TUSCON POLICE NAB FAG THIEF, MADE ALL TOO EASY USING A TRACKING APP LIKE ANYONE
Police work is often challenging, and I can’t blame a flatfoot, white collar officer or beat cop for cutting the odd corner to get the job done. And while this is no exception, it should provide some food for thought about where and how things are headed. This case is a pretty petty crime sort, involving a fag thief (someone who steals cigarettes, you know?) who was taking advantage of a particular store chain in Tuscon, Arizona. The police didn’t have a clue to connect the multiple location dots and so didn’t have any grounds for any kind of warrant. So what’s a cop looking at that to do? Why, use a tracking app, of course!
WEBLOC, THE TRACKING APP, FOLLOWS 500 MILLION PHONES WORLDWIDE, INCLUDING ONE FAG THIEF
And what a tracking app it is! It’s called Webloc, and is an adtech-surveillance service. And in this case, we should say SERVICE. Because Webloc claims to pull data from no less than 500 million phones around the world. You may have thought all those ads on your phone were just to get you to do a quick click and buy. Those ads create a trackable feed, which has been monetized by Webloc, and patronized by many, including the Tuscon police department. And yes, patronized means pay to play, and in this case the police payed taxpayer money to find a fag thief. And hey, who can blame them? Because it worked.
Related:
Amazon Gave Local Cops Backdoor Access to Ring Surveillance Doorbells
FORGET THE FAT THIEF; ANYONE CAN TRACK ANYONE IF THEY’RE WILLING TO PAY A FEE
Webloc gave the Tuscon police the location pings of each and every phone that was near the location of each cigarette robbery. And there was one common denominator, one single phone that was near each fag heist. It belonged to someone dating a woman who worked at the first retail location that got robbed. And this is how the police in Tuscon caught their fag thief with no warrant, wiretap or even a subpoena. They just literally bought the specialized data, legal tender. But that legal tender is tender indeed, if you think a little bit about it. Literally anyone can track anyone if they’re willing to pay a fee. So far, the commercialization of location-data like this is only illegal in Virginia.
We all might want to think about that a little bit, right? Because Webloc is now owned and operated by Penlink. Penlink’s main service, Tangles, offers the scraping of social media and other online accounts. I can’t help but wonder if Israel, using money given by the United States, is tracking social media posts critical of it, and then tracking the physical locations of any critical, American posters. Food for thought.
