To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google
1–10 of 166 posts
Re: To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google
#2This seems to me to be a major revelation: police in North Carolina have successfully requested Google account information on all phones near a crime scene. While Google routinely responds to search warrants, this is a much broader type of data request.
Re: To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google
#3Wow that's deeply disturbing but also feels like a similar tactic to the stingrays. Does simply owning a cell phone and being in a geographical area make you open to 4th amendment search and identification?
Re: To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google
#4Yet another reason to disable GPS and location history (and any other functionality you use infrequently) when not actively necessary.
Re: To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google
#5Wow that's deeply disturbing but also feels like a similar tactic to the stingrays. Does simply owning a cell phone and being in a geographical area make you open to 4th amendment search and identification?
Unsurprisingly being in close proximity to a crime makes you a reasonable initial suspect.
Identifying those close to a crime is and always has been standard and reasonable police procedure.
The reasonableness of a subsequent search based on this location information is context dependent.
Re: To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google
#6Yet another reason to disable GPS and location history (and any other functionality you use infrequently) when not actively necessary.
Or alternatively use a self hosted or less well known alternative.
Re: To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google
#7Yet another reason to disable GPS and location history (and any other functionality you use infrequently) when not actively necessary.
The only way is to not use any Google services. If you connect from mobile IP ranges as other users who are in the area, you could also easily be included. Same goes for cell towers but at least it's not a single entity.
Re: To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google
#8Wow that's deeply disturbing but also feels like a similar tactic to the stingrays. Does simply owning a cell phone and being in a geographical area make you open to 4th amendment search and identification?
Unsurprisingly being in close proximity to a crime makes you a reasonable initial suspect. Identifying those close to a crime is and always has been standard and reasonable police procedure. The reasonableness of a subsequent search based on this location information is context dependent.
It seems morally similar to scooping up all CCTV from nearby businesses.
If this is going through a warrant process, and it's geofenced around a specific crime they're investigating, it's hard to feel too worried about it. The worst case scenario I can see is that it makes it easy to generate false hypotheses and put innocent people under suspicion, but then so can canvassing the neighborhood and trawling all the nearby CCTV.
Re: To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unsurprisingly being in close proximity to a crime makes you a reasonable initial suspect. Identifying those close to a crime is and always has been standard and reasonable police procedure. The reasonableness of a subsequent search based on this location information is context dependent.
It seems morally similar to scooping up all CCTV from nearby businesses. If this is going through a warrant process, and it's geofenced around a specific crime they're investigating, it's hard to feel too worried about it. The worst case scenario I can see is that it makes it easy to generate false hypotheses and put innocent people under suspicion, but then so can canvassing the neighborhood and trawling all the nea…
The difference is in that, while CCTV cameras are usually visible and obvious (many areas even have signs indicating as such), most people are unaware they are being tracked in the manner described in the article.
CCTV and GPS "fencing" would be comparable if Google were to issue statements clarifying that your location is being tracked and recorded, and may be surrendered to the police without your knowledge.
Re: To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google
#10Yet another reason to disable GPS and location history (and any other functionality you use infrequently) when not actively necessary.
The only way is to not use any Google services. If you connect from mobile IP ranges as other users who are in the area, you could also easily be included. Same goes for cell towers but at least it's not a single entity.
Google collects location data from WLAN networks in reach, triangulates from cell tower signal strength, GPS, GLONASS, geoip and if all that fails, sheer historical prediction.
And no one quite knows why, other than "because we can". There is Google Maps, but when I'm not using it, when exactly is this orwellian infrastructure to my benefit and not exclusively Googles?