at this very moment, with a tiny bit of hardware.
> Rather than confirming a target’s identity with operatives or informants on the ground, the CIA or the U.S. military then orders a strike based on the activity and location of the mobile phone a person is believed to be using.
You are right. This is very disturbing. I guess they do this a lot in Northern Pakistan / Waziristan area in the tribal lands and mountains? What if the Terrorist read stories like this, and gave their cell phone to mules who then get killed?
My father's family (he grew up in India in Bombay) got split in half during the Partition of India and Pakistan when the Brits left India. No wonder there is so much rage and anti-american sentiment in Pakistan (my Pakistani relatives complaint all the time on Skype)
