Police Listen In on Mobile Phone Calls In Moscow

Can anyone imagine this happening in the US? At the request of the police and the Russian Federal Security Service, all mobile phone carriers in Moscow turned off all mobile phone encryption for approximately 24-hours, allowing police to eavesdrop on any phone calls they wanted. They claimed it was for security reasons in tracking down criminals, but give few other details. The part that surprises me is that they told everyone they were doing this - which would seem to defeat the purpose. All the carriers sent out messages or displayed on the phones that the calls were no longer encrypted. I'm sure some people missed things like the little "unlocked" icon, but if I were trying to spy on people, I wouldn't think the first thing you would want to do is tell them.

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