So how many people did they spy on to get those 251 prosecutions?
The app was a plant, preloaded on mobile phones you'd only buy for criminal acts, so probably not much more than 251. For the record, they almost certainly overreached elsewhere but imo, what was done with this app is pretty fair and balanced. It's much better than requiring backdoors in apps or services. It's almost like real police work.
Why no-one in America was arrested as part of Operation Ironside
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Re: Why no-one in America was arrested as part of Operation Ironside
#22More like no arrests that they could talk about, but it's not unheard of for governments to launder the evidence until it's more admissible in court ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction )
Re: Why no-one in America was arrested as part of Operation Ironside
#23>agents were not allowed to download or read any messages sent from AN0M accounts in the United States because of privacy laws. "Privacy laws" being the Fourth Amendment, which the article still makes it sound like they violated by downloading all the messages three times a week.
Re: Why no-one in America was arrested as part of Operation Ironside
#24Re: Why no-one in America was arrested as part of Operation Ironside
#25>agents were not allowed to download or read any messages sent from AN0M accounts in the United States because of privacy laws. "Privacy laws" being the Fourth Amendment, which the article still makes it sound like they violated by downloading all the messages three times a week.
Isn't doubly weird that the third country was Romania?
Re: Why no-one in America was arrested as part of Operation Ironside
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
> By the end of 2019, this third country was sending data to the FBI every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, according to the court document. > "This data comprises the encrypted messages of all the users of AN0MS with a few exceptions," the document reads. > Those exceptions included approximately 15 AN0M users in the United States. Sounds like the FBI got the data of everyone except the US users.
Isn't this the classic Five Eyes loophole? I'll spy on you, you'll spy on me, and we'll exchange notes.
Homeland Security specifically promises to delete any data once they've finished, but it doesn't say anything about the agencies that they presumably share it with.
Basically if the US wants data on particular people from the Five Eyes network, it can be arranged. And once it's in Langley, it can go anywhere.
Re: Why no-one in America was arrested as part of Operation Ironside
#27Doesn't this imply willful lying of government to its citizens. What's the guarantee that they aren't doing the same with contact tracing apps or other necessary apps?
Re: Why no-one in America was arrested as part of Operation Ironside
#28>agents were not allowed to download or read any messages sent from AN0M accounts in the United States because of privacy laws. "Privacy laws" being the Fourth Amendment, which the article still makes it sound like they violated by downloading all the messages three times a week.
Isn't doubly weird that the third country was Romania?
Re: Why no-one in America was arrested as part of Operation Ironside
#29More like no arrests that they could talk about, but it's not unheard of for governments to launder the evidence until it's more admissible in court ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction )
Yeah I don't buy this for a second. US agencies are known to violate constitutional rights on a regular basis, usually without any repercussions. Yet in this scenario, where there doesn't even seem to be much innocent bycatch they're Doing It By The Books?
Re: Why no-one in America was arrested as part of Operation Ironside
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't doubly weird that the third country was Romania?
Do you have a link for that? Am curious to see.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210608102417/https://webcache....
All the data was sent to some sever in Bucharest.