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from the every-step-you-take-I'll-be-watching-you dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
The New South Wales Crime Commission commenced Project Hakea to investigate the use of tracking and other surveillance devices as an enabler of serious and organized crime in the southeastern Australian state.
The study looked at 5,163 trackers, purchased by 3,147 customers in 4,176 transactions. Using an extensive data matching process, it was discovered that 37% of customers were known to NSW police for criminal behavior. Moreover, 25% of customers had a recorded history of domestic and family violence, 15% were known for involvement in serious and organized crime activity, and 6% had a different criminal background.
It was also found that 126 customers were Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) defendants at the time they purchased a tracking device. An AVO is a court order issued to protect an individual who has a reasonable fear of violence or harassment from a specified person. Some customers bought the trackers days after the AVO was enforced.
The findings state that tracking and other surveillance devices are increasingly used to facilitate organized crime, including murder, kidnapping, and drug trafficking.
[...] The study recommends a change in the law to restrict the sale of tracking devices.
In May, Apple and Google announced that their previously confirmed industry specification for Bluetooth tracking devices was being rolled out to iOS and Android platforms, which should help prevent stalking by alerting users of suspicious Bluetooth trackers.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by namefags_are_jerks on Wednesday July 03 2024, @10:18AM
...is a bad man who is dumb as bricks with a tracker..
(you thought I was about to quote the NRA? :)
Something I've noticed with illegal users of surveillance tech... is their OPSEC is non-existent.
For example, the Bikies/Bikers in Oz are big fans of those Baofeng handhelds .. they have SECRET CHANNELS .. and they'll pay big dollars for them. But I could tell when the Comanchero were riding through my town because my SDR tracking the UHF frequencies spotted the unencrypted FM freebanders. Most good scanners can find random nearby tx frequencies as well.
There was also the massive win for the Feds compromising AN0M, Enchrochat, et al., because the users had magical thinking about what they were doing.
Now.. this report is interesting for having quantified the amount of abuse. ...and that they were able too... hmm..