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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

#61

Post by kevingrahl »

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…

You can turn off the collection of location data for Google. [1] You can also delete old location data. Google is saying that they won’t collect location data unless you opt-in but I’d assume most people just click on “Okay” once when asked to. Of course nobody really knows if Google honors your settings.

[1] - https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3118687?hl=en

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

#62

Post by snazz »

fatjokes wrote: post #43
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.

I’m pretty sure it would be somewhere within the Google Play Services blob. You should be good if you build your own AOSP, although binary hardware drivers might have the ability to do shady things.

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

#63

Post by gist »

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...

> Even without Google or Apple, they police have the cell service providers

Important to keep in mind that additional information provides corroboration at least in the mind of the jury and also detracts from issues regarding the information.

This is illustrated by one of those Datelines' (or 48 Hours don't remember) that I saw recently. They exhumed a body to determine if the deceased was buried with contact lenses on. They then had some expert do tests with pigs to determine that it was really a contact lens and not something else. It was very clear right off that it was (anyone who has worn contacts would know this and additionally they even were marked with numbers on the lens). But the expert still went to this long and drawn out trouble (buried dead pig's eyes with lense on) that they clearly didn't have to do. Reason? You spend more time in front of the jury with a long story and it detracts from the problems with the story to begin with (someone iirc said 'she never goes to bed with contact lenses').

Similar and unrelated is restaurant food. Put a lot of vegtables on the plate and a fancy sauce swirl to detract from the small piece of meat or fish you have given the diner.

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

#65

Post by kevingrahl »

wyldfire wrote: post #22

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

I’m assuming you’re just joking but think about location tracking the next time you want to attend some demonstration for example.

Should be perfectly legal to demonstrate but if you’ve got you’re phone on you someone will know you were there and protesting for X.

That’s very valuable information not just for law enforcement but also for marketing/advertising and also for more scummy stuff like influencing your political choices (eg Cambride Analytica style).

I don’t have my phone on my when I attend events that could “leak” my political or ethical choices.

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

#66

Post by klyrs »

kevingadd wrote: post #33
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…

> so people rot in jail for the love of money.

ftfy

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

#67

Post by Theodores »

Crontab wrote: post #42

Orwell never guessed that the government could outsource our dystopian nightmare to corporations.

He never mentioned capitalism or communism in the two childhood classics you know well. Yet I am fairly sure he knew of these systems. We could draw parallels so the details were best left out.

I am not sure if the details of the zero hours contract of the person hired by the mega-corp the government outsourced the provisioning of room 101 rats to would have helped with the story.

During WW2 the government in the UK did a fair bit of outsourcing. In fact, it was only with the post WW2 Labour government that major parts of the UK economy were nationalised. He did write about the duties of children to report thoughtcrime, I am sure that if he had over-added details about corporations instead of keeping it simple then the subtle details of how it is would not have been beyond Orwell.

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

#68

Post by zelon88 »

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...

But a Google or Apple smartphone can potentially contain the contact information about third parties who don't own Apple or Google smartphones themselves.

Take a young person with an iPhone. Their 95 year old grandparents might not have a single piece of technology from 1990 onwards but because their grandson has their phone number, address, and birthday in his iPhone those people could potentially be vulnerable to tracking/snooping/violations of privacy.

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

#70

Post by hopler »

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 ;)

The modern solution is that they give a contractor like Palantir access to all the gov databases, and the contractor builds a unified UI.
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