
Federal agencies use cellphone location data for immigration enforcement - aaronbrethorst
https://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-agencies-use-cellphone-location-data-for-immigration-enforcement-11581078600
======
datashow
After reading the story, I feel the main point is not about immigration
enforcement. The main point here is that the government agencies bought
anonymized marketing data and used them for law enforcement purpose.

On the one hand I do feel the danger here. On the other hand, it seems there's
no legal barrier to prevent government agencies from purchasing data available
for regular corporations.

~~~
black_puppydog
IMHO, the scandal here is not that the data was sold or bought. That's bad,
but that was going to happen _as soon as_ it had been collected. So the
collection is the real scandal here, and it's a harder problem to solve too,
because the responsibility is distributed on thousands of people and
companies, and because to some degree the users are actually complicit
(through wilful ignorance, or through knowingly accepting it for whatever
reasons).

The good news is there would be technical fixes for this problem. "Simply"
don't use any of the currently infringing apps. Which -- yes -- means
fundamentally changing the way we build, distribute, and _fund_ mobile and web
apps. It's not easy in practice, but the technical aspect of it is not
complicated.

It's gonna be harder to avoid carriers from triangulating a coarse location,
but that's an "easy" think to regulate since there are not so many of them.
Again, "easy" in big quotes, because of course politically that's gonna be
difficult. The regulators _want_ this information to be collected.

------
redis_mlc
Just for those unaware, the first cases of cellphone "tower dumping" for
triangulation was for bank robbery cases. It was used to find unknown suspects
who were near cases across time.

Fast-forward to today, where selling access to LEO is a 7-figure business for
all of the telcos.

Never underestimate how lazy LEO are.

~~~
jerzyt
I don't underestimate that, but I'm amazed how many crimes still go unsolved
with criminals leaving their digital crumbs. I highly doubt that many
criminals are smart enough to simply leave the phone behind when committing
the crime.

------
neonate
[https://archive.md/2kPaU](https://archive.md/2kPaU)

------
hatenberg
A self-important and auhoritarian Leader effectively above the law...check

A completely submissive party apparatus of spineless functionaries nodding of
presidential decrees.

Unrestricted access to everyone cellphones records... check

ensure all communication is monitored by pressuring tech companies with
regressive laws to drop end to end encryption ... check

Facial recognition AI provided by tech companies... check

A dedicated presidential TV channel broadcasting official spin and fictional
realities ... check

Aggressive enforcement action and internment camps for minorities ... check

Whistleblowers being intimidated and retaliated against ... check

China sure is looking bad these days /s

------
black_puppydog
1\. Why would I care? I actually like having more relevant ads.

2\. Why should I care? If they're gonna have a border we should equip them to
protect it.

3\. Why should I care? I haven't done anything wrong.

4\. No seriously, I swear I didn't do anything wrong. I never went to those
Union meetings. You can check my track!

~~~
dang
Please don't post generic ideological comments to HN. It leads to generic
ideological discussion, which leads to repetitive flamewar, which is tedious,
which is off topic here.

[https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20generic%20discussion&sort=byDate&type=comment)

~~~
pdkl95
This comment seemed like generic "doesn't affect me" flamebait at first; after
a 2nd reading I'm not sure if that's the right interpretation. The format of 3
repeating dismissive statements followed by a final statement about falling
victim to the previously dismissed problem could be interpreted as a variation
on Martin Niemöller's famous poem "First they came ..."[1]. In this
interpretation, the comment in line #4 about "those Union meetings" might be a
clever reference to "Then they came for the trade unionists" in original poem.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...#Text](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...#Text)

~~~
black_puppydog
It's always nice to know that _someone_ here will get the reference even if I
go to bed right after posting. It's important that this crowd here knows these
things.

~~~
dang
I'm sorry to be critical, but that reference is not just obvious, it's an
internet trope that passed being a cliché years ago and is an implicit
Godwinning of the thread. Comments of that form are intrinsically off topic
here.

