Your phone records AND remembers. Perhaps we should write a more comprehensive App: “Witness in Your Pocket!”

chrome-distiller://43aeea5c-3af4-4e26-b785-bec0fc5bb1fa/?time=263068653&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Finteractive%2F2019%2F04%2F13%2Fus%2Fgoogle-location-tracking-police.html%3Fmtrref%3Dundefined%26gwh%3D0033F2D30BC90B836C72EAF7A1CF9223%26gwt%3Dpay

Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

When detectives in a Phoenix suburb arrested a warehouse worker in a murder investigation last December, they credited a new technique with breaking open the case after other leads went cold.

The police told the suspect, Jorge Molina, they had data tracking his phone to the site where a man was shot nine months earlier. They had made the discovery after obtaining a search warrant that required Google to provide information on all devices it recorded near the killing, potentially capturing the whereabouts of anyone in the area.

Investigators also had other circumstantial evidence, including security video of someone firing a gun from a white Honda Civic, the same model that Mr. Molina owned, though they could not see the license plate or attacker.

But after he spent nearly a week in jail, the case against Mr. Molina fell apart as investigators learned new information and released him. Last month, the police arrested another man: his mother’s ex-boyfriend, who had sometimes used Mr. Molina’s car.

… Technology companies have for years responded to court orders for specific users’ information. The new warrants go further, suggesting possible suspects and witnesses in the absence of other clues. Often, Google employees said, the company responds to a single warrant with location information on dozens or hundreds of devices.

… The technique illustrates a phenomenon privacy advocates have long referred to as the “if you build it, they will come” principle — anytime a technology company creates a system that could be used in surveillance, law enforcement inevitably comes knocking. [“We can, therefore we must!” Bob] Sensorvault, according to Google employees, includes detailed location records involving at least hundreds of millions of devices worldwide and dating back nearly a decade.

I expect Dilbert will eventually weigh in.

https://teachprivacy.com/ccpa-federal-comprehensive-privacy-law-and-preemption/

Cartoon: The CCPA, a Federal Comprehensive Privacy Law, and Preemption

Perspective. My students apparently don’t know that “resistance is futile.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-softbank-autos-investments-insight/inside-softbanks-push-to-rule-the-road-idUSKCN1RO049

Inside SoftBank's push to rule the road

SoftBank Group Corp leader Masayoshi Son has much bigger ambitions for transportation than simply seeing his investment in Uber Technologies Inc turn into more than $13 billion when the company goes public next month.

The Japanese entrepreneur is placing a $60 billion bet in more than 40 companies in a bid to steer the $3 trillion global automotive industry now dominated by vehicles people own and drive to a spectrum of transportation services available at the touch of a smartphone app. Those services range from ride hailing and car sharing to delivery robots and self-driving vehicles.