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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

#41

Post by bestnameever »

kyrra wrote: post #6

Even without Google or Apple, they police have the cell service providers. In the case of the Austin bomber from a year ago[0], police got cell tower records from the multiple bombings and figured out who was at all the locations. Cell phones are little trackers unless you turn them off or don't carry one. [0] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna85...

They mention that in the article but they state that the data from Google is much more precise, which makes sense.

>"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."

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

#43

Post by fatjokes »

Jerry2 wrote: post #36

> 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 tha…

That can't be right. Fork your own build and edit out the tracking code if you have to.

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

#44

Post by fatjokes »

wyldfire wrote: post #22

I'm about to go commit a crime. How do I turn off this feature?

Leave it at home. Don't think that Google is the only culprit here. As long as you're connected to public infrastructure there's a company that will be legally obligated to narc on you.

Google might be just the latest addition. Or maybe the traditional media has declared outright war on internet companies in retaliation for taking their ad and subscriber revenue.

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

#45

Post by Jerry2 »

kyrra wrote: post #6

Even without Google or Apple, they police have the cell service providers. In the case of the Austin bomber from a year ago[0], police got cell tower records from the multiple bombings and figured out who was at all the locations. Cell phones are little trackers unless you turn them off or don't carry one. [0] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna85...

Since you work at Google, do you have any knowledge about Sensorvault? Where does the data come from?

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

#46

Post by joshka »

duxup wrote: post #21
dvtrn wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading that article reminds me of a rather prophetically-accurate movie starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman "Emeny of the State"[0]. Granted, for a film that came out in 1998 it probably wasn't too hard to guess where things were headed w/rt surveillance compared to how seemingly prescient writings from the likes of Orwell and Bradbury were for their respective times. What stands out to me about the movie (because…

I remembered watching that and thinking that it was apt.... but there's no damn way anyone gets access to all those different systems managed by different groups seamlessly. The bureaucracy involved would be immense, the various systems that can't talk to each other efficiently endless. I imagined all the overhead that would go into that and it hurt my brain ;)

A fun thought exercise to break the "can't do it" perspective. Imagine someone says they'll give you 10 million dollars to get it done, could you do it then?

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

#47

Post by type0 »

paxswill wrote: post #35
dvtrn wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Yeah, he's great there, almost uncanny how different and cold he is in that role.

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

#48

Post by akira2501 »

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

I hate to be this off topic, but also 'Heist' is a great movie which features a lot of social engineering and exploitation tactics to drive the plot.

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

#49

Post by rexpop »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #3
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…

> Why do we have a system that says justice was served? Suggest specific improvements and call them into your representatives. The closer you can make your proposals to a bill, the more likely it is that the problem becomes an issue. In this case, I’d argue we need publicly-subsidised attorneys for wrongful arrest. It should also be unlawful to dismiss an employee because they were arrested and never indicted. Giving…

My representatives do not listen to me.

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

#50

Post by AlphaWeaver »

One thing I haven't seen anyone comment on yet was the article's illustration of the technology...

I think it did a good job of hypothetically showing how phone data could be collected in a geofence and explaining the process of narrowing it down and picking a potential subject. Regardless of the merit of this approach, I think NYT did a great job here of illustrating the process in a way that non-technical people could understand.

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