SHANE DINGMAN -The Globe and Mail - March 2016 Canadian government officials say StingRays and devices like it have never been authorized for use in Canada – even if some security agencies have already used them. The controversial cellphone-surveillance technology allows police departments and other authorities to spy on the cellphone activity of a wide variety of citizens. How these devices work, where they come from, and how they are being used is a story of its own. What is a StingRay or IMSI catcher? To answer that, first we have to describe how your phone is constantly broadcasting your location. In simple terms, when you make a call on a mobile phone there is a radio transmitter and receiver inside that tries to connect to a cellular network or tower: you can actually see that radio connection by checking the bars on your phone, which measures signal strength. Your phone's radio will try to connect to the nearest and strongest radio signal from a base station or tower so that the