T-Minus 3, 2, 1 and We Have Shut Down of AT&T’s 3G Network!

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Tues. Feb 22, 2022 | By Brett Molina | USA Today |

End of 3G service: AT&T will shut down its 3G network Feb. 22. How will it affect you?

AT&T is about to take the first step toward the end of 3G service.

On Tuesday, [Feb 22, 2022], the wireless carrier shut down its 3G network, which means multiple older smartphones and countless other devices will no longer work.

Verizon was the first to launch a 3G network in the U.S. in 2002, during a time when the BlackBerry was the top smartphone to own and we were five years away from the arrival of the iPhone.

Twenty years ago, consumers used their phones for basic tasks like checking email, sending text messages, and of course, for making phone calls. But with smartphones, we do so much more: take pictures, watch TV, play games, scroll through social media, and beyond.

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The added features mean having wireless networks to support them, which is why AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are shutting down 3G to make room for faster 5G networks.

Here’s what you should know about how the 3G shutdown might affect you…

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With “Friends” Like These… No Fourth Amendment violation, says Massachusetts high court

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Tues. Feb. 8, 2022 | By Eugene Volokh |  reason.com |

After accepting a ‘friend’ request from the officer, the defendant published a video recording to his social media account that featured an individual seen from the chest down holding what appeared to be a firearm. The undercover officer made his own recording of the posting, which later was used in criminal proceedings against the defendant.” No Fourth Amendment violation, says Massachusetts high court.

In this case we confront the novel question whether the defendant had a constitutionally protected expectation of privacy in social media content that he shared, albeit unknowingly, with an undercover police officer…

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Analysts say phone of Chandler Halderson was tracked in areas where parents’ remains found

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Wed. Jan. 19, 2022 | By Jaymes Langrehr | Channel 3000 |

MADISON, Wis. — Analysts say cell tower records place the phone belonging to Chandler Halderson near where both of his parents’ remains were later found, possibly linking him to both crime scenes.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice was able to use data from U.S. Cellular to find the phone that Halderson used visited both the Town of Roxbury location near the Wisconsin River on July 3 — where Krista Halderson’s were later found — and the Cottage Grove farm on July 5 — where Bart Halderson’s remains were later found.

During testimony Wednesday, analysts from the DOJ played an animated map tracking the location of Chandler Halderson’s phone on July 3 from the Halderson’s home in Windsor as it traveled west, stopping in the Town of Roxbury location before heading up to the Devil’s Lake area and returning home.

Chandler Halderson’s phone was also verified to be in the Town of Roxbury at that same date and time using data from Snapchat’s location tracking feature.

Later that night, his phone was also recorded as receiving data from towers on the way up to the Portage area, where the phone was detected between 10:37 p.m. and 11:03 p.m. Previously in the trial, lead investigators in the case said that area was someplace they attempted to search after cadaver dogs detected something in the area, but dive teams had to be pulled out of the water before anything was found because the current of the Wisconsin River was too dangerous.

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A bill to ban geofence and keyword search warrants in New York gains traction

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Thurs. Jan. 13, 2022 | By Zack Whittaker – techcrunch |

A New York bill that would ban state law enforcement from obtaining residents’ private user data from tech giants through the use of controversial search warrants will get another chance, two years after it was first introduced.

The Reverse Location Search Prohibition Act was reintroduced to the New York Assembly and Senate last year by a group of Democratic lawmakers after the bill previously failed to pass. Last week, the bill was referred to committee, the first major hurdle before it can be considered for a floor vote.

The bill, if passed, would be the first state law in the U.S. to end the use of geofence warrants and keyword search warrants, which rely on asking technology companies to turn over data about users who were near the scene of a crime or searched for particular keywords at a specific point in time.

For geofence warrants — also known as “reverse location” warrants — law enforcement asks a judge to order Google, which collects and stores billions of location data points from its users’ phones and apps, to turn over records on whose phones were in a certain geographical radius at the time of a crime to help identify possible suspects. Geofence warrants are a uniquely Google problem; law enforcement knows to tap Google’s databases of location data, which the search giant uses to drive its ads business, last year netting the company close to $150 billion in revenue…

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