› added 5 years ago

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TIL the FBI supplied 48 police agencies with Stingray surveillance hardware that mimics cell phone towers, and had them sign non-disclosure agreements to stop them confirming their use of it or its capabilities to anyone, including courts of law. Cases would be dismissed rather than expose the tech.

Read more theguardian.com

via reddit.com

vVAB TIL some Black Friday products (i.e. cheaper TVs) are made specifically to be sold only on Black Friday, and are of lower quality than usual
75Br TIL there is a 13,000-square-mile area in West Virginia where cell phones and Wi-FI are banned.
0dG9j TIL that Hitler only became a German citizen in 1932, only a year before he took power
l1Na TIL A cat survived the sinking of three separate ships in World War Two, earning its title as “Unsinkable Sam.”
kO6mE TIL The parents of one of John Wayne Gacy’s victims, John Butkovich, called police more than a hundred times to urge them to investigate him further. Their son had vanished in 1975, and had been one of Gacy’s employees.