[Overtonwindow]

As a resident, let me pose to you this : The government doesn't always know what the rest of the government is doing. I would be surprised if there weren't rogue Stingray's out there, and even more not surprised that it's some discreet arm of the government.

[bigiain]

Yeah, like the local garbage collection agency, or the animal welfare agency, or the horse racing regulators. All of whom will claim, if cornered, "We don't need a warrant, because, ummm, we're doing this TO PROTECT THE PRESIDENT!!!"

(That list may sound idiotic, but you can't make this shit up - there's examples where I live of those exact agencies (and more) requesting warrantless access to telecommunications metadata: https://www.smh.com.au/technology/dozens-of-government-agenc... )

[walrus01]

More likely explanation is various intelligence agencies with contracts with companies like Booz, ITT-Exelis, LockheedMartin, etc that have the technical capability to do private signals intelligence gathering.

[jumelles]

Yes, I'm sure both likely exist, but that doesn't make Stingrays operated by eg. China, Iran, DPRK, Russia any less of a problem !

[lolc]

You're jumping to conclusions. You don't need to be a nation state to operate a dingy IMSI-catcher.