Protect Your Mobile Privacy with RayHunter #shorts

Our Take

Credit where it's due: STS Technologies LLC's short is a decent plug for RayHunter, the EFF's open-source project that turns a cheap Orbic hotspot into a homemade stingray detector. Cell-site simulators (IMSI catchers) trick your phone into connecting to a fake tower so someone can log your location or intercept metadata, and until recently the only people who could detect them reliably were researchers with expensive gear. A $20 repurposed device that flags suspicious cellular behavior is a real win for ordinary people trying to keep tabs on who's pinging their phone.

But don't lose the forest for the trees. IMSI catchers are one slice of a much bigger surveillance stack that now includes automated license plate readers bolted to street poles, recording every vehicle that passes whether or not it's suspected of anything. Flock Safety and similar networks don't need to trick your phone — they just photograph your plate, your location, and your travel patterns, then store it for weeks or months, often shared across hundreds of agencies with little oversight. Detecting a fake cell tower won't help you if a camera three blocks away already logged your plate and timestamp.

That's why we track both halves of the equation. If RayHunter has you thinking about who's watching your movements, go check our map to see what's recording you on the road, and hit take action for ways to push back on ALPR expansion in your town.