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do local police have access to this data though? Maybe I've missed something, but the cell phone data has been through PRISM, and that local police doesn't have

by rtpg 13y ago

do local police have access to this data though? Maybe I've missed something, but the cell phone data has been through PRISM, and that local police doesn't have access to this sort of information.

rosser 13y ago
...local police doesn't have access to this sort of information. Yet?
angersock 13y ago
https://www.google.com/search?q=local+police+cell+phone+records https://www.google.com/search?q=local+police+cell+phone+reco...
kenrikm 13y ago
The issue is that the local Police are aggregating the same types of data E.G. Auto scanning tags of cars within sight of a police car and it's only a matter of time before the links are made to pool the data. All that needs to happen for this to become a reality is one piece of legislation be snuck into a spending bill or farm bill etc.. and bam - all police forces are required to send their data to the national data pool that all other police forces can access for the "greater good". Not being involved in this myself I don't know the extent or the checks in place but police do have access to cell phone location data since about ten years ago? (if you call 911 on a cell phone they use it to find you)
greenyoda 13y ago
You can do a lot of tracking without cell phone data. Local police have access to license plate scanners (both at fixed locations and mounted on police vehicles). The data is not as fine-grained as GPS data from a person's phone, but it can also yield information about the patterns of a person's movements over time (e.g., they pass these ten intersections every weekend night between 2:30 and 3:00am). Of course, this can only track people with cars (but in some cities, that's pretty much everyone). Facial recognition software can track people who walk, but I don't know how widely deployed it is at this time. As soon as it gets attached to all of the millions of surveillance cameras that are out there (some of which are operated by police departments, like in NYC), tracking pedestrians will become easier. And, of course, the local police can get a warrant to attach a GPS device to somebody's car or to pull cell tower data if they have probable cause.
coldtea 13y ago
>do local police have access to this data though? Maybe I've missed something, but the cell phone data has been through PRISM, and that local police doesn't have access to this sort of information. That's hardly an argument. For one, they collaborate frequently with the FBI. As for local police, well, give it time.
salient 13y ago
Yes? https://www.aclu.org/national-security/police-requests-cellphone-data-surge https://www.aclu.org/national-security/police-requests-cellp... The type of surveillance NSA can do is quickly trickling down to FBI, DHS, DEA and even the police. Even this wasn't too long ago: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57471570-93/facebook-scans-chats-and-posts-for-criminal-activity/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57471570-93/facebook-scans-... Some police departments are also working on face detection systems, or even "pre-crime" in New York: http://www.activistpost.com/2012/08/microsoft-and-bloomberg-collaborate-on.html http://www.activistpost.com/2012/08/microsoft-and-bloomberg-... http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/item/16942-dhs-creates-new-fusion-centers-taking-control-of-local-police http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/item/16942-dhs-creates-... http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2013/5/22/dissent_or_terror_counter_terrorism_apparatus_used_to_monitor_occupy_movement_nationwide http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2013/5/22/dissent_or_terror... http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0718/License-plate-scanners-have-allowed-police-to-log-location-and-movement-of-millions http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0718/Lic... And these are just examples that I remembered off the top of my head, and did some quick searches on them now.

by rtpg 13y ago

do local police have access to this data though? Maybe I've missed something, but the cell phone data has been through PRISM, and that local police doesn't have access to this sort of information.

rosser 13y ago

...local police doesn't have access to this sort of information. Yet?

angersock 13y ago

https://www.google.com/search?q=local+police+cell+phone+records https://www.google.com/search?q=local+police+cell+phone+reco...

kenrikm 13y ago

The issue is that the local Police are aggregating the same types of data E.G. Auto scanning tags of cars within sight of a police car and it's only a matter of time before the links are made to pool the data. All that needs to happen for this to become a reality is one piece of legislation be snuck into a spending bill or farm bill etc.. and bam - all police forces are required to send their data to the national data pool that all other police forces can access for the "greater good". Not being involved in this myself I don't know the extent or the checks in place but police do have access to cell phone location data since about ten years ago? (if you call 911 on a cell phone they use it to find you)

greenyoda 13y ago

You can do a lot of tracking without cell phone data. Local police have access to license plate scanners (both at fixed locations and mounted on police vehicles). The data is not as fine-grained as GPS data from a person's phone, but it can also yield information about the patterns of a person's movements over time (e.g., they pass these ten intersections every weekend night between 2:30 and 3:00am). Of course, this can only track people with cars (but in some cities, that's pretty much everyone). Facial recognition software can track people who walk, but I don't know how widely deployed it is at this time. As soon as it gets attached to all of the millions of surveillance cameras that are out there (some of which are operated by police departments, like in NYC), tracking pedestrians will become easier. And, of course, the local police can get a warrant to attach a GPS device to somebody's car or to pull cell tower data if they have probable cause.

coldtea 13y ago

>do local police have access to this data though? Maybe I've missed something, but the cell phone data has been through PRISM, and that local police doesn't have access to this sort of information. That's hardly an argument. For one, they collaborate frequently with the FBI. As for local police, well, give it time.

salient 13y ago

Yes? https://www.aclu.org/national-security/police-requests-cellphone-data-surge https://www.aclu.org/national-security/police-requests-cellp... The type of surveillance NSA can do is quickly trickling down to FBI, DHS, DEA and even the police. Even this wasn't too long ago: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57471570-93/facebook-scans-chats-and-posts-for-criminal-activity/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57471570-93/facebook-scans-... Some police departments are also working on face detection systems, or even "pre-crime" in New York: http://www.activistpost.com/2012/08/microsoft-and-bloomberg-collaborate-on.html http://www.activistpost.com/2012/08/microsoft-and-bloomberg-... http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/item/16942-dhs-creates-new-fusion-centers-taking-control-of-local-police http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/item/16942-dhs-creates-... http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2013/5/22/dissent_or_terror_counter_terrorism_apparatus_used_to_monitor_occupy_movement_nationwide http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2013/5/22/dissent_or_terror... http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0718/License-plate-scanners-have-allowed-police-to-log-location-and-movement-of-millions http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0718/Lic... And these are just examples that I remembered off the top of my head, and did some quick searches on them now.