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How the Government Surveils Cellphones: A Primer

Last week, the state of cellphone tracking became slightly more confusing. The U.S. Department of Justice announced that, except in emergency situations, federal agents would now seek warrants before using "Stingrays." Stingrays are devices that mimic cellphone towers and can pinpoint a phone’s physical location or record which number they’re calling.

For people who follow the issue closely, like the ACLU, the news was welcome if limited. But for many, it made the situation around cellphone surveillance even trickier than it was before. How many different ways can the government surveil cellphones? What can each method do? Here’s a primer.

If law enforcement wants to surveil your cellphone, they have two ways to do it. They can do it through a phone company; or they can do it directly, using a device like a Stingray.

Let’s talk about the first way. If the government goes through the phone company, they probably do it by seeking cell-site location information, or CSLI. CSLI is created whenever a cellphone talks to a cell tower: It’s a record of towers that a cellphone pinged, what direction the cellphone’s ping came from, and what time the ping came.

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