Build Your Own RayHunter Privacy Tool #shorts

Our Take

Credit to STS Technologies LLC for putting a spotlight on RayHunter, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's open-source project that turns an inexpensive mobile hotspot into a detector for IMSI catchers — the fake cell towers (also called Stingrays) that police and sometimes bad actors use to intercept phone traffic and track devices. It's a solid example of the DIY privacy-tool ecosystem that groups like EFF have built to give ordinary people some visibility into surveillance tech that's normally invisible by design.

We cover ALPRs here, but IMSI catchers and license plate readers are cousins in the same family: both are dragnet tools that sweep up data on everyone in range, not just suspects, and both have historically operated with little public oversight or disclosure. The fact that you can now build or buy a $20-ish device to detect one of these tools says a lot about how normalized covert surveillance tech has become — and how much the burden still falls on individuals to defend themselves rather than on lawmakers to rein in the deployment.

If you're thinking about what's watching you on the road as well as on the airwaves, check our camera map to see what ALPR coverage looks like in your area, and visit our take-action page for ways to push back on unchecked surveillance infrastructure in your community.