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Comment by why-el | Hacker News Reader

Or he could have pointed at his eyes making a sunglass shape and the agent happened to be glancing over the cars really quick. I don't know, this is too conspiratorial for me and it should not diverge from the real issue at hand.

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How is the possibility of using listening devices near the border "conspiratorial"? There are many ways to accomplish this using publicly available technology. Using the C word to dismiss a conversation prevents us from having a legitimate discussion about whether something is appropriate.

Listening devices in people's cars is what I think is taking it too far. I am from from calling anything conspiratorial.

They wouldn't need to be in people's cars. You could just bounce a laser off the car windshield to hear what's going on inside.

This strikes me as a great tactic, as I can imagine people that are preparing to lie to the authorities may be corroborating their story as they approach the gate.

What surprises me is that the border patrol officer would tip this hand over such a minor thing.

Fair enough. I was not really aware those technologies are/might be used this intrusively.

Would that work on a car, considering it's vibrating from the engine running?

Check this out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpectraLayers http://vimeo.com/32731023#at=0

Ok that's pretty damn cool, I didn't know that was possible. But the car vibrations might still be too much noise, and I don't know if it's possible to automatically remove the noise like that.

Just considering the possibility isn't too conspiracy theory-ish, but considering it based solely on a single anecdote that could have alternate reasonable explanations (for example, a guard actually was near the car and they just didn't notice) is a little ridiculous, especially when there clearly is a serious issue to be discussed here.

I didn't want to turn that comment into a novel, but the reason they tell that story is because it's generally accepted as fact (among many other local border town residents) that the USA has means of listening to you speak in your car before you even approach the gate.

When did that become a reality? It certainly wasn't the case just 5 years ago.

I have absolutely no idea. That's just what my relatives tell me.

Well, the Canadian border agents were running an eavesdropping program until it became public and they supposedly stopped doing it. I think that if the canadians were doing they were only following in the footsteps of the US side.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ottawa-halts-program-to-eavesdr...

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