A stalker starts sending you threatening emails and messages saying they’re going to hunt you down and rape you.
You have no idea who it is, tried blocking them so they create a new account/buy a new ohone.
You report it to the police.
Police request communications data from the email provider to obtain an IP address. Also provides information that was given when the account was created, any geo-tagged data, any information about linked accounts that are used for 2fa/recovery.
They then request subscriber data from the ISP linked to the IP address, as well as things like the MAC to make sure they capture information about the device being used.
Now police have enough evidence to obtain a warrant to search the home address of the sender. They can seize the device (forensically linked earlier) and arrest the suspect for questioning.
This is exactly the process I followed many years ago. It kept an innocent woman safe and resulted in a potentially dangerous sex offender being arrested and dealt with.
The ability for police to request information is not controversial for crimes and online threats, given independant oversight, ideally a judge auhorizing a warrant.
What’s controversial is the scale, which suggest this power may be abuser and/or used disproportionately.
A judge issuing a warrant just for the police to try and identify a suspect isn’t feasible or proportionate. Same logic would apply to requesting CCTV etc.
It would grind everything to a halt.
Where the warrant comes in is if you need to search a house and seize things.
As for the scale, I agree it does seem high. But like I said in another post, there isnt a cop in the land who has the time and inclination to put in subscriber requests just for the fun of it. The majority of those 700k requests will be on the back of a formal complaint/allegation of a crime.
Most people when signing up to an email address don’t do that straight away, or they inadvertently log in using their real one at some point.
As for the first bit? No idea, I’m not from London. But 700,000 requests potentially represent 700,000 complaints from people about alleged criminal activity. Might be less, might be more. But I can tell you now, no cop in the land has the time or inclination to start searching for this stuff unless its a crime thats been reported to them.
And I’m guessing from your tone you obviously dont agree with any of it. Which begs the question, if you become a victim how would you feel if the police simply responded “yeah we don’t know whos doing it and we aren’t gonna bother trying to find out, good luck”?
Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 1 week ago
As always, a misleading story.
You’re minding your own business.
A stalker starts sending you threatening emails and messages saying they’re going to hunt you down and rape you.
You have no idea who it is, tried blocking them so they create a new account/buy a new ohone.
You report it to the police.
Police request communications data from the email provider to obtain an IP address. Also provides information that was given when the account was created, any geo-tagged data, any information about linked accounts that are used for 2fa/recovery.
They then request subscriber data from the ISP linked to the IP address, as well as things like the MAC to make sure they capture information about the device being used.
Now police have enough evidence to obtain a warrant to search the home address of the sender. They can seize the device (forensically linked earlier) and arrest the suspect for questioning.
This is exactly the process I followed many years ago. It kept an innocent woman safe and resulted in a potentially dangerous sex offender being arrested and dealt with.
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
Wow, roughly 2000 cases like that a day!
The case you cite is a moral one, I doubt most are.
Hirom@beehaw.org 1 week ago
The ability for police to request information is not controversial for crimes and online threats, given independant oversight, ideally a judge auhorizing a warrant.
What’s controversial is the scale, which suggest this power may be abuser and/or used disproportionately.
Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 1 week ago
A judge issuing a warrant just for the police to try and identify a suspect isn’t feasible or proportionate. Same logic would apply to requesting CCTV etc.
It would grind everything to a halt.
Where the warrant comes in is if you need to search a house and seize things.
As for the scale, I agree it does seem high. But like I said in another post, there isnt a cop in the land who has the time and inclination to put in subscriber requests just for the fun of it. The majority of those 700k requests will be on the back of a formal complaint/allegation of a crime.
Aria@lemmygrad.ml 1 week ago
Okay great. Does London have 700000 cyber-criminals?
Except you can just change your IP and MAC, so now anything the police wants to see is linked to whatever crime gives them the most leeway.
Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 1 week ago
You can change your IP/Mac.
Most people cant.
Most people when signing up to an email address don’t do that straight away, or they inadvertently log in using their real one at some point.
As for the first bit? No idea, I’m not from London. But 700,000 requests potentially represent 700,000 complaints from people about alleged criminal activity. Might be less, might be more. But I can tell you now, no cop in the land has the time or inclination to start searching for this stuff unless its a crime thats been reported to them.
And I’m guessing from your tone you obviously dont agree with any of it. Which begs the question, if you become a victim how would you feel if the police simply responded “yeah we don’t know whos doing it and we aren’t gonna bother trying to find out, good luck”?