Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Film student Anthony van der Meer had his iPhone stolen and the thought that a stranger had access to all of his personal data really concerned him. What kind of person would steal a phone? Where do these phones end up? These were his biggest questions. To get answers, Anthony had another phone stolen from him on purpose, but this time he followed the thief using a hidden app and made a captivating documentary film about the whole process.
"Find my Phone" was possible because of a spyware app called Cerberus. Using it, van der Meer was able to remotely track and control his phone whenever it was turned on and connected to the internet. Anthony listened to the thief's calls, read his messages, took photos, and even recorded both audio and video. The filmmaker then compressed everything into a thrilling 21 minute documentary movie which highlights how easy it is to spy on someone in the digital age. The video has already been viewed by more than 1.7 millions of people.
More info: anthonyvdmeer.nl (h/t: petapixel)
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(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @03:14PM
My biggest surprise, when I saw the movie, was how long it took before the phone was stolen.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @03:20PM
My biggest UNsurprise was that it was stolen by a non-white, Muslim foreigner.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @04:02PM
My biggest surprise is that you came to that conclusion despite the fact that the theft was not observed and no pictures were taken until a few days after the theft when the phone came back online, making it much more likely that the person in the videos was not the thief but someone who bought it on the black market.
(Score: 3, Informative) by drussell on Tuesday December 20 2016, @04:30PM
No, they saw the phone get stolen, they just didn't have the camera rolling at the time....
They saw who it was who stole it, and it was actually the man shown...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday December 20 2016, @07:04PM
Biggest surprise? That you are able to come to any conclusions at all, working with your lack of observation. As has already been stated, the theft was observed, but the camera was turned off at the moment the theft occurred. DERP!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 21 2016, @05:17AM
You might be the derp for blindly believing that.
Stolen when the camera was off? Well maybe I guess. *You* will never know for sure.
Go put on your derp hat.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tibman on Tuesday December 20 2016, @09:02PM
It certainly looked like a bunch of people were tempted to steal it though. Casing it and walking around to see if anyone was watching. My guess is they were trying to see the brand and rough value if they did steal it. When someone finally does steal it we find out the thief is very poor. The phone wasn't resold, it was used. My guess is that if a new flagship phone was used one of those first people casing the phone would have stolen it for resell.
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(Score: 2) by drussell on Tuesday December 20 2016, @04:32PM
Interesting short film...
Well done!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday December 20 2016, @07:01PM
The surveillance comeuppance gives insight into lives that are routinely ignored.
The film was well worth the cost of a stolen dummy phone.
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(Score: 2) by jasassin on Tuesday December 20 2016, @06:09PM
Is there an english version? I get the gist of it, but only about 5% of the words. I'd love an english version of this. I was riveted, at only 5% and the gist.
Sweet scary shit. Please english version.
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(Score: 5, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday December 20 2016, @06:24PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpN9NzO4Mo8 [youtube.com]
English subtitles for those of us who are monoligual.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday December 20 2016, @07:27PM
Most people only have one tongue. ;-)
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday December 20 2016, @07:42PM
white man speak with forked tongue!
LOL, alright, I'm busted.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 21 2016, @06:01AM
Monolingual, I am acquainted with, however pathetic it may be. But "monoligual"? Just one "ligual"? What the hell is a ligual? Now typically we would give the benefit of the doubt, a typo, a mistake. But this is the anti-baby bastard Runaway1944! He does not make mistakes! I truly believe that he only has one ligual. Now if only I knew what a "ligual" was!
.
. Top of the head, David Ickes theory: Runaway is a lizard person so far in cover that he does not know he is a lizard person. Just like the "skin-jobs" on BattleStar Gallactica. Makes perfect sense, explains the spelling errors, lack of common knowledge, fear of Muslin.. But just think: if he was sent here to accomplish a mission, and he listens to and watches Fox News and Brietbort religiously, it can only mean one thing! Yes! Mind-control by aliens from the Eight Dimension? Oh, dear, where is Buckaroo Banzai when we need him? What? In a detention camp for half-Japanese comic book characters? Well, I hope Runaway1956 is rewarded well by his masters in the Kremlin who helped him fake his service records by posting images of ships on the internet. Traitor, nincompoop, dastardly knave, and Arkansan.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 21 2016, @10:01AM
You truly have nothing better to do with your time, Aristarchus?
(Score: 1) by zeptic on Friday December 23 2016, @12:50PM
That won't help the French...
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday December 21 2016, @01:44AM
-on.
You can melt some kinds of high explosives in a saucepan on the kitchen stove.
Using a real narrow funnel, fill the hollow spaces of your phone with TNT or the like.
Modern phones don't have much hollow space, likely you'd only blow the theif's hand off.
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(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 21 2016, @07:49AM
too bad the thief didn't install cerberus and then returned it to the police "lost-and-found".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 21 2016, @02:43PM
At least they can could deport the Egyptian. And what was he doing in France, that's far enough not to be a casual trip.