6 comments

  • jadenpeterson 1 hour ago
    Why are they comfortable saying this?

    > Generally, Boyd said his office uses the software to find “avenues for obtaining probable cause” or “to verify reasonable suspicion that you already have”—not as a basis by itself to make arrests.

    As if that's not a massive violation of our rights in and of itself. This is my fundamental problem with the internet. As much as stories like these gain traction, as many millions of redditors protest these increasingly common stories (for example, the suspicious nature of Luigi Mangione being 'reported' in that McDonalds), nothing will change.

    Perhaps this is the part of the criminal justice system I am most suspect of. Is this what happens in a country with less regulation?

    • titanomachy 45 minutes ago
      Was that suspicious? I thought his face was plastered all over the news.
  • 1a527dd5 1 hour ago
    Sounds a lot like 'parallel construction'.
    • HNisCIS 22 minutes ago
      Yeah seems like that's quite explicitly the goal. The question is, what means or method are they trying to hide and is it hyper illegal or just something they don't want to be pubic knowledge?
    • plagiarist 1 hour ago
      It turns out it's actually fine if your data is on offer to the government from a third party.

      The Constitution was meant to be permanently fixed and extremely literal about only the technology available from centuries ago, it was not meant to describe general concepts nor intended to be updated to ensure those same rights are retained along with changes in society.

      • gruez 53 minutes ago
        >The Constitution was meant to be permanently fixed and extremely literal about only the technology available from centuries ago, it was not meant to describe general concepts nor intended to be updated to ensure those same rights are retained along with changes in society.

        /s?

        I can't tell because people unironically use the same reasoning to make the "2nd amendment only apply to muskets" argument.

        • collingreen 16 minutes ago
          That isn't the muskets version of that argument I have heard.

          The version I've heard is that the firearm technology when the second amendment was ratified was very different than today and that makes it worth evaluating if we want to amend it again.

          Similarly the military landscape looks very different as well such that there's a very different risk of foreign armies taking ground and citizens everywhere needing to be ready to hold ground until the more official military forces can arrive.

          If we want to get really pedantic about 2A where are the well regulated militias?

          Even if someone really is saying the thing you're claiming, 2A doesn't mention muskets at all or any other specific technology so that would be a really dumb thing for those people to say.

      • sieabahlpark 55 minutes ago
        [dead]
  • cluckindan 31 minutes ago
    You remember those cookie notices that you clicked on? Whatever you ”chose” to click, this kinda thing is where your data ended up getting ”processed”, irrespective of your ”privacy choices”.
  • nobody9999 2 hours ago
    Title too long for submission. Original title:

    Texas Police Invested Millions in a Shadowy Phone-Tracking Software. They Won’t Say How They’ve Used It.

    • ronsor 15 minutes ago
      "Texas Police Won't Say How Used Shadowy Phone-Tracking Software Millions Spent On"?
    • BarryMilo 1 hour ago
      Truly a "why say many words" title!
  • JumpCrisscross 1 hour ago
    I hate the concept. But this is not the right case to test the tool against.
    • nobody9999 1 hour ago
      >I hate the concept. But this is not the right case to test the tool against.

      To which case are you referring? TFA doesn't appear to refer to any ongoing litigation associated with the "Tangles" software.

      Or are you referring to warrantless geo-fence tracking as a poor use case for the software?

      • JumpCrisscross 31 minutes ago
        > which case are you referring?

        The example given at the top of the article. We want Tangle or whatever used idiotically to strike down its use in federal court.

      • nilamo 1 hour ago
        Tracking the population without cause is never the right use case for anything.
        • asdff 1 hour ago
          Transit and traffic planners would be foaming at the mouth for real commute data like this instead of just fixed point count data.
        • nobody9999 1 hour ago
          >Tracking the population without cause is never the right use case for anything.

          Agreed. Which is why I submitted this in the first place. But AFAICT, it's orthogonal to GP's comment. Or not. Which is why I asked for clarification.

  • therobots927 51 minutes ago
    We’re all just characters in a sim game played by the rich and powerful. Now it’s 24 / 7 surveillance. Eventually it will be 24 / 7 control.
    • HNisCIS 15 minutes ago
      The race is between the rich trying to achieve a level of surveillance based omnipotence such that rebellion/revolution/dissent/protest/etc are fundamentally impossible...and the US populace gaining class consciousness. I don't have high hopes for the second one winning.

      I want people to think about that for a second though. Imagine in a decade cops have such a technological edge in both surveillance and force that you cannot even begin to protest billionaires enslaving you let alone stage a political revolution.