ICE is stepping up its smartphone tracking, but Android 16 has a secret weapon

Things are bad in the US right now, with the current administration deploying all the tricks in its bag against its perceived political enemies — and that means a huge crackdown on anyone appearing even remotely “foreign.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has found itself leading this effort, with sweeping raids targeting vulnerable communities, all too often leaving divided families and heartbreak in its wake.

We’ve already looked at the role smartphones have been playing in this saga, with moves by Google and Apple alike that appear to support the government’s efforts and remove access to apps designed to protect people from ICE harassment. And now we’re turning our attention to another tool in the agency’s arsenal, as we learn of its latest acquisition of phone-tracking vehicles.

TechCrunch points to Federal Procurement Data System records that show ICE spending over $800,000 earlier this year on “Cell Site Simulator (CSS) Vehicles.” That’s a slightly more innocuous-sounding way to refer to the hardware we colloquially know as a “Stingray” or IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) catcher. It’s basically a fake cell tower that goes around shouting “How do you do, cell phones, I am a totally regular cellular tower and you should try connecting to me” with all the subtlety of an undercover Steve Buscemi.

That effectively allows the Stringray to create a record of all the cellular devices in its vicinity. An agency like ICE might use this kind of tech for everything from monitoring attendance at protests to attempting to locate individual users by tracking down their phones.

The good news is that tools exist to help protect you from hardware like this. We’ve seen efforts to build DIY hardware capable of detecting the presence of Stingrays, like the EFF’s Rayhunter project. Users who have already updated their phones to Android 16 can even tap into some system-level protection with the new “Network notifications” option — just make sure you toggle that one on, as it’s not enabled by default.

None of this is anything new for ICE, which has been employing Stingray-like devices in its operations for years. But as the agency equips itself with more and more ways to monitor Americans, those of us likely to be targeted should similarly be seeking out the latest news about those efforts and the options that exist to protect our most vulnerable friends and family.