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Even after the gravesite was discovered and McStay's DNA was found inside Merritt's vehicle, police were far from pinning the quadruple homicide on him.
Until they turned to Project Hemisphere.
Hemisphere is a secretive program run by AT&T that searches trillions of call records and analyzes cellular data to determine where a target is located, with whom he speaks, and potentially why.
"Merritt was in a position to access the cellular telephone tower northeast of the McStay family gravesite on February 6th, 2010, two days after the family disappeared," an affidavit for his girlfriend's call records reports Hemisphere finding (PDF). Merritt was arrested almost a year to the date after the McStay family's remains were discovered, and is awaiting trial for the murders.
In 2013, Hemisphere was revealed by The New York Times and described only within a Powerpoint presentation made by the Drug Enforcement Administration. The Times described it as a "partnership" between AT&T and the U.S. government; the Justice Department said it was an essential, and prudently deployed, counter-narcotics tool.
However, AT&T's own documentation—reported here by The Daily Beast for the first time—shows Hemisphere was used far beyond the war on drugs to include everything from investigations of homicide to Medicaid fraud.
Hemisphere isn't a "partnership" but rather a product AT&T developed, marketed, and sold at a cost of millions of dollars per year to taxpayers. No warrant is required to make use of the company's massive trove of data, according to AT&T documents, only a promise from law enforcement to not disclose Hemisphere if an investigation using it becomes public.
So, AT&T's one stipulation is a pinky swear with law enforcement that their program won't cause them public embarrassment.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 26 2016, @05:56PM
Or, I dunno, get Congress to change the laws. It sounds all insightfully counter-culture-y to talk about revolution and all, I know,and it is pretty boring to do it through the process built into the system. It actually takes more effort to actually do it the right way, which is how it is supposed to work. We have protections put in to protect us from the lazy and whiny mob rule crowd for a reason.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 26 2016, @06:14PM
I see you COMPLETELY overlooked the Teleco Immunity Act and the implications it has to now.
It was the law, dumbass. It was changed since it benefits the government to do so. Hence the moral hazard bit.
These aren't difficult concepts. Pay attention.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday October 26 2016, @08:47PM
It was the law, dumbass. It was changed since it benefits the government to do so. Hence the moral hazard bit.
And the American public voted almost all those who supported the law back into office...
(Score: 3, Touché) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday October 26 2016, @08:12PM
It's clear you're working from theoretical, not first-hand, knowledge of the system you're talking about. No matter how many times you tell yourself or repeat it to others, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a fairy tale. In America, corporations win first, last, and always. They get rich, lawyers and lobbyists get rich, politicians get rich, and the regular citizens get squeezed a little more.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 26 2016, @10:04PM
Thankfully those protections don't stop incredible corruption that disables any action for the good of the people /s. "Vote for change" hahahaha that worked SO well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 27 2016, @12:49AM
This is already unconstitutional (and any courts that claim otherwise are incorrect), so Congress doesn't need to change the laws; we merely need to enforce the Constitution.