Kansas Court Rejects Government’s ‘Reverse Warrant,’ Sets Ground Rules For Future Requests

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Wed. June 23, 2021 | By Tim Cushing – Tech Dirt |

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How Big Tech Created a Data ‘Treasure Trove’ for Police

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Tues. June 22, 2021 | By unk. – FOX | Associated Press |

Data compiled by four of the biggest tech companies shows that law enforcement requests for user information have more than tripled in the U.S. since 2015.

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iPhone owners urged to DELETE Google Maps immediately after new update

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Tues. June 22, 2021 | By Charolette Edwards – The U.S. Sun |

APPLE users have been urged to consider deleting Google Maps after a report highlighted how much personal data the app collects.

The Google Maps’ Privacy Label on the App Store reveals that it can collect things like your financial information, contacts, browsing history and search history.

A recent Forbes article with the headline ‘Why You Suddenly Need To Delete Google Maps On Your iPhone’ has compared the privacy comparison labels of Apple Maps and Google Maps.  It highlighted how Google Maps collects a lot more data and even states that the data can be linked to your personal identity.  Apple Maps, on the other hand, collects less data and doesn’t link it your identity.

Google relies on data-driven advertising and can use the kind of information it collects to show you adverts you’ll likely be interested in.  Google told Forbes: “Google Maps is designed to protect your information.  “We provide controls to easily manage your settings and use industry-leading technologies like differential privacy to keep your data safe.  “We continue to make Google Maps the best and most accurate way to navigate and explore the world—providing rich local business information, best in class search and navigation, and helpful features like the COVID layer and live busyness information.”

Apple can cover the cost of Apple Maps with money from device sales whereas Google needs advertising to help it run Google Maps.  Some people much prefer Google Maps to Apple Maps although the latter has risen in popularity since its problem-riddled 2012 launch.  Google Maps does have an incognito mode option if you wanted to stop Google collecting the data mentioned.  However, it does limit some of the app’s functions.  Apple is said to be bringing new Maps features with its iOS 15 update.

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Bipartisan bill offered to limit use of ‘stingray’ cell tower simulators by police

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Fri. June 18, 2021 | By Andrew Blake – The Washington Times |

Bipartisan legislation proposed in both houses of Congress would require local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to get a warrant to use so-called “stingray” devices that suck up cellphone data.  Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and California Rep. Ted Lieu, both Democrats, introduced the legislation Thursday with Sen. Steve Daines of Montana and Rep. Tom McClintock of California, both Republicans.

The bill would set nationwide rules for how authorities use stingrays, or cell site simulators, reining in what its sponsors described as invasive and unconstitutional surveillance devices.  “Cell site simulators have existed in a kind of legal no-man’s land for far too long,” Mr. Wyden said in a statement, adding the bill would establish “clear, transparent rules” for when they may be used.

Stingrays are portable devices that mimic cell towers. They covertly broadcast signals that force cellphones within range to send back unique data that can then be accessed by authorities. The devices are capable of collecting sensitive device and location data from nearby phones, among other information, and can help authorities to identify all cellphones within range of their deployment.

No federal law regulates the use of the devices.  The Cell Site Simulator Warrant Act would require authorities to obtain a probable cause warrant to use the technology, and it would limit their usage to situations where other methods have failed.  Additionally, the bill would require authorities to minimize data collected from the cellphones of bystanders, and it would provide a right of action for individuals who are illegally surveilled to sue.

“In violation of basic constitutional principles, these devices can capture a massive amount of metadata and content from a broad swath of devices all at once,” said Mr. Lieu, a computer science major and lawyer before being elected to Congress.  Mr. Lieu added he was concerned about reports that stingray devices may have been deployed on Black Lives Matter protesters, saying the legislation called for “common-sense” limitations.  “The Fourth Amendment means what it says, even in the digital age,” Mr. McClintock said in a statement, referring to the constitutional guarantees against unlawful searches and searches.

Mr. Wyden‘s office said the legislation is supported by more than a dozen civil liberty advocacy groups, including the Center for Democracy and Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and FreedomWorks.  No vote on the bill is currently scheduled.

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Google Geofence Warrants Endanger Privacy – Judges Now See The Threat

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Wed. June 15, 2021 | By Thomas Brewster – Forbes |

In a rare decision to counter U.S. government investigator attempts to force tech giants to furnish them with data, a Kansas judge has denied a government request to use a controversial search warrant for what’s known as a Google geofence.

Also known as a reverse location search, such warrants allow police to take a given crime scene and ask Google for data on all smartphones in that place over a given timeframe, whether that’s information coming from Maps or other Google tools that track location. In one recent case in Tennessee, for instance, a church was vandalized and a geofence ordered around the place of worship, though no information has yet been recovered in that case, according to the court docket. In another recently-unsealed case, they’ve been used to track phones within and around a suspected child abuser’s residence over two days in an attempt to determine where he was on the date of an alleged message he sent to a minor. In others, police have targeted the wrong man, or retrieved data on more than 1,000 phones going through the area, raising concerns about how innocent people can be affected by such warrants.

Last year, judges in Illinois denied the government permission to use Google geofences. And some critics say such warrants should be outlawed entirely. “These broad warrants are indiscriminate, dragnet searches that can implicate countless people who have no connection to the crime,” said Jennifer Lynch, surveillance litigation director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Given the very nature of these warrants, we don’t think they can ever pass constitutional muster.”

In Kansas, the specific investigation wasn’t highlighted, due to an unspecified need to keep case details secret. All that was revealed was that the crime took place at or near “a sizeable business establishment, during a one-hour period on the relevant date,” according to a letter written by the judge.

The judge said that the government hadn’t done enough to prove the suspect would have had a smartphone in the area at the time of the incident. “The affidavit suggests only that the culprit was a lone pedestrian in the early morning hours who was caught on surveillance footage,” he wrote. “The affidavit conspicuously omits any suggestion that the surveillance footage shows that the individual had a cellphone.”

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