Google tracked his bike ride past a
burglarized home. That made him a suspect.
NBC News,
by
Jon Schuppe
Original Article
Posted By: Ribicon,
3/7/2020 9:31:32 PM
The email arrived on a Tuesday afternoon in January, startling Zachary McCoy as he prepared to leave for his job at a restaurant in Gainesville, Florida.
It was from Google’s legal investigations support team, writing to let him know that local police had demanded information related to his Google account. The company said it would release the data unless he went to court and tried to block it. He had just seven days. “I was hit with a really deep fear,” McCoy, 30, recalled, even though he couldn’t think of anything he’d done wrong. He had an Android phone, which was linked to his Google account, and,
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Sandbar 3/7/2020 9:49:54 PM (No. 339974)
According to the article, he passed by the victim's home 3 times while riding through his own neighborhood. If google could place him there and no doubt they can, wouldn't it also show that he was not there long enough to have committed the burglary? It seems there would be some sort of time reference.
20 people like this.
Imagine if Bernie was prez.
13 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
DVC 3/7/2020 10:04:13 PM (No. 339984)
This is one of many reasons why I have GPS location disabled and no gmail google play or other Google accounts. I put nothing 'in the cloud', use a weather app, which I request weather at specific cities, same for a gas price app. The only other is Firefox.
Google is evil.
27 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
snakeoil 3/7/2020 10:13:55 PM (No. 339993)
Google doesn't know where you are. They know where your cell phone is. The guy should state that his cell phone was lost or stolen. Google sent me an email showing the daily journeys of my phone and the supermarket it frequents. If they also have access to my credit card they will know that I am addicted to diet cranberry juice. This is low on my list of stuff to worry about. If I was that guy I'd be worried about the real thief stealing my bike.
1 person likes this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
bgarrett 3/7/2020 10:16:56 PM (No. 339995)
He is innocent but he still had to pay thousands of dollars
16 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
justavoter 3/7/2020 10:18:38 PM (No. 339997)
The investigators should also discern that the bike rider did not stop if the bike rider is telling the truth. The data will either show continuous movement or a stop. In this instance if I was the bike rider and knew I did not stop and burglarize a home I would be suing Google and the Investigator for privacy violations.
12 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
kono 3/8/2020 12:26:40 AM (No. 340027)
And how did the police identify him to request his Google account info? There's something fishy about this story.
5 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
kono 3/8/2020 12:28:33 AM (No. 340030)
Never mind #7. My bad.
2 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
seamusm 3/8/2020 1:43:05 AM (No. 340045)
We will live and die by our dependence on companies and government which ultimately 'own' our so-called privacy.
3 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Trigger2 3/8/2020 3:19:33 AM (No. 340060)
I'm sure the "savior" goobermint pays Google to spy on everybody. You still enjoy that pretend Patriot Act?
4 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
JackBurton 3/8/2020 8:54:27 AM (No. 340158)
I'm sure that if he could get google to cough up all the information on his bike rides that day, it would show that he passed the house doing 10-20 miles an hour and was near the house only as much as he was near a ton of other houses on his ride loops.
While I don't use his kind of ride 'app', this has me thinking about getting one of those faraday pouches for use when I don't want to use the phone.
1 person likes this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
mythman 3/8/2020 8:56:16 AM (No. 340161)
Everybody should access the entertaining YouTube piece "Don't Talk to the Police", in which a likeable attorney who is teaching a law school class tells why you shouldn't. One of the students, a police detective and long-time cop, then takes the podium and also confirms why you shouldn't. Time about 45 mins.
2 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Socio 3/8/2020 9:27:22 AM (No. 340190)
What this says we now need to turn off our phones (which may not stop tracking) or better yet put them in a signal blocking cell phone case to keep from becoming drive by or ride by instant criminal suspects while we commute.
1 person likes this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
MickTurn 3/8/2020 9:49:56 AM (No. 340217)
Google is now Gulag!
1 person likes this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
DCGIRL 3/8/2020 10:10:19 AM (No. 340236)
Why would they go after a guy that was just riding past her house. What bothers me is that the victim that was robbed was 97 years old. Her jewelry could have been missing for months, could have been a relative that stopped by to check on her or health companion, etc. If I was him, I would sue the hell out of this police department and collect all money that I had to put out and more.
Also, does the police know for sure if she ever had this jewelry? My brother with dementia swears that he had REALLY expensive stuff when he didn't. This story has a lot of holes.
5 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
MDConservative 3/8/2020 11:30:58 AM (No. 340321)
FTA: "But until then, he hadn’t thought much about Google collecting information about him."
It's not just Google, folks. There is a ton of data collected on each of us. Got a supermarket discount card? Use a credit card? Got a phone? A cell phone? A car with a "black box" or an insurance discount app? Use Yahoo Maps for directions? But, then, we got nothing to hide...right? Neither did this kid...
“I would think the majority of citizens in the world would love the fact that we are putting violent offenders in jail,” says the cop. Does anyone love the fact that this abuse of secret warrant authority can also be used as a net to grab a few innocents along the way. BTW: This kid was not sought as a "violent offender".
1 person likes this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
DVC 3/8/2020 12:11:29 PM (No. 340374)
#7, if you read the article, the police never contacted him, Google contacted him warning that they were going to give his contact information to the police if he didn't object in court. The police never did get his info until it was all over.
0 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Videodrone 3/8/2020 12:57:00 PM (No. 340416)
Once again, if you can't remove the battery, your cell phone is still tracking!
There is a group that meets from time to time - sacrosanct rule: No cell phones. We either put them in ammo boxes (Faraday Box) or leave them at home...
1 person likes this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
JimJr 3/8/2020 9:44:53 PM (No. 340751)
#3, sorry to tell you, if you have an Andriod device, Google is tracking it. Even if you don't use any Google applications.
1 person likes this.
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The future is now. We don't even have to show our papers; Google et al do it for us, collecting a nice fee in the process. Meanwhile, the bike rider is out a few thousand dollars and a lot of aggravation.