Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Or... kinda like... not the same technique at all, since Congress can legally change the size of the Supreme Court but Trump can't legally ignore its rulings.
FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms
51–60 of 205 posts
Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms
#52That's the job of the FBI - to investigate domestic crimes. But, why do private organizations so willingly participate in the tracking ecosystem? I suppose they're in the, "you have nothing to worry about if you're not doing anything illegal" camp! Hopefully they understand that they have the most to lose.
No it is not the job of the FBI to to conduct mass surveillance of citizens.
What if an investigation is based on finding the same specific people near another specific person that they're tracking, but they only know about the one person, not the others.
And by doing this they stop a terror attack?
One more thought - if they buy just data for specific people related to an investigation, the seller of the data is tipped off. If they just buy all the data, then there is no potential tip-off to the target.
Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms
#53A generation ago our leaders derided China (and Russia) for this kind of pervasive spying on it's citizens. In the US we did the same thing just increasing costs by enriching the private sector on the way. That's not better. That's worse.
Kinda reminds me of when I saw footage online of a group of teens raiding a 7/11 store -- maybe during the BLM riots --, and a top comment was "heh, come try that in Texas ;)". Fantasizing, of course, that Texas has a unique bulwark against that behavior, probably having to do with gun ownership. And then it turns out the video took place in Dallas. We like to think there are all these barriers to bad things happenin…
It’s that sort of behavior— groups of perpetrators committing crimes— that allow people to justify enhanced surveillance tactics.
I think in years past people would have objected to sale of personal location data. But that was before people had videos of groups of lawbreakers overwhelming laws through organized efforts.
Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms
#54Who's selling the data is the far more serious issue here. Behind this is a remarkably well-structured syndicate. The supply chain looks something like this: consumer apps embed ad SDKs → those SDKs feed location signals into RTB ad exchanges → surveillance-oriented firms sit in the RTB pipeline and harvest bid request data even without winning auctions → that data flows to aggregators who don't have any direct relat…
I find myself uninstalling every app unless I really need it and use it. It's amazing how many apps just sit around in your life over time. get them off your phone
I do this. I also block the ad ecosystems on the device (root, adaway).
Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms
#55There was a great talk at the Chaos Computer Conference a few years ago how to diy this, sadly cant find it because web search seems dead nowaydays. If anyone knows, please chip in. It was a german researcher following german politicians who hilariously(scandalously?) related travel patterns
Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a headline in a few years when we find out other actors (e.g. China, Russia) have been buying this data en-masse too.
The CIA buys this data to track Putin's chef so of course China and Russia are doing the same to us.
I'd much rather be tracked by China than by anything at all with a USA presence.
As if I had a choice.
As if politicians of any party care now, in a meaningful way.
As if news orgs were ever interested in security experts who sounded the klaxons (for years and years and years).
Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms
#57Who's selling the data is the far more serious issue here. Behind this is a remarkably well-structured syndicate. The supply chain looks something like this: consumer apps embed ad SDKs → those SDKs feed location signals into RTB ad exchanges → surveillance-oriented firms sit in the RTB pipeline and harvest bid request data even without winning auctions → that data flows to aggregators who don't have any direct relat…
I find myself uninstalling every app unless I really need it and use it. It's amazing how many apps just sit around in your life over time. get them off your phone
I do this as well — I also have DNS level blocking via a NextDNS profile and prefer PWAs if possible.
Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms
#58Who's selling the data is the far more serious issue here. Behind this is a remarkably well-structured syndicate. The supply chain looks something like this: consumer apps embed ad SDKs → those SDKs feed location signals into RTB ad exchanges → surveillance-oriented firms sit in the RTB pipeline and harvest bid request data even without winning auctions → that data flows to aggregators who don't have any direct relat…
I find myself uninstalling every app unless I really need it and use it. It's amazing how many apps just sit around in your life over time. get them off your phone
Same here. I use Firefox for everything, and uninstall all the junk via adb. Also low power mode not only for battery efficiency, but to prevent most background services from running.
Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a headline in a few years when we find out other actors (e.g. China, Russia) have been buying this data en-masse too.
The CIA buys this data to track Putin's chef so of course China and Russia are doing the same to us.
Do you have a source for this claim?
Re: FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's just business. Buy (your data) for a dollar, sell for two. It's all legal and the data brokers are mostly unknown or already-hated companies so I'd say they have nothing to lose.
I wonder if we can still buy burner phones for cash at Mondo Mart
I can't tell if these The Wire references are deliberate or a coincidence.