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posted by chromas on Thursday October 25 2018, @01:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the all-suspects-are-guilty dept.

Feds Order Google To Hand Over A Load Of Innocent Americans' Locations

Here's how it works: cops send Google specific coordinates and timezones within which crimes were committed. Then Google is asked to provide information on all users within those locations at those times, most likely including data on many innocent people. Those users could be Android phone owners, anyone running Google Maps or any individual running Google services on their cell, not just criminal suspects.

[...] "This fishing expedition infringes on the privacy rights of so many possible people who had the misfortune of being in an area where a crime is alleged to be committed," said Jerome Greco, staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society. "We should not allow for such broad access to the data of so many on the mere speculation that a suspect may have used a cellphone near the location of the crime."

[...] Not just Google

Captain John Sherwin of the Rochester Police Department in Minnesota said it wasn't just Google that could furnish cops with a startling mount of detailed location data. Facebook and Snapchat were two others who'd proven useful, he said.

Should we be concerned that government tracks people by their cell phones instead of using mandatory brain implants?


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @01:45AM (18 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @01:45AM (#753462)

    But if you were just a bit more clever, you'd carry a foil bag which blocks RF signals.

    You can make such a bag for less than $5.00 and if you're a cheapskate you can make them for free,
    using old packaging materials.

    I keep one in each of my cars, and one in my briefcase, and one in my jacket.

    The phone cannot be used to track you when it is not able to send or receive RF signals.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @01:52AM (13 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @01:52AM (#753467)

    Addendum :

    I also carry a couple of license plates I can place over the one on my car, so a plate reader will read the plate that isn't associated with me. Every Interstate in the US has automated plate readers in place already, by the way. These plate readers capture every plate that passes by and it is all uploaded to an NSA facility.

    I don't do anything illegal but there are times I want privacy, and I enhance my privacy when I see fit to do so.

    I'll be damned if I am going to make it easy for the sons of bitches who want to implement a police state.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @02:00AM (8 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @02:00AM (#753470)

      Have you got a clever way (like 007's rotating plate) to remove the fake plates quickly if you are stopped by a cop? Sounds like real trouble if you are stopped and your registration/insurance paper doesn't match your plate.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @02:11AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @02:11AM (#753473)

        It's sad that we even have to worry about this. They've taken relatively benign concepts (license plates, state IDs/drivers licenses) and turned them into tools for the police state.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @03:10AM (5 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @03:10AM (#753501)

        "Have you got a clever way (like 007's rotating plate) to remove the fake plates quickly if you are stopped by a cop?"

        .

        No, I do not have what you suggest. I dare say that if you did have such an apparatus and you were caught with it, the resulting trouble would be even worse.

        The probability of being stopped by a cop in the car I drive is vanishingly small. You are correct that I would be in trouble if I am stopped by a cop, but the car combined with the way I drive means being stopped is extremely unlikely. I'll take my chances when I think it's worth taking the chance. I'm not going to live my life in fear of some prick with a badge. And yes, I am ready to do the time in jail if I get caught. Like I said, I'm not going to live in fear, because that's not living, that is existing.

        I don't always use the incorrect license plate ; most of the time I use the correct license plate.

        As always, everyone else should do as he or she thinks best. I do not recommend my methods, I was simply admitting I use a few tricks when I want not to be tracked. I believe we should all resist the machinations of the police state by whatever means are available to us. Oh, and my car is 29 years old. It has exactly
        one computer box, which is the ECU box which runs the engine.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @03:39AM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @03:39AM (#753514)

          And yes, I am ready to do the time in jail if I get caught. Like I said, I'm not going to live in fear, because that's not living, that is existing.

          Mighty big words. Jail's going to be quite a bit different than Mom's basement.

          Once you try to take your junkyard specials off the farm and into town, you may find out that cop cars have plate readers, and are networked, so that the cop gets alerted the instance your plate is spotted and the registration has lapsed.

          In reality, they may not take you to jail. They'll tow the car and make you walk home. You'll receive the criminal complaint in the mail a few days later.

          • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday October 25 2018, @07:51AM (2 children)

            by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday October 25 2018, @07:51AM (#753570) Homepage Journal

            I staged a protest about a C-TRAN bus whose driver went right past me without even slowing down, let alone opening the door.

            At that particular transit center, the bus had to make a sharp u-turn than come back in my general direction so I stood in front of it to force him to stop. He angrily opened the door to let me and another passenger in.

            He quite irritably explained to me that he had to drive past me because he was behind schedule. I spent the whole time until we got to my stop giving him a hard time. He refuses to answer, wouldn't even tell me his name.

            I had no reason to believe he would mend his errant ways so at my stop I sat just inside the door, my back to one half of the door, my feet against the other half then dialed 9-1-1 to ask them to send a deputy to intermediate between me and the driver.

            Two deputies showed up. "Get out of the bus." "Arrest me." I Am Absolutely Serious. "Get out of the bus or I'll Taze you." He tazed me.

            "I'm a physicist and my father was an electrical engineer. It's not the voltage that kills you, it's the current." Tazers have very low current.

            "Get out of the bus or I'll taze you again." "Arrest me." I wanted to testify to a jury about the bus driver. He tazed me again.

            The other deputy started to force my left arm backwards, so as to cause pain in my elbow. I figured he was going to break it, so I commenced Shambhala Buddhist Meditation. When he saw me doing that, he said "You are under arrest, you have a right..." at which point I jumped out of the bus, introduced myself and he - the non-tazer partner - and I had a grand old time as he drove me to the Clark County Jail.

            My prosecutor eventually moved to dismiss, but not before I spent a good long time in the slammer.

            There's a whole lot of good reason to practice Civil Disobedience right around now. "Civil" means you're polite about it, certainly non-violent. "Disobedient" means you violate unjust laws.

            That's what got blacks the right to vote and to use the same water fountains as black people. Everybody thinks MLK and Rosa Park were righteous folk, but few remember the civil rights movement in any real detail.

            --
            Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
            • (Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday October 25 2018, @05:07PM

              by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 25 2018, @05:07PM (#753740)

              "There's a whole lot of good reason to practice Civil Disobedience right around now. ... means you violate unjust laws"
              You were not doing that. The bus should have made the stop and didn't. No unjust laws were involved. You just threw a tantrum and wasted your city's time and money. You should stand up for yourself, yes. But don't waste emergency services time on something that is clearly not an emergency. You could have just called the "how's my driving" 1800 number on the bus and given the bus number and your complaint to the bus dispatcher.

              The driver was wrong. But you were worse.

              --
              SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @09:32PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @09:32PM (#753856)

              Bro, you are literallly insane. Try to remember that whenever you get worked up over something.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @02:32PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @02:32PM (#753660)

          Are your incorrect plates legit with current registration and tags? If not then when you pass a cop car with an automated reader your car might light up as being invalid. In my neighborhood the police routinely drive through our parking lots about once a month or so - took me awhile to figure out they weren't just doing a friendly slow patrol but rather giving the plate reader cars to munch on. And all it takes is those plates to be run anyway (unless it came from the same color and make/model) and the cop will know he's got something more than a routine traffic stop.

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 25 2018, @02:29AM (3 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 25 2018, @02:29AM (#753480) Journal

      I also carry a couple of license plates I can place over the one on my car . . . I don't do anything illegal

      Uhhhhh - you have just admitted to doing something illegal. It has ALWAYS been illegal to arbitrarily swap out license plates. I'm pretty sure that eluding police (by way of obfuscation, in this case) is illegal everywhere.

      You make no mention of the cost involved. Apparently, you keep 3 (or more) registrations current, for the purpose of swapping plates around.

      I think you're just talking shit here. Maybe you're telling the truth, but if/when you get caught, you'll learn that you should have stuck to talking shit.

      • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @03:22AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @03:22AM (#753508)

        "Uhhhhh - you have just admitted to doing something illegal. It has ALWAYS been illegal to arbitrarily swap out license plates. I'm pretty sure that eluding police (by way of obfuscation, in this case) is illegal everywhere"

        .

        Your above claim is correct with respect to using an incorrect plate. What I meant was that I was not engaging in any other illegal behavior. What I meant should have been obvious but you're one of those unfortunates who need a bit of extra help with the obvious, so I have given you that help.

        .

        "You make no mention of the cost involved. Apparently, you keep 3 (or more) registrations current, for the purpose of swapping plates around."

        .

        Are you REALLY as stupid as you seem ? The plate I use was removed from a car in a junkyard. It cannot be associated with me. Why would I use a plate from
        another car I own ? That would not confer anonymity at all.

        .

        "I think you're just talking shit here. Maybe you're telling the truth, but if/when you get caught, you'll learn that you should have stuck to talking shit."

        .

        I have read enough of your past comments to know you're quite stupid, and I do not care in the slightest what you "think". If you want to live in fear you are free
        to do so ( no small irony there ! ). I choose to live differently, and I don't need your approval or anyone else's to live as I choose. You should try growing a pair
        of balls - you'd be amazed how different you feel about life when you have some.

        • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 25 2018, @01:47PM (1 child)

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 25 2018, @01:47PM (#753646) Journal

          Uhhh, yeah. I want to be nearby when you try that line of shit on the cops.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @04:27PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @04:27PM (#753710)

            You really are a sniveling boot licker. The op obviously understands the consequences. Maybe they would reconsider after experiencing an arrest, but maybe not. Your reaction is hilariously boot licking.

  • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Thursday October 25 2018, @02:56AM (3 children)

    by hemocyanin (186) on Thursday October 25 2018, @02:56AM (#753492) Journal

    Here's the problem with that. Let's say I want to use this $600 brick to listen to a $whatever over bluetooth in my car. I would have to expose the entire phone to the world in order to do that. Or maybe I just want to use GPS to see if my speedometer is accurate -- again, I have to expose the entire phone. If you could switch on and off the various components (in reality, not just in software, but you know, break the electrical connection so you really know it is off), you would have much more control over the device and could get value out of your investment at the same time.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @03:28AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @03:28AM (#753510)

      "Here's the problem with that ..."

      -
      -

      Your idea will remain in a theoretical state because what you propose is not going to be made available for purchase ( it would be outlawed quickly by the government which would be only too aware of its usefulness ) and because the size of the surface-mount electronics makes modding existing hardware to achieve your goals a practical impossibility.

      My aluminum pouch DOES work, and I can do without GPS or music when I want privacy. It's more useful to have something that actually works than to engage in mental masturbation about a device you want but will never have. Of course you probably think it's more fun to jerk off than to get laid ...

      • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Thursday October 25 2018, @07:44PM (1 child)

        by hemocyanin (186) on Thursday October 25 2018, @07:44PM (#753814) Journal

        The first part of your response was a fair criticism. The second not so much. Secondly, you really do need to make sure that there is no gap in the foil coverage. Last night I took my phone and totally wrapped it in foil. It did not ring when I called it when the phone was completely wrapped and the foil folded over itself. However, when there was one edge of unsealed foil leaving about 1/8th inch gap (long side), the phone rang when I called it. A zippered foil pouch might leave enough room for signals to get out/in. A fold over pouch could leave openings at the ends underneath the flap. Of course, if I wanted to totally disable the phone, I could just pull the battery.

        • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Thursday October 25 2018, @07:46PM

          by hemocyanin (186) on Thursday October 25 2018, @07:46PM (#753816) Journal

          I did not test the microphone when totally sealed in foil -- I think I will try that tonight but I suspect it will be able to record something through the foil.