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Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

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Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#51

Post by 1MachineElf »

logifail wrote: post #24
eganist wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Virginia as a whole has some pretty absurdly pro police laws, at least re: driving. The lesser of either 20 over the speed limit or any speed over ~80~ 85 miles an hour (thanks jmisavage) in Virginia is a misdemeanor, and at least one auto journalist has been jailed in Virginia. https://jalopnik.com/never-speed-in-virginia-lessons-from-my... It's also the only state to prohibit radar detectors.

> Virginia as a whole has some pretty absurdly pro police laws, at least re: driving (Full disclosure: have never driven in the USA), but without wishing to sound like a know-all, how about sticking to the speed limit? I've been dinged exactly twice for speeding since getting my licence almost exactly 30 years ago this month. No points in either case. It's not hard, honest. My wife might disagree, but her licence, he…

>how about sticking to the speed limit?

Remove speed limits on the highways and you have a deal sir.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#52

Post by kylehotchkiss »

eganist wrote: post #10
hammock wrote: post #6

Chesterfield County, Va. can be generally understood as one of the most, if not the most, pro-cop (densely populated) counties in the whole country. You don’t want to be arrested there Edit: not sure the reason for the downvotes, this fact is useful context and first-hand

Virginia as a whole has some pretty absurdly pro police laws, at least re: driving. The lesser of either 20 over the speed limit or any speed over ~80~ 85 miles an hour (thanks jmisavage) in Virginia is a misdemeanor, and at least one auto journalist has been jailed in Virginia. https://jalopnik.com/never-speed-in-virginia-lessons-from-my... It's also the only state to prohibit radar detectors.

I grew up there and remember the fear of hitting 81mph and how the police just hid on the side of the road off 95 and 81 waiting to shove a ticket into your window.

My friend once got a ticket for going 81mph downhill on highway 81 in the middle of nowhere southwest VA and had to trek out there for a court date.

I don’t ever miss living in Virginia

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#53

Post by hammock »

novok wrote: post #48
randombits0 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's also the only state to prohibit radar detectors Which is arguably outside of the state’s jurisdiction. Only the FCC has the authority to regulate the airwaves and specifically transmitters and receivers. I bet that cop’s radar gun has an FCC sticker on it.

Maybe they are not regulating radio receiver usage, but the just the possession of it, which would be a separate kind of regulatory space.

That is accurate. Your vehicle is not allowed to be equipped with a radar detector that is powered or accessible to the driver.

The police even have radar detector detectors.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#54

Post by jmisavage »

eganist wrote: post #10
hammock wrote: post #6

Chesterfield County, Va. can be generally understood as one of the most, if not the most, pro-cop (densely populated) counties in the whole country. You don’t want to be arrested there Edit: not sure the reason for the downvotes, this fact is useful context and first-hand

Virginia as a whole has some pretty absurdly pro police laws, at least re: driving. The lesser of either 20 over the speed limit or any speed over ~80~ 85 miles an hour (thanks jmisavage) in Virginia is a misdemeanor, and at least one auto journalist has been jailed in Virginia. https://jalopnik.com/never-speed-in-virginia-lessons-from-my... It's also the only state to prohibit radar detectors.

You're out of date as of 2020. Reckless driving is 20 mph over the speed limit or over 85 mph now. It's a class 1 misdemeanor.

Most of Virginia has 65 mph as the stated speed limit which usually drops to 55 mph around cities. There are stretches of I-95 and I-81 were the speed limit is 70 mph.

But anyone who drives here knows that the speed limit is generally considered the slowest you should go on the road. Speeding around here is common. And for anyone who lives in Richmond people run red lights all the time even in front of cops. We're all just practicing for the next Mad Max movie.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#55

Post by BrandoElFollito »

kube-system wrote: post #18
BrandoElFollito wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood these concerns in the US, for US web sites. What do they even care about our laws? If there was a US law stating something similar for people connecting connecting to my French site from the US I would just smile and live on. I do not expect the CIA to kidnap me and bring me in front of a US court.

They may do business in the EU, want to have that option at a later point, or may want to make it easy to be acquired by a multinational company. Or it’s just a low-effort CYA move recommended by a lawyer.

> They may do business in the EU, want to have that option at a later point, or may want to make it easy to be acquired by a multinational company.

This is a possibility though I have usually seen these blocking pages on small, local web sites.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#56

Post by hammock »

logifail wrote: post #24
eganist wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Virginia as a whole has some pretty absurdly pro police laws, at least re: driving. The lesser of either 20 over the speed limit or any speed over ~80~ 85 miles an hour (thanks jmisavage) in Virginia is a misdemeanor, and at least one auto journalist has been jailed in Virginia. https://jalopnik.com/never-speed-in-virginia-lessons-from-my... It's also the only state to prohibit radar detectors.

> Virginia as a whole has some pretty absurdly pro police laws, at least re: driving (Full disclosure: have never driven in the USA), but without wishing to sound like a know-all, how about sticking to the speed limit? I've been dinged exactly twice for speeding since getting my licence almost exactly 30 years ago this month. No points in either case. It's not hard, honest. My wife might disagree, but her licence, he…

No post body was provided.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#57

Post by [deleted] »

kube-system wrote: post #18
BrandoElFollito wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood these concerns in the US, for US web sites. What do they even care about our laws? If there was a US law stating something similar for people connecting connecting to my French site from the US I would just smile and live on. I do not expect the CIA to kidnap me and bring me in front of a US court.

They may do business in the EU, want to have that option at a later point, or may want to make it easy to be acquired by a multinational company. Or it’s just a low-effort CYA move recommended by a lawyer.

[deleted]

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#58

Post by cjrp »

hammock wrote: post #53
novok wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they are not regulating radio receiver usage, but the just the possession of it, which would be a separate kind of regulatory space.

That is accurate. Your vehicle is not allowed to be equipped with a radar detector that is powered or accessible to the driver. The police even have radar detector detectors.

I can’t be the only one thinking “so how do you build a radar detector detector detector?”

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#59

Post by waqf »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #55
kube-system wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They may do business in the EU, want to have that option at a later point, or may want to make it easy to be acquired by a multinational company. Or it’s just a low-effort CYA move recommended by a lawyer.

> They may do business in the EU, want to have that option at a later point, or may want to make it easy to be acquired by a multinational company. This is a possibility though I have usually seen these blocking pages on small, local web sites.

Specifically, only on "independent local" news sites. I have to wonder if they, or the entity who operates the website on their behalf, all belong to the same multinational. Like the "independent local" TV stations that are all owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.

I can't think of any other reason that so many local news sites would be affected, and so few other sites.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#60

Post by adgjlsfhk1 »

mdoms wrote: post #47
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> with probable cause It appears to be a lower standard; reasonable suspicion, perhaps.

How does that appear? The article says, > Officers simply have to attest in an affidavit that they have probable cause that the tracking data is “relevant to a crime that is being committed or has been committed.” The term "reasonable suspicion" doesn't appear in the article at all.

2 big problems: "relavent to a crime" is a very low standard.
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