Showing 4 results for:
location-tracking
Popular topics
All results
There may be no such thing as privacy, according to a New York Times article by Stuart A. Thompson and Charlie Warzel. In a study on privacy and security, the Times assessed the sheer power of location tracking devices and their encroachment upon a basic right to privacy. The danger in this type of surveillance is that in addition to known sources and apps, monitoring happens with several other unknown apps. The Times Privacy Project revealed the location information of a sample population provided through phone app data. “In the cities that the data file covers, it tracks people from nearly every neighborhood and block, whether they live in mobile homes in Alexandria, Va., or luxury towers in Manhattan,” Thompson and Warzel shared in the Times. Perhaps more shocking than that revelation is the fact that the tracking measures were put in place not by phone companies that provide the apps, but by an unknown entity: the location tracking companies that are bundled with the apps. “Even...
Smartphones hold far more data then most people seem to realize. They’ve become our wallets, computers, and even our own personal maps — which is something law enforcement agencies are especially interested in. The business of tracking cell phone users has developed hoards of information for police, who are now keen on using it. According to the New York Times , requests for information from Google’s mobile Location History database — known as Sensorvault —has “risen sharply” in the past six months. Essentially, police submit “geofence warrants” which give a specific time and location. Using the internal database, Google can pass data about devices that were there to the police. The New York Times reported that Google starts by labeling them with anonymous ID numbers. Once law enforcement narrows the devices down, Google will reveal the users’ name and other information. There’s no way to know how many of these search requests end up in arrests or actual convictions. Many of the...
On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released documents showing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has access to a huge license-plate database that it uses to track and target immigrants. The ACLU of Northern California obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that revealed ICE’s use of a automated license plate reader (ALPR) database operated by a company called Vigilant Solutions . ALPR systems not only pass on license plate information, but they include time, date, and location from thousands of cameras. The ACLU previously outlined how ALPRs record Americans’ movements and called them an emerging form of mass surveillance. More than 9,200 ICE employees can use the database, which collects upwards of a hundred million license plates each month. According to the ACLU, ICE itself has over 5 billion data points collected by private businesses — such as insurance companies and parking lots. But, ICE can gain access to 1.5...
Law enforcement use of technology for surveillance equipment is hotly contested by many privacy advocates. Recently, an Oakland privacy advocate was held at gunpoint after a license plate reader mistake — and now, he’s suing . In a suit filed in December, Brian Hofer said a car he rented was pulled over by a Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office deputy, and additional officers joined. According to The Verge, Hofer alleges an officer drew a gun, told him and his brother to exit the car, and a deputy injured his brother after throwing him to the ground. Officers also searched the vehicle without consent. All of this occurred because an automatic license plate reader identified the car as stolen. These readers work by using “small, high-speed cameras to photograph thousands of plates per minute”, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The ACLU says information captured by the readers may sometimes end up in regional sharing systems. These rapidly growing databases have few or...