Thread by @gabrieldance

google has a database called ‘sensorvault’ with the location history on hundreds of millions of devices. law enforcement is using it as a dragnet to search for suspects and victims. these new warrants offer promise and peril, our new investigations shows. nytimes.com/interactive/20…

the intrepid @jenvalentino found the peril in arizona, where police credited the technique when they arrested a man for murder. but six days later, they quietly released him from jail. in the meantime - and as often happens to those in jail - the man lost his job.

but the data that google turned over to law enforcement as a result of the ‘geofence’ warrant might still prove useful to solving the horrible murder... just last month the police arrested another man, who knew the first, and often borrowed his car.

there’s a lot to take away from this story, but perhaps the most striking to me is the fact that in an era of ubiquitous data collection by private companies, our personal information is being used for things that we never imagined or agreed to. good and bad.

to demonstrate just how this process works, @Rich_Harris built a graphic demonstrating the capabilities. the use of these warrants is sky-rocketing, as law enforcement throughout the country bombards google with requests. in just one week last month, google received 180 warrants.

just what is ‘sensorvault’? is your data on it? how long has it been there? can you get it for yourself? can you delete it? all good questions. here are the answers:
nytimes.com/2019/04/13/tec…