If i’m in court and someone says they heard a scream at a violent crime scene and saw me. With Google always listening, steam recording, microsoft keylogging/recording, google location tracking.
Couldn’t I call upon them to produce this data to prove I was playing a game in my house while talking out loud with keystrokes matching mine?
.jpg)
Kovarian: You could do that. There are hoops to jump through to get the evidence admitted, but it could work. People probably don’t because their lawyers don’t think of it or the evidence doesn’t exist.
-i-hate-you-all: That’s a good question because technology is often used to help convict people, so it should also be used to help prove innocence.
I remember a local case where they were trying to prove a woman severely abused her child, of course she was making excuses saying he was clumsy, it was all accidents. The kid was like 1 or 2, so too young to give reliable statements and there were no witnesses. So they found in her Google history that she was searching ways to cover up bruises or heal them faster, etc. Their reasoning was that if he legit got hurt accidentally, then why go to such lengths to hide it? She did end up being found guilty but I’m not sure how big a part that information played in it, just going off what I read in the news.
Messiah: They kind of do. I was watching Dateline where some guy was out playing board games at a friends game night, went to get fast food on the way home, and came home to a dead wife. They pinned it on him despite him having tracking evidence of him being everywhere he said he was during the time of the murder. So I guess it doesnt always help.
Meanwhile some lady convinced her to take out a life insurance policy, you know, for the kids and put her as the benefactor since the kids were young. She got the money and didnt give them any. Sounds like more of a motive than this guy had.
linuxphoney: In fact that is happening, but it’s not happening that often . A friend just did a trial and it was one of the first trials in our state where wifi data was used to try to establish where someone was. great in theory because you and I both understand how wifi works. But in practice 12 people were in a room arguing about how THEY thoughts wifi worked and it almost derailed the case. So in some cases it’s because even if you THINK it might work to protect you, it might not.
Croodi_: I guess it’s because you could just give your phone to an accomplice who sounds like you, and then commit a crime ?
Bonca1222: Seeing a lot of “It just proves where your phone is”. If the crime isn’t pre-meditated that’s a huge boost to your case. Then the prosecution has to prove that you not only committed the crime, but thought about it long before you actually committed it.
two__sheds: This is literally the only reason I leave my location tracking on. I watch a lot of murdery shows and I’m always amazed when people can produce receipts and come up with alibis. I’d be like “Where was I on January 18th? Probably binge watching Forensic Files and knitting by myself for 8 hours.”
dunkm1n: I was handcuffed and accused of theft by a group of guys in university…. I was actually at the same bar as my accusers at the suspected time it happened. Got out of it by showing the police my google maps timeline. The data collection is a double edged sword
captmakr: I’d also point out that your phone location doesn’t actually prove you were with your phone.
soupvsjonez: IIRC there was a guy about five years ago in prison for murder who was trying to subpeona his NSA records to show that he wasn’t at the scene of the crime when it occurred.
senatorskeletor: I never dealt with this myself in my own practice (I did civil litigation where this is generally unnecessary) but I don’t see any reason you can’t subpoena a tech company to get data.
You’d have to be super-clear about what exactly you want, and you can’t expect them to send data they claim they don’t even have. But otherwise I don’t see why you can’t.
Benthon: They do. On the opposite side, the DA/Prosecution also do this. We have a GIS guy who testifies sometimes in court hearings and creates mapping layers with the cell providers data overlaid on the map of where the crime was committed.
MnMWiz: Your location can be spoofed.
The_Legend_of_Jaelon: People do do this. We had a speaker come in and he was getting charged with corrupting his gf who ODed on heroin. He had to hit up Verizon to get all the records and data from what he did since that was his carrier.
char_limit_reached: Much of the data you’re looking for doesn’t exist. At least in the Apple platform.
“Find my Friends” will display my location on demand, but that data isn’t kept somewhere in any kind of archive.
Siri doesn’t record sounds and voices, either. It only captures anything after the trigger phrase (“Hey Siri”) sends it to Apple where it’s parsed, a reply is created and sent back then it’s just deleted.
toavahi: Well, anyone could have been playing on your account. It’s as weak an alibi as saying “I was home alone with my mom.”
devil-knows-best: There is no guarantee that your phone was with you when the crime happened. Smart criminals leave electronics behind while they commit their crime so if anyone goes to check, they were at home like they said they were.
So, even if you actually are innocent, your phone’s location isn’t 100% proof that you were home and are innocent because that’s what everyone says.
ozzagahwihung: Could it be proven that it was indeed you using your account though?
neccoguy21: Something like a Google home isn’t listening to you all the time. If your were recording yourself streaming or something that would probably be used to your advantage.
If it’s something like location history of a phone, prosecution will just say all it proves is that’s where your phone was. People leave phones it taxi cabs and friends cars all the time. Especially if they planned on committing a violent crime.
the_spiceman: Not sure if anybody else has posted this but there is a current case in the Supreme Court, Carpenter v United States, that deals with whether it is a search (and if it requires a warrant) to obtain cell site data. Now this is in contrast to your question since you’d want to provide the data yourself as defense but still an interesting question to consider in regard to the the technology we have at our finger tips.
NUMBerONEisFIRST: Or even using technology that’s a little bit older, like public security cameras.
jxd73: You can only prove someone was using your computer while logged into your account .
Not to mention you can log in and step away to commit the crime
Nickx000x: Sorry but data collection doesn’t work like that. So whatever lies you were fed that “Microsoft keylogs people!!” Is ignorant fear mongering BS.
MrGrampton: because it is a breach of privacy, dragging them won’t be a good idea
LittleLui: Your cellphone not being at a crime scene doesn’t mean shit about *you*not being there, especially if you’re aware of the surveillance character of such devices.
macca7174: If you took out your mapping data to show you were at the gym while the shooting happened, it would be accepted as fact upon your arrest/questioning, unless there was other reasons to dismiss that. It wouldn’t get to court if it was enough to prove your were not present at the scene.
If it has got to court, with all the time and expense of due process, and your only defence is the location data on your phone, the prosecution likely has a much stronger case than you, and you are probably going to get convicted.
mantrap2: At least Apple doesn’t collect as much as you seem to imagine.