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Why are these law enforcement agencies turning up to -any- latitude/longitude pair from an IP-to-location database? Even when the location is "known" it's still

Why are these law enforcement agencies turning up to -any- latitude/longitude pair from an IP-to-location database? Even when the location is "known" it's still just going to point to the center of a city or region an IP range was allocated to at some time. To map a specific IP to a specific physical location you want to arrest someone at, you'd have to actually go to the ISP (with a subpoena) and ask them what customer that IP was allocated to at a specific time, then look up that customer's address. They know that, right?

adventured 10y ago
Most likely reason? Ignorance. Very few people (sub 1% of the earth's population) actually know how an IP works, how an IP is assigned, or what their weak and often non-relationship to physical locations or GPS coordinates are. So when said people use a product that pretends to offer accurate correlation, they don't know any better.
- ultramancool 10y ago
  But you'd think that if their job was law enforcement of internet crimes, they would have to have at least a very basic understand of this sort of thing. It couldn't be more than a 2 or 3 hour training course to teach people a bit about IP and how to use subpoenas or other law enforcement requests to ISPs to get what they need.
  - jdavis703 10y ago
    I barely know the first thing about how supply chains for illegal drugs work, and I suspect most of the population is like me. Law enforcement however should understand how this works however, otherwise how can they do their job effectively? Likewise if they're investigating computer crimes they should have some basic understanding of how computers work (at least from a practical perspective, they don't need the theory of why computers work).
  - throwaway049 10y ago
    It doesn't look like law enforcement of internet crimes is the main use of this product. More like general law enforcement is just one use among many. That said, I am surprised the local sheriffs don't immediately recognize the address and disregard it, after the first few misunderstandings.
technofiend 10y ago
Kill two birds with one stone, as they say: return the coordinates of FBI in Washington, DC. Sooner or later the lightbulb will go off. "Wait, that can't be right..."

adventured 10y ago

Most likely reason? Ignorance. Very few people (sub 1% of the earth's population) actually know how an IP works, how an IP is assigned, or what their weak and often non-relationship to physical locations or GPS coordinates are. So when said people use a product that pretends to offer accurate correlation, they don't know any better.

ultramancool 10y ago
But you'd think that if their job was law enforcement of internet crimes, they would have to have at least a very basic understand of this sort of thing. It couldn't be more than a 2 or 3 hour training course to teach people a bit about IP and how to use subpoenas or other law enforcement requests to ISPs to get what they need.
- jdavis703 10y ago
  I barely know the first thing about how supply chains for illegal drugs work, and I suspect most of the population is like me. Law enforcement however should understand how this works however, otherwise how can they do their job effectively? Likewise if they're investigating computer crimes they should have some basic understanding of how computers work (at least from a practical perspective, they don't need the theory of why computers work).
- throwaway049 10y ago
  It doesn't look like law enforcement of internet crimes is the main use of this product. More like general law enforcement is just one use among many. That said, I am surprised the local sheriffs don't immediately recognize the address and disregard it, after the first few misunderstandings.

technofiend 10y ago

Kill two birds with one stone, as they say: return the coordinates of FBI in Washington, DC. Sooner or later the lightbulb will go off. "Wait, that can't be right..."