Posted on 01/11/2024 12:37:41 PM PST by algore
Attorneys at the ACLU of Northern California found what they called an “alarming error” in a geofence warrant application that “resulted in a warrant stretching nearly two miles across San Francisco.” The error, likely caused by a typo, allowed the requesting law enforcement agency to capture information on anyone who entered the stretch of San Francisco erroneously marked on the search warrant.
“Many private homes were also captured in the massive sweep,” wrote Jake Snow, ACLU staff attorney, in a blog post about the findings.
It’s not known which law enforcement agency requested the nearly two-mile-long geofence warrant, or for how long the warrant was in effect. The attorneys questioned how many other geofence warrant application mistakes had slipped through and resulted in the return of vastly more data in error.
The attorneys warned that the reach of geofence warrants when surveilling in busy urban areas — San Francisco is one of the most densely populated U.S. cities — often include homes and apartment buildings, busy thoroughfares and places of worship.
The attorneys said they also found a geofence warrant that included four places of worship over a couple of streets in San Francisco’s Bret Harte neighborhood, allowing police to determine “where you were and who you were with” during the time that the warrant was in effect.
Another geofence warrant over a three-block area in downtown San Francisco captured anyone who was in the Le Méridien hotel or three nearby banks despite having no connection to the alleged criminal sought in the warrant. A review of the area by TechCrunch shows the geofence area also includes the headquarters of software giant Oracle and several busy pubs and restaurants.
“Whether you were in your hotel room or grabbing a salad at Mixt Greens on Commercial Street — with no connection at all to any criminal activity — your location information might well have been shared with the police,” ACLU’s Snow wrote.
It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.
Did the Biden/Pelosi thugs use this illegal IDing system on 6 Jan to identify and frame innocent Americans?
If they had used on Jan 6th, they would have captured info on: DC police, FBI, CIA!
I hate to say it but President Trump owns responsibility for this. He signed the reauthorization for the laws that make all of this nonsense possible. He was also a victim of these same laws.
I certainly hope that when he gets re-elected that he has the sense not to continue allowing this crap to happen.
You seem to be under the impression that he, even as President, has the ability to stop such things.
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See, this is what I don’t understand. After the 4 years that Trump endured the horrendous deep state actions, how could someone possibly think he could stop it then?
It wasn’t a serious statement that was made “hoping” he would stop them OR blaming Trump for this. It’s just not serious thought.
“See, this is what I don’t understand. After the 4 years that Trump endured the horrendous deep state actions, how could someone possibly think he could stop it then?”
Exactly right. Or stop it if he gets back in again.Unfortunately a presidents powers are limited. They are illegally letting Biden slip in stuff beyond his powers but neither side is going to ever let Trump do it.
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