Cell phone tracking tool offers police ‘mass surveillance on a budget’ and without need for warrant

[JEDI]

Tech tool offers police ‘mass surveillance on a budget’ - WTOP News

Local law enforcement agencies have been using an obscure cellphone tracking tool, at times without search warrants, that gives them the power to follow people’s movements months back in time, according to public records and internal emails obtained by The Associated Press.

wtop.com

- anonymous data to create location analyses known among law enforcement as “patterns of life."
- do not contain the name of the phone’s user, but can be traced to homes and workplaces to help police establish pattern-of-life analyses.

No warrant because anonymous data but:
geee.. just track the phone back to the person's home and you now have a name.

How it's used:
Missing person's phone is found and no other clues.
Police use the tracking tool to see what other phones were around the missing person's phone at that time. (ie: within x feet)

i assume Trace all the phone signals found back to houses, get names, and start doing detective work

 

[cytg111]

Tech tool offers police ‘mass surveillance on a budget’ - WTOP News

Local law enforcement agencies have been using an obscure cellphone tracking tool, at times without search warrants, that gives them the power to follow people’s movements months back in time, according to public records and internal emails obtained by The Associated Press.

wtop.com

- anonymous data to create location analyses known among law enforcement as “patterns of life."
- do not contain the name of the phone’s user, but can be traced to homes and workplaces to help police establish pattern-of-life analyses.

No warrant because anonymous data but:
geee.. just track the phone back to the person's home and you now have a name.

How it's used:
Missing person's phone is found and no other clues.
Police use the tracking tool to see what other phones were around the missing person's phone at that time. (ie: within x feet)

i assume Trace all the phone signals found back to houses, get names, and start doing detective work

That is how ads work today anyway.

 

[MtnMan]

There is a pet food store next door to a Verizon store. Pull in to buy dog food, and get spammed by Verizon about the deals inside even before I've taken my seatbelt off.

 

[cytg111]

I've been thinking that SOMEONE should make a business where people sign up and this business then spams ALL the data hoarders with "right to be forgotten" demands on a daily basis.
I gift this idea to whomever wants to execute it.

 

[Lanyap]

There is a pet food store next door to a Verizon store. Pull in to buy dog food, and get spammed by Verizon about the deals inside even before I've taken my seatbelt off.

That reminds me of the sci-fi movie where a guy is walking down the street and gets personally video spammed by each business as he passes by. I believe that same movie had a female character with a cell phone implanted in her hand. All this stuff is going to happen, it’s just a matter of when.

 

[Tsinni Dave]

A local qanon dude was ranting about how the covid vaccine was a tracking tool, while his iPhone stuck out of his pocket and when I pointed out he had a microphone, camera and gps on him already that he was paying a monthly fee to have he just got mad and stormed off.
Morons.

 

[esquared]

That reminds me of the sci-fi movie where a guy is walking down the street and gets personally video spammed by each business as he passes by. I believe that same movie had a female character with a cell phone implanted in her hand. All this stuff is going to happen, it’s just a matter of when.

Tom Cruise in Minority Report

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Turn. Off. Location. Services.

but yeah the carrier will still have a good idea where you are at least that info is protected by law.

 

[cytg111]

Turn. Off. Location. Services.

but yeah the carrier will still have a good idea where you are at least that info is protected by law.

And when doable dont use an app use the browser.

 

[gothuevos]

Reminds me of that scene from the Dark Knight.

 

[Captante]

As a compromise if you need to use an app that requires location-services only allow it when the app is open.

Completely blocking location all the time really cuts down on the usefulness of a smartphone unfortunately.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

As a compromise if you need to use an app that requires location-services only allow it when the app is open.

Completely blocking location all the time really cuts down on the usefulness of a smartphone unfortunately.

Meh, just turn it on when needed but yeah your point is still valid

 

[JEDI]

As a compromise if you need to use an app that requires location-services only allow it when the app is open.

that's the only option in my motorola Android 10 phone. (besides no)

 

[Lanyap]

Tom Cruise in Minority Report

Just remembered it was Total Recall reboot 2012.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I'm not sure that limiting it to just when the app is open is achieving what you want. It just means that for it to actively show your current location. There's other ways to get location data. Plus no matter what, your location is being tracked by your carrier and that data is being sold. Even a VPN isn't going to protect you from that other than on Wifi (whilst also turning off your cellular modem - which I'm not even sure you can fully do on most phones, you can disable data but your phone is likely still pinging towers so it can receive calls and texts), and there's only been talk about even doing lip service about reigning in this type of stuff.

Cox recently forced a move to an app to control their cable/modem. It used to be accessible via a website, now have to use a smart device and an app. I refused and am in the process of figuring out what equipment I'm gonna go for. I was only using theirs because I'd read they basically look the other way on bandwidth caps if you use their equipment, but that's changed as well, all of a sudden started getting notices about how much of our bandwidth cap we're using. I'd have to check but I think we were getting equipment in our price so it wasn't costing any extra.

 

[MtnMan]

That is how ads work today anyway.

A pet food store I visit occasionally is next door to a Verizon store (I have a Verizon phone). Most time I go to pickup something for my dog, I get a spam message from Verizon about whatever deal they have going at the moment.

 

[FelixDeCat]

That's a great analysis of how this tech could be used by the cops! True, they could use it to track down the owners of phones near a missing person. It's a bit of a 2-sided sword though - on one hand it could save time & resources when tracking someone, but on the other it could be used as mass surveillance if not used properly.

Cell phone tracking data is as old as the hills. Cops have used it to prove peoples whereabouts during the commission of a crime.
If you want to worry about something we have something called "flock cams" in north Texas where everyones license plates are scanned at major intersections using cameras and scanners. If certain license plates ping off these readers, an alert is sent to the police along with a picture of your car and direction of travel.

Recently a flock cam alerted on a suspect who was involved in a shootout with police probably wondering how they found him:

 

[Captante]

Cops have had those cameras in use around here for at least 10 years however due to local and state laws in Connecticut the stationary versions are used mainly for accident-investigation and are not allowed to issue tickets or be directly used in enforcement. (ie: speed traps)

The ones that are used by departments frequently in Connecticut do the same things but will be mounted on a vehicle to stay in compliance.

However cops often "skirt" the law by parking said vehicle at/near an intersection with a lot of violations just "by chance" lol.

 

[BoomerD]

A pet food store I visit occasionally is next door to a Verizon store (I have a Verizon phone). Most time I go to pickup something for my dog, I get a spam message from Verizon about whatever deal they have going at the moment.

Bothers you so much, you told us about it twice!

Cell phone tracking tool offers police ‘mass surveillance on a budget’ and without need for warrant

https://wtop.com/national/2022/09/tech-tool-offers-police-mass-surveillance-on-a-budget/ - anonymous data to create location analyses known among law enforcement as “patterns of life." - do not contain the name of the phone’s user, but can be traced to homes and workplaces to help police...

forums.anandtech.com

 

[MtnMan]

Bothers you so much, you told us about it twice!

Cell phone tracking tool offers police ‘mass surveillance on a budget’ and without need for warrant

https://wtop.com/national/2022/09/tech-tool-offers-police-mass-surveillance-on-a-budget/ - anonymous data to create location analyses known among law enforcement as “patterns of life." - do not contain the name of the phone’s user, but can be traced to homes and workplaces to help police...

forums.anandtech.com

I've slept several times in the last 5 months. But why do you fucking care if I post the same example more than once?

 

[BoomerD]

I've slept several times in the last 5 months. But why do you fucking care if I post the same example more than once?

Care? Not at all ..just having fun with it. I've done the same shit myself....then realized what I had done...

 

[Pens1566]

that's the only option in my motorola Android 10 phone. (besides no)

I can see that being a real issue for apps that require (alarm/smart home) it to function correctly.

 

[Ajay]

A pet food store I visit occasionally is next door to a Verizon store (I have a Verizon phone). Most time I go to pickup something for my dog, I get a spam message from Verizon about whatever deal they have going at the moment.

I have the home depot app on my phone and use it in store from time to time. When I get home I have emails suggesting I buy stuff that I looked at. Stood too long next to the generators once - now I get ad emails from them on generators all the time 🙄.

 

[blackangst1]

That reminds me of the sci-fi movie where a guy is walking down the street and gets personally video spammed by each business as he passes by. I believe that same movie had a female character with a cell phone implanted in her hand. All this stuff is going to happen, it’s just a matter of when.

That was the Total Recall remake

 

[hal2kilo]

That reminds me of the sci-fi movie where a guy is walking down the street and gets personally video spammed by each business as he passes by. I believe that same movie had a female character with a cell phone implanted in her hand. All this stuff is going to happen, it’s just a matter of when.

Total Recall.