Happy Googling!!

[GentlemanJim]

Interesting the ways police are employing people's search habits against them.

The part about how "geofence" inquiries are used as a dragnet are particularly discomforting.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...=pocket-newtab

[Dude111]

Ya but what if someone clears cookies??

Then they cant find jack on the users computer.

[GentlemanJim]

Problem is bigger than just "cookies".

The Cops are using the marketing data Google harvests from smart phones as an "excuse" to establish probable cause.
Google is collecting and processing this data already, such that they can say "1500 of our search users walk by this particular store every day". They have managed to monetize that info, through advertising.

Lets suppose you are one of those 1500. And just thru your normal routines you walk past that store 250 days per year. Seems innocent enough, right?

But, one day some kook you don't even know, bombs the mosque across the street from that drug store. The cops get Googles ping data for the cell towers around the neighborhood, and suddenly you are on a list to be investigated.

Nobody has accused you yet, but late one night there is a knock at the door and the cops come search your house, just to prove you're not their guy.

And, you're not. But in the process they discover you have an illegal 'hobby' hidden in your basement.

They had no cause to investigate you, except your misfortune of walking through that neighborhood frequently enough to be "of interest".

What the cops are doing is using Google's sophisticated data mining services for questionable purposes


Unreasonable search and seizure....

[icecream]

That makes me very glad I don't have a smartphone.

[GentlemanJim]

Originally Posted by icecream

That makes me very glad I don't have a smartphone.

You and I both.

The "game changer" here is, I've always been of the opinion that "unless you were somebody", the cops just didn't have the time or resources to monitor millions of nobodies, just on the outside chance that some of them MIGHT eventually become somebody.

But the fact that google has worked out not only how to do it, but to make doing so profitable, and therefore self sustaining,.....means the cops have harnessed the power of capitalism to do their leg work.

It's really scary. In a way I'm fortunate, because I'm old and feeble. So I can find refuge in the old axiom: "so long as you are not doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about". But it hasn't always been that way.

Once upon a time, I was somebody. And the new rules of the game would have been distressing.

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by icecream

That makes me very glad I don't have a smartphone.

Yes I suppose clearing cookies isnt easy on those.......

[GentlemanJim]

The way I understand it, it's the MEID they are using. Burnt into the silicon chip.

[biffbronson]

Did you know that in our state, Evansville has spent something like $125,000 to install license plate scanners at intersections -- to scan the plate of every vehicle passing through? Not just for red light violators. Anyway, it's like a giant fishing operation for the police. Imagine how much good use that money could have gone to.

[GentlemanJim]

Here is a little more indepth look at how our privacy is being subverted without our having even the slightest awareness

https://www.wired.com/story/fbi-goog...89d_popular4-1

Just being "near" a crime now qualifies as probable cause....scary

[GentlemanJim]

Remember the old assurances of "so long as you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about"? HAA!

[GentlemanJim]

What happens should "authority" decide to move the goalposts on what distinguishes "right" from "wrong"?

[stevea]

Originally Posted by icecream

That makes me very glad I don't have a smartphone.

What he said.

[stevea]

Originally Posted by biffbronson

Did you know that in our state, Evansville has spent something like $125,000 to install license plate scanners at intersections -- to scan the plate of every vehicle passing through? Not just for red light violators. Anyway, it's like a giant fishing operation for the police. Imagine how much good use that money could have gone to.

Probably money from Inflation Reduction Act.

Seriously, they're using them here in Indy, too, but to a lesser extent I think. In supposed high crime areas.