Michael Williams all the movement was being tracked without his knowledge, even before the fire. In August, Williams, a partner in R&B star and alleged rapist R. Kelly, allegedly used explosives to destroy the car from a potential witness. When police arrested Williams, evidence cited in a Justice Department affidavit was largely removed from his smartphone and online behavior: texting the victim, cell phone records, and the your search history.
Investigators sent Google a “keyword order,” which asked the company to provide information about any user who had searched for the victim’s address at the time of the fire. Police restricted the search, identified Williams, and then filed another search warrant for two Google accounts linked to him. They found other searches: the “detonating properties” of diesel, a list of countries that do not have extradition agreements with the United States, and YouTube videos of R. Kelly’s alleged victims speaking to the press. Williams has pleaded not guilty.
The data collected for one purpose can always be used for another. Search history data, for example, is collected to refine recommendation algorithms or create online profiles, not to catch criminals. Generally. Smart devices like speakers, televisions, and laptops hold such precise details of our lives that they have been used as both incriminating and exonerating evidence in murder cases. Speakers should not listen to crimes or confessions to be useful to investigators. They keep time-stamped records of all requests, along with details of their location and identity. Investigators can access these records and use them to verify the whereabouts of a suspect or even capture them in a lie.
They are not just speakers or portable equipment. In a year when some of Big Tech promised support to activists demanding police reform, they still sold furnished devices and apps that allow government access to much more intimate data from far more people than traditional orders would allow and police methods.
A November report published in Vice found that users of the popular Muslim Pro app may have sold data to government agencies about its whereabouts. Any number of applications requests location data, for example, time or keep track of their exercise habits. The vice president’s report found that X-Mode, a data agent, collected data from Muslim Pro users for the purpose of prayer reminders, and then sold them to others, including federal agencies. Both Apple and Google banned developers from transferring data to X-Mode, but have already collected data from millions of users.
The problem is not just any individual application, but an overly complicated and poorly examined data collection system. In December, Apple began requiring developers to disclose key details about privacy policies in a “nutrition label” for apps. Users “consent” to most forms of data collection when they click “Accept” after downloading an app, but privacy policies are notoriously incomprehensible and people often don’t know what they agree to.
An easy-to-read summary like Apple’s nutrition label is useful, but not even developers know where the data collected by their apps will end up. (Many developers contacted by Vice admitted that they did not even know the user data with access to X mode).
The channel between commercial and state surveillance is widening as we adopt increasingly active devices and serious privacy concerns are dropped with a click on “I Agree”. The nationwide debate on policing and racial equity this summer brought this quiet cooperation to great relief. Despite delayed diversity figures, indifference to white nationalism, and mistreatment of non-white employees, several technology companies rushed to offer public support to Black Lives Matter and reconsider its ties to law enforcement.
Amazon, which committed millions to racial equity groups this summer, vowed to stop (but not stop) sales of facial recognition technology to police after advocating for the practice for years. But the company also saw an increase in police requests for user data, including internal records kept by its smart speakers.