Loading ...FBI tracked Jan. 6 protesters’ location even if phones were in airplane mode: report
‘[T]he January 6 cases are going to be used to build a doctrine that will essentially enable police to find almost anyone with a cellphone or a smart device in ways that we, as a society, haven’t quite grasped yet,’ law professor Andrew Ferguson warned.
Government entities can track individuals’ smartphone geolocation data even when there’s no cell service or if phones are in airplane mode, according to technology website Wired. The confirmation came in a report about the FBI’s tactics to find participants in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
In a November 28 report, Wired investigative science and technology reporter Mark Harris highlighted evidence uncovered from January 6 court records. According to the filings, FBI officials served a bevy of so-called “geofence warrants” to Google to access smartphone location data belonging to individuals suspected of taking part in the riot.
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) has defined geofence warrants as “a type of reverse warrant where the government seeks to know who was within a ‘geofence,’ a defined physical area during a specific period of time.” According to the NACDL, the warrants present “an unprecedented increase in the government’s ability to locate individuals without substantial investigation or investment of resources.” The group said such warrants violate the Fourth Amendment “because they are devoid of probable cause and particularity.”
“According to the filings, FBI officials served a bevy of so-called “geofence warrants” to Google to access smartphone location”
How exactly does GOOGLE obtain access to these data?
Phone carriers, of course.
ISPs yes.
Fiber networks trafficking packets via the nodes, yes.
But if the devices are OFF, how does google pull this info?
memo to self…never take the i phone to a gunfight