Normally, anyone working for the government (cops, FBI, ICE, &c) needs a warrant signed by a judge that has proper justification for "search" (that includes your texts, phone calls, location data, or *any* of your data, belongings, etc.) The Fourth Amendment protects us from this. If a cop or anyone else obtains something without a warrant (or the exclusionary rule), it's *inadmissible* as evidence.
Obviously, when the Fourth Amendment was proposed in 1789, people couldn't predict tech today, but the law was never updated to account for current tech. In the 70s, the Supreme Court ruled specifically so that the Fourth Amendment doesn't apply to the government *if you're buying the data from a corporation.* If you give *any data* to *any third-party*, the Supreme Court ruled that no one in the government needs a warrant to access that data. It was originally for banking or phone records; now, it's everything.
You see, while it's illegal for *the government* to break the Fourth Amendment, it isn't for corporations. Corporations can spy on you all they want! And then they can sell all of that data to anyone on the planet! And that includes the government which now has a legal loophole to avoid the Fourth Amendment by just directly buying data from data brokers or corporations that sell it. So Flock can put up cameras anywhere they want, create software that tracks each and every car and person, and then sell that to the government.
Maybe you gave some random app permissions to post notifications or to your texts or phone calls or contacts. Did you read that app's privacy policy? That app was free because you've just given it access to your entire call record, all of your texts, your app history, browsing history, location data, etc, which it's now selling to data brokers that in turn sell it to governments.
Not all companies just hand over data if a cop or the government asks. Some still demand to get a warrant before they hand anything over. But you've probably inadvertently leaked your entire life to plenty of various apps or services that sell it to data brokers who then sell it to anyone on the planet with cash.
Amy Boyer was stalked and murdered outside her job when a man bought her data. A Catholic newsletter bought data on Jeffrey Burrill that included Grindr usage, location data to gay bars, and outed him, causing him to resign immediately. Those people went on to join another Catholic group that spent millions buying data to target gay priests, to out them, to get them fired. And now the cops are using Flock. One Kansas police chief ran his ex's plates 164 times and her new boyfriend's plates 64 times. A Sheriff in Idaho ran his wife's plates 700 times in three months. None of this would be possible if the Fourth Amendment functioned properly.
John Oliver had a great data broker segment on Last Week Tonight where they were able to buy Congress members' data. Worth a watch: https://youtu.be/wqn3gR1WTcA
Posted by KeyResponsibility325
4 Comments
Yes, this surveillance state is in full glide and there are people taking advantage of it in ways most wouldn’t be able to even fathom.
More data centers please!!!
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I mean it’s not so hard you have a little device with you at all times with apps that you personally installed and give all your information and post pictures of you by yourself, the little computer in your hand remembers everything in where you where, when you pickup and now with algorithm in social media you tell a lot of yourself just by been on the app scrolling, knows your interest and all, so yes they know everything because you give them all the info all the time,
is not science, is not that hard,
your data been sold and you will never know, sometimes is even public information you just look in the right spots
Oh… sweet, summer child. They’ve *been* tracking us.
Watch “The Octopus Murders” on Netflix.
An actual fact-based post about things that are probably happening… I’ve missed this.