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The police aren't asking for a city's searches. They're asking for anyone, anywhere, who searched Google for 'Douglas ? ?' in a 5 week period. The article this

by danjoc 10y ago

The police aren't asking for a city's searches. They're asking for anyone, anywhere, who searched Google for 'Douglas ? ?' in a 5 week period. The article this one links to explains this much better. https://tonywebster.com/2017/03/minnesota-search-warrant-anyone-who-googled/ https://tonywebster.com/2017/03/minnesota-search-warrant-any... Google isn't the only search engine on the internet, but the police claim they were unable to find the information in Yahoo or Bing results. They suspect it must have come from a Google search, because that's where they were able to find the same information. The judge felt this provided probable cause to permit the search on Google. This article is bad. It appears to be written by a layperson who doesn't understand law or how the internet works. And it pours on the hyperbole to excite emotions. Fake news.

deleted 10y ago
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eridius 10y ago
This is not fake news. It's real news. Just because you don't think it's particularly newsworthy doesn't make it fake.
- danjoc 10y ago
  The citypages link on HN is fake news. It misrepresents and mischaracterizes the events reported on the tonywebster link. "Cops figure if they could just find out who in that affluent suburb has Googled that name, they'd narrow their suspect list right down." This is fabricated tripe. The cops are not looking specifically in the victim's suburb. The person who wrote the citypages article is being a complete imbecile. His heart might be in the right place, but he's got his facts all wrong. The warrant pertains to information on anyone, anywhere on the entire planet who might have accessed Google's servers and searched for that name between Dec 1 and Jan 7.
  - eridius 10y ago
    Getting one fact wrong doesn't make the story fake news. Most of it (and, most importantly, the actually important parts of it) are completely true. Fake news is news stories that are intentionally made up, not news stories that contain mistakes.
    - danjoc 10y ago
      The one fact he got wrong is the whole point of his fake news story.
      - eridius 10y ago
        Not really. The point is the police are trying to solve a case of attempted fraud by asking Google for all searches for a particular name within a particular time period, based on the fact that searching for that name in Google Images comes up with the images used on the fake passport. The story is reporting that they're asking specifically for searches made by people in a particular city, but that detail is pretty incidental to the story itself. And again, please stop calling this "fake news" just because it contains a mistake. I've already explained that this is not at all what that phrase means.
        danjoc 10y ago
        "Police ask for whole city's Google searches, and a judge says yes" Fake news. The title is entirely false. "The people of Edina probably don't know it, but they're doing battle with the Edina Police Department over the right to online privacy." Fake news. The people of Edina are not the targets of the warrant. "The cops are winning." Be afraid! Cops are winning... something. "a Hennepin County judge has granted the Edina Police Department an extraordinary degree of access to citizens' Google history" More fake news. Completely fabricated misrepresentation of the truth. The cops have no access to their general search history at all. "Of course, people's Google search history not only isn't public, it's not usually available to local cops trying to bust a small-time swindler." Fake news. Google is "bombarded" by user data requests from government. https://www.cnet.com/news/google-were-bombarded-by-govt-requests-on-user-data/ https://www.cnet.com/news/google-were-bombarded-by-govt-requ... The article is fake news. The title is fake news. The content is fake news.

by danjoc 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

eridius 10y ago

This is not fake news. It's real news. Just because you don't think it's particularly newsworthy doesn't make it fake.

danjoc 10y ago
The citypages link on HN is fake news. It misrepresents and mischaracterizes the events reported on the tonywebster link. "Cops figure if they could just find out who in that affluent suburb has Googled that name, they'd narrow their suspect list right down." This is fabricated tripe. The cops are not looking specifically in the victim's suburb. The person who wrote the citypages article is being a complete imbecile. His heart might be in the right place, but he's got his facts all wrong. The warrant pertains to information on anyone, anywhere on the entire planet who might have accessed Google's servers and searched for that name between Dec 1 and Jan 7.
- eridius 10y ago
  Getting one fact wrong doesn't make the story fake news. Most of it (and, most importantly, the actually important parts of it) are completely true. Fake news is news stories that are intentionally made up, not news stories that contain mistakes.
  - danjoc 10y ago
    The one fact he got wrong is the whole point of his fake news story.
    - eridius 10y ago
      Not really. The point is the police are trying to solve a case of attempted fraud by asking Google for all searches for a particular name within a particular time period, based on the fact that searching for that name in Google Images comes up with the images used on the fake passport. The story is reporting that they're asking specifically for searches made by people in a particular city, but that detail is pretty incidental to the story itself. And again, please stop calling this "fake news" just because it contains a mistake. I've already explained that this is not at all what that phrase means.
      - danjoc 10y ago
        "Police ask for whole city's Google searches, and a judge says yes" Fake news. The title is entirely false. "The people of Edina probably don't know it, but they're doing battle with the Edina Police Department over the right to online privacy." Fake news. The people of Edina are not the targets of the warrant. "The cops are winning." Be afraid! Cops are winning... something. "a Hennepin County judge has granted the Edina Police Department an extraordinary degree of access to citizens' Google history" More fake news. Completely fabricated misrepresentation of the truth. The cops have no access to their general search history at all. "Of course, people's Google search history not only isn't public, it's not usually available to local cops trying to bust a small-time swindler." Fake news. Google is "bombarded" by user data requests from government. https://www.cnet.com/news/google-were-bombarded-by-govt-requests-on-user-data/ https://www.cnet.com/news/google-were-bombarded-by-govt-requ... The article is fake news. The title is fake news. The content is fake news.