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They Stormed the Capitol. Their Apps Tracked Them.
nytimes ^ | 2/5/2021 | By Charlie Warzel and Stuart A. Thompson

Posted on 02/06/2021 10:10:11 AM PST by bitt

Times Opinion was able to identify individuals from a trove of leaked smartphone location data.

In 2019, a source came to us with a digital file containing the precise locations of more than 12 million individual smartphones for several months in 2016 and 2017. The data is supposed to be anonymous, but it isn’t. We found celebrities, Pentagon officials and average Americans.

It became clear that this data — collected by smartphone apps and then fed into a dizzyingly complex digital advertising ecosystem — was a liability to national security, to free assembly and to citizens living mundane lives. It provided an intimate record of people whether they were visiting drug treatment centers, strip clubs, casinos, abortion clinics or places of worship.

Surrendering our privacy to the government would be foolish enough. But what is more insidious is the Faustian bargain made with the marketing industry, which turns every location ping into currency as it is bought and sold in the marketplace of surveillance advertising. Now, one year later, we’re in a very similar position. But it’s far worse.

A source has provided another data set, this time following the smartphones of thousands of Trump supporters, rioters and passers-by in Washington, D.C., on January 6, as Donald Trump’s political rally turned into a violent insurrection. At least five people died because of the riot at the Capitol. Key to bringing the mob to justice has been the event’s digital detritus: location data, geotagged photos, facial recognition, surveillance cameras and crowdsourcing.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Extended News; Government; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: apps; capitol; capitolriot; fakenews; fourthamendment; newyorkslimes
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To: cgbg

I’ve read that it’s still apps that track you (sensor and fitness apps). I have them offloaded or deleted anyway and keep location services off until I want to use an app that needs it. In general, yeah cell phones are not your friend.


81 posted on 02/06/2021 11:59:45 AM PST by Varda
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To: bray

I think I heard a couple of them never even went inside. For all we know might have been heart attack. The fact that we haven’t heard anything about them is really suspicious


82 posted on 02/06/2021 12:06:07 PM PST by McGavin999 (biden is not my president )
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To: suthener

I have even seen this lie worded as “five people were KILLED at the Capitol.” At least two of them died from personal medical conditions and no one has ever mentioned that they were anywhere near the capitol building. They were probably down by the ellipse only.


83 posted on 02/06/2021 12:07:07 PM PST by Freee-dame
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To: MayflowerMadam

I just looked this up and it’s true with a caveat. The phone has to have compromised with trojans. The extra bad news is that it’s our own government doing it.
“Technically speaking, an agency like NSA can tweak the firmware of your handsets in order to track them even when they are switched off.... Till now, the leaks have revealed that NSA maintains a huge database of phone calls made by millions of Americans and outsiders, and they do not include location data. But the rate at which the new leaks are emerging, it should keep the privacy freaks on tenterhooks.”(techpp.com)

I wouldn’t be surprised if pre-installed tracking chips would be in every new cell going forward.


84 posted on 02/06/2021 12:12:48 PM PST by Varda
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To: bitt

Apparently anytime you do anything that might go up against the lefty (up to just about anyone’s interpretation now) you should leave your credit cards and phones at home. No wonder they want to do away with real money.


85 posted on 02/06/2021 12:23:33 PM PST by GOP Poet (Super cool you can change your tag line EVERYTIME you post!! :D. (Small things make me happy))
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To: Varda

Read Snowden—privacy is so over...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-tracking-cellphone-locations-worldwide-snowden-documents-show/2013/12/04/5492873a-5cf2-11e3-bc56-c6ca94801fac_story.html


86 posted on 02/06/2021 12:25:46 PM PST by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: Mr. N. Wolfe

“We are at war. Our side just doesn’t know it.”

Yes. This post has a good deal to say about that:

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3920426/posts


87 posted on 02/06/2021 12:31:50 PM PST by dsc (Evil doesn’t have a day job.)
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To: GOP Poet

“No wonder they want to do away with real money.”

Pretty soon you won’t be able to get a drink of water without a card, which they will be able to shut off.

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3920426/posts


88 posted on 02/06/2021 12:33:37 PM PST by dsc (Evil doesn’t have a day job.)
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To: bitt

Serves them right for taking their apes to that thing.


89 posted on 02/06/2021 12:38:19 PM PST by doorgunner69 ("Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.." -Joseph Stalin)
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To: bitt

The communist government of commissar biden has been sent a 28 page document by a leftist organization demanding that all first amendment protections and rights be stripped from Christians and that any Christian that backed marriage is only between a man and woman, that Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven, that homosexuality is a sin punishable in hell without repentance, and others, be stripped of these rights, placed in reeducation camps until they AGREE with the communist side of thinking. Well, here I am you bunch of pigs. All of you who wrote the document. Come on over as the song says. I am available to discuss my first amendment rights with you. You that sent the letter and drafted it. Yeah, you. Come on over. I will be needing to repent after you do. Oh, wait, right, you are a bunch of cowards and won’t come. You will want antifa to come over or the communist police force of Sodom on the Potomac.


90 posted on 02/06/2021 12:38:59 PM PST by RetiredArmy (Free Will. GOD gives you the choice I accept or reject Him! Choose Him. It depends on you.)
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To: BobL

We have the toll ID tags for the few toll roads in our area. Pass under the sensor and it charges you.

Although they now use the tags to monitor traffic flow elsewhere. Have sensors located all over the city and suburbs. Of course they say “those sensors do not collect which specific car has gone by - just that A car with a chip went by”. That’s what they say anyway.

A neighbor said the police also have automated license plate scanners that are constantly scanning for warrants, etc. I have no idea how true that is.


91 posted on 02/06/2021 12:41:43 PM PST by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant. Never Fearful!)
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To: LordOddsocks

You’re in the U.K.! Back in the moon landing days (we watched it at 2 a.m) we had a Rover 2000 company car. One day I was ready to call the Royal Auto Club beause it wouldn’t start. Fortunately I didcoveed I had put the key in the glove compartment lock!

My only experience with the RAC was when I locked myself out of the Rover. The RAC rescuer asked the lady of the house if she had a fish knife which he used to get in!! That was quite fascinating.

I miss the mincemeat tarts most. Altho the chocolate water whip (I think) bundles were very delicious. I brought 6 or 8 home for my mother-in-law when we returnd home. She had mentioned them. Embarrassed to say I ate them all—hopefully there were “only” 6. during the course of our return flight.

My older son and his wife went back to London a few years ago on ther way to Ireland. He said everything is changed, it’s not the same place. They didn’t get up to Highgate. He has no urge to ever go back


92 posted on 02/06/2021 12:41:44 PM PST by GoldwaterChick
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To: I want the USA back

FBI or NSA


93 posted on 02/06/2021 12:58:55 PM PST by Dartoid
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To: MayflowerMadam; Varda

I am of the understanding that an EMP container/bag keeps the phone from being tracked, altho, once removed, it’s back “on track”


94 posted on 02/06/2021 1:04:40 PM PST by goodnesswins (The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution." -- Saul Alinksy)
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To: bitt

If you want privacy leave your phone at home and when around your phone or anyone else’s keep your mouth shut if you want privacy.

There is a reason phones are not allowed in or near secure areas.


95 posted on 02/06/2021 1:06:33 PM PST by Sequoyah101 (I have a burning hatred of anyone who would vote for a demented, pedophile, crook and a commie whore)
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To: goodnesswins

One of those Faraday things?


96 posted on 02/06/2021 1:10:56 PM PST by MayflowerMadam (They HAD to kill somebody for their plan to work. RIP Ashli.)
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To: Sequoyah101
There is a reason phones are not allowed in or near secure areas.

Excellent point--every Freeper should repeat it until they memorize it.
97 posted on 02/06/2021 1:12:21 PM PST by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: MayflowerMadam

yes...EMP Cloth or box or anything that works


98 posted on 02/06/2021 1:19:17 PM PST by goodnesswins (The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution." -- Saul Alinksy)
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To: cgbg

Note that Snowden is in Russia (safe), Assange is in the UK (being slowly tortured to death & we are here and being targeted.

I suggest that those who are concerned may wish to consider making exit plans, in case it’s needed.


99 posted on 02/06/2021 1:20:56 PM PST by Trumpisourlastchance
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To: Trumpisourlastchance

In the old Soviet Union, citizens understood that they would be mostly ignored by the state as long as they did _nothing_ to call attention to themselves.

For most citizens it worked—not 100%—but the perfect is always the enemy of the good.

Folks who want to “stand on principle” and “express their constitutional rights to protest peacefully” right now are just being dumb—and nowhere in the Constitution does it require anyone to be dumb.


100 posted on 02/06/2021 1:29:13 PM PST by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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