Transit police are secretly spying on commuters travel plans, texts and emails.

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Transit police are secretly spying on commuters travel plans, texts and emails.

May 25th, 2017

Awake Goy

A class action lawsuit in California, reveals that Transit Police are using a free ‘Bart Watch’ app and Stingray surveillance to secretly spy on commuters texts and emails. (For more info. read pages 5-15 of the suit.)

Transit Police take their cues from other police departments, claiming they’re only interested in the public’s safety and security,

Safety and security is our top priority.. BART Watch allows you to quickly and discreetly report criminal or suspicious activity directly to BART Police.

Unfortunately, these ‘See Something, Say Something’ apps allow police to spy on everyone.

According to ABC7 News at least 10,000-50,000 people have downloaded the Elerts spying app. The lawsuit reveals that Transit Police are using Elerts to secretly collect everyone’s cellphone identification number, otherwise known as International Mobile Equipment Identity number (IMEI).

While BART and ELERTS “represent that the app is a ‘discreet’ way of reporting issues…the defendants actually programmed the app to secretly collect transit users’ unique cellular identifiers, periodically monitor users’ locations, and track the identities of anonymous reporters,” the lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit warns, that Transit Police also use Stingray surveillance to identify individuals and spy on their texts and emails.

To make it easier to spy on commuters Elerts wants Transit Police to use their new ‘free’ Text-A-Tip’ app.

The app can be branded with your Transit system logo and works with iPhone and Android smartphones. A convenient drop-down menu makes it easy for riders to indicate Report Type, such a: Assault, robbery, medical emergency or suspicious activity.

The ‘Bart Watch’ surveillance app is made by Elerts corporation, who claims that they’re the number one incident reporting & alerting app in the country. They also claim that twelve Transit police departments are using their app.

Which means, there are at least twelve Transit Police departments spying on commuters.

According to an article in the Boston Business Journal, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) has been using Elerts to spy on commuters since 2012.

Sneaky, Transit Police across the country encourage commuters to download their free versions of their “See Something, Say Something” apps.

Transit police use commuters fear of terrorism to get them to download their apps.

DHS’s VIPR teams work closely with Transit cops across the country.

This past March, the Minneapolis Metro Transit Police admitted they’ve been working closely with DHS’s Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams for more than a decade.

VIPR teams are meant to intimidate commuters and allow them to search people without a warrant as this story from Chicago shows.

Abby Seitz said VIPR teams were conducting random bag checks “They were standing in a row against the wall with the ticket machines,”Seitz said. “I did not see a single CPD officer in the line.They all had visible Homeland Security credentials…”

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