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Federal court rules geofence warrants are unconstitutional:
In another round of increasingly rare good news in the realm of privacy, individual rights and freedom, two separate US federal judges have found geofence warrants to be unconstitutional.
Geofence warrants have been around for some time now. Essentially, it's a new investigative technique wherein law enforcement, rather than surveilling a suspect to discover if they had been at the scene of a crime, they work backwards by identifying everyone that's been at a particular location and surveilling them until they discover which one of them is a possible suspect.
[...] US courts have recently begun accepting that our smartphones hold so much data about us that they should be protected by the fourth amendment, as an extension of our homes.
Three separate unsealed opinions from two federal magistrate judges have come to the same conclusion: that these warrants lack the probable cause and particularity requirements of the fourth amendment.
[...] It's disturbing to think of just how many Americans' constitutional rights would have been violated if the warrant was granted. Even more disturbing is other such warrants possibly getting granted regularly, aside from what information Google willingly hands over to governments.
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 03 2020, @06:37PM (2 children)
There are more than a hundred thousand mod points out there each and every day. So, yeah, you're not going to go beyond what moderation and built in speed limits can handle. I very much doubt there are enough open proxies in the world to do so.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 03 2020, @07:38PM (1 child)
It only has to crap post enough to be highly annoying. And it seems to be effectively able to do that.
The manufacture of that many mod points could be draining the planet's natural resources. The disposal of that many used mod points could endanger the ecosystem. Especially if the mod points all end up collecting in the oceans.
What if there were an increased number of spam mod points handed out? That is, those could only be used for spam. Alternately, modding spam would count against a different daily limit, not affecting the normal daily limit of mod points. Queries could identify users who give out more spam mods, to help spot abuses.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 03 2020, @08:16PM
I use all the leftovers in my catfish bait recipe. Recycling and cheap catfish bait FTW!
My rights don't end where your fear begins.