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The new warrant: how US police mine Google for your location and search history

theguardian.com

11–20 of 327 posts

Re: The new warrant: how US police mine Google for your location and search history

#12
post #5

Is there a self hosted app to track your location? I use Google maps to keep granular history so I can use it later for whatever. But if I could self host that’d be better.

See UnifiedNLP (https://github.com/microg/UnifiedNlp/blob/master/README.md) down to "List of backends for geolocation".

Re: The new warrant: how US police mine Google for your location and search history

#13

I've always had the habit of keeping Location services turned off while not in use, to conserve my phone's battery. Guess it's a privacy requisite now. I also remember having a habit of keeping mobile data off during the 3G days. Guess it's not feasible anymore.

That does practically nothing for your privacy, because you're still connected to the base station tower which keeps logs of your phone roaming between base stations. And in more populated areas, the base stations are dense enough to be pretty accurate about where you were. Requests for cell tower log dumps are very common these days.

The solution here is for governments to ban this kind of bulk data requests without warrant and not for you to fight a losing battle against your own police force.

Re: The new warrant: how US police mine Google for your location and search history

#14
post #2

Reminder: Turn off location services/GPS systemwide to opt out of these databases. The subscriber location tracking performed by cell towers is much lower resolution.

The only foolproof method is to stick your phone in a Faraday cage both going to and leaving the location you want private, right? Or cage it and leave it at home?

Re: The new warrant: how US police mine Google for your location and search history

#15
post #2

Reminder: Turn off location services/GPS systemwide to opt out of these databases. The subscriber location tracking performed by cell towers is much lower resolution.

The subscriber location tracking performed by cell towers is part of the e911 system. It's pretty accurate by design. Now how much and how long that data is retained is up to the mobile network provider. They've had no qualms about selling it in the past.

Re: The new warrant: how US police mine Google for your location and search history

#16
Geofence warrants are analogous to getting a warrant for the check-in log at a hotel after a guest is murdered. So long as there is probable cause, this should not be a legal issue. See https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/probable_cause:

> A judge may issue a search warrant if the affidavit in support of the warrant offers sufficient credible information to establish probable cause.

When you use these types of technology, you are essentially checking in everywhere you go.

Re: The new warrant: how US police mine Google for your location and search history

#18
post #7
post #2

Reminder: Turn off location services/GPS systemwide to opt out of these databases. The subscriber location tracking performed by cell towers is much lower resolution.

google android tracks location even when gps off https://duckduckgo.com/?q=google+android+tracks+location+eve...

It tracks which towers you are connected to according to the article. No triangulation or precise location.

Re: The new warrant: how US police mine Google for your location and search history

#19

Geofence warrants are analogous to getting a warrant for the check-in log at a hotel after a guest is murdered. So long as there is probable cause, this should not be a legal issue. See https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/probable_cause : > A judge may issue a search warrant if the affidavit in support of the warrant offers sufficient credible information to establish probable cause. When you use these types of technolog…

Not in my hometown in The Netherlands. We had a high profile murder by stabbing, a suspect and the police was denied the information you are talking about ( I think ).

The case was high profile because the victim was in his early twenties and seemed to be stabbed 'at random' during his jogging.

Re: The new warrant: how US police mine Google for your location and search history

#20
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

google android tracks location even when gps off https://duckduckgo.com/?q=google+android+tracks+location+eve...

It tracks which towers you are connected to according to the article. No triangulation or precise location.

Cell phone tower triangulation has been around for so long that there's decades-old movies to its effect. To claim that there's no triangulation in current tech is, IMO, an intentionally malicious claim.
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