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Google tracked his bike ride past a burglarized home. That made him a suspect.
nbc ^ | 03/07/2020 | Jon Schuppe

Posted on 03/07/2020 8:29:48 AM PST by BenLurkin

Google’s legal investigations support team, writing to let him know that local police had demanded information related to his Google account. The company said it would release the data unless he went to court and tried to block it. He had just seven days.

He had an Android phone, which was linked to his Google account, and, like millions of other Americans, he used an assortment of Google products, including Gmail and YouTube. Now police seemingly wanted access to all of it.

In the notice from Google was a case number. McCoy searched for it on the Gainesville Police Department’s website, and found a one-page investigation report on the burglary of an elderly woman’s home 10 months earlier. The crime had occurred less than a mile from the home that McCoy, who had recently earned an associate degree in computer programming, shared with two others.

Now McCoy was even more panicked and confused. He knew he had nothing to do with the break-in ─ he’d never even been to the victim’s house ─ and didn’t know anyone who might have. And he didn’t have much time to prove it.

McCoy worried that going straight to police would lead to his arrest. So he went to his parents’ home in St. Augustine, where, over dinner, he told them what was happening. They agreed to dip into their savings to pay for a lawyer.

The lawyer, Caleb Kenyon, dug around and learned that the notice had been prompted by a “geofence warrant,” a police surveillance tool that casts a virtual dragnet over crime scenes, sweeping up Google location data — drawn from users’ GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and cellular connections — from everyone nearby.

(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: cellphones; gainesville; google; police; technotyranny
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To: BenLurkin

I grew up in a Southern California beach town. One day my friend and I got pulled into a laundromat and threatened by the owner for stealing sodas from his machine. This sleuth determine it was my friend because of the obvious shoe print markings.... VANS diamonds!!! If you were a kid in the 70s in a beach town and did not have a pair of VANS.... you probably did not exist.

There are a million ways to get caught up in an investigation: VANS shoe print, having same build or gait as perp, grainy video from neighbor camera.... police clear way more people than they charge.

To me this seems a little melodramatic. The police got a warrant, the guy says he rides his bike a lot, they see he did not stop or enter house from GPS. The same technology that traps you can set you free too: If there was ever a charge a judge would throw it out. How did he he enter a home and steal jewelry when he was traveling 10+MPH.

If your family member is a victim and they have no idea who the suspect is, would you expect the police to utilize technology...

To me tracking of words is much more dangerous than location... thought police are ideological and more dangerous than local police.


41 posted on 03/07/2020 9:44:54 AM PST by VA is for Freepers
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To: Do_Tar

A cookie tin in the car can keep Big Brother uninformed.


42 posted on 03/07/2020 9:45:42 AM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: BenLurkin
I like this one. These people are so full of crap. Don't worry you can trust us. Kind of like those constables down Somerset Kentucky who were making a killing off of asset forfeiture and the FBI finally came after them. It's too bad the one that got shot is going to live.

While privacy and civil liberties advocates have been concerned that geofence warrants violate constitutional protections from unreasonable searches, law enforcement authorities say those worries are overblown

Am I the only one who sees the irony of a government that can't catch millions of illegal aliens with stolen Social Security numbers and massive income tax refunds?

They somehow cannot find millions of illegal aliens sending billions of dollars back to Mexico.

43 posted on 03/07/2020 9:50:51 AM PST by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s........you weren't really there)
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To: Brian Griffin
A cookie tin in the car can keep Big Brother uninformed.

How you gonna text while drivin? /s

44 posted on 03/07/2020 9:51:13 AM PST by nascarnation
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To: BenLurkin

Thisguy challenged the legality of the blanket warrants they used to identify everyone who had passed a spot on the map and the DA panicked because he didn’t want a court precedent that the obviously illegal warrants were in fact illegal. Because using people’s tech to spy on them is very useful. So he said ‘oh we discovered some new stuff and you’re not a suspect, we’re dropping the case’. But the sad fact is that these warrants are very hard to challenge because they are blanketing everyone with nobody knowing they are being investigated.


45 posted on 03/07/2020 9:52:33 AM PST by pepsi_junkie (Often wrong, but never in doubt!)
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To: Leaning Right

Apple pledges to store your location data anonymized and not to sell it on or hand it out if someone asks for it. They require a warrant to release what information they have on you. Their EULA is correspondingly different. Remember, the government has gone after Apple several times for refusing to proceed without warrants or give them backdoors to invade people’s privacy.


46 posted on 03/07/2020 9:53:48 AM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: neverevergiveup

I thought it turns off all your transceivers. I don’t use bluetooth either.


47 posted on 03/07/2020 9:53:51 AM PST by Disambiguator ("Progressives" want government in action. Conservatives want government inaction.)
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To: Disambiguator

Only way to be safe is to power off your phone and remove the battery while you’re driving, riding or walking.


48 posted on 03/07/2020 9:57:31 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever po)
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To: VA is for Freepers

And who is going to reimburse the poor bastard the money he had to pay a $200 an hour lawyer to protect his rights?

I’m of the opinion that anytime a person who was demonstrated innocent who had to spend money to defend themselves should be reimbursed by the litigating agency. It might make them a little less trigger happy.

The consequences of violating the rights of people should be painful to the authorities.


49 posted on 03/07/2020 9:57:43 AM PST by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s........you weren't really there)
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To: BenLurkin

Orwell didn’t foresee the Party would be able to track people wherever they went.


50 posted on 03/07/2020 10:04:10 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever po)
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To: Disambiguator

It turns off all the transmitters. Not the receivers. GPS is a passive reception technology and requires no transmitters.


51 posted on 03/07/2020 10:07:08 AM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Disambiguator

Er, GPS requires no transmitters on the user side. Obviously it does require transmitters on the satellites in orbit. :P


52 posted on 03/07/2020 10:07:54 AM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: ChildOfThe60s

The law isn’t whats on the books, the law is what is actually enforced. It has always been so.


53 posted on 03/07/2020 10:09:57 AM PST by desertfreedom765
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To: Spktyr

I’m thinking unless you go full Amish, there’s no hiding these days.


54 posted on 03/07/2020 10:12:00 AM PST by nascarnation
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To: Leaning Right
That’s a very good point. Not that anyone in power cares, but no EULA should be able to strip you of your fundamental rights as an American citizen.

The company isn't forcing anyone to sign that boilerplate. People are free to give up their rights. If you don't feel waiving your rights is worth the use of the product/service, don't buy the product/service.

If enough customers object, companies will no longer be able to get away with this.

55 posted on 03/07/2020 10:13:49 AM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: Spktyr
Android devices report their GPS location to Google by default.

Also google maps on IOS will do the same, if you allow it. There's quite a bit of phone software that will do that. Facebook, Instagram, games. Make sure you don't allow an app like that to run in the background or send notifications. FaceBook and Messenger shouldn't be allowed to use cellular data - your consent there is treated as a blanket permission to track you mercilessly. You can put a phone into an RF isolation bag but put it on airplane mode so it won't use up the battery frantically searching for RF connections...Also be wary of microphone, speaker, camera, and photo permissions - those devices and data can be used to locate you or communicate surreptitiously.

And of course having an FR login puts you on the radar of the fusion centers and anyone else sampling data at peering points, because FR doesn't use HTTPS everywhere.

56 posted on 03/07/2020 10:14:54 AM PST by no-s (when democracy is displaced by tyranny, the armed citizen still gets to vote...)
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To: no-s

I specifically said “out of the box factory-shipped condition” and noted that if you put third party apps on, those apps can track you but it’s on your own responsibility at that point.

As shipped, all Android phones phone home to Momma Google with all your personal, detailed, un-anonymised information and iOS devices don’t.


57 posted on 03/07/2020 10:18:17 AM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: nascarnation

You can, but it takes thought and effort; it also requires people to research the state of the art. Some of the suggestions from FReepers I’ve seen in the past are quite laughable and I’m not talking about the ones made in jest.


58 posted on 03/07/2020 10:20:21 AM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: BenLurkin

For-later.


59 posted on 03/07/2020 10:20:28 AM PST by simpson96
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To: goldstategop

It’s an iPhone, so the battery doesn’t come out that easily.


60 posted on 03/07/2020 10:27:12 AM PST by Disambiguator ("Progressives" want government in action. Conservatives want government inaction.)
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