I’m not the alarmist type. Usually. But an article I stumbled across today has definitely raised a red flag for me.
I admit I’m a bit naive when it comes to matters of privacy. I know I am a straight, stand-up type. By that I mean I am not a criminal, I’m honest almost to a fault, and I would never intentionally inflict bodily harm on anyone unless provoked, as in self-defense. I don’t own a gun and, if I did, I wouldn’t know how to use one. I wouldn’t steal from anyone either.
The only illegal thing I do, that I’m aware of, is sometimes drive too fast. Even then, I don’t speed through neighborhoods. I drive slowly through parking lots. I’m always aware of what’s going on around me, which is a by-product of riding a motorcycle.
Why should someone like me care if my cellphone tracks my movements? I don’t do anything wrong. So it shouldn’t matter, right?
Wrong. Check out this article about Zachary McCoy. He seems like a normal, stand-up guy, too.
Data from his bicycle ride-tracking app put him in the hotseat. At one point, he became lead suspect in the burglary of a 96-year-old woman. As the article states…
“‘It was a nightmare scenario,’ McCoy recalled. ‘I was using an app to see how many miles I rode my bike and now it was putting me at the scene of the crime. And I was the lead suspect.’”
Zachary looks harmless enough, right? What if he looked more-menacing? Or his skin were a darker color? He would probably have been even more worried. He SHOULD have been even more worried, sadly. Judging a book by its cover, wrongly, is a common occurrence these days.
How did authorities get access to his location data? They used a geofence warrant. What exactly is a geofence warrant? It’s kinda scary stuff.
If you care to know more, follow the links I provided. I can’t go into more detail now. I need to go change all my location settings before I forget.
Need to turn off the cell phone as well as your carrier always knows where you are and carriers have given that data away without a warrant. But that’s a little different as they already have a suspect as oppose to simply “who’s around?”.
I have most of mine set to “While using” as “Ask” never seems to actually ask more than once. Leaving it at the wrong setting will also drain your battery fast. This is a great reminder.
Richard, I never thought about the battery issue. Thanks for that. I’ve actually considered tossing the phone altogether since I get so few phone calls, but that seems drastic. Plus, I’d feel so lost without having Google at hand to answer all of me questions for me. 😉
It’s only the beginning.
Police forces in Canada and the US have been using a facial ID application from a company called Clearview AI. The service applies artificial intelligence to match photos gathered from the public internet, mainly social media sources like Facebook, Instagram, Blogger, etc. to individuals’ identities. Police can then use the app to identify suspects from photos used by neighbours’ security cameras, traffic cams, and so on. Here in Canada we have strong privacy laws and police departments have had to stop using the app as privacy concerns are assessed.
Clearview AI claims that it’s fine since it assumes people consent to publishing their photos. But for every person who publishes their own photo, photos they have taken of others are also published.
The Clearview app was being used without warrants.
Pardon the pun but it’s not a pretty picture.
Yikes, David, that IS scary. I vaguely remember having heard about Clearview AI. I guess it’s time to pay attention.
Not a pretty picture at all. Welcome to Orwell’s 1984…
Hmmm, I have mine set to ‘while I’m using the app’ too, mostly since I don’t want location to drain my battery, but this is another good reason. Whew!
Just finished watching an Episode of PBS’s Frontline series on Amazon. Turns out that Amazon also has a similar facial ID artificial intelligence application. They say it’s not a big deal because all it does is the reverse of doing an image find on Google based on a person’s name.
Of course the principal difference is that you can be tracked wherever you go where there is a camera that can see your face. It’s all good as long as the purposes are good, but as soon as the purposes slide from white to grey, things start to get dicey.
The way that Amazon tracks the work of its fulfilment centre employees is very disturbing. The system sets a bar for performance, if you exceed the bar, the bar rises.
There is data gathering you can opt out of, and there are the situations that are beyond your control, like when a family member, friend or acquaintance tags you in a photo. It doesn’t help that you dropped out of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Sorry for the lengthy comments, I’ll let it be now. Like my wife’s coffee mug says, “It is what it is”. Our family doctor said that about the Coronavirus this morning.
David, never apologize for lengthy comments. You raise good points. I was not aware of the Amazon issue. Constantly raising the bar/expecting more for less is an epidemic. The harder you work, the better you perform, the more people will expect. It’s a vicious cycle.
I just sent you a petition against a new bill Congress is considering that you’d probably be interested in learning more about now that you’re a geofence warrant pro. 😉
Thanks.