Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

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
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-135 next last

1 posted on 02/06/2021 10:10:11 AM PST by bitt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Whenifhow; null and void; aragorn; EnigmaticAnomaly; kalee; Kale; AZ .44 MAG; Baynative; bgill; ...

p


2 posted on 02/06/2021 10:10:22 AM PST by bitt (Joe Biden has managed to take everything that is wrong with DC bureacracy and fit it into 1 cabinet)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bitt
Can we use any date from last summer so see who burned down half the country?

I know they all must have their Obamaphones.

3 posted on 02/06/2021 10:11:34 AM PST by KC_Lion
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bitt
Oh, good. So now they should be able to tell which of them were actual Trump supporters and which were Biden supporting antifa infiltrators and track who organized them.

Or do you think they'll just cherry pick who they investigate?

4 posted on 02/06/2021 10:13:42 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KC_Lion

Obama phones don’t have tracking. That’s how they get away with looting, burning down buildings, and destroying property.


5 posted on 02/06/2021 10:14:32 AM PST by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: bitt

Note to conservatives: We can, and will find you.


6 posted on 02/06/2021 10:14:42 AM PST by brownsfan (The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KC_Lion

I am stunned that anyone of any political persuasion would expect any privacy in this post-Snowden era.

Folks just need to get a _lot_ smarter!


7 posted on 02/06/2021 10:15:27 AM PST by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: bitt

Well, us Trump people never claimed to be brain surgeons. But still, it should have occurred to more than a few of them that carrying phones when ‘storming the capitol’ wasn’t too brilliant...after using their GPS-enabled cars to drive to the protest.

LOL!


8 posted on 02/06/2021 10:18:24 AM PST by BobL (TheDonald.win is now Patriots.win)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Texas Eagle

Hope they checked Antifa and BLM members as aggressively as the MAGAs. I’m sure they would (sarcasm)
I wonder if they tracked that guy who walked away with the podium.


9 posted on 02/06/2021 10:19:02 AM PST by Don@VB (Power Corrupts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: bitt

“At least five people died because of the riot at the Capitol”

They are never going to stop telling that lie.


10 posted on 02/06/2021 10:22:01 AM PST by suthener
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: unixfox

Can we also follow and see the phones of the FBI ‘plants’ on scene, the police that opened the up doors to rally attendees on the Capitol Hill, etc.?


11 posted on 02/06/2021 10:22:31 AM PST by 4Liberty (Honest GOP can’t use legal options cause Dems use illegal ones (threats). The Robert Creamer Party! )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: bitt

“...on January 6, as Donald Trump’s political rally turned into a violent insurrection”

Kind of overdoing it a bit there. From what I can tell, all this ‘violent insurrection’ accomplished was a bunch of selfies in the Capitol Building and some clown wearing horns who managed to put a painting of a nude black guy on a wall there.


12 posted on 02/06/2021 10:24:06 AM PST by BobL (TheDonald.win is now Patriots.win)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KC_Lion

######Can we use any date from last summer so see who burned down half the country?######

Oh, yeah! Let’s hope so!! Full speed ahead and Oshkalaboom ;-)


13 posted on 02/06/2021 10:24:09 AM PST by Don@VB (Power Corrupts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: suthener

Why would the Slimes stop lying? They don’t get punished for it.


14 posted on 02/06/2021 10:24:12 AM PST by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: brownsfan
Note to conservatives: We can, and will find you.


15 posted on 02/06/2021 10:24:35 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: bitt

“A source.” In other words, someone who works at a telephone company, or in law enforcement who had access to this information at work, and illegally and unethically copied the data and gave it to the biggest hate-America organization in this country.

It will be used to purge Trump supporters. Expect people to be fired, outed, arrested, banned and ostracized.

Notice that NOTHING was done to get the ones who destroyed seattle/portland/minneapolis/kenosha?

In the soviet union you were “disappeared” or sent to a gulag. It’s slower here, but the end result is the same.


16 posted on 02/06/2021 10:26:09 AM PST by I want the USA back (The nation is in the grips of hysterical insanity, as usual.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: brownsfan

Not if we don’t play their game.


17 posted on 02/06/2021 10:26:56 AM PST by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: cgbg

There are a very few ways.


18 posted on 02/06/2021 10:29:15 AM PST by Uncle Miltie (FIBBERS: Earned distrust is disabling.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: bitt

“A source”

Now who might have access to millions of people’s cell phone location data, hmm?

If it’s supposedly sold anonymously then it shouldnt be some marketing guy at a Verizon customer. Sooooo....who did it?

Arrest that person.


19 posted on 02/06/2021 10:30:20 AM PST by Regulator (It's Fraud, Jim)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bitt

TRUE from what i can tell


20 posted on 02/06/2021 10:30:28 AM PST by PGalt (confirmed: past peak civilization)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-135 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson