
WhatsApp photo drug dealer caught by 'groundbreaking' work - vezycash
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-43711477
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madeofpalk
The article itself states that they weren’t able to get usable fingerprints
from the photo, and instead the offender was arrested from other evidence.

> _However, there were just parts of the middle and bottom of a finger visible
> - records only keep the top part. This meant the image did not find a match
> on national databases._

> _However, other evidence meant officers had an idea who they believed was
> behind the drugs operation._

So, what’s the story here? What a complete fucking sham of a propagandist
article.

~~~
John_KZ
You're right, but they used the photo as evidence to convict someone. They
couldn't get a match on a national database, but it's possible that they could
tell which of the 3 held the bag.

There's another story to this too, I bet someone is developing a tool right
now to scan fingerprints from youtube videos and photos. Maybe they can also
plant them. The idea itself opens a new array of possibilities.

~~~
sirclueless
That's a terrifying thought. For example the DeepFakes scandal was based on
convincingly plastering celebrity's faces onto other video. If you had good
data on someone's fingerprints I imagine it's inevitable that at some point
you could do the same to put their fingerprints onto a photo of a hand.

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poxrud
Very strange and misleading article. They talk about using a photo of a finger
to catch someone based on their finger print. But then later on they write:
"However, there were just parts of the middle and bottom of a finger visible -
records only keep the top part.This meant the image did not find a match on
national databases."

So really neither the fingerprint or whatsapp had anything to do with the
arrest.

~~~
rubyfan
Sounded something like parallel construction to me.

We think it’s this guy and we can match a small portion of his fingerprint
with the picture.

Maybe it’s statistically significant beyond reasonable doubt but seems like a
little too much of a stretch to me.

~~~
sirclueless
This is not parallel construction, assuming their "other reasons" for
suspecting these people are legitimate and disclosed. Parallel construction is
when law enforcement receives information about a crime in an illegal way or a
way that cannot be disclosed, and reconstructs a plausible way in which the
crime might have been discovered.

This is just building enough evidence to convict someone based on matching a
photograph of a partial finger to a suspect's hand. Which sounds perfectly
reasonable and legitimate (as legitimate as fingerprints can be). Just because
there's not enough in the photo to match a national database doesn't mean
there's not enough to be statistically certain it's a match with the suspect.

~~~
rubyfan
That’s why I said “something like”, it’s not quite parallel construction but
something like _I already know it was you, and I can see part of your
fingerprint in this photo_

The article is light on details about how the fingerprint was actually used so
one can only speculate. My assumption here though is that whatever they
recovered wouldn’t stand up on its own but used in conjunction with other
evidence it might have added to the case against the parties.

It’s hardly as impressive as the article title makes it out to be.

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michaelbuckbee
And of course fingerprints aren't the black and white identifier we had
thought previously.

[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/can-
unconscious-b...](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/can-unconscious-
bias-undermine-fingerprint-analysis/)

------
make3
is such an in depth invasion of privacy (looking at everything in the phone of
someone without proof of their wrongdoing) really worth it to catch drug
dealers? drug dealing really is not the end of the world

~~~
pennaMan
And MDMA and cannabis at that. One kills less % of users than ibuprofen and
the other kills no one. Modern day witch burning.

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noobermin
Alright, this is a _literal_ fingerprint, it's not like WhatsApp places
"fingerprints" in pictures apart from, well, photos of fingerprints in a
picture. Was worried for a moment there.

~~~
basicplus2
Ah.. maybe there is..

and they are pretending it was his physical fingerprints that led to his
arrest as a cover :)

~~~
madeofpalk
They are not pretending that. The article states that the fingerprints in the
photo were unusable.

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rhizome
Is "WhatsApp photo drug dealer" a meme with which I'm unfamiliar?

~~~
ohf
It's whoever 4chan is.

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corndoge
Yet another dangerous cannabis dealer apprehended. 8.5 years in the slammer
well deserved. Wales LE is truly doing God's work.

~~~
ronnier
It's odd that the pills are branded with "IKEA" and "Skype". I wonder why that
is desirable by the consumers and producers?

~~~
haZard_OS
One reason is to give dealers and customers a level of plausible deniability
about their activities after the fact.

If a text message is asking for Angel Dust or ICE, the defense attorney will
have a harder time than if the text message is asking about IKEA or Gorilla
Glue.

~~~
tedunangst
Is this really true? Has a drug trial ever hinged on convincing a jury of the
meaning of code words?

