In what might be Medium‘s first widespread Twitter moment, music writer Michele Catalano used the platform to blog details of an unexpected visit to her home yesterday, from six men she identifies as members of the “joint terrorism task force.”
Catalano asserts that the visit was likely prompted by her husband searching for the term “backpacks” in close conjunction with her searching for the term “pressure cookers.” Or something.
Turns out the visit was prompted by the searches, but not in the way most speculation asserted – by a law enforcement-initiated, NSA-enabled dragnet of the couple’s web history. It turns out either Catalano or her husband were conducting these searches from a work computer. And that employer, “a Bay Shore based computer company,” called the police on their former employee.
The Suffolk County PD has just released the following information related to the case:
While a PRISM-type system or Google itself tracking user activity wasn’t the cause for this specific incident, the fact is that Google does comply with law enforcement to hand over user data. Can law enforcement provide a search warrant to Google, and can Google comply with such a request? Yes, and the company publishes the requests in a report every year. This is nothing new.
And, according to that transparency report, “widespread” requests, like the months of search history that would be needed to figure out the pressure cooker and backpack coincidence, often result in push to narrow the scope.
But, according to an industry source, it doesn’t go the other way around i.e., Google isn’t flagging searches for “pressure + cooker” for police. Though it’d be crazy if it did.
Catalano asserts that the visit was likely prompted by her husband searching for the term “backpacks” in close conjunction with her searching for the term “pressure cookers.” Or something.
Turns out the visit was prompted by the searches, but not in the way most speculation asserted – by a law enforcement-initiated, NSA-enabled dragnet of the couple’s web history. It turns out either Catalano or her husband were conducting these searches from a work computer. And that employer, “a Bay Shore based computer company,” called the police on their former employee.
The Suffolk County PD has just released the following information related to the case:
Suffolk County Criminal Intelligence Detectives received a tip from a Bay Shore based computer company regarding suspicious computer searches conducted by a recently released employee. The former employee’s computer searches took place on this employee’s workplace computer. On that computer, the employee searched the terms “pressure cooker bombs” and “backpacks.”
After interviewing the company representatives, Suffolk County Police Detectives visited the subject’s home to ask about the suspicious internet searches. The incident was investigated by Suffolk County Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Detectives and was determined to be non-criminal in nature.
Any further inquiries regarding this matter should be directed to the Suffolk County Police Department
This should be a teachable moment to anyone who thinks that their workplace computers are somehow not being tracked.After interviewing the company representatives, Suffolk County Police Detectives visited the subject’s home to ask about the suspicious internet searches. The incident was investigated by Suffolk County Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Detectives and was determined to be non-criminal in nature.
Any further inquiries regarding this matter should be directed to the Suffolk County Police Department
While a PRISM-type system or Google itself tracking user activity wasn’t the cause for this specific incident, the fact is that Google does comply with law enforcement to hand over user data. Can law enforcement provide a search warrant to Google, and can Google comply with such a request? Yes, and the company publishes the requests in a report every year. This is nothing new.
And, according to that transparency report, “widespread” requests, like the months of search history that would be needed to figure out the pressure cooker and backpack coincidence, often result in push to narrow the scope.
But, according to an industry source, it doesn’t go the other way around i.e., Google isn’t flagging searches for “pressure + cooker” for police. Though it’d be crazy if it did.