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Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

nytimes.com

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Re: Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

#31

Post by chachachoney »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #29
greenyoda wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going to commit a crime, leave your phone at home so that (1) you can't be linked to the crime scene and (2) there's evidence you may have been somewhere else (at home) at the time.

Also make sure your home activities continue as normal such as electricity, water, gas, and internet usage. And don’t use any vehicle with a license plate that can be tracked to you, or the area around your house. All that effort is better focused on committing legal white collar crimes, via plausible deniability and in person conversations that aren’t recorded.

> All that effort is better focused on committing legal white collar crimes, via plausible deniability and in person conversations that aren’t recorded.

We've got about 5 minutes before "in person conversations that aren't recorded" are a historical artifact.

Re: Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

#32

Post by kevingadd »

Ensnaring the innocent is a feature. Cops are happy to have opportunities to prosecute people for other stuff later on, or have someone take a guilty plea even if they didn't do it. It looks good for them. Not to mention fines for missing court dates (to keep your job, or because you don't have transportation).

Re: Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

#33

Post by kevingadd »

DontGiveTwoFlux wrote: post #2

The article describes a case where an innocent man had to spend a week in jail. Eventually, he was released and the presumed actual perpetrator was caught. The lead seemed to come from the location data, so it wasn’t useless at least. But the so called justice system says that it got it right here. The innocent man lost his job when he couldn’t work for a week. Depending on his situation he could miss rent and be evi…

In a case like this where he ended up getting released a week later and experienced extreme hardship, you'd think he could've gotten out on bail (even if there was an ankle tracker or something). Instead in most regions, bail and trackers are both revenue-generators for the people involved, so people rot in jail for no reason.

Imagine if the person wrongly imprisoned in jail has a kid or parent to care for, not only is that dependent abandoned for a week but afterward there's no money to feed them with. It's truly inhumane.

Re: Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

#34

Post by kevingadd »

vuln wrote: post #14
est31 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Giving people the right to notify employers Why not ask your lawyer to do it for you? You already have the right to make a call to a lawyer.

I would be willing to be that 90% of the population getting locked up do not have a lawyer on retainer and use public defenders. Which you must wait for one to be provided to you then wait for said representation to reach out to you. That’s days if not longer in jail just waiting. Unless you have money then you won’t spend a moment in jail. Yet again the wealthy have a different set of rules because they can pay thei…

Beyond this in some areas due to lack of funding & supply there aren't even enough public defenders. It can take people weeks to get one at all and the one they get will barely have enough time to represent them.

Re: Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

#35

Post by paxswill »

dvtrn wrote: post #23
vermontdevil wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hackman was also in another movie about spying and paranoia - The Conversation. Great movie. I know it’s not about nation states spying but wanted to add that here

Oh? Thanks for the recommendation, I'm a big fan of Hackman's acting and spy movies especially-lately, so I'll definitely be looking this up. Cheers

Funnily enough, it also has Harrison Ford in it as well (one of the earlier films he was in).

Re: Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

#36

Post by Jerry2 »

>Though Google’s data cache is enormous, it doesn’t sweep up every phone, said Mr. Edens, the California intelligence analyst. And even if a location is recorded every few minutes, that may not coincide with a shooting or an assault.

>But despite the drawbacks, detectives noted how precise the data was and how it was collected even when people weren’t making calls or using apps — both improvements over tracking that relies on cell towers.

So if you use Android, there's absolutely no way to turn this type of tracking off? What exactly are they using? Anyone know? This doesn't seem like the IEMI cell tower tracking that carriers do.

And according to this sentence:

>Apple said it did not have the ability to perform those searches.

It appears that if you use iPhone and don't use Google's apps (Google Maps is the main culprit here?), Apple doesn't have a way of identifying your data and your data won't appear in Google's Sensorvault.. which appears to be massive:

>Sensorvault, according to Google employees, includes detailed location records involving at least hundreds of millions of devices worldwide and dating back nearly a decade.

Re: Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

#37

Post by aplummer »

shereadsthenews wrote: post #12
aplummer wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could this have been avoided if the suspect himself had the same access to his own sensor data? Like an alibi? I read this whole thing as the technology is there to prevent innocent people to jail, and the processes haven't caught up.

You do have access to your location history from Google. https://www.google.com/maps/timeline

Thats a cool site I didn't know about, however I assumed the innocent suspect wasn't logged into google maps, and that the reporting was done by the device separately.

Re: Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

#39

Post by bestnameever »

shereadsthenews wrote: post #12
aplummer wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could this have been avoided if the suspect himself had the same access to his own sensor data? Like an alibi? I read this whole thing as the technology is there to prevent innocent people to jail, and the processes haven't caught up.

You do have access to your location history from Google. https://www.google.com/maps/timeline

only if you have that feature turned on. Google also records data outside of maps and timeline, IIRC. I imagine you can always access your complete location history by exporting it from Google's take out feature.

Re: Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

#40

Post by RHSeeger »

deogeo wrote: post #13
isoskeles wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It should also be unlawful to dismiss an employee because they were arrested and never indicted. I disagree. The cost of bad policing shouldn't be paid for by businesses. The police should bear the consequences, not have yet another victim (some business) to burden with more punishment.

> bad policing But arresting someone reasonably suspected of some crime isn't bad policing, even if they are later found to be innocent. That is why arrest and trial are separate.

I think part of the problem is that there's a lot of actors in law enforcement for which "reasonably suspected" isn't important; "can we make it stick" is. Past that, they don't even bother to consider if it might be the wrong person.

There's a LOT of good cops, lawyers, judges, etc. However, the bad ones can have such devastating effects on their victims, that all of them need to be watched (controlled? not sure what the right word is here) more than would be necessary for other areas.

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