real sample example geofence warrant
Continue Reading

Geofence Warrants and Google’s Huge Sensorvault Location Database Provide Law Enforcement with Lists of All People Near a Crime Scene

While in the news currently, geofence warrants (also referred to as ‘geo-fence warrants’) are nothing new (and our article includes a real example of a geofence warrant). We first wrote about geofence warrants and how Google is providing law enforcement agencies with lists of devices it has identified as being in the area of a crime scene at the time of the crime almost exactly 3 years ago to the day. Once serving the geofence warrant, and receiving the data from Google’s massive device location database called Sensorvault, law enforcement agencies can then create lists of possible suspects and witnesses, all based on their knowing that the person was simply in the area, based on the tracking of their device.

aclu mobile justice
Continue Reading

ACLU Mobile Justice App Records Police Actions as They Happen

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has released Mobile Justice apps for eight states and counting. The Mobile Justice app, which records police brutality or encounters as they happen, and automatically uploads them to the ACLU, is available for California, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina and Oregon with more on the way.

dna privacy familial searches 23andme ancestry.com
Continue Reading

Law Enforcement is Searching Ancestry.com and 23andMe DNA Databases

We’ve always said that submitting your DNA for DNA analysis at services like 23andMe, and AncestryDNA by Ancestry.com, is a bad idea, because regardless of what ‘good’ can come from it, the potential for bad is just too great. Having unknown actors have access to your DNA information is a violation of privacy of the most basic, and intimate, kind. Sadly, we were right. Law enforcement agencies are now using what is known as “familial DNA search” to go on DNA fishing expeditions, searching for near matches to DNA found at a crime scene.

miami police waze
Continue Reading

Police Officers Launch Disinformation Campaign on Waze Traffic App

Police in Miami have launched a disinformation campaign by misreporting their own locations in the traffic app, Waze. The police say that this serves two important purposes: first, thwarting Waze’s cop-reporting function so as to not enable drivers who only drive safely when they think they would get caught driving recklessly, and second, to thwart “cop stalkers” who might otherwise show up where a police officer really is for whatever reason.

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

Online “Girlfriend” Scams $200,000 from Illinois Man

From our “Why online scams work” department, a woman (if she is indeed a woman) who was in an online relationship with an Illinois man for over two years has managed to scam at least $200,000 from the man. The scam came to light when the 48-year-old man from Naperville, Illinois contacted police because his ‘girlfriend’ had disappeared right after he wired her the last of the $200,000, and he feared she had been kidnapped.