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They Stormed the Capitol. Their Apps Tracked Them.
nytimes ^ | 2/5/2021 | By Charlie Warzel and Stuart A. Thompson

Posted on 02/06/2021 10:10:11 AM PST by bitt

Times Opinion was able to identify individuals from a trove of leaked smartphone location data.

In 2019, a source came to us with a digital file containing the precise locations of more than 12 million individual smartphones for several months in 2016 and 2017. The data is supposed to be anonymous, but it isn’t. We found celebrities, Pentagon officials and average Americans.

It became clear that this data — collected by smartphone apps and then fed into a dizzyingly complex digital advertising ecosystem — was a liability to national security, to free assembly and to citizens living mundane lives. It provided an intimate record of people whether they were visiting drug treatment centers, strip clubs, casinos, abortion clinics or places of worship.

Surrendering our privacy to the government would be foolish enough. But what is more insidious is the Faustian bargain made with the marketing industry, which turns every location ping into currency as it is bought and sold in the marketplace of surveillance advertising. Now, one year later, we’re in a very similar position. But it’s far worse.

A source has provided another data set, this time following the smartphones of thousands of Trump supporters, rioters and passers-by in Washington, D.C., on January 6, as Donald Trump’s political rally turned into a violent insurrection. At least five people died because of the riot at the Capitol. Key to bringing the mob to justice has been the event’s digital detritus: location data, geotagged photos, facial recognition, surveillance cameras and crowdsourcing.

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


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Extended News; Government; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: apps; capitol; capitolriot; fakenews; fourthamendment; newyorkslimes
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To: bitt

I’m waiting for the knock at the door.


101 posted on 02/06/2021 1:39:39 PM PST by cyclotic (The most dangerous people are the ones that feel the most helpless)
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To: BobL

“Like it or not, privacy is GONE”

Yep. The martch of technology.


102 posted on 02/06/2021 2:56:19 PM PST by cymbeline
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To: BiteYourSelf

It’s not the phones it’s the apps on the phones.


The apps get most of the information from the phones, so it is both, with multiple routes of delivery.

Have you ever thought about how you can receive mobile calls if no one knows where your phone is?


103 posted on 02/06/2021 4:25:51 PM PST by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: 21twelve

A neighbor said the police also have automated license plate scanners that are constantly scanning for warrants, etc. I have no idea how true that is.


A few shows have even shown police using them. There are fixed versions and portable versions that scan and feed back to central databases. That technology has been in place for at least a decade now, and has become commonplace for state and large municipal police departments.


104 posted on 02/06/2021 4:33:01 PM PST by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: Regulator
Arrest that person.

Ha!

We can't even find out...


Who killed ASHLI!!!??!!


105 posted on 02/06/2021 5:43:41 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: cymbeline
The GPS subsystem calculates where the receiver is located.

That data can be used for the emergency (OnStar®) locator which uses the phone function.

Does the rest of the computer system in the car store all the location data? IDK, but the system CAN store data about speed, brakes applied, steering angle, airbag deployment; which can be accessed by those investigating accidents.

106 posted on 02/06/2021 5:56:10 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

Can all this be accessed remotely?

IDK; but I would NOT put it past the ‘authorities’ to; ahem; require that ability from the manufacturers.


107 posted on 02/06/2021 6:00:31 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Coronal

True; but using the triangulation capability of cell towers is way less accurate than the GPS; which can place you to about 30 feet!


108 posted on 02/06/2021 6:03:58 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

But it’s enough to identify the people who went to the capitol.


109 posted on 02/06/2021 6:08:23 PM PST by Coronal
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To: Pearls Before Swine
Although, with hardly any effort, I bet KNOW it can be tracked back to the point of sale; where the purchaser is at the register, buying it with cash; while multiple cameras snap his photo.
110 posted on 02/06/2021 6:10:00 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: firebrand

Ecclesiastes 10:20 KJV

Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought;
and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber:
for the bird of the air will carry the voice, and that which hath wings will tell the matter.


111 posted on 02/06/2021 6:18:33 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: firebrand

Thank GOD! a law was passed!


112 posted on 02/06/2021 6:20:05 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: BiteYourSelf

At each stoplight; look for the cameras focused in the front window of your car.

If they know your face; they can track you this way.


https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/02/surveillance-watching-you/

And THIS was two years ago!!


113 posted on 02/06/2021 6:27:19 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: MayflowerMadam

Prosecutor: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. We will prove that this bonehead...

Defendant: I object!

Prosecutor: ...this mostly peaceful domestic terrorist...

Defendant: I object!!

Prosecutor: ...has been placed by phone...

Defendant: I object!!! I had no phone.

Prosecutor: ...picture on ANOTHER phone held by...

Defendant: CRAP!


114 posted on 02/06/2021 6:37:36 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: dsc

...won't be able to buy or sell without the name or the number of the Beast...


115 posted on 02/06/2021 6:41:04 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: 21twelve

Here; knock yourself out!

https://www.google.com/search?q=automated+license+plate+scanners&rlz=1C1AVNC_enUS560US607&oq=automated+license+plate+scanners&aqs=chrome..69i57.2243j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8


116 posted on 02/06/2021 6:43:23 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: cgbg

Thanks. Interesting.


117 posted on 02/06/2021 7:14:08 PM PST by firebrand
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To: cgbg
In the old Soviet Union, citizens understood that they would be mostly ignored by the state as long as they did _nothing_ to call attention to themselves.


"The telescreen recieved and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard.
 
There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment.
How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork.
It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to.
 
You had to live - did live, from habit that became instinct - in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.

 

-1984, Book 1, Chapter One, George Orwell
118 posted on 02/06/2021 7:22:31 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: lepton
Have you ever thought about how you can receive mobile calls if no one knows where your phone is?

Turn your phone off; travel 600 miles away

Have multiple folks call you while traveling.

ONly turn on phone when you get to your destination.

First thing the phone does, is to check for any messages.

"YooHoo!!! I'm over here in Denver; send me the data about missed calls."

There ya go.

119 posted on 02/06/2021 7:27:51 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: unixfox

yes Obama phones do track you. that is the real reason for the phones. before theses phones a lot of low level criminals were using throw away phones. now a lot of crimes are solved becouse theses phones are being carried around and the first thing that an investigator does is get a phone dump when some one is arrested.


120 posted on 02/06/2021 7:38:14 PM PST by PCPOET7
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