Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

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
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-84 last
To: SheepWhisperer

looooong cord


81 posted on 03/09/2020 3:49:57 PM PDT by Chode (Send bachelors and come heavily armed.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: Chode

Ya don’t have to plug it in fercyrinououd.
We’re not going to fry it, just shield it

OTOH...if you see a dude on a bicycle with a microwave strapped into the handlebar basket...there’s a problem there. Just the fact that a DUDE has a handle bar basket on his bicycle should be the first clue. (Wait...Didn’t obummer have one?)

Community safety tip # 386


82 posted on 03/09/2020 4:05:16 PM PDT by SheepWhisperer (My enemy saw me on my knees, head bowed and thought they had won until I rose up and said Amen!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: Notthereyet
It’s extremely frustrating to think that the criminals they helped to put away...

That's what you got from the story? SMFH

83 posted on 03/10/2020 9:09:21 AM PDT by Arones (When Leftists are in a minority, then they look for other ways to win.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: Arones

“That’s what you got from the story? SMFH”
____________________________________________

Yes, that’s what I got from the story.

What did you get?

And what is SMFH?


84 posted on 03/10/2020 3:40:45 PM PDT by Notthereyet (NotThereYet.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 83 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-84 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson