Should Police use Google as evidence?

[Snares]

After following a few links and just surfing really, I came across an article concerning a trial in America and it turns out the Police checked on the Suspects recent google searches as part of their investigation.

It wouldnt supprise me if this was a common practice but its the first time I've heard of it used in a major trial (not that i generally pay attention to such things - so i could be wrong).

 

 

DURHAM, N.C. -- Robert Petrick searched for the words "neck," "snap," "break" and "hold" on an Internet search engine before his wife died, according to prosecutors Wednesday.

 

As a tag to this article - i found the following quote that raised an interesting question (or two) :-

 

 

"Well, the details are a bit scant, but it seems that  the content of Google searches were used to help establish intent in a murder trial. Will police in the future simply serve a subpoena to Google to find out what you've been thinking about? While this use of that information makes sense, at what point does your privacy give way to public concerns? Should police be able to search through your search history for "questionable" searches before you've been arrested for a crime, and what effect would this have on the health of society?"

 

I cant help but be torn here. Now i'm not so naive to think that all my searches are 100% private anyway - but to think that the police could (in the future) check up on this without me knowing or without seeking my consent is a tad scary.

Not that i have anything to hide, but i do search for some dodgy sh*t sometimes - lol.

It also reminds me of that Vid someone posted here a while back where the Pizza company checked up on the customers info while on the phone etc (i know that was just a parody - but it does get you thinking).

 

And on the other hand, this is a good thing no?.

It curtainly helped in the said trial and if it could help police investigations in the future, then again - i guess thats a good thing.

 

But i dont know, a lot of innocent people have dark sides to them and i'm sure a few ppl with no murderous intent could find themselves under the eye of their local special-squad (lol), just because their searches used a few of these 'hot' keywords (as i'm sure the police would set up a database of suspect search words, maybe they allready have, wouldnt supprise me).

 

My point being, when does our privacy get pushed aside in the name of our 'protection' and would this stem a new form of censorship (maybe someday in the future the net could be censored - )

 

 

[muppetmaster]

I disagree with this personally.

 

Being a grafixxor, I search for dozens of images a day, including "Nazi logo", "Hitler", "Communist symbol" etc, if I was arrested I'd probably be tried for treason if my recent searches were used.

[Luke]

Apologies, I really should write more, but I'm going to make it short and sweet.

 

Google is one of those companies I used to like because they challenged microsoft, but let's remember that they're now a public company, that means they're essentially dictated by their share holders and it's definitely beginning to show. Google is going downhill, but that's nothing we shouldn't expect, but this isn't really about google. Law Enforcement Agencies should be entitled to have all the evidence they can before someone is charged or goes to court, so basically, yes I do agree. I'm sure those four words alone weren't what convicted the man, if they helped prove he was guilty and he was in fact guilty, then where's the problem?

 

The only problem I see is when peopole who haven't been accused in the first place, are subject to being on all sorts of records, but google already log all sorts of stuff about what their users do. Hell, I'm tempted to use something else to be honest, but there's no other options I can think of.

[SWEETSAPRIK]

I don't know, if his lawyer didn't suck he would have asked for the same records and listed everything the guy searched for. I mean if you took all the searches I ran in the last month and picked out key words you could make it sound any way you wanted. It's too easy to take something like that out of context. But like Luke said, I doubt it was that alone that convicted him. Although considering that they make a jury up out of average people, who knows, I've certainly met some dumb bastards.

 

But yeah, the police should have access to anything that helps them put criminals away. Whether these four words were used at different times in unrelated searches , or were used all at once would be an important fact, but one for the lawyers to ask, and the jury to decide on.

 

I personally don't like the complete lack of privacy in the world today, not just on googles part either, but it's not going to stop me from using services such as google.

 

I saw an article about how a bank lost a datatape with a few hundred thousand people's info on it. Info like names, addresses, social security numbers, account numbers, balances, etc. When someone like a bank has this much info on you it's one thing, they need it to function. Google does not need this data to function properly, they just want it so they can aim the right ads at you. So basically people just need to be aware. Once people find out that every search they run is saved and is most likely being looked at by someone, they'll decide for themselves whether it's too much. If they really think it is then they'll stop using google.

 

The idea of the police getting this info doesn't bother me as much as google (or someone who works for them) selling it to someone else.

Edited November 16, 2005 by SWEETSAPRIK

[jersiq]

Well since you didn't provide a link, let me ask a question. 1. Was the computer recovered as part of a search warrant in the investigation and by using the recovered computer did they find the search history? Or did they simply subponea the records from Google? If the former rather than the latter, I see no problem with it. It seems as if the State is trying to make a case for 1st degree murder (pre-meditated), rather than a manslaughter charge, although that is just speculation.

The internet, with an ever expanding role in today's society, will present some challanges that need to be addressed in our changing world. Already, through CALEA, the FBI is able to wiretap your VOIP phones and broadband providers. Initially the ability of the government to wiretap without permission of the suspect ws extended only to traditional phone and cell phone companies. Now that VOIP is a reality in a few homes, and could be used for criminal acts, the FBI needs a way to investigate their suspects.

[SWEETSAPRIK]

That reminds me of something and I have to ask a slightly related question.

 

Does anyone remember the name of the system/program where they searched all e-mails or phone calls (Not sure which, it was a while back and the specifics are a bit foggy to me, so for all I know it could have been both) for certain keywords? Whatever it was called, it entailed computers filtering through all of it for specific keywords, which would then register as a hit, and if you got enough hits it would make this message be more worth looking at than the others. That still left them with more things to look at then they had people or time for.

 

I wanted to look it up but I can't remember either of the names for it. All I remember is that the public found out about it, and for a time a big deal was made, then they changed the name of the program, but didn't stop it. From that point on all of their comments were along the lines of "we no longer have/run a project called <insert original name here>"

 

Does any of that sound even vaguely familiar to anybody?

[jersiq]

 

Does anyone remember the name of the system/program where they searched all e-mails or phone calls (Not sure which, it was a while back and the specifics are a bit foggy to me, so for all I know it could have been both) for certain keywords?

ECHELON

[SWEETSAPRIK]

Does anyone remember the name of the system/program where they searched all e-mails or phone calls (Not sure which, it was a while back and the specifics are a bit foggy to me, so for all I know it could have been both) for certain keywords?

ECHELON

Somehow I had a feeling you'd be the one to answer that.

 

Thank you.

[Luke]

 

Does anyone remember the name of the system/program where they searched all e-mails or phone calls (Not sure which, it was a while back and the specifics are a bit foggy to me, so for all I know it could have been both) for certain keywords?

ECHELON

The problem with programmes such as ECHELON is that if someone went and nuked Menwith Hill (one of the listening posts here in England, creatively prefixed with RAF so special laws apply to it's grounds, it's nothing to do with the Royal Air Force really, it's entirely staff by americans) then I'd die - not too far from me.

 

I don't like the lack of privacy these days without you even noticing it, I mean, I can't walk around my own town without knowing that someone's sat in the CCTV control room spying on where I go or the person next to me etc. There does have to be a limit, but where should that be, and how do we know all of the information collected is put to legitimate uses? Everyone spies on everyone these days.

 

EDIT: Just thought of something, doesn't China control what people can search for using search engines and force ISPs to give the government all sorts of access & info? That's more worrying, surely, the fact you can't search for certain words like democracy.

[K^2]

If you are dumb enough to search on the web for a way to kill someone right before doing it, you deserve whatever is coming to you. Yes, they should use that kind of stuff as evidence.

[The_man]

My last searches were:

 

 

what color where hitler's eyes?

 

Spongebob song lyrics

 

how to destroy nuclear reactors

 

aryan master race

 

bob saget

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think that if the police found these id be f*cked.

[K^2]

Nah. They'd just reccomend that you talk to a psychiatrist. "How to fly a B-767" can get you into a lot more trouble these days.

[The_man]

Well, actually I was converting the spongebob song into a song about Hitler, while researching for my project on the chernobyl meltdown. I usually like to search for bob saget related articles due to my devotion to Saggetarianism. Please visit www.bobsagetisgod.com

 

Ok. My shrink will see me now.