THE RECENT EXPANSION of Google’s Timeline feature can provide investigators unprecedented access to users’ location history data, allowing them in many cases to track a person’s every move over the course of years, according to a report recently circulated to law enforcement.
“The personal privacy implications are pretty clear but so are the law enforcement applications,” according to the document, titled “Google Timelines: Location Investigations Involving Android Devices,” which outlines the kind of information investigators can now obtain.
The Timeline allows users to look back at their daily movements on a map; that same information is also potentially of interest to law enforcement. “It is now possible to submit a legal demand to Google for location history greater than six months old,” the report says. “This could revitalize cold cases and potentially help solve active investigations.”
The report was written by a law enforcement trainer, Aaron Edens, and provides detailed guidance on the wealth of historic location information available through Google Timeline and how to request it. A copy of of the document was obtained by The Intercept.
The expansion of Google’s Timeline feature, launched in July 2015, allows investigators to request detailed information about where someone has been — down to the longitude and latitude — over the course of years. Previously, law enforcement could only yield recent location information.
The 15-page document includes what information its author, an expert in mobile phone investigations, found being stored in his own Timeline: historic location data — extremely specific data — dating back to 2009, the first year he owned a phone with an Android operating system. Those six years of data, he writes, show the kind of information that law enforcement investigators can now obtain from Google.
The document also notes that users can edit or delete specific locations in their history, or an entire day, stressing the importance of preservation letters for criminal investigators involving Android phones. “Unfortunately, Google has made it very easy to delete location history from a specific date,” he wrote.
There is no indication data is recoverable from Google once it has been deleted by the user, the report says.
Location data is only stored in users’ Google accounts if they enable the feature. Individual Android users can turn it off, but users often don’t.
The ability of law enforcement to obtain data stored with privacy companies is similar — whether it’s in Dropbox or iCloud. What’s different about Google Timeline, however, is that it potentially allows law enforcement to access a treasure trove of data about someone’s individual movement over the course of years.
The report also advises investigators to remember there is a significant amount of other information retained by Google.
“Consider including Gmail, photos and videos, search history, contacts, applications, other connected devices, Google Voice and Google Wallet, if they are relevant to the investigation,” the report suggests. Investigators are also advised to include a non-disclosure order with their search warrants for Google data, which prevents the company from notifying the account holder that their data is being provided to law enforcement.
It’s impossible to know how many of these requests for historic Timeline location information have been made by law enforcement, since Google does not specify what types of requests it gets from law enforcement. Google’s transparency report provides information on the number of requests received from law enforcement, and the most recent requests go up to the end of 2014 and do not cover the time period after the expanded Timeline was launched. (In the first half of 2014, Google received 12,539 criminal legal requests in the U.S. and in the second half it received 9,981.)
The major barrier law enforcement faces is that Google does not provide any additional advice or help on deciphering data, once it is turned over under subpoena or warrant. “Based on conversations with other law enforcement investigators and prosecutors, they have resisted attempts to bring them into court to discuss the issue,” Edens wrote.
“Google does not provide expert witness testimony,” Edens said in response to The Intercept’s questions, noting that this is a similar practice to that of other companies, like Facebook. His report, he added, was written to help law enforcement in the absence of assistance from Google.
“Google has always been wary of any perceived cooperation with law enforcement, even before [Edward] Snowden,” he said.
“We respond to valid legal requests, and have a long track record of advocating on behalf of our users,” a Google spokesperson told The Intercept.
Research: Micah Lee
Update: November 9, 2015
In an email, the Google spokesperson notes that the company requires a warrant to obtain detailed user data such as that available in Timeline. “A subpoena,” the spokesperson writes, “is not and has never been sufficient to get it.” The article has been updated to reflect this.
Got a cell phone? Carry it in a metal drink shaker. It will look like you’re having a great time, all the time and it will block all transmissions to and from the phone. A very funny looking Faraday Cage but it works. Me? I live in a cave 100 feet below ground, it’s lined with tin foil.
I think this tracks the device’s location history, not the user’s location history. It’s a VERY BIG difference.
Well, I don’t think we leave our phones at home that often. They have become an extension of our little minds.
Crux of the dilemma: If you dare leave your devices at home or in a hotel room or alone for a minute they can literally be backdoored and (now) almost unbackdoorable. If you do not, you’re at the mercy of constant track and trace (and still kinda backdoorable). Maybe a better solution is to protest for the return of payphones and to get rid of these godforsaken devices altogether.
I just checked my Timeline History (which I didn’t even know existed). It’s so sparse and so full of obvious mistakes that I have no fear of this. I thought about deleting and disabling, but the data set that exists now would actually help my case, should it ever come to that. Go ahead Google. Munch all you want. I am so much more than your flawed data set.
08.05.14 Visit the Wrong Website, and the FBI Could End Up in Your Computer
Security experts call it a “drive-by download”: a hacker infiltrates a high-traffic website and then subverts it to deliver malware to every single visitor. It’s one of the most powerful tools in the black hat arsenal, capable of delivering thousands of fresh victims into a hackers’ clutches within minutes.
Now the technique is being adopted by a different kind of a hacker—the kind with a badge. For the last two years, the FBI has been quietly experimenting with drive-by hacks as a solution to one of law enforcement’s knottiest Internet problems: how to identify and prosecute users of criminal websites hiding behind the powerful Tor anonymity system.
http://www.wired.com/2014/08/operation_torpedo/
Nov 2, 2015 John W Whitehead – Tyranny In America
Excerpts from John W. Whitehead’s book, “Battlefield America, The War on the American people.”
https://youtu.be/IacfjmUZcgk
Anything you say or do can and will be held against you—-never for you. Whole lot of unnecessary work in this full spectrum dominance stuff.
I was wondering how the unmarked spooky popos appear out of nowhere when ya driving down the highway(well timed intercept drills)—-unfortunately its a little obvious and borders on harassment and cock swinging
NEVER give your mobile number to any company.
Another reason to avoid google like the plague.
For the “I have nothing to hide crowd”, if privacy wasn’t of any importance, then why does big brother and it’s long reaching arm do everything in its power to obtain said privacy? Because it is valuable and if you can’t see that then you’re on a sinking ship. Good riddance.
They can track where your DEVICE was, not where you were. A 1st year law student would be able to get any such evidence thrown out of a case.
Good luck with that lovely theory of yours. That’s not really how the law works. It SHOULD be, but it’s not.
if you commit some murders, leave your phone at the house. solid alibi!
Straight out of the Captain Obvious files.
I don’t do anything wrong, by today’s standards. So I have nothing to fear, now.
I don’t use anything associated with google and don’t feel bad for lameasses who can’t compute without google spying on their every move.
My old flip phone works just fine thank you.
Your old flip phone still has gps and e911 capabilities and pings into every cell tower in sight/site. So you’re still being tracked and traced the hell out of to within a few meters — it’s just that it’s not Google doing it, it’s that third party doctrine which is now legal thanks to the US FREEDOM ACT sans warrant. Just bear that in mind next time you keep that battery in.
Actually I have a theory — I wonder how long until it will be considered illegal or highly suspicious to remove your battery or not have your phone in a court case. I don’t know case law on this but I suspect we’re pretty close (and that it’s already being pulled as an ‘anti-alibi’ by some lawyers). This scares me.
The timeline only works if you submitted to google and “upgraded” your account to Google+.
Good grief people. Don’t break the laws and this google info might actually save your tail if you ever get accused of a crime you didn’t do.
Dear Leader,
Please keep me safe from commies, pot heads, terrorists and other evil-doers and I’ll be a good little citizen.
God bless America,
Johnny
“Do no harm….unless it’s violating Constitutional rights then, well…”
??
Hardly. I rarely use such devices.
Personal privacy is an asset . An asset that is being stolen everyday with little to no compensation or penalties for the abuse of it .
Lets talk about warrants now . In most places at this time of official over reach , The responsibility to sign warrants is a joke . Any frocked plebe down to an appointed position can sign of an invasion against you , your home , or business .
Can’t do this or that without a warrant . So ? warrants are a rubber stamp anymore and touted like its a bulwark against your rights or leading one to believe there is a sentinel of beyond reproach character somewhere in the food chain looking out for you and the Constitution .
Think about this when you see or hear with or without a warrant .
Leave it to govt and their front companies to lie and spy on us.
Govt-Politicians are lying about taxes, too. U.S. tax law is codified, and easy as 1,2.
1.
-EXEMPT INCOME-
26 CFR 1.861-8T(d)(2)(ii)
“exempt income means any income that is […] exempt, excluded, or eliminated for federal income tax purposes.”
2.
-INCOME NOT EXEMPT- [aka, Taxable Income]
26 CFR 1.861-8T(d)(2)(iii)
“Income that is not considered tax exempt. The following items are not considered to be exempt, eliminated, or excluded income
(A) In the case of a foreign taxpayer … gross income (whether domestic or foreign source)
(B) gross income of a DISC or a FSC; [Domestic International Sales Corp, Foreign Sales Corp]
(C) gross income of a possessions corporation
(D) Foreign earned income as defined in section 911″
Taxpayers, Do you make Foreign earned income? No? Then according to code (law), you don’t owe any income tax. As usual, politcians are robbing citizens under color of law.
SOURCE: ecfr DOT gov
HOW TO: Click Simple Search, find “exempt income means”
MORE:
Computer scientist data-mines tax code, whatistaxed DOT com
Wow! Big Brother in action. I bet ol’ George Orwell is rolling over in his grave and
saying “I told you so”!
Leave it to govt and their front companies to lie and spy on us.
Govt-Politicians are lying about taxes, too. U.S. tax law is codified, and easy as 1,2.
1.
-EXEMPT INCOME-
26 CFR 1.861-8T(d)(2)(ii)
“exempt income means any income that is […] exempt, excluded, or eliminated for federal income tax purposes.”
2.
-INCOME NOT EXEMPT- [aka, Taxable Income]
26 CFR 1.861-8T(d)(2)(iii)
“Income that is not considered tax exempt. The following items are not considered to be exempt, eliminated, or excluded income
(A) In the case of a foreign taxpayer … gross income (whether domestic or foreign source)
(B) gross income of a DISC or a FSC; [Domestic International Sales Corp, Foreign Sales Corp]
(C) gross income of a possessions corporation
(D) Foreign earned income as defined in section 911″
Taxpayers, Do you make Foreign earned income? No? Then according to code (law), you don’t owe any income tax. As usual, politcians are robbing citizens under color of law.
SOURCE: ecfr DOT gov
HOW TO: Click Simple Search, find “exempt income means”
MORE:
Computer scientist data-mines tax code, whatistaxed DOT com
This is far worse than Soviet Russia. I am going back.
I am about ready seek citizenship there, or almost anywhere but here.
If Hellary wins, for sure I am either hooking it, or digging in, in an OBSCURE well hidden place.
Hungary seems to be the only country left with a brain.
I found this little trick that the liberal infonazis hate, that they dont want you to know. How to securely destroy the data in your phone.
Simply place your phone in your microwave and run it for 17 seconds. That will erase all the data in your phone, and make sure the evil New World Order types can’t track you.
Clever. You know there will actually be morons who try this. The best way to not be tracked is to LEAVE YOUR PHONE AT HOME!! Just try that one.
Or just stay locked up in your survival shelter. Cell phone signals can’t penetrate a cave.
why even buy a phone if you don’t want to use it ?
On your PC or smart phone browse to history.google.com. From there you can choose to delete everything google stores. Make sure you click on the 3 vertical dots in the upper right corner of the scree for each category and select delete options. Then click on Advanced. Click on the arrow next to Select Date and choose All Time. Then click Delete. you will be given a warning about deleting. Just go ahead and delete everything. While it’s not clear what delete means to Google, it may be possible to get rid of all your searches, timelines, voice commands, etc. Definitely worth doing.
You don’t think a backup copy is made of that puppy? Delete doesn’t mean delete to Google, it just means “don’t show the user their data anymore”. It’s still stored on a giant archive somewhere.
The easiest way to make sure you’re not leaving a record in location history is to turn off your GPS in your phone. It’s a battery hog anyway. It’s a good idea to keep your WiFi off as well, for the same reasons.
That only leaves cellphone tower triangulation as a way to track you, even on a non-smart phone.
If you don’t want to be tracked, dump your electronics. That is the only certain way to do it.
If all of this helps them track down some dopers, I say go for it.
Please save us from the stoners!
This is a very deceitful and MISLEADING story
ITs not as simple as Google tracking you, it must be on a SMART PHONE.
The opening implies also on computers.
get rid of your danged phone or TURN IT OFF>
And block Googles IP address from your PC browser
WHY are you surprised about this? How do you think Google has products such as accurate traffic maps? All the major companies track your activities. It is not just Google its all of them. Government, law enforcement will always have access to your information. Social media, retail and business will always track your activities. ALWAYS! You want these conveniences – you live with the consequences. Deal with it!
Not sure what is more scary – law enforcement tracking me via Google, or Google tracking me via Google.
Can you say Fascist. When the police state controls private business and can directly control or follow your movements unimpeded by law, it is called Fascism. You can thank Liberal/Progressives for it.
“You can thank Liberal/Progressives for it.”
Sorry to tell you but it’s the lack of left wing that is the problem, america is hard right, both the dems and republicans are further right than the conservative party of canada.
You have no left wing in america.
Go ahead morons keep using Google
Everyone keeps jabbing Google and bellyaching. So what!!! The issue is right in your face. Wake up Amerika. Your gubment is corrupt and not protecting YOUR rights. Your protection from gubment illegal activities is being tromped on and you complain about Google and give amateur advice on how to “trick” data collection? Time to get serious people, Google is NOT the problem.
The New World Odor is almost here folks.
The ANTI-Christ will rule this world.
Get with Jesus before it’s too late!!!
Amen Brother!
When the day comes that you will not be able to “buy or sale” least you have the “Mark” of the Beast on your right hand or forehead, many will come to the realization that the Bible is the Word of God.
So, don’t use Google. Oh, that’s right, Google makes all the Android software. So, don’t use Google. Beyond me why everyone has to carry their life history in their pocket on their new (gotta have new) smartphone. Hey! Look at these cool apps I have. Now I’m too stupid to even read a map; I’ll just follow my phone’s directions and drive into a reservoir.
Yeah, I have a cell phone. I’ve had it for 8 years; it works great!
It’s not about reading a map, it’s about getting live traffic data to avoid congestion.
Please stop using Google products (including their search engine). DuckDuckGo.com and Ixquick.com are great alternatives.
Startpage is what I use.
Already being used by the Enemy in MiddleEast to locate targets. twit I heard a missle go by hmm that means they are in the flight path here is where we need to adjust for target accuracy on and they gave me there location via Timeline how nice of Google to Do No EVIL.
Dear Droid Users- Google, Google Settings, Location, Google Location History, DELETE, back, OFF. Personally I don’t like how the cops think they have access to all this information we accidentally log on ourselves. I’m just not convinced this sort of thing is “in our best interests” like those suitcase sized data collectors that vacuum up all sorts of information. What are they looking for? Terrorists? Or just trying to get a feed on the normal day of Americans? Sounds suspicious to me, even if it is for national security, which I don’t think they can try to claim when thousands cross the border with no identification or medical history or anything on a daily basis.
Handy article. I just confirmed both my accounts had this feature “off”, and deleted the history just to be on the safe side. (It’s all about control.)
If you are worried about privacy, don’t use the internet. or a cell phone, or debt of any kind. Pay for everything in cash. All data is used to create a marketing profile. The fact that law enforcement can use the data is secondary and not the goal of Google and similar companies. Their only motivation us to create a custom marketing profile of you to sell you “stuff.” Their only goal is to monetize all data. They couldn’t care less who you associate with, what you buy, or where you go.This is our future and our future is now.
As long as the data exists, law enforcement will have access to it. Our only hope is a massive EMP to send us back to the iron age.
That isn’t necessarily all true. I think the Fedreral Government is one of Google’s biggest customers.
They shouldn’t be allowed to subpoena this as it should be considered self-incrimination.
WHAT? No, google would NEVER do anything like that. I mean, they only want all of our
thoughts, emails, purchase history, youtube searches, internet searches, documents, devices, whereabouts, every book ever written, every song ever written, browsing history, chat history, and maybe take pictures of all of our houses on earth without authorization, and who knows what next. Oh wait. I know….sending out goons with these little eyeglasses deployed, so they can steal whatever modicum of privacy or sanity there may be in a public setting…..
No, no, certainly the company you mentioned would never do such things. After all, they took their own hypocrite-oath and therefore CANT do evil….and furthermore we all know we can trust our federal government to NEVER overstep their bounds either!
/sarc
Rev 19:20
And the beast “0bama” was taken, and with him the false prophet “Bush” that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
2 months left and 7yrs tribulation will be up..
The worst has yet to come..
Sorry Mayanah. Gotta have a 7 year peace treaty signed between the Israelies, and Palestinians, to start the 7 year tribulation. Your wrong. Haven’t even begun yet.
Whats a “palestinian”?
Washington, DC is the modern Babylon. See Revelation 18 for a preview of its fate.
Rev 19:20
And the beast “0bama” was taken, and with him the false prophet “Bush” that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
2 months left and 7yrs tribulation will be up..
The worst has yet to come..
Duck duck go look’in better every day.
Chose one that is outside USA, otherwise they are all hacked by NSA if the server is not outside of the NSA domain.
StartPage and Ixquick are both based in Holland. Neither records searches, IP addresses or anything else. StartPage is the home page on all of my browsers.
Windows 10 does same thing as Google and more. The spy software can not be by-passed, it is built inside the Kernel, masking it with other software is useless, it is for your own ego only. It can not be circumvent either with other patches or software or check boxes.
Duck Duck Go is NOT anonymous if you use Chrome as your browser. I checked mine the other day and it’s all logged.
I’m pretty consistent about not using google, bing, yahoo ect. I stick pretty much w/ Duck Duck Go. It’s the principle of not supporting a police state.
Google and Facebook work for NSA and they record everything from your cell phone, even when you sleep. They can turn on the mike, the camera, texted message, voice, GPS and other features built in the devices without you ever knowing. Same with Windows 10 if you have installed it already. Microsoft has secret agreement with NSA also and win 10 should be called spy software.
what does google have to do with any of this?
Google Maps you idiot.
I found out about this practice from another article a couple of years ago. Upon looking into it, Google has NO IDEA where I’ve been. There are locations shown that I know for a fact that I haven’t been to. Don’t forget: These people who would rule/ control you are a pack of inept bunglers. Their tactics only work on those they’ve succeeded in dumbing down and indoctrinating.
Do you think Google will ever admit to it or give you the right info to you about your whereabouts?
If you do, you are the naive one.
That’s why I went custom firmware and shut that google map “feature” off
I did it to free up CPU cycles. The [middle finger] to Google and Fascist Democrat government is the bonus
I don’t have an iPhone, I have a life.
Apparently you don’t if you feel the need to make such foolish comments.
I’ve had that OFF for years. I dont need things ‘predicted’ anyways.
Is nobody else terrified by this?
The internet, combined with geolocation/GPS is the best real time online surveillance system ever developed.
Who developed the internet? DARPA. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
What did you expect?
This is true, but there’s a silver lining: the government-controlled mainstream media has lost its ability to spread propaganda unchallenged.
Google’s new corporate mantra: Be evil all the time.
Fuck the Googles
This should be illegal, so tired of the NSA.
It is illegal. The Fourth Amendment forbids the government from collecting any information on you unless you have been suspected of a crime. Evidence must be presented to a judge in order to issue a warrant for any further action by the police.
This information should be taught in schools, but it isn’t. I wonder why…
You’re absolutely correct: this sort of surveillance is absolutely illegal under a plain reading of the Fourth Amendment.
The problem is that unlike statute laws, no one is enforcing the Bill of Rights. All US military personnel have taken an oath to do so, but the number who have kept their oath can be counted on the fingers of two hands.
Most teachers in the government indoctrination centers, are too D-U-M dumb to care much. We have multi-layer brainwashing going on in this country, and some of it even masquerades as edjewkayshun.
What you folks talking about the fourth amendment do not realize is this:
Since the false flag event of 9-11, we have been legally categorized as being in a state of war. The constitution has been arguably suspended without anyone being aware of it. The far reaching legal implications of Patriot Act 1 and Patriot Act 2 along with the NDAA of 2012 where Obama fought vigorously for the legal right to imprison American Citizens without due process has left us legally a police state. They have just not lowered the boom yet for whatever reason. It is only a matter of time though.
They seem to be following a proven pattern that mirrors what was done by Hitler in Nazi Germany. They are using the same terminology for goodness sake! Homeland for example. Asking us to spy on and report on our neighbors. We are in dark days and they are only going to become darker as time goes by.
so, just another reason to add to the list called ‘why I don’t use any google service’.
Good to know if you are a politician. Now make that public ally available to your constituents.
This sort of relates to location tracking but with a different company and I feel like putting it somewhere.
I recently moved and tried to transfer my phone and internet service. All I had to do was call a number and follow some prompts they said. I tried many times but continually received errors. The last time I tried I heard dialing tones while I was supposed to be giving my number. The account activated finally but for some reason with the wrong number and nothing even remotely close to my own other than the the right area code.
Where location comes into this is when I called this new number the voicemail said that I reached a completely different number, one that would have me located on the opposite side of the country.
So when I make phone calls, where would anyone normal or of the internet tracking gods think I’m located?
If random stuff like that can happen and if people can use the internet to call others and can also hack into your computer and various accounts and/or use it to mask an attack on someone else or make it part of a botnet: can’t they make phone calls and have it show up as your number? Like a way of masking their own activity or just to fck with someone? If the customer support I get routed to most often has anything to do with it then I’m saying yes. (except for the last guy, he restored my faith in humanity)
So like when you look at your activity history in your email accounts and if there’s something you don’t recognize its supposed to mean your service got hacked. Wouldn’t that be the same when you look at call history online? I’ve seen that. ( I couldn’t find that info this time because I needed a pin they would only send me to that wrong phone number or by mail 5-8 days)
My phone is fixed now but if I used the phone while it was being routed across the country would the somebody these numbers actually belong to get a record of who I’m calling?
Also if it is so easy and common to to do this kind of thing to people, if machines or software can get tripped up for whatever reason, cross internet traffic or deliberate, I really don’t understand why information found this way is used in any kind of legitimate law enforcement activity. Hello fog-generating search for justice! ( I think the Crimson Chin may have said that.)
Reading these stories over the past few years I have a burning question for the T:I staff: If someone holds both American and British Citizenship and has a spouse with Canadian citizenship using the same internet connection, and the couple is traveling overseas, who gets to spy on my family if GCHQ is supposed to spy on Americans and the US is supposed to spy on Brits, especially if they’re crossing overseas cables? Thanks!
The agencies not allowed to spy on you don’t — they trade intel with the agencies that are. It’s a win-win… for the spies.
I think all of this points again to our misunderstanding of and addiction to the word “free.” Your mapping, social networking, emailing, twittering, cloud backup, and so forth are not “free.” If you used just a little common sense and a lot of open source, you would have your own version of Siri, google maps, iCloud, etc, on your own server, with your own email client and domain. You would have the entire thing encrypted and use VPN with perfect forward secrecy for all comms between your server and your devices. You would not have (m)any of these problems.
Oh, and your own app repository, too. Copy the apps, decompile them and strip out the bad stuff, and use a program like LBE Privacy Guard to stop apps from giving away the store (on Android, at least). Also, dont run play store or a gmail account on your android phone and block all direct comms to google except through appropriate filtering.
I found myself on the wrong end of a legal investigation in 2010. Below is an exact copy of the email I received from Google:
“Dear [redacted, for obvious reasons]@gmail.com,
Google has received legal process for information related to your account
in a matter issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
To comply with the law, Google will provide responsive documents pursuant
to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. See 18 U.S.C. § 2701 et seq.
For more information about the subpoena seeking your Google account
information, you may wish to contact the party seeking this information
at:
FBI Houston
(713) 693-5000
Unfortunately, Google is not in a position to provide you with legal
advice or discuss the substance of the process in our possession.
If you have other questions regarding this matter, we encourage you to
contact your attorney.
Sincerely,
Google Legal Support”
Of all my email providers, Google was the only one that I received a notification from. Their generosity was offset a few years later when they allowed the US Attorney’s Office to delete a few conversations between my attorney and I that would have significantly reduced my sentence, but that is a tale for another day.
It’s another day in my timezone. What happened with your email and deletion?
During the investigation into me, the FBI found a few thousand credit card numbers “on my computer” (oddly enough they had never seized my computer). As part of the usual plea negotiation process, I was threatened with a mandatory minimum snetence over 100,000 years in prison by both my attorney, Kelly Case, and Assistant US Attorney Elmilady, both out of Houston if I didn’t plea guilty to the underlying charge. They also promised a sentence of probation for the underlying charge.
Needless to say, it was a classic bait and switch. I pled guilty and received a sentence of 37 months in prison. My buffoon of a lawyer got exactly none of the plea agreement in writing, the emails where we discussed this were erased. It’s fairly clear from the transcripts that such a deal did exist, but without the emails, it was impossible to prove on appeal.
I’m sure that I sound like a nut, but the emails were just gone. I’ve had my gmail account since 2009 and I’ve made a point of never deleting anything. The emails directly before and after are in my inbox, but the emails I need are just gone. I can vividly recall the contents of the emails, but they’re just gone. The only motivation I can think of is them not wanting to be embarrassed by using an illegally exaggerated sentence to compel a 19 year old into pleaing guilty.
“During the investigation into me, the FBI found a few thousand credit card numbers “on my computer” ”
Did you have on your computer or elsewhere credit card numbers of other people?
Why does the story say the data are available for years, but then say Google could not provide it to law enforcement except beginning in 2015? One part of the story says a search warrant is required, another says it can be gotten with a subpoena. Its confusing. Sounds to me as if this data were available all along with a search warrant. Is the story that now it is easier to reach with just a subpoena?
I solved this problem. I do not own a cell phone. Track this. Holding up middle finger.
I solved this problem. I do not own a cell phone. Track this. Holding up my middle finger.
Them: We require a search warrant from law enforcement.
Me: Wish you were getting that from the judiciary.
Them: Same-same.
I have an old phone Nokia model(6030) if they can track me there ggod
Of course they can track you. (1) Cell towers, (2) E911. That’s not including all the other fun stuff that can do. What, you think they need a GPS chip?
If you want slightly less traceability go back to an old-fashioned broadcast-level numeric pager (think POCSAG) circa the early 90s. Even that’s not gonna save your world, but anything going to anything specific is, by definition, tracked and traced — as long as they want it to be.
Technology isn’t magic. Believing old tech bypasses cell towers is delusional.
I should clarify — that doesn’t mean you’re not better off with that than with any of the new crap. You still are. You’re just making a major mistake if you’re conflating trackability (or lack thereof) with newfangledness. And the tracking/tracing tech’s gotten much better since that phone came out too, so it’s not like you’re living in a world where you’re up against what those with an interest in the tech had to use then, either. Stingrays LOVE old phones.
I think that the point that I was trying to make in my earlier post which no responded to is this. I am posting here because it speaks to your post well.
Old or new tech makes no difference really. We are tracked easily through facial recognition and AI software. I have a new fangled cell phone and turning of Location Services is effective for one reason and one reason only.
Though the NSA for example may know all about you, they cannot use it against you easily. At least not currently anyway. They cannot admit that they are tracking us like they are because it is arguably unconstitutional for one thing and for another it makes them look bad. Sure everyone knows now that they are doing it but to admit it publicly would be embarrassing and it would open up a can of worms that they would rather not open at all.
With the Google location service, they can subpoena and get an incredible amount of information that they can then use in court. The ramifications are mind boggling. For an end user who left Google Location Services turned on all the time since 2009, they could know everywhere you were for every moment of your life for more than 6 years! Just think what the IRS could theoretically do with that information. They could also synchronize it with various cameras and get video clips of your life in the process. It is just crazy what they could do with this information.
Whereas the Government has had this information on each of us all along, they could not readily and easily use it against us. First of all they (they being the NSA) could not subpoena themselves for information for a criminal investigation. Plus even if they could, they are not willing to admit publicly that they are collecting deeply detailed information on each and every one of us.
Law Enforcement can subpoena this information at will with this development now and we will never be advised about it at all.
Think about it. If you had an Android phone, and you left location services turned on since prior to 2009, they would know EVERYWHERE you went and at what times you were there and for how long.
Moreover, any other cell phones that were near you with location services turned could probably be easily cross referenced so they would have that information as well.
They would be able to evaluate every time you broke the freaking speed limit if they wanted to! Now I have not committed any crimes personally myself that would amount to anything more than a minor traffic violation. But I wouldn’t want any Law Enforcement Agency to have that kind of information on me. It really creeps me out to think about it.
Fortunately I am a Network Engineer and have probably a little more than a healthy amount of paranoia and so I never enabled location services for more than an hour at a time and then only rarely. So the government has a method of getting this information into evidence with this BS. That has a million different ramifications to it that no one has even thought of yet.
Great Day the IRS could ding you for a vacation that you spent cash on that they claim you didn’t report to them. The possible problems could be crazy and multitudinous…
Off topic, but only somewhat.
Glenn: 60 Minutes just ran this defamatory piece about “spies among us” who owe loyalty to foreign gov’ts, regarding Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden — and tied them to an Aaron Alexis serial killer.
It’s Joe McCarthy blended with a Willie Horton meme. It’s particularly galling coming from Barack Obama, of all people, at least indirectly. Time to do a Jonathan Edwards denunciation, don’t you think, Glenn?
I saw this and my jaw dropped. 60 Minutes MSM was reduced to a blatant PSYOPS operation to assassinate the character of both Snowden and Manning, peripherally all whistleblowers, right down to distorted photographs that made them look less than human “insider threats.” Who scripted and directed this piece of crap. Part of the core problem the grain of truth in the report is the incompetence of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in doing security clearance background checks and OPM beginning hacked for all information millions of files on such records, my old files included. The real core problem is over classification of information that has lost its need to know shelf-life and/or is kept from the public to hide bad policy, failures, abuses and mistakes of government, cover asses, not to protect National security. With so much classified information it is hard to separate the wheat important secrets from the chaff misclassified information or keep the granary from being raided. Even worse we the people are not given the information we need to perform our duties as citizens. Further over classification creates a screen for sedition of the Constitution.
had to turn it off as soon as I saw their set up / framing device of including a serial killer w whistleblowers
CBS is a compliant media partner of NSA / CIA
see Operation Mockingbird
Thanks for the article — informative. We increasingly live in a world where we must assume, by default, we’re being monitored and/or recorded.
You only need to watch the first 10 minutes
// __ CLASSIFIED: Docs Expose DoD Obsession With Killing Remotely by Machines
~
youtube.com/watch?v=-uGL80MwsaU
~
RCL
Just buy a flip cellphone or an old BB. Android OS is a spy tool.
That is why I don’t own ANY of these ‘most have’ gadgets…not even a cell phone. Rather hard to spy on me.
Erm, they are vacuuming up ALL DIGITAL DATA and I guess you have a computer linked to the internet… Oops!
You don’t have a mobile because you don’t have a boyfriend. If you were loved-up you’d be texting gooey banalities every 5 minutes.
I do have a mobile, but no one calls it because I am married and I stopped drinking with the lads years ago. So it never gets used and the battery is always flat.
And you don’t have any other gadgets because you are skint. Same as me.
Stop pretending to be some sort of anti-government badass.
They don’t care about you in any shape or form, and that’s a good thing right now. :)
There is no chain of custody on these things. It’s not like the location data is transmitted via https. And it’s not like the data is encrypted on Google servers.
Not admissible in court man.
Everything is admissible if a phony search warrant is attached to the evidence.
The 4th Amendment (never amended) is chronological by design: first a real crime has to occur, then there must be real evidence or sworn-testimony of “probable cause” that points to particular person or place, the prosecutor, police or accuser must “risk” penalty of perjury in applying for a judicial warrant. Finally the “accused” must be able to confront all evidence and witnesses against him or her.
It is a federal crime for police or any government official/contractor to harass any person for any reason. Congress and legislatures define what the prescribed punishment is, judges and judges interpret those statutes and determine guilt or innocence. Anything less is extrajudicial blacklisting which is a Title 18 crime under federal “color of law” statutes.
The slippery slope started in the late 1960’s in the so-called “War on Drugs” when the U.S. Supreme Court rewarded exectutive branch officials for violating the 4th Amendment instead of penalizing those officials for violating their oath of office (ex: “Terry v. Ohio”). It is the duty of today’s U.S. Supreme Court to correct those faulty rulings -or- require a constitutional amendment.
This would have been very good information for me in 2006 because my city thinks otherwise and it should have been taken to New York City where shit kickers are forced to face the reality of this nation. That is we are a democracy not a dictatorship of wealthy society controlling judges and legislatures. Your comments are well said. Thank you.
I can tell you that in live database systems with millions of users NO DATA IS EVER DELETED.
It is because of concurrency and consistency issue within distributed database system since deleting anything is very costly as far as processing power and network resources are concerned.
Hence instead, software developers just flip a flag to “DELETED” (an indexed, fast update operation) and the record can no longer be quarried by an app, but physically still exists even in replicated databases used for load balancing. Not to mention daily backups and logs Google would have created before you decided to “delete” your locations. The data still there to be easily subpoena.
The only way out is not to allow to be tracked in the first place but this is impossible as well since all the apps rely on that one way or another.
Or just unplug. 1984 are US.
I am becoming fascinated to know just how fucking MUCH memory there is out there being hogged up with all this CRAP!!!!!!????? I cannot imagine.
I built my own PC back in 1993 and the memory chips were just THE MOST expensive things on it, I could only afford like 8 mega or something and I cannot remember how big the hard disk was!!! I don’t think I could even run a phone app on it now. When we were kids we had ZX Spectrums with 48K of RAM memory and that was it, no ROM – power off, all lost! 48K!!!! It’s hilarious!!! The Spectrum games were great though – Chucky Egg is a classic.
My friend worked for Canon Fiery Printer Stations and bought a box of memory home – about a Gb or two – and that was $20,000 back in the mid-90s. We think it must be huge amounts of data, but the metadata is quiet small really.
Say they are taking the information of 2billion wealthy-enough people linked to the internet. A Gb each would suffice easily for metadata – that’s nothing.
I can’t even get my head around what they must have, though. And I bet they can rip the encryption 9 times out of 10, despite what Ed Snowden says. I bet they have a fucking monster machine that is like a trillion parallel processor operations that just shreds it and looks for language to come out.
Can probably write the whole works of Shakespeare in Monkey Language too. 1984 is their holiday camp. This is Hell.
Talk about memory, here’s what Wikipedia says about the new NSA data center in Utah:
“The planned structure provides 1 to 1.5 million square feet , with 100,000 square feet of data center space and more than 900,000 square feet of technical support and administrative space. It is projected to cost $1.5-2 billion. A report suggested that it will cost another $2 billion for hardware, software, and maintenance. The completed facility is expected to require 65 megawatts of electricity, costing about $40 million per year. The facility is expected to use 1.7 million gallons of water per day. An article by Forbes estimates the storage capacity as between 3 and 12 exabytes in the near term, based on analysis of unclassified blueprints, but mentions Moore’s Law, meaning that advances in technology could be expected to increase the capacity by orders of magnitude in the coming years.”
I always have my location tracking turned on. If anything ever happened to me, I’d want the authorities to be able to find me, quickly. Same holds true for my family members. One has to wonder what people are up to if they have to hide their whereabouts. Privacy / secrecy are not in the public’s interests. Transparency is.
And you obviously work for the government in some manner. Privacy is of the utmost importance to every citizen. People are not hiding their whereabouts as you claim because they aren’t hiding in a shack out in the woods. They are instead realizing that modern technology is eroding our privacy and being used against us whether we did anything criminal or not.
In what percentage of the possibilities encompassing “something happened to me” does you phone end up going its own separate way?
But don’t worry. Soon you will have location services implanted.
Yawn. This is a tired, tired argument and one so easily revealed (by history) to be specious, it’s kind of a Fox News talking point by now. Try again.
Jed, I suggest you crack open a history book sometime and learn what happens when governments gain too much power over their populations, whether by spying, gun control, or other such means.
Of all the people who were murdered during the past two centuries, the VAST majority were murdered by their own governments. Many others survived but were enslaved. And guess what? Submissive, slave-minded idiots like you are what made it all possible.
I always keep my location tracking turned off, but I’d be very naive to think that was sufficient to avoid being tracked.
If you want to go somewhere privately, obviously you shouldn’t take your cell phone with you. Also leave behind any other device that’s capable of wirelessly connecting to a network (including many modern cars). Merely having the device turned off is NOT good enough. Removing the battery might work, but that’s seldom convenient. (It would be nice to have a little switch on a phone that physically disconnects the battery as desired.)
If you want to keep a phone with you but don’t want to be tracked, one simple option is to keep it in a “Faraday bag” or other shielded enclosure. These can either be bought online or improvised. The phone won’t be able to send or receive any signals while it’s in the enclosure (be sure to test it), but you can always take it out if you need to make an emergency call (which will, of course, then reveal your location at that moment). It’s recommended to have the phone’s power off while it’s in the Faraday bag/box, as leaving it on can cause the battery to drain more quickly.
It’s not so much that Google, Yahoo, and all the rest are so very bad….but it is that what we call our federal government is one heinous entity hell bent on destroying the constitution and Bill of rights just so it can run hog wild over everyone and everything. We have absolute proof exactly how power corrupts the weak human mind, and we are seeing it in so very many, if not practically all, of our pathetically mentally challenged representatives. And then we let these phony bastards basically prescribe their own innocence or destroy our ability to investigate them by declaring everything either secret or illegal. Time to hang these foul bastards!
I agreed that the massive, centralized government is the central problem. However, I wouldn’t give a pass to companies like Google. Many large businesses share a great deal of responsibility for the tyranny we face.
I strongly suspect that a number of companies, particularly Google and Facebook, have strong clandestine ties to the government, and that their ostensible public opposition to government overreach is merely for show. Much, if not all, of Google’s research (e.g., “Project Loon”) seems to have the ulterior motive of closing gaps in the worldwide surveillance grid. This may be nothing more than a side effect of their business model, but I have strong doubts of that.
Other companies, including most “defense” contractors, are completely open in their development of tools that can enable tyranny; i.e., weapons and military gear that make guerrilla resistance to tyranny more difficult. Naturally these “defense” contractors don’t present their products to the public that way, but instead talk about “saving lives,” “defending freedom,” and other such hypocritical horseshit.
Jan 13, 2015 Why Are Cell Phone Towers Going Up on Public Schools All over the Country?
This is a follow up to the last video we did based on a tip sent to us by a viewer who wanted to know how it was okay that the largest elementary school in Dallas put up a giant cell phone tower right on the basketball court next to the playground.
https://youtu.be/s-MBEiAmcqU
Sep 14, 2015 The Police Have No Duty To Protect You: Joseph Lozito’s Story
“But we need the police to protect us!!” cry some people. Yet time and time again, as Joseph Lozito found out, courts have ruled that police have no duty to protect you.
https://youtu.be/V6qqAuEoJXs
COURT RULINGS THAT SAY POLICE DO NOT HAVE OBLIGATION TO PROTECT CITIZENS FROM VIOLENT CRIME
In the United States, you can get a pizza delivered faster than you can get the police to come to your home! To serve but not protect!
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/courtrulingsonpoliceprotection.php#axzz3Lulh8Tph
I can’t believe people are dumb enough to use technology like this. Are you so gnat brained you don’t remember where you went during the day?
I share your disbelief, and yet, there is plenty of evidence that we are as a whole becoming increasingly self absorbed and narcissistic. People post intimate details of their lives on social media, then are astounded when their identities are stolen, or when their information is used by the unscrupulous.
I won’t deny the stupidity of most people, but in fairness, the use of this technology is often inadvertent. A lot of people aren’t tech-savvy and are unaware of tracking mechanisms like this. So the problem in this case may be ignorance rather than outright stupidity.
What I find much less excusable is the way so many people who DO know better take no steps to guard their privacy. “If I’m not doing anything wrong, I have nothing to worry about.” The hundreds of millions of people killed by their own governments in the past couple of centuries alone would testify otherwise. Big government is the single greatest threat to humanity, bar none.
Don’t confuse your phone with you. Just as “Caller ID” refers to the caller, timeline tracking refers to the phone. Taking the data for information is one thing, but on its own it cannot be used to convict.
Imagine if your phone was cloned. While you were actually at home asleep the phone “checked in” at sites along the way to a murder, was at the murder scene (precisely) then got turned off. What would police say?
This is an inanimate tool to be used or abused and, unless the phone is implanted (and maybe not even then) people should remember that it maybe truthful, it isn’t Gospel.
Jonathan @NC3mobi
Try telling that to the people killed by Hellfire missiles through tracking their mobile phones. And to Millie Dowler’s family, who trusted the British police and the newspapers not to abuse mobile phone technology.
Now try organising political rallies against your current regimes, or moving to and from demonstrations.
Coming to a poor and getting poorer American city near you today. Or was it yesterday?
I offer a cell phone travel service for those who would like to control their data profile. The customer simply checks the boxes – political affiliation, religion, clubs and hobbies and their cell phone is sent to destinations which match their chosen profile. As more organizations use big data to vet their decisions, having the right profile will be a key to getting a job, an insurance policy, or even being allowed to shop in the right stores.
Of course, there are already services to create an on-line trail which serves the same purpose. But many organizations are rightly suspicious because this is relatively easy to fake. They place more trust in a profile based on actual travel. And rightly so – operating a fleet of small drones carrying cell phones is logistically complicated.
“I offer a cell phone travel service for those who would like to control their data profile”.
How do I sign up?
Hey that’s cool…..Panoptikonically Kool!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12gLKggzj9g
I see all these people being surprised about their smart phones. I have to ask… what did you think “smart” means? Has intelligence, that’s what it means. There are dozens of TV ads where companies advertise that their products phone home or guide police to arrest the user, right out in front of people’s eyes … I don’t understand why they have such a hoodlum’s tendency to boast, nor why people don’t see them do it.
I still don’t understand what’s so bad about a phone with number keys that doesn’t do anything but talk. Apart from lack of sponsorship in the right places, that is. The last advances I remember thinking were genuinely worthwhile were getting rid of the rotary dial and having a redial button.
Even getting rid of the rotary dial created other problems for people. In Canada, for example, politicians reset to 2 (previously 4) the times a phone would ring prior to redirecting the call to an answering machine.
IMO, technological (and, to some extent, even scientific) advances are overrated. They have always been, to the point that people tend to equate being smart with using tech sh!t. As the take over of the Greek culture by the Roman one shows, technology is ultimately “good” if it can be used as war toys to abuse other people.
The industrial revolution per se didn’t make British Empire “powerful”, “smarted”, “morally superior”, “happier”, but the making and use of weapons that the industrial revolution made possible. Yet, “technologically advanced” people can’t help but make that their reality.
When USG abusively drone people, they don’t see it at all as a moral thing, just a “statistical”, “economical” one … of course, they know well whom to play their “statistics”, “technology”, … with
// __ Age Of Drones HD
~
youtube.com/watch?v=gzwkcAhB98I
~
// __ Thinking about Military History in an Age of Drones, Hackers, and IEDs
~
youtube.com/watch?v=6PaN5yEhXsM
~
RCL
Paul Springer is a cool fellow:
~
(38:15): “if you are running a centrifuge in Norway you really need to run your antivirus programs …”
(1:04:05): “that is the danger of the military robotic path we are heading down to … we can use force with impunity … we ca strike with no possibility of retaliation … at least this is the presumption”
~
but I think he was not trying to be technically and/or morally correct in all he said. Also, I find him way too hopeful:
If you are running a centrifuge in Norway you should not be running antivirus software. There are safe ways to use hardware and software
I find hard to believe that Iran after cutting its nuclear facilities off the Internet was using Windows OS and gringo hardware even leaving the CD / DVD and USB ports on them! I find that more scary that they were making nukes. Yes, people stupidity has always been very “helpful”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet
https://theintercept.com/2015/02/10/nsa-iran-developing-sophisticated-cyber-attacks-learning-attacks/
// __ Rise.of.the.Hackers (PBS, NOVA)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x26seos_pbs-nova-2014-rise-of-the-hackers-720p-hdtv-x264-aac-mvgroup-org_shortfilms
you can download dailymotion videos using youtube-dl
I don’t have the capabilities of a state, but I would:
1) take the sources of Linux and BSD kernels (from overseas, not from within Iran (in fact I would do both and then compare the sources ;-)))
1.1) do the same with Debian live
1.2) compile both locally, to be used with the toram options only off of a live DVD
2) alter, randomize a bit the networking libraries so that only local machines know of it and can connect (this isn’t a big deal) and use FHTTPS only for communicating among machines
3) unsolder the CD/DVD and USB ports from the hardware (there is absolutely nothing wrong with the PS-2 interface for keyboards)
4) remove from the kernel all those libraries, services dealing with “discovery”
5) totally recompile a linux kernel with totally independent output and input libraries
6) keep those power plants inside faraday cages
…
RCL
Of course, you should, totally separate the Intranet connected to the reactors to the other Intranets in the facility.
Use people’s knowledge, consciousness as the only interface between those Intranets
RCL
The Romans seem to have invented very little new gadgets in their 500-odd years of dominance. They were a tremendous war machine, but most of the machines and structural engineering they employed were as you say already being used by the Greeks and others, like the Persians and Celts.
Technology hadn’t significantly changed for thousands of years – at the core of the Greek Mystery religions was the Farming Revolution – sowing seeds, ploughing and animal husbandry – which is one of the great changes in human culture, but is not celebrated in an Age, when it most definitely should be. Shifting from Bronze to Iron wasn’t that great a shake, but going from hunter-gather to farmer most certainly was.
The next big change came in the late medieval, early Rennaisance – with gunpowder changing the face of battle, and inprovements in navigation and timekeeping making deep sea sailing possible. It is easy to measure Latitude by the heavenly bodies, but Longitude whilst moving in a featureless environment needs accurate timekeeping. Also better compasses helped know what course a ship was taking.
These two things made Global Imperialism possible, first under the Portuguese, then the Spanish, then the Dutch, then the British and French.
Now the Americans are doing it all again in the Digital Age.
The next Age will be the Guerilla War and Massacres Age, kicking them out.
You made a lot of thoughtful observations about the importance and historical impact various technologies after the Romans.
In light of your astute points, I was surprised to see that you left off what I think is probably the most important technological advance of all.
The printing press with movable type which is arguably directly analogous to our current rise of the Internet…
I miss the rotary dial. You could tap the number in using the receiver on the top, which was more fun but annoyed the folks (and sucked for numbers with lots of 7s, 8s, and 9s).
I miss the 70s. Music was cool and Steely Dan were sometimes on telly. Films were cool and original and no one knew what a reboot was. Clothes were itchy and caused static build up. It was sunnier in England. Things are shit now and it rains all the time. Serves them right for GCHQ.
Come the digital age, come the age of mass surveillance.
What I mean about those ads: Right now Sony is running an ad where “Miss Moneypenny” speaks into her phone and gets back a response “Bond here”, and runs the text “Made for Bond”. Not what I would call subtle. I mean, they’re peeing on our heads and the dog-tame masses dance around, thanking the Gods for the ambrosia.
We already had an extensive discussion about why and how people should protect themselves. I am a Physicist/Mathematician and I would love to help TI to write up.maintain a document explaining such things as what a Faraday cage is and why you need one to “We the people”.
Again, those morons do not dwell in a separate physical and moral reality even though they try to parapet their b#llsh!t behind “legal” obfuscations. They need to “‘Collect it All’, ‘Process it All’, ‘Exploit it All’, ‘Partner it All’, ‘Sniff it All'” ™, in order to ultimately: “Know it All”, because otherwise they would have to pay attention to and actually “Make Sense Of It All” and, Ouch!, that would be very hurtful for those kinds of idiots.
RCL
This is PREHISTORIC news. Nothing new as google store all details from 2009 onwards. Goverment do not need this information as they have specific tracking options. So stop posting this NON SENSE information
They use this data without warrants do you see that its in certain terms a sure arrest without ever having to get a warrant in many instances? This is what the public needs to be aware of. We live in a military state for sure. The public needs to drink coffee in the morning and know that they can at any moment be arrested without even knowing if they have done something illegal. All they have to do is be somewhere the cops need a culprit. Then they can also gang stalk you with this information which means human torture is allowable by location data. Gang Stalking is a severity a child would understand. It’s like being followed around the playground with a bully behind you every day at recess. Or what if your mean girl mimicked everything you said out loud and would not quit doing it. This is the means of location data and its used in Sting operations to shake down witnesses and criminals until the DOJ has enough evidence to actually get a warrant. So when the USA wants to drag you in they will. It’s a military state. Right Mary Fallin?
Also Jana I read your bio and I see that you were a journalist with Fox news and your interesting case fighting for confidentiality. There are so many talking cops it should not be hard to find leaks in Oklahoma City and the cops there like to arrest people for writing letters. It’s a little hoedown but it happens. Right Mary?
You have an odor of cluelessness about you. What is significant in this situation is that while what you say is correct, you are leaving out an important thing.
Law Enforcement can subpoena this information at will and we will never be advised about it at all.
Think about it. If you had an Android phone, and you left location services turned on since prior to 2009, they would know EVERYWHERE you went and at what times you were there and for how long.
Moreover, any other cell phones that were near you with location turned could probably be easily cross referenced so they would have that too.
They would be able to evaluate every time you broke the freaking speed limit if they wanted to! Now I have not committed any crimes personally myself that would amount to anything more than a minor traffic violation. But I wouldn’t want any Law Enforcement Agency to have that kind of information on me. It really creeps me out to think about it.
Fortunately I am a Network Engineer and have probably a little more than a healthy amount of paranoia and so I never enabled location service for more than an hour at a time and then only rarely. So the government has a method of getting this information into evidence with this BS. That has a million ramifications to it that no one has even thought of yet.
Great Day the IRS could ding you for a vacation that you spent cash on that they claim you didn’t report to them. The possible problems could be crazy and multitudinous…
We all know Google participates in tracking such things as flu outbreaks and the like. Big data, et al. How this article is saying something that (I assume doesn’t come as a shock to anyone) puts forward that Law Enforcement can (read: almost certainly at least occasionally does) use Google Timeline to track your every move. That’s a chilling enough headline that I don’t even want to get into it.
First off, bear in mind this is ONLY a hypothetical; I am NOT posing this as realistic and my life is already miserable; the last thing I want or need is for my life to get any more complicated, so don’t read too much into this:
Let’s say ‘Google’ tells law enforcement someone is ‘bad’. Alternatively let’s say ‘Google’ tells law enforcement someone is ‘okay’ or ‘a terrorist’ or ‘a whistleblower’ or ‘a wife beater’ or ‘Mother Theresa’ or whatever. Now let’s say that while said law enforcement is tracking this person’s every (frigging) move, they see that person is under threat (homicidal, suicidal, whatever). What is their response, and how does it differ depending on the ‘data’ they believe they have accrued on the person they are ‘watching’?
This is one of the things that worries me about this sort of surveillance.
Hmm! Let me see what they have about me …
Nothing comma nada from 2009 on. Perhaps because I don’t carry a cell phone of any kind?
When will we start calling them police, instead of using their euphemisms?
This is some pretentiously silly language when did Google stop being part of the NSA?
What an odd joke! “users can edit or delete specific locations” …
Now, they are even overdriving that joke!
…
Yeah, right! Google asking “law enforcement” or “law enforcement” asking Google
…
Oh, thank you google. Right there you found a way “not to be evil” …
Yeah, as Microsoft and all other U.S. companies do
RCL
I think my cell phone is too old for this feature. Whew. But I’ll have to keep it in mind for the future.
Well, welcome to Brave New World, 21st century. The potentials for freedom are greater than ever; but so are the potentials for authoritarianism, which are all about fear and mind control. Personally, I’m too old to worry about this shit. I have no idea if that’s a desirable or undesirable condition, now. Shit, if I could make those sorts of predictions, I’d already be rich.
I notice this paragraph:
“Location data is only stored in users’ Google accounts if they enable the feature. Individual Android users can turn it off, but users often don’t.”
Now, there are already a lot of glib comments here about people’s stupidity, how not turning it off (if you’re a criminal) means you deserve to be caught, etc, etc. But to me, I see a statement with a much broader significance. It means that opting out of participation in society’s broader activity and structure starts to become a much less “passive” choice which doesn’t have consequences. So far, to most people, democracy has mostly meant a few hours involvement each year. Perhaps for a handful of campaigner types, it meant a few weeks of part time involvement every year or two years or four years (ymmv). Whatever the case, it would seem that the reduction of world size through technology has begun to extend much further (inward) than it has before, even since the industrial revolution.
It’s one thing to get cheap coffee from distant unseen slave labour plantations run by Nike (well, you know what I mean), without having to think about it. But as time goes on, you’d better start thinking about where your ideas are coming from, who you’re acquainted with, etc. Even needing to keep up with the technology of something like Android necessitates a pain in the ass involvement in things never known in the past. This is only the edge of the wedge, so to speak, the tip of the iceberg. In time, approaching more rapidly than anyone would have thought possible, simply minding your own business is not only going to become harder, but even to become meaningless. Just a few tens of thousands of years ago, you couldn’t just go for a walk in the countryside when you felt like it without risking your life, or minimally having to be CONSCIOUS of the possibility. Well, here we are again, with admittedly very different kinds of risks to well-being, but risks nonetheless. Happy days are NOT here again, tra la la.
Another consideration is who exactly to be afraid of. Right now, it would appear to be law enforcement and even at that, not too much. You can turn off the feature. They can’t interpret the data easily and Google won’t help them. Not today. But tomorrow? And who will we need to fear the most? Law Enforcement or Google? Will the future even offer the distinction?
When the mafia was founded (so to speak), it was established as a method to resist oppression, to offer the peasantry some protection against the well organized and well armed forces of the government – or, in today’s terms, the elites. It had some success. But it wasn’t very long before it morphed into an arm of those very elites, primarily interested only in its own pursuits (wealth).
The only thing that surprises me any more is that people still get surprised. And what disturbs me is that those same people don’t get shocked by the surprises. To my peculiar view, being shocked but not surprised seems perfectly sensible.
This is one of the many lies in that piece of news which is not scrutinize by TI. Is TI now in the business of doing PR for google
RCL
I agree, the article could’ve said “Location data is _always_ stored in user’s Google accounts if they _don’t disable_ the feature. […]”
I think my cell phone is too old for this feature. Whew. But I’ll have to keep it in mind for the future.
Well, welcome to Brave New World, 21st century. The potentials for freedom are greater than ever; but so are the potentials for authoritarianism, which are all about fear and mind control. Personally, I’m too old to worry about this shit. I have no idea if that’s a desirable or undesirable condition, now. Shit, if I could make those sorts of predictions, I’d already be rich.
I notice this paragraph:
“Location data is only stored in users’ Google accounts if they enable the feature. Individual Android users can turn it off, but users often don’t.”
Now, there are already a lot of glib comments here about people’s stupidity, how not turning it off (if you’re a criminal) means you deserve to be caught, etc, etc. But to me, I see a statement with a much broader significance. It means that opting out of participation in society’s broader activity and structure starts to become a much less “passive” choice which doesn’t have consequences. So far, to most people, democracy has mostly meant a few hours involvement each year. Perhaps for a handful of campaigner types, it meant a few weeks of part time involvement every year or two years or four years (ymmv). Whatever the case, it would seem that the reduction of world size through technology has begun to extend much further (inward) than it has before, even since the industrial revolution.
It’s one thing to get cheap coffee from distant unseen slave labour plantations run by Nike (well, you know what I mean), without having to think about it. But as time goes on, you’d better start thinking about where your ideas are coming from, who you’re acquainted with, etc. Even needing to keep up with the technology of something like Android necessitates a pain in the ass involvement in things never known in the past. This is only the edge of the wedge, so to speak, the tip of the iceberg. In time, approaching more rapidly than anyone would have thought possible, simply minding your own business is not only going to become harder, but even to become meaningless. Just a few tens of thousands of years ago, you couldn’t just go for a walk in the countryside when you felt like it without risking your life, or minimally having to be CONSCIOUS
Shit, I hope they will delete this incomplete version.
I’ve an ex-wife who would have used this to track my after-work bar-hopping. I could have used it to track her when the Sixth Fleet was in town.
I came across the perfect poster for you. Unfortunately, in this comment section, I have no idea how to include in a message an image I have on my desktop, or indeed, one with a URL. I could figure out the latter, but I’ll take the lazy route and just tell you what it says:
“Re-post this if you know someone who is still alive because you can’t afford a hitman.”
You made me laugh, I was hoping to return the favour.
Anyone dumb enough to leave location services on while living a life of crime deserves whatever they get.
Anyone dumb enough to carry a cell phone you mean?
At times being dumb and illusive is effectively the same thing
RCL
Since it’s opt-out, enabled by default, most people won’t even know it has been turned on when they buy their smartphone, or Google annoys the user with messages that ask the user to re-enable the tracking.
There might be some stupidity involved, but it’s mostly Google making it hard to disable the tracking, and keep it disabled.
Thanks!
I deactivated the worthless and intrusive “Timeline” and deleted all the historical data (yes, going back years for me) before I was a third of the way through this article. I don’t need a giant, faceless corporation keep precise and intricate data of everyplace I go.
Deleting data from your Google account will probably only cause it to not be _visible_ to you (and law enforcement?).
It’d be stupid for Google to not keep such valuable location data.
I share your suspicion, however, when you delete the data, the site text states clearly that Google won’t have the data either.
Another irresponsible headline. The article itself it pretty neutral, however more insight should have been obtained from the law enforcement perspective.
In the law enforcement game, they want to catch bad guys. Real bad guys, like top drug dealers, pedophiles, human traffickers, terrorists, murderers.
Law enforcement does not give a shit about Joe tinfoil hat in the criminal sense. You may continue your illegal Walking Dead downloads folks, no one cares but Holly Wood.
The sheer amount of work involved in finding grounds for a warrant, then drafting a warrant is enough to deter law enforcement from frivolous use.
“The sheer amount of work involved in finding grounds for a warrant, then drafting a warrant is enough to deter law enforcement from frivolous use.”
So what you’re saying, then, is that, if the warrant process was streamlined, L.E. would engage in frivolous use?
I think it is probably irresponsible to give law enforcement power and trust. The world is full of examples of what police agencies do with power and trust.
Yeah, I have a better idea. Put EVERYONE in prison, then you know for sure the perves and the drug peddlars are OFF THE STREETS.
Have you been kind of not following all this? Many of us on here see spying on the entire population of the world as somewhat excessive. We also feel that the US government is using the “real bad guys” as an excuse to carry out activities that in most other coutries of the world would be deemed as “totalitarian” and “controlling”. Many of us also feel that the everyday individuals are not the ones responsible for some of these “real bad guys” – that the CIA are actively involved in drug trafficking, for example, and that terrorism is caused by bombing foreigners and creating a hate-campaign against Islam. Many also feel we are innocent until proven guilty, and that the warrant system prevents the police from abusing its power and that society must accept certain failures such as the occasional murder, rather than give the State too much free rein – this was a warning indeed given by your Founding Fathers. Human trafficking is caused by the US’s huge demand for cheap illegal labour and can be addressed with many other tools. That police have many other ways they performed their investigations prior to this technology and that it is unnecessary to open it up to abuse. Some of us would go so far as to suggest even the pedophile rings are overstated, that it is a way to demonise the Web and that 90% of abuse is by a parent or family member and that the government is already well aware of the locations of these people, such that tracking their location is unnecessary as they are at their home addresses, banging the kids.
It is also open to abuse using blackmail and spying by non-police bodies. Do not be naive to think this does not happen – in England the News of the World newspaper was paying the British police to help them hack a murdered girl’s phone so they could get a better scoop on the story. The family understood that her messages were being read and thought she was still alive but unable to answer. It delayed a proper investigation and search by a critical amount of time and the ensuing scandal forced the closure of the biggest Sunday newspaper in the country.
We are suggesting it is being put forward as being for Law Enforcement use, but is actually a means of suppressing freedoms and open to severe abuse and so people are questioning its introduction. It is like Glenn Greenwald says about defending the freedom of speech for neo-Nazis and the like: once it is gone for even those crazies, it is gone for EVERYONE.
A responsible headline, an irresponsible, uninformed and gullible Bik, more like.
Bik amusingly thinks if you’ve done nothing wrong you’ve nothing to fear. Actually, he thinks you are demented for worrying about it because cops and spooks have “real” problems and you don’t make the cut, loser!
Bik has never fallen under surveillance. I have. Private surveillance. Bik would be shocked, SHOCKED! to learn how unscrupulous parties can twist, deceive, imply and manipulate with a treasure-trove of cherry-picked information, gathered in secret, covertly, whilst you are utterly unaware until you get the letter in the post.
Wham!
Just like that, your “innocent” life is ruined and you must prove your innocence. Without discovery. Without knowledge of their cache of your life. Without vast sums of ready cash for attorneys and consultants and subject matter experts and attorneys (you really need several in cases like this if you want to remain free or at least minimize the character assassination).
Bik’s stunted amygdala can’t grasp that a petty bureaucrat can select you for any or no reason and loose the Power of the State on your unsuspecting head at any moment.
Bik’s imagination fails him in not foreseeing how overzealous police detectives might hound him as a suspect because of mere coincidence but never relent out of ego.
No, in Bik’s fantasy world, only the evil fall under suspicion and they do not deserve to live. After all, if they deserved to live, they would never come under suspicion.
” Individual Android users can turn it off, but users often don’t.”
The feature is opt-in, not opt-out
I never recall “opting in”, and Google has been tracking me, for years, as I have just discovered this morning.
No doubt the “opt-in” is buried in one of these 50,000 word exercises in legal obfuscation and dissembling that you have to click “Accept” on in order to get any access to your new phone when you first buy it.
“can turn it off”
So it’s opt-out, not opt-in
Also, Google annoys the user when it disables tracking
I love the way people separate The Wicked Spy Machine of US Government and Google, the Nice People of the InterWeb. But hang on, isn’t the US government controlled by big business? And isn’t Google the biggest of businesses…?
OMG! Google ARE The Government! Or something like that. It might need some tinkering, throw in a few middle men and a bit of spin for the electorate to slop up and nod their approval about.
The CIA designs Google Earth, sells it to Google, who turn it into a machine that makes flowers grow, and keeps virgins safe from the terrible wolves out there, and the CIA skulks back into the shadows without its new toy…
Defying all the business odds, and the anti-monopolies and mergers legislation, Google grows into a Big and Friendly Giant of the Globe, searching in nano-seconds a googleplex of data and the world was empowered!
And we all lived happily ever after, except of course, those people being targeted for drone assassinations and spied upon as enemies of the State using their mobile phone signals. And Google Earth. How did that happen, oh Great and Good Google Gods?
I strapped my mobile phone to a stray dog. It texts my wife from time to time, she never even notices. I saw it the other day, in Glenn’s article about Brazil’s homeless and their mutts. Hellfire that, muthafuckas.
I live in a country where there is essentially no potent law enforcement and so people can really do whatever they like. And it seems what most people like is to just get on with normal lives. Petty Crime against the Person is minimal – very few muggings, virtually no casual violence, no public disorder, an acceptable level of burglary, the usual level of drugs and no outward signs of it on the streets, very little scamming and cheating. Businesses honour their contracts, people pay their debts. Society goes on as normal, WITHOUT all the hideously intrusive and open-to-abuse surveillance and data storage that is now par for the course in Europe and America. It fear it is coming, the early stages have begun, but laziness, a healthy disregard for government meddling and low taxation pool of funds will hopefully mean it withers on the vine.
The Asian people here also look back at the West and are appalled at its drug problems and its crime and its violence, most of it seems self-inflicted and totally unnecessary. If normal people want drugs, then they must accept crime and punishment. Legalising drugs will jst create more mega-corporations and these organisations are far scarier than any Columbian drug baron – but NEITHER are good. A megacorp Coca-Snort Plc would definitely own Columbia and Bolivia and would wage murderous war on local people – good or bad – that wanted to end its hegemony.
Time for the peoples of the West to realise they have become complicit in the crimes of their governments and are now the most enslaved and abused societies in the world, and they pay for it and empower its purveyors with their own tax money.
A bit of corruption and crime is acceptable and unavoidable, but enslavement at one’s own cost is simply madness. These people are putting you in a cage for your own good. It is worse than an Orwellian nightmare.
Good that there is a well of stupid people that still use anything ‘google’.
The irony is I tried a few years ago to join Google and was blocked – because they insisted on a mobile number and I don’t have one! Stupid spying twats.
Telemarketing rights and spying ability = mobile phone boom.
Notice how governments constantly bitch the Internet as the go-to means of communicating secretly for criminals and terrorists, but no one EVER ONCE mentions mobile phones, yet I am sure they are involved in WAY MORE crime (the drug dealers I knew in London were the first people to get those brick phones back in the late 80s, but I don’t think many of them got an email account…)
Everyone sits there stroking their phones like they are pets, whilst it tells their governments where they are and what the like and tedious corporations send banal shit to them peddling their profit-makers.
I got a Yahoo account back in 1995, so it kinda stuck, but I do not like its banal, crappy front page news look designed for WWW – Women Without Wit. It is just dumb-arse girly crap for the Sarah-Jessica-Parker generation about Kim Kardashian’s fat arse, Miley Cyrus being a slut, Hollywood pap crap and tips on dieting without skipping lunch. It is the same shit for every country, a one-blandness-fits-all. Just write about English football, Caitlyn Jenner and a Bollywood beauty queen and there you go, a daily newsround for the world.
I like Google for all the searches I do on historical texts and for images, particularly on Panoramio – the images on Google Earth – and I use Google Earth all the time for my archaeology hobby. I research some really obscure archaeological stuff and it is there, in moments, in a variety of languages I can translate on Google Translate and then find the site on Google Earth. It is my Nerd Dream Heaven Come True.
But I might have to give it all up and find something less supporting of these arseholes and spyable upon to do.
America LOVES megacorporate monopolies, so there is little choice out there. Short-termism as its insane best. I hope in 100 years they look back and say what manipulated arseholes we were, but I fear that will not be the case.
@Zeus — You can create a bookmark in your browser that will take you directly to Yahoo Mail, bypassing the WWW homepage. That’s how I access my account, which I have had since 1996.
Regarding Google searches, switch to StartPage. It uses the Google algorithm but is 100% private. *Nothing* is recorded. It is the homepage on all of my browsers. BTW, the same company offers Ixquick, which is equally private and uses the Yahoo algorithm.
Don’t they use every cell phone this way, simply getting the information from the carrier rather than Google?
What I really want to know: I have heard of cell phones that have GPS chips, but “don’t have the software”. That are tracking their users for Big Brother, but won’t give the poor sap his location if he’s lost in the woods unless he dials 911 and begs them to wave the magic wand for him. How many of these are there, and what kinds are they?
GPS uses satellites, triangulation using the strength of a signal to multiple antennae. At the least it can know you are within a certain radius of a point – a single antennae, at best it can pinpoint you within a few yards using three or more antennae signals. GPS uses accurate time and location data signals from several orbitting satellites to calculate a point on the Earth’s surface from the variances in each signal. No communication with the satellite is needed as the device passively acquires the signals from the satellites, so to transmit information regarding the GPS location a phone is required anyway, so the government just have reinforced information, rather than anything particularly special and extra. Having it all performed by Google Tracking just makes it easier and presentable and gives it all a nice candy coating for the gullible to swallow. Remember, Google Earth was developed by the CIA, so the thought processes regarding spying and monitoring using digital mapping has been there from the start.
Quelle surprise, as the French say, with an enormous, nicotine-imbued Gallilc shrug.
… in an open space. Much, much better than that if you have a 3D model of the space people are moving in
RCL
I use Google Earth all the time and what you forget is that the 3D model you talk about is not always accurately “planted” in a 2D geolocation spot and tends to move about as maps get updated. I have been plotting building-sized locations in Google Earth for about 6 years and when I look back many are now inaccurate by up to 20m or so. It may look fancy and maybe in some places it has been made very accurate, but in many others it will have shortcomings and inaccuracies the same.
and they stalk the fuck out of you and drive you nuts if shit kickers think the governor is on their side when really she’s just looking for a way out herself. Nazi bitch Mary GANG STALKING its illegal Mary and for nine years its unbelievable there is a thing called a SUBPOENA its supposed to be used when you have the evidence you need and not after the case becomes a national crisis
DOJ / FBI STASI
error:
“movement over the court of years.”