The above image was made with stable diffusion using the prompt 'Geofencing warrants and the government purchase of personal data.'
The indictment of Trump is all over the news, once again making mainstream media feel like a seedy tabloid. At the same time, the intense prosecution of January 6 Trump supporters continues to unfold, in part because of geofencing warrants. These are warrants that ask tech companies to provide details from electronic devices active in a specific place and time. These general warrants are problematic for a variety of reasons, and they're being used more and more. Here's a quote from an article on the Jan. 6 geofencing warrant:
Rhine's case has revealed just how expansive the FBI's request to Google really was. Google initially listed 5,723 devices in response to the warrant, then whittled the tally to exclude likely Capitol staff and police as well as anyone who wasn't "entirely within the geofence, to about a 70 percent probability." The final list of identifying details handed over to the FBI had 1,535 names. It included people whose phones had been turned off or put in airplane mode, and "people who attempted to delete their location data following the attacks were singled out by the FBI for greater scrutiny. In about 50 cases, Wired notes, "geofence data seems to have provided the initial identification of suspected rioters."
Way back in 1999, news of Eschelon came out, revealing the existence of a surveillance network that could spy on 100% of phone and email communication globally. Now most of us always carry electronic devices on our persons and of course they're being used to spy on us. Twenty years ago, it was the government doing most of the spying. Today, mass surveillance has been largely privatized.
Data Purchases
Government agencies ranging from the FBI to the Defense Intelligence Agency have started to buy their data on the open market. In the new paradigm, our right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures has gone out the window. Our identifying information is in the hands of unaccountable tech giants and marketing firms. The data is all there, for sale, and it's cheaper for government agencies to purchase this data as needed than it is for them to collect it directly.
Our legal system wasn't designed for this arrangement. It was designed for a paper-based world that's long gone. No Founding Father would've considered a warrant covering thousands of individuals to be reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. And there's nothing remotely reasonable about using device location data as the basis for mass arrests.
It's not hard to see where all of this is headed. Corporate data is already being weaponized against people for political reasons. The information we produce is being turned against us in increasingly sophisticated ways. There was even an effort during the pandemic to force everyone to carry phones containing a vaccine passport that could be arbitrarily manipulated by the powers that be, as happened in China. This effort was successful in some US states, but not on a national level. The people behind it will undoubtedly try again.
Today it's the Jan. 6 protesters being rounded up on a geofence warrant. Tomorrow it could be civil rights demonstrators or the enemies of whatever party happens to be in favor. In theory, if there is a crowd that the government is interested in, they need only send an agent provocateur in to break a window, then use the crime as the basis for a warrant that would give them access to the digital profiles of everyone in the crowd.
Many seasoned activists have long left their phones at home. Personally, I treat my phone like a landline and only take it with me in special circumstances. But many people have compelling reasons to carry their phones. And there's not much anyone can do about the mass surveillance aspect of the devices.
Read my novels:
- Small Gods of Time Travel is available as a web book on IPFS and as a 41 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt.
- The Paradise Anomaly is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Psychic Avalanche is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- One Man Embassy is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Flying Saucer Shenanigans is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Rainbow Lullaby is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- The Ostermann Method is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Blue Dragon Mississippi is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
See my NFTs:
- Small Gods of Time Travel is a 41 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt that goes with my book by the same name.
- History and the Machine is a 20 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on my series of oil paintings of interesting people from history.
- Artifacts of Mind Control is a 15 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on declassified CIA documents from the MKULTRA program.