Page 358 - Tim Cushing News Today

Thu, Jun 10th 2021 12:03pm — Tim Cushing Recently unsealed documents have revealed the FBI and the Australian Federal Police ran a backdoored encrypted communications service for more than three years, resulting in dozens of arrests and several large drug busts. Heres a brief summary via Joseph Cox for Motherboard. For years the FBI has secretly run an encrypted communications app used by organized crime in order to surreptitiously collect its users messages and monitor criminals activity on ...

Thu, Jun 10th 2021 10:56am — Tim Cushing A Massachusetts court recently sent out the useful reminder that a persons reasonable expectation of privacy does not extend to other people. In other words, theres an expectation of privacy in sent communications, but only up to the point that someone receives them. (via FourthAmendment.com) In this case [PDF], the defendant in a drug conspiracy hoped to suppress evidence against him obtained from another persons phone. The lower court allowed Jorge D...

Wed, Jun 9th 2021 3:23am — Tim Cushing Crime reporting app Citizen has had a pretty wild run in the past couple of weeks. Debuting rather inauspiciously as Vigilante back in 2016, the app was removed from Apples store less than 48 hours after its first appearance. It relaunched the following spring as Citizen and remained just another competitor in the virtual Neighborhood Watch scene. That all changed late last month. Citizen users and employees -- urged on by Citizen CEO Andrew Frame -- sta...

Wed, Jun 9th 2021 3:23am — Tim Cushing Crime reporting app Citizen has had a pretty wild run in the past couple of weeks. Debuting rather inauspiciously as Vigilante back in 2016, the app was removed from Apples store less than 48 hours after its first appearance. It relaunched the following spring as Citizen and remained just another competitor in the virtual Neighborhood Watch scene. That all changed late last month. Citizen users and employees -- urged on by Citizen CEO Andrew Frame -- sta...

The DOJ -- following President Biden's lead -- has declared targeting journalists' communications is officially off-limits...

Cops like cheap field drug tests. They don't like them because they're accurate. They like them because they're cheap...

Fri, Jun 4th 2021 10:53am — Tim Cushing The corollary to "play stupid games, win stupid prizes" is that the thinner a public servants skin is, the more damaging the outcome when they decide to abuse their power to get even. Thats the story thats buried under this rather dry recitation by the US Department of Justice, which has brought federal charges against the police chief of a small Pennsylvania town. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced t...

Fri, Jun 4th 2021 2:06pm — Tim Cushing Two years after cops killed Ronald Greene following a car chase, the Louisiana State Police have finally released the recordings. Greene led officers on a high-speed chase before being stopped, subdued, and ultimately killed. Heres how the State Police described it two years ago when it still had control of the narrative. Greene allegedly sped away, and a chase continued for over 20 miles until Green wrecked near the intersection of Louisiana 2 and Highw...

The Supreme Court has been on a bit of roll lately. After years of making things worse for plaintiffs suing law enforcement officers...

Thu, Jun 3rd 2021 10:48am — Tim Cushing The Chicago Police Department is already seriously awful. Its reliance on software to decide who and where to police isnt making it any better. Predictive policing is only as good as the input data, and if the data is being input by police departments with long histories of biased policing, its only going to generate algorithmic excuses for future biased policing. Law enforcement officials call predictive policing a game changer. In reality, it appears ...