Activist arrested by London police after downloading docs found on Google search • Hacker News Board

Re: Activist arrested by London police after downloading docs found on Google search

#11

Post by tehwebguy » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 6:34 PM UTC

capableweb wrote: post #8

sxp wrote: post #2

https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/10/police_raid_man_for_d... is a better article with pictures. The key bit is > The raid by four Metropolitan Police constables took place after Southwark campaigner Robert Hutchinson was reportedly accused of illegally entering a password-protected area of a website. > "I was searching in Google and found links to board meeting minutes," he told The Register. "Board reports, none…

> So they're name dropping Google in the title for clickbait No, Hutchinson found the documents by searching on Google for the meeting minutes. The website might have protected the place where you found the link to the meeting minutes, but the meeting minutes themselves were hosted in a directory that not only was publicly accessible if you had the URL, but also allowed Google's crawler to access it and store it. The…

Google is super relevant to the case if they identified someone who downloaded a non-protected file in response to a police request. Not sure there is any slope left to slip on, this is basically the worst case scenario already I think.

Edit: Whoops, all of my assumptions were wrong!

Re: Activist arrested by London police after downloading docs found on Google search

#12

Post by gowld » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 6:35 PM UTC

tpmx wrote: post #3

sxp wrote: post #2

https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/10/police_raid_man_for_d... is a better article with pictures. The key bit is > The raid by four Metropolitan Police constables took place after Southwark campaigner Robert Hutchinson was reportedly accused of illegally entering a password-protected area of a website. > "I was searching in Google and found links to board meeting minutes," he told The Register. "Board reports, none…

No, the core issue is the London Metropolitan Police being incompetent (and slow).

Not just incompetent, but callous and cruel toward the citizenry, making themselves agents of capitalist oppression.

Re: Activist arrested by London police after downloading docs found on Google search

#13

Post by mattmanser » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 6:36 PM UTC

capableweb wrote: post #8

sxp wrote: post #2

https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/10/police_raid_man_for_d... is a better article with pictures. The key bit is > The raid by four Metropolitan Police constables took place after Southwark campaigner Robert Hutchinson was reportedly accused of illegally entering a password-protected area of a website. > "I was searching in Google and found links to board meeting minutes," he told The Register. "Board reports, none…

> So they're name dropping Google in the title for clickbait No, Hutchinson found the documents by searching on Google for the meeting minutes. The website might have protected the place where you found the link to the meeting minutes, but the meeting minutes themselves were hosted in a directory that not only was publicly accessible if you had the URL, but also allowed Google's crawler to access it and store it. The…

Police statement from the article:

He was taken into custody and later released under investigation. Following a review of all available evidence, it was determined no offences had been committed and no further action was taken

So they already dropped it.

Re: Activist arrested by London police after downloading docs found on Google search

#14

Post by roflc0ptic » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 6:37 PM UTC

This article leaves some really crucial parts of this timeline ambiguous. These things happened in some order:

1. Guy downloads stuff from website 2. Guy publishes stuff from website 3. Stuff becomes unavailable on the website 4. Website owners go to police, report “illegal access” 5. Police arrest guy

Either the police arrested him, and the company declined to inform the police that these illegally accessed files has been free to access, thus actively misleading the police, or company did inform the police and the police acted heinously by arresting him anyways. Maybe there’s a third option here that I’m not seeing. Seems pretty wild, and likely to me that the org should be criminally liable here (not that I know the laws or if they would be criminally liable.)

Re: Activist arrested by London police after downloading docs found on Google search

#15

Post by denton-scratch » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 6:37 PM UTC

El Reg doesn't say in so many words that Hutchinson didn't know he was in a password-protected area (sorry, double-negative).

I mean: I believe that if he knew the material he accessed was behind a password wall, and that the search-result had pierced it, then he would be in violation of the CMA. That is: I think the Act doesn't require any kind of "breaking in" to create an offense; you just have to believe you're not supposed to be there.

IANAL.

Re: Activist arrested by London police after downloading docs found on Google search

#16

Post by jdjdu » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 6:42 PM UTC

gowld wrote: post #12

tpmx wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the core issue is the London Metropolitan Police being incompetent (and slow).

Not just incompetent, but callous and cruel toward the citizenry, making themselves agents of capitalist oppression.

How? By investigating a report of a crime, determining it was false, and releasing the guy?

Re: Activist arrested by London police after downloading docs found on Google search

#17

Post by dheera » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 6:46 PM UTC

jdjdu wrote: post #16

gowld wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just incompetent, but callous and cruel toward the citizenry, making themselves agents of capitalist oppression.

How? By investigating a report of a crime, determining it was false, and releasing the guy?

There is no reason to take the guy into custard for downloading a file, he didn't do anything violent, and should be allowed to stay home as long as he cooperates with the investigation.

Cooperative people accused of non-violent crimes should NEVER be taken into custody until proven guilty in a court with fair trial.

Re: Activist arrested by London police after downloading docs found on Google search

#18

Post by denton-scratch » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 6:46 PM UTC

tehwebguy wrote: post #11

capableweb wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So they're name dropping Google in the title for clickbait No, Hutchinson found the documents by searching on Google for the meeting minutes. The website might have protected the place where you found the link to the meeting minutes, but the meeting minutes themselves were hosted in a directory that not only was publicly accessible if you had the URL, but also allowed Google's crawler to access it and store it. The…

Google is super relevant to the case if they identified someone who downloaded a non-protected file in response to a police request. Not sure there is any slope left to slip on, this is basically the worst case scenario already I think. Edit: Whoops, all of my assumptions were wrong!

I beg to differ. I don't think Google is relevant.

As far as I can see, Google provided a search-result, which eventually (after Google's batted it around internally a few times) turns into an HTTP request to the CBS website, which resulted in password-free access to a public document.

So that will show up in the CBS webserver's access log; that's how they got the IP address. Nothing to do with Google.

Getting from the IP address to the person is messier; websearches, requests to ISPs, and presumably searches of activist databases the cops no doubt maintain might all have played a part.

My guess is the cops knew there was no case against him, because they tried the URL, and saw that there was no password challenge; but charged him anyway, because he was an activist, and they wanted to intimidate him.

Re: Activist arrested by London police after downloading docs found on Google search

#19

Post by corobo » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 6:46 PM UTC

capableweb wrote: post #8

sxp wrote: post #2

https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/10/police_raid_man_for_d... is a better article with pictures. The key bit is > The raid by four Metropolitan Police constables took place after Southwark campaigner Robert Hutchinson was reportedly accused of illegally entering a password-protected area of a website. > "I was searching in Google and found links to board meeting minutes," he told The Register. "Board reports, none…

> So they're name dropping Google in the title for clickbait No, Hutchinson found the documents by searching on Google for the meeting minutes. The website might have protected the place where you found the link to the meeting minutes, but the meeting minutes themselves were hosted in a directory that not only was publicly accessible if you had the URL, but also allowed Google's crawler to access it and store it. The…

Yeah but the title makes it sound like Google Drive or something grassed him up. They weren't downloaded from Google, they were found using it

Re: Activist arrested by London police after downloading docs found on Google search

#20

Post by zoomablemind » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 6:46 PM UTC

sxp wrote: post #2

https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/10/police_raid_man_for_d... is a better article with pictures. The key bit is > The raid by four Metropolitan Police constables took place after Southwark campaigner Robert Hutchinson was reportedly accused of illegally entering a password-protected area of a website. > "I was searching in Google and found links to board meeting minutes," he told The Register. "Board reports, none…

> ... the core issue is that the website didn't properly protect its data.

It seems that the bigger issue is that the activist was arrested by the police on supposedly only IP address evidence presented by the company/society.

Somehow the IP had to be linked to the person, probably a warrant should be needed for that too.