FBI secrecy makes it hard to challenge these tactics, because it's not clear what "these tactics" are, and whose information is actually being gathered.
The last aerial surveillance case I can recall is California v. Ciraolo, which was about surveillance with the naked eye. I hope that these flights wouldn't survive a legal challenge, but I also believe that the FBI would be likely to launder anything gathered via parallel construction -- engineering a "normal" traffic stop, etc., based on gathered information.
As with the use of Stingrays, secrecy is used to thwart justice. I don't know how to stop it.
>The point of California v. Ciraolo was that surveillence with the naked eye was lawful, and did not require a warrant.
I realise that, but you said "I hope that these flights wouldn't survive a legal challenge" so I inferred that you thought the judgement was incorrect.
>"cameras/eyeballs"... you understand that those are two different things, right?
I'm not sure if you're trolling here. The slash meant "or" in this case, which should be been patently obvious.
>Large area digital data collection is not the same as observing an area with the naked eye.
Of course, and it's not illegal AFAIK.
>Deployed networks of automated license plate readers are not the same as "the FBI staking out suspects from their cars".
The article doesn't mention "automated license plate readers".
The question should be about how targeted the FBI's operations should be. Collecting as much data as possible does not seem targeted to me. I also think the value to society is dubious.
Is that in fact what they are doing? The story says that all their operations were all related to specific suspects in serious crime investigations. There seems to be an automatic presumption on HN that the FBI are up to no good.
The last aerial surveillance case I can recall is California v. Ciraolo, which was about surveillance with the naked eye. I hope that these flights wouldn't survive a legal challenge, but I also believe that the FBI would be likely to launder anything gathered via parallel construction -- engineering a "normal" traffic stop, etc., based on gathered information.
As with the use of Stingrays, secrecy is used to thwart justice. I don't know how to stop it.