Deeper Understanding of How the FBI used Geofencing data to investigate January 6th Rioters

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  • ToolAA

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 17, 2016
    10,499
    God's Country
    I've brought this up before in other threads, but it's worth creating another thread. This post isn't a discussion about January 6th, specifically, more a commentary on how the government is making use of cell phone tracking and service provider GPS data.

    Here is an interesting article from Wired.com, It's not behind a paywall.

    Here is my summary of the pertinent info:

    Google identified 5,653 devices within the warrant requested geofencing data, from users who had their phones on, and were within warrant request location and time period.

    Google further identified 70 more users that fell within the warrant scope, These users had their phones in Airplane Mode, during the event, but still left GPS tracking service ON. These user's location data was stored within their phone as routinely part of the Google location service, and then later synced to the Google services, when their phones were taken out of Airplane Mode. Presumably after they had left the Capitol area.

    The FBI had also asked google to track devices which were at the capitol from 12 pm to 12:15 pm on January 6, and from 9 pm to 9:15 pm, under the assumption that these devices would have belonged to congressional members, capitol staffers or security force members. Using this data, over 200 devices were excluded from the list of suspects. This brought the list down to, 5518 potential suspects of the investigation.

    The FBI then requested the subscriber information, including phone numbers, Google accounts, and email addresses, for devices that appeared to have been entirely within the geofence, as well as those which had about a 70 percent probability within the geofence.

    The FBI also focused on anyone within the 5518 who deleted their location data after the event. Of which they apparently discovered 37 individuals who attempted to do so. I'm assuming they deleted the data from their phone, but were unable to delete the data which had already been collected by the Google location services, and now stored on their servers.

    This query yielded 1535 devices which fell within those last two subgroups, and this group became the main focus of their investigations.
     

    Mr. Ed

    This IS my Happy Face
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 8, 2009
    7,899
    Edgewater
    Too bad they won't do that for the mules that dropped multiple illegal ballots off.
     

    Engine4

    Curmudgeon
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 30, 2012
    6,983
    Makes me wonder if burners will be popular again after this information really gets out.
     

    ToolAA

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 17, 2016
    10,499
    God's Country
    Makes me wonder if burners will be popular again after this information really gets out.

    I thought about posting this in the burner thread, but I figured it deserves a discussion of it’s own.

    My main issue here is that I honestly believe that a truly innocent person could find themselves under investigation just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That doesn’t mean it would lead to arrest, but it still seems like it’s a tool that could lead to false arrest. Once you are on the defensive side of a case, your life is going to change for the worse.

    I work in DC several times a week. Not at a specific building, I’m on various construction sites. I sometimes work near the capital. Should I be worriedly that if some future $hit goes down in front of the Supreme Court and I happen to be parked in front of Folger Theater, that all of a sudden my “GPS Profile” now looks suspicious.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     

    Johnconlee

    Ultimate Member
    Mar 8, 2019
    1,149
    Mechanicsville
    The Blues Brothers had this covered.
     

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    joppaj

    Sheepdog
    Staff member
    Moderator
    Apr 11, 2008
    46,447
    MD
    I work in DC several times a week. Not at a specific building, I’m on various construction sites. I sometimes work near the capital. Should I be worriedly that if some future $hit goes down in front of the Supreme Court and I happen to be parked in front of Folger Theater, that all of a sudden my “GPS Profile” now looks suspicious.
    No, because the streets around Folger Theater are open to the public. Without knowing exactly how the investigation drew their lines here, the whole West Front was closed that day, therefore anyone inside that perimeter had already committed the crime of crossing a police line.

    Now, if there was an incident at the Folger Theater and you're parked outside I guess it could lead to you being investigated. That's no different though than them pulling cameras and seeing that your vehicle was near a crime scene.
     

    Trbo6gn

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 30, 2011
    2,802
    Harford Co.
    I attended an OSINT training class that went into this kind of stuff. It's shocking the amount of information that can be obtained. It's even more shocking the amount of publicly available databases and app's that can be used to track someone. When i left, i immediately wanted to throw my phone in the bay.
     

    welder516

    Deplorable Welder
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 8, 2013
    27,300
    Underground Bunker
    Yeah my wife and I have been talking abut retirement and low and behold she is getting tons of crap on retirement. Yeah tech will be the demise of our freedoms
     

    wpage

    Ultimate Member
    Oct 17, 2022
    1,907
    Southern Delaware
    Tech is a double edge sword. Yes privacy invasion, and fraud suck. However the benefits out weigh the negatives.

    Remember black rotary phones? Anyone want to go back to party lines...
     

    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    I attended an OSINT training class that went into this kind of stuff. It's shocking the amount of information that can be obtained. It's even more shocking the amount of publicly available databases and app's that can be used to track someone. When i left, i immediately wanted to throw my phone in the bay.
    How about it.
    Lose the phone if you dont want they/them on you.
    Thats what they say.
     

    pbharvey

    Habitual Testifier
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 27, 2012
    30,152
    I bet many people here know someone who attended the rally and your name is in that person's phone. There might even be some texts between you and that person along the lines of "FJB" or "Pelosi is a witch" or some such. I wonder if that gets added to your domestic terrorist profile?
     

    ToolAA

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 17, 2016
    10,499
    God's Country
    I bet many people here know someone who attended the rally and your name is in that person's phone. There might even be some texts between you and that person along the lines of "FJB" or "Pelosi is a witch" or some such. I wonder if that gets added to your domestic terrorist profile?

    At least today, right now, I like to believe that innocuous text messages like FJB and the sort are so frequent that they cannot possibly be consequential in any meaningful way. Now, if FJB statements were also in conjunction with discussions of a plan to cause harm or some criminal activity, then you would surely be on some list. It’s something to surely be concerned about.

    If we ever our nation ever descends into a total surveillance state, then all bets are off.


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    Biggfoot44

    Ultimate Member
    Aug 2, 2009
    32,877
    Remember black rotary phones? Anyone want to go back to party lines...

    I would like to split the difference , with Western Electric rotary phone on single line .

    Actually the end era party lines weren't that bad . If the next door neighbor was one the phone . you got a busy signal instead of a dial tone , but no listening to other conversations .
     

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