Vic’s Comments

• Aug 20th, 2013 @ 3:32am

  (untitled comment)

  on MP Keith Vaz: If Anti-Terrorist Law Is Going To Be Abused To Detain Non-Terrorists, We Should At Least Be Upfront About It
  British understatement and idiom very often isn't US. Different critters. Keep trying, you'll get there eventually.
• Oct 13th, 2011 @ 8:41am

  Non-peeks and hidden peeks

  on How Certain Judges Let The Feds Hide Questionable Spying Activity
  Many peeks are really only for information purposes. Almost like rattling the door knob to check that it's locked. They don't 'exist', while building a picture or a map of activity. If something looks tasty then they add a hidden request, CYA in case the legal beagles need it later.
• Sep 24th, 2010 @ 12:15pm

  No need to involve cops for GPS

  on Justice Department Insists It Should Be Able To Secretly Stick GPS Devices On Cars Without Warrants
  > just so happen to be tracking the GPS on the suspect's car?
  
  They very much do not do that - well maybe if necessary "we were tracking the cell phone". If they have something with serious short term implications they will see the judge. If they're tracking and building a map of activity to learn what's going on they use a variety of methods. With the right GPS stuff they can track all day and look at the pattern on the computer at night. Then look for matches/overlays between different people. That's just watching, linked to neighbourhood watch.
  
  Another thing that happens is with charged people. Police often want to avoid trial, so the normal way is to give the accused at "a hard time" so they will give up and arrange something. The GPS allows 'following' without following, and hard time activites.
• Sep 24th, 2010 @ 11:40am

  No need to involve cops for GPS

  on Justice Department Insists It Should Be Able To Secretly Stick GPS Devices On Cars Without Warrants
  GPS tracking only needs to be 'legal' if its used for a legal purpose. I've heard cops say they don't have electronic surveillance equipment - and they use contractors, like from the phone company. You can take your car in for servicing, and while you are waiting somebody has a nice chat with the service guys and you drive away with GPS wired under the dash of your car. No cops involved in the setup.
  
  They might monitor the signal but monitoring is airwave stuff.