For those of you who have seen the first episode of the new season of X-Files, there’s a scene between Mulder and conspiracy theorist web host Tad O’Malley where O’Malley mentions a “dirtbox” used by government to listen in on their conversation as a reason for them not to speak until they are inside O’Malley’s limo. Turns out dirtboxes are a thing. The ACLU reports that these dirtboxes are plane-mounted Stingrays that I’ve written about previously. Local police departments have received these surveillance devices through the Pentagon’s 1033 program, which funnels the weapons of war to law enforcement. Instead of installing the Stingray at a fixed point, cops can strap to aircraft and just fly around, capturing the private data and conversations of millions of civilians.
