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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: suthener

And those who died were Trump supporters.....all of them....even the cop.


21 posted on 02/06/2021 10:33:37 AM PST by McGavin999 (biden is not my president )
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To: brownsfan

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

That should be posted a few places that we are in each day.

Read it and believe.

I’m sending this to our younger relatives across the globe and America.

Then to some older idiots, who don’t believe that this can happen to them with their Facebook posts all day and everyday.

Heck you don’t need to use Facebook. Just put your smart phone in your car when you drive and in your pocket or purse when you get to you destination.

With Covid as an excuse, they can now track where and when you go shopping, to eat or to see a doctor. In spite of erasing this app/data every month, the Covid tracing App appears every month on my wife’s cheap smart phone.

In Dec. the app showed we didn’t leave our town. We went to our Church 3 times to hand out drive by stuff. We picked up food to eat at home 3 times, two trips to the bank and 4 trips to our grocery store. The total miles were 24.

The only thing more boring would be our credit card printouts when used in the above visits.


22 posted on 02/06/2021 10:33:44 AM PST by Grampa Dave (Law & order took the last train out of DC & America on election/coup/night, Tuesday, Nov. 03, 2020!!)
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To: unixfox

Not true. The Obama phone nazis were tracking the Obama phones basically when they were powered up and went with the user.

FCC begins tracking ‘Obama Phone’ use | TheHillthehill.com › policy › technology › 193543-fcc-begins...

Dec 18, 2013 — The Federal Communications Commission this week began to compile a database of subscribers to its phone subsidy program


23 posted on 02/06/2021 10:37:28 AM PST by Grampa Dave (Law & order took the last train out of DC & America on election/coup/night, Tuesday, Nov. 03, 2020!!)
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To: KC_Lion
The FBI cant seem to find them ....imagine that

go figure

24 posted on 02/06/2021 10:38:21 AM PST by KTM rider (Expatriated at home in a country taken over by a coup )
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To: bitt

Interesting they can’t find the violent protestors in the cities though, right?


25 posted on 02/06/2021 10:38:41 AM PST by BereanBrain
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To: BobL

Does the GPS in cars use the phone system or they like the TomToms and others that only receive signals from the satellites?


26 posted on 02/06/2021 10:39:44 AM PST by cymbeline
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To: I want the USA back
Read the details of the article. It’s very informative. Anyone who has paid attention to any of the FR threads on the various legal disputes related to this issue of mobile phone privacy would understand how this works.

This issue was the subject of a landmark Supreme Court case a few years ago, and it was CLARENCE THOMAS of all people who came down on the side of the government when it comes to questions about the privacy of data from these phones.

His rationale was solid. Mobile phone users have no expectation of privacy when the terms of their service agreements make it very clear that phone service provider and/or the app developers, NOT the user, own the data.

27 posted on 02/06/2021 10:40:10 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("There's somebody new and he sure ain't no rodeo man.")
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To: Regulator

It doesn’t need to be a phone company employee. Various apps report back your location and that gets monetized by the app company. That’s how “free” apps make money.

Do you have any doubt that Facebook would not hesitate to sell the identities of people attending a Trump rally to Antifa?


28 posted on 02/06/2021 10:40:38 AM PST by SauronOfMordor (A Leftist can't enjoy life unless they are controlling, hurting, or destroying others)
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To: Regulator

See Post #27.


29 posted on 02/06/2021 10:41:01 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("There's somebody new and he sure ain't no rodeo man.")
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To: 4Liberty
The entire Capitol reichstag fire was FBI theater

I think there is a lot more to the murder of Ashli Babbit than we know, it sure got dissapeared quick

30 posted on 02/06/2021 10:41:06 AM PST by KTM rider (Expatriated at home in a country taken over by a coup )
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To: Regulator

Google maybe the source


31 posted on 02/06/2021 10:42:30 AM PST by markman46 (engage brain before using keyboard!!!)
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To: unixfox

Yes, they do. They’re run of the mill phones, no special hardware or software.


32 posted on 02/06/2021 10:44:15 AM PST by Coronal
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To: bitt

Serious media/cellphone question: How dumb does a phone... say a flip phone... have to be to not track you? Do they even exist anymore?


33 posted on 02/06/2021 10:44:58 AM PST by Pearls Before Swine
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To: Pearls Before Swine

Any cell phone can be tracked. They all connect to a cell network from which a location can be triangulated, even the ones without GPS.


34 posted on 02/06/2021 10:47:12 AM PST by Coronal
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To: bitt

Bank of America also turned over banking data; card use for airfare, car rental, lodging, ETC. related to D.C. area. They did this without subpoenas or warrants.


35 posted on 02/06/2021 10:49:56 AM PST by Tammy8 ( )
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To: bitt

So now who do we ‘boycott’? Yesterday, until this morning, it was only Bank of America. Now we find that our ‘trusted’ cell phone companies are ratting us out as we try to ‘overthrow the government’ (or at least hang pictures of nude black men in the Capitol Building).

So what now?


36 posted on 02/06/2021 10:51:18 AM PST by BobL (TheDonald.win is now Patriots.win)
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To: SauronOfMordor

If someone planned to do something very nefarious, even more nefarious and evil than what the FBI does to turn public opinion against gun ownership, it would be a hoot to find a stray dog and duct tape the phone to it and turn it loose .Or better yet trap a coyote and turn that loose in DC with the phone on it


37 posted on 02/06/2021 10:52:20 AM PST by KTM rider (Expatriated at home in a country taken over by a coup )
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To: Coronal

Oops, I forrgot about that. As soon as its turned on, even if its a dumb phone and isn’t pinging while its “sort of off” and acquires service, there’s a location record. That’s why the Burner of the Month Club is so popular. Who cares if its located if you don’t know whose it is?

Although, with effort, I bet it can be tracked back to the point of sale.


38 posted on 02/06/2021 10:53:18 AM PST by Pearls Before Swine
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To: Texas Eagle

Apparently, the Federal Bureau of Insurrection lost the Antifa phones.


39 posted on 02/06/2021 10:53:49 AM PST by bray (Pray for fake President Biden)
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To: cymbeline

“Does the GPS in cars use the phone system”

Yes and no. It depends very much on the type of car and where you live. So in the UK my Volvo has a SIM and the GPS is linked to that to receive real time traffic data which is superimposed on the screen to show busy intersections etc. It also, like most GPS, will suggest routes etc. So I know that the SIM/phone receives data.

But Google Maps etc. “knows” about traffic issues because it receives data back from users. If I’m in a 30mph zone, but doing only 5mph, it can infer I’m in very slow moving traffic. The more feedback the better the routing etc.


40 posted on 02/06/2021 10:54:08 AM PST by LordOddsocks
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