4 ms·

I don't think it's necessary to apply that distinction. The cop had these women's accounts hacked, he used a number of tools and connections to achieve that go

I don't think it's necessary to apply that distinction. The cop had these women's accounts hacked, he used a number of tools and connections to achieve that goal. One of the tools used was this piece of tech, but it was only a single link in the chain. Ultimately the story is "cop abuses access to tech to exploit women".

luckylion 4y ago
"Ex cop uses oil-refinery to run over woman".
- socialismisok 4y ago
  Come on, that's reduction to an absurd degree. The cop used special access to technology directly to get the information on these women.
  - luckylion 4y ago
    Of course, it's meant to show the problem in that argument. It's all part of the chain. A more accurate headline could be "Ex cop paid hacker to hack women", but that doesn't sound quite as good. If there's a complete list of passwords for every citizen at Accurint and the hacker was just a middle man because the "ex cop" doesn't want to touch a computer but he gives them the username + password, then yes, he "used law enforcement tech to hack them". But it doesn't sound like that's what happened.
- strix_varius 4y ago
  It's intuitively clear that your rebuttal is a poor one made in bad faith, but we might as well get into why: I could use an "oil-refinery" to run over someone. I have equal access to cars and gas stations to the police. However, I couldn't use Accurint as part of a chain of tools to extract explicit photos of someone. Access to Accurint is a privilege of the police. Without this person's abuse of the elevated societal privilege that police get, he wouldn't have been able to extort his victims. He'd still be a shitty person, with all the same motives and lack of morals, but without the power his police network gave him, he would have been impotent to achieve his goals.
  - luckylion 4y ago
    Doubt. You don't need access to Accurint to pay some hacker to hack an account. What that access gave him as quicker access to information you'd otherwise need more time (and money, presumably) to obtain. From the Accurint website: "Find out why more than 400,000 public and private organizations of all sizes rely on powerful, industry leading LexisNexis Accurint® to support their business goals.", mentioning Collections, Government, Healthcare, Insurance, Law Enforcement, Legal, Private Investigations. It very much sounds like a generic database that millions of Americans have access to. Are they all just one bad day away from hacking everything and everyone with all that access to this super advanced hacking technology? Probably not. The website continues: "Accurint® for Law Enforcement is a cutting-edge investigative technology that can expedite the identification of people and their assets, addresses, relatives and business associates by providing instant access to a comprehensive database of public records that would ordinarily take days to collect."
    - smoldesu 4y ago
      All of this is fairly redundant from a "point of failure" perspective. It's fun to wax philisophical about the true capabilities of the police, but they have dozens of ways to get your personal information. If they can get their hands on your phone, many police offices own Greykeys that will smash it's way through Android and Apple security alike. Or maybe you escalate a certain "sensitive case" and ask for warrantless iCloud/Google Drive snooping permissions. Or maybe you intercept the nudes by MITMing their LTE signal. Or maybe you go to their ISP for a copy, the list is endless. You're right that Accurint plays a fairly negligible role here, but only because the officer didn't even begin to tap the tools at their disposal. Whether that was a mistake, stupidity, or fear of retribution, the fact remains that there are many, many ways to get your personal data as a cop. Palantir/Accurint are very much the tip of this iceberg.
- trgn 4y ago
  I would love to see more headlines like this. Tech isn't value neutral. Oil and ICE cars inherently, by their very nature, create the conditions for a more aggressive and dehumanizing society.
deleted 4y ago
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luckylion 4y ago

"Ex cop uses oil-refinery to run over woman".

socialismisok 4y ago
Come on, that's reduction to an absurd degree. The cop used special access to technology directly to get the information on these women.
- luckylion 4y ago
  Of course, it's meant to show the problem in that argument. It's all part of the chain. A more accurate headline could be "Ex cop paid hacker to hack women", but that doesn't sound quite as good. If there's a complete list of passwords for every citizen at Accurint and the hacker was just a middle man because the "ex cop" doesn't want to touch a computer but he gives them the username + password, then yes, he "used law enforcement tech to hack them". But it doesn't sound like that's what happened.
strix_varius 4y ago
It's intuitively clear that your rebuttal is a poor one made in bad faith, but we might as well get into why: I could use an "oil-refinery" to run over someone. I have equal access to cars and gas stations to the police. However, I couldn't use Accurint as part of a chain of tools to extract explicit photos of someone. Access to Accurint is a privilege of the police. Without this person's abuse of the elevated societal privilege that police get, he wouldn't have been able to extort his victims. He'd still be a shitty person, with all the same motives and lack of morals, but without the power his police network gave him, he would have been impotent to achieve his goals.
- luckylion 4y ago
  Doubt. You don't need access to Accurint to pay some hacker to hack an account. What that access gave him as quicker access to information you'd otherwise need more time (and money, presumably) to obtain. From the Accurint website: "Find out why more than 400,000 public and private organizations of all sizes rely on powerful, industry leading LexisNexis Accurint® to support their business goals.", mentioning Collections, Government, Healthcare, Insurance, Law Enforcement, Legal, Private Investigations. It very much sounds like a generic database that millions of Americans have access to. Are they all just one bad day away from hacking everything and everyone with all that access to this super advanced hacking technology? Probably not. The website continues: "Accurint® for Law Enforcement is a cutting-edge investigative technology that can expedite the identification of people and their assets, addresses, relatives and business associates by providing instant access to a comprehensive database of public records that would ordinarily take days to collect."
  - smoldesu 4y ago
    All of this is fairly redundant from a "point of failure" perspective. It's fun to wax philisophical about the true capabilities of the police, but they have dozens of ways to get your personal information. If they can get their hands on your phone, many police offices own Greykeys that will smash it's way through Android and Apple security alike. Or maybe you escalate a certain "sensitive case" and ask for warrantless iCloud/Google Drive snooping permissions. Or maybe you intercept the nudes by MITMing their LTE signal. Or maybe you go to their ISP for a copy, the list is endless. You're right that Accurint plays a fairly negligible role here, but only because the officer didn't even begin to tap the tools at their disposal. Whether that was a mistake, stupidity, or fear of retribution, the fact remains that there are many, many ways to get your personal data as a cop. Palantir/Accurint are very much the tip of this iceberg.
trgn 4y ago
I would love to see more headlines like this. Tech isn't value neutral. Oil and ICE cars inherently, by their very nature, create the conditions for a more aggressive and dehumanizing society.

deleted 4y ago

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