The IRS must just figure that they’re already the most hated agency in America, and they’ve decided to move forward expeditiously with their corruption. Now, they’ve caught Chuck Grassley’s eye:
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and ranking member Patrick Leahy have demanded answers regarding the use of cell site simulator technology by the IRS. In their letter to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, both senators expressed their concern.
While the devices can be useful tools for identifying the location of a suspect’s cell phone or identifying an unknown cell phone, we have previously expressed concerns about the privacy implications of these devices.
StingRays are more commonly utilized by local and federal law enforcement in order to track down identifying and locational information from a suspect’s phone. The technology does this by mimicking a cell phone tower, tricking phones into connecting to them in order to pull relevant information on the subject under investigation — and in the process, doing the same to any other phones in the area as well.
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen admitted that the agency does, in fact, use the technology. The admission was cornered by The Guardian, who found that the IRS had spent $71,000 on StingRay device upgrades and training from the manufacturer.
The IRS has already once violated the rights of ordinary Americans, and it seems like it hasn’t learned a lesson. Remarkably, no one was fired for their last indiscretion. It’s hard to see how enforcing tax policy necessitates the collection of data from all Americans, but I’m not sure that the IRS cares. If no one gets in trouble, there’s no cost to violating liberty.
Americans need to demand that heads start rolling.
AAN Staff
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