That plane circling overhead might be one of the FBI’s surveillance aircraft fitted with tech equipment capable of tricking the cellphones below it into connecting to it – and not a legitimate cellphone tower – and then indiscriminately sucking up info of subscribers not suspected of any crime. Then again it might not.

In a 30-day period, The Associated Press “traced at least 50 aircraft back to the FBI, and identified more than 100 flights in 11 states” plus the District of Columbia. Those planes have been flying over “parts of Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Seattle and Southern California” as well rural areas. While you would expect the FBI to use aircraft in investigations, you might not expect those planes to be registered to shell companies. The AP traced FBI planes “to at least 13 fake companies, such as FVX Research, KQM Aviation, NBR Aviation and PXW Services.”

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