ACLU App: Secretly Record TSA Encounters?
 

The Star-Ledger reports on an app released by the ACLU of NJ that allows stealth recording of video and audio on Android, and audio recording for the iPhone. Although the app is meant for recording police encounters, I believe it may be very useful at TSA checkpoints.

"The app, which debuts only for Android devices but will be available for iPhones later this month, is simple to use and can be downloaded at aclu-nj.org/app. It opens to a screen with three buttons: video recording, audio recording and a tutorial on knowing your rights."

"The app’s signature feature is its ability to operate in "stealth mode" while recording. When you start video recording, the screen goes black, as if it's off. When recording audio, the app automatically minimizes and disappears."

I suspect this won't work well on iPhones. It would have a 10 minute "stealth mode" limit once the screen locks.

Apps can override that. I have several apps that keep functioning fine once my phone locks.

It'll work fine on the iPhone and there's no limit of time, but if recording audio only, why wouldn't one just use the voice memos app that comes with iOS?

The "Voice Memo" app only stores locally. I don't know about the ACLU app, but I'd rather use something like Qik Video, which saves the recording remotely and not locally on the phone.

Believe the ACLU app is about NYC stop-and-frisk, and will upload the video to ACLU for review. I suspect that the ACLU wants to see the probable-cause and/or reasonable-suspicion that might have caused the frisk.

Not sure how this would apply to TSA, as the phone would have to go in the xray bin. I'm sure it would be running ok, yet would it catch any audio?

I wish Dropbox and Downcast would sort that out, then. It's my understanding that 10 minutes after screen lock, a backgrounded task will be killed.

Sounds like a great app. I'd be great for both police encounters and TSA. The one problem I'd see with it would be activating it in advance. Does it run until it's turned off?

I suppose the best way to find out is to install the app and try it out.

What good would it do, you'll be separated from the phone anyway.

At the risk of this turning into a Stack Overflow thread...

It's up to the app to ask for permission to keep running. If the app is actually in the "suspend" state, it can be killed when the OS needs more resources. If it has asked for the right to keep running, it won't be killed and will run in the background. Voice recording apps are an often cited example of apps that do this. (Navigation apps and location apps are the other types.)

I would suggest caution here. Every state has its own Wire Tapping laws, and of course they usually differ quite a bit. Check with an attorney first, unless of course you like being arrested.

I would suggest you're an idiot, but that would be against the FT rules. So instead, I'll suggest that I'm aware of no court that has upheld a law against recording police/TSA interactions.

--Jon

Laughing ^