“Reverse location” search warrants identify all cellphones near a crime scene

Re:“Reverse location” search warrants identify all cellphone... by michaelmrose on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @01:33PM (#19201467)

We don't always actually know that a crime happened to the minute nor do we know the position of a cell phone to the meter indoors or near buildings.

Your potential criminal pool is potentially anyone who passed within a few hundred meters within a period of hours. Potentially hundreds of people in some cases.

Absent real evidence of note the black man with a record who walked 200 feet away 4 hours before the crime looks like winner.

This makes me want to purchase a librem with a switch to turn off the baseband.

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Re:“Reverse location” search warrants identify all cellphone... by nabla9 on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @02:13PM (#19201845)

In big investigations hundreds of people are suspects. There is nothing wrong with that.

There is nothing wrong with a police being able to collect information of people who were in the scene.

The real issue is what happens to data and how you get it.

1. Police should need to use subpoena to get the data.

2. Police should not be allowed to use the data for any other thing than solving that particular crime.

These kinds of issues should be separated from mass surveillance. The ability to just go there and explore data of citizens or persons who they are interested in but don't suspect from crimes. That's what intelligence agencies do.

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Re:“Reverse location” search warrants identify all cellphone... by michaelmrose on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @02:37PM (#19202023)

The "scene" could in fact be an arbitrarily large space and time due to uncertainties and complexities of the particular issue at hand.

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