U.S. Authorities Are Reportedly Gathering Data Using Fake Celltowers on Planes(techcrunch.com)
techcrunch.com
U.S. Authorities Are Reportedly Gathering Data Using Fake Celltowers on Planes
http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/13/u-s-authorities-are-reportedly-gathering-phone-data-using-fake-celltowers-on-planes/
4 comments
You're right, it is a false choice. But before we get to discussing that, we should first be considering whether there's a choice that needs to be made at all.
I personally am far from convinced that law enforcement has a significant problem with locating fugitives. I may be wrong with this, but I haven't seen anything concrete to dissuade me from those views. How often are such location services actually needed, and what are the consequences of not having them available?
I personally am far from convinced that law enforcement has a significant problem with locating fugitives. I may be wrong with this, but I haven't seen anything concrete to dissuade me from those views. How often are such location services actually needed, and what are the consequences of not having them available?
I don't understand how if these technologies are being used to convict people in open court how are we just learning about them now through leaks?
I'm such a bad vilain: I had this idea only 4-5months ago and I didn't act on it. They built it way before I had the idea.
"allow them to prize registration and identification information from a ‘target’"
Tripped up on this phrase; dusting myself off, I believe the writer meant "pry".
Tripped up on this phrase; dusting myself off, I believe the writer meant "pry".
"Prize" can be used as a synonym for "pry" as a transitive verb.
This is a false dichotomy. If you care about apprehending criminals actually responsible for crimes you should care about this too. A reoccurring subtext is that law enforcement cares more about quantity than quality, but data quality is hugely important. These dragnets are the equivalent of a House TV Series body scan, and the arguments that characters in the show made apply here.
One of the consequences of a dragnet and too much low quality data is the risk of circumstantial evidence leading to the conviction of the wrong individual. The minds of investigators and district attorneys are susceptible to all the biases that plague any other field including confirmation bias. Project Innocence has revealed heaps of wrongful convictions based on low quality data, even when police corruption wasn't at fault. Dennis Fritz and Ron Williamson for example were convicted for murder based solely on bad circumstantial evidence while the real perpetrator remained unpunished for over a decade.
It's not just privacy advocates who should care about stopping these kinds of surveillance techniques. That is unless the dragnet apologists don't care about who is being punished for crimes just as long someone is punished whether or not they actually committed a crime.