Minnesota Shooting Suspect Allegedly Used Data Broker Sites to Find Targets’ Addresses
Minnesota Shooting Suspect Allegedly Used Data Broker Sites to Find Targets’ Addresses
The Minnesota shooter allegedly researched several “people search” sites in an attempt to target his victims, highlighting the potential dangers of widely available personal data.
The suspect faces several charges of second-degree murder.
This baffles me. Looking up your fucking victim's addresses isn't enough evidence of premeditation to qualify for first-degree charges?
In Minnesota, a grand jury is required for first degree. This is just a placeholder charge until they can get a jury.
That's what I figured after thinking about it, that there had to be some procedural reason for it.
If he was left-wing, this would be prosecuted (and propagandized by the media) as terrorism.
he wouldve been charged already, much like with mr luigi was. since he targeted the protected ":class"
Which, funnily enough, would also qualify the murders as first-degree under Minnesota state law: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/609.185
Arguably, the list alone, plus the customized police vehicle and police outfit, would be enough premeditation.
There is no allegedly, the dude was a total boomer and literally wrote out instructions on how to dox someone in his notebook which are shown in the federal complaint against him
Literally outlines which sites are free, which ones have free trials, etc
Like you you would think he would just use a text document or bookmarks or something
Writing stuff down with pen and paper is an objectively better way to remember things then digital files, also way more secure unless you really, really know what you're doing.
Well considering he chose to use a pyro-mechanical firearm, instead of things like social/political/legal/economical tools to accomplish his goal, seems to check out lol
Should've gone for the thermite, then at least we could call him a "hot" boomer.
Idk if I’m planning on murdering someone I’m not keeping it in digital form where who knows who or what is stealing/scraping it or using a back door or whatever. Deleting stuff off a computer can also be difficult with insane things being recovered off computers. I would have zero interest in linking anything illegal to anything digital in this day and age.
A text file encrypted with aes-256/gpg on a usb drive with a hidden veracrypt volume that also have a decoy encrypted veracrypt volume is essentially uncrackable even by state actors unless you give up the passphrases or use some dumbass passphrases that are easily guessed.
This is the kind of shit where if you have critical evidence on the drive they’ll hold you: there was a police sergeant in Philly who (probably) had child porn on his macbook. They couldn’t prove it becuase his drive was encrypted and he refused to give up the passphrase. He was held for four years on contempt charges and they finally gave up. He wasn’t even using an esoteric approach, he just had macos filevault turned on
The approach I described sidesteps that issue because it creates a decoy encrypted veracrypt for them to find and for you to give up. The hidden veracrypt with your salacious details is a volume that is created within the free space of the outer volume so it essentially undetectable unless you give it up and by design you give up the outer volume that shows innocuous data. Of course, having veracrypt at all invites suspicion of a secret volume but this puts you in the above spot: catching a few years with no real charges for refusing to give yourself up. Much better spot than catching charges for whatever crime (or being executed for political activism/journalism/etc)
Meanwhile this guys journals were immediately found and well documented for his federal complaint. You could just burn them I guess but then you no longer have all your data
I guess this is a good way to spread the techniques to others....
I mean this is shockingly easy to find. Literally his last point is “type name in ‘john doe’ in google search engine” and unless the person has a very common name or a strong online presence that alone will pull up tons of these sites
These sites are pretty gross and should probably have some kind of regulation. They ultimately are just compiling public records but they make things shockingly easy and are ultimately used for domestic abuse, stalking, and shit like swatting and doxxing more than any legitimate purpose. As others have said, maybe the fact that this has led to politicians being targeted will mean that regulation finally occurs but given the current climate and the fact that the targeted politicians were on the wrong team maybe not
The last major American privacy law, the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act was passed in 1988 by Reagan. The only reason it happened is that politicians realized that their privacy was affected. Robert Bork was going through his Supreme Court confirmation hearings and someone got a hold of the tapes he had rented and published them.
Politicians were worried about their own personal privacy, so they passed a new law to protect the privacy of people's video tape rentals.
Maybe the fact that the targets here were politicians will mean that something will happen with data privacy, for once.
Probably not.
Never heard that story before.
It's where the term borked comes from
EFF was right again
That'll be on the Internet's headstone.
These sites should be illegal. There is no legitimate use for them
Why aren't the data brokers being charged with accessory to murder?
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It's actually really easy to get your info off these sites, as they have to delete it upon your request. Just take 20 minutes, pull up any random Top 20 Background Check Sites list, locate the specific pages with your info, and go to town with those deletion requests. (There should be a link to a deletion form on the page or a link to submit a request via email, at least that's how it was when I did this five years ago.)
I'm not a lawyer, but from my understanding there's actually no legal obligation for them to delete US citizens' data. They generally delete it anyways to avoid creating backlash that would lead to regulation, though.
It probably depends on the state.
But, I did mine five years ago and still check it periodically. My info's not on Spokeo or any of those scummy sites even all these years later, so it's a good way to spend 20-30 minutes.
I read your post and reply below and am surprised that your info never showed back up online.
I tried this myself about a year ago back when Google first announced they would also add a tool to assist in removal of unnecessary info like this.
I found that I was able to remove about 70% that never came back.
10-15 percent more, whether they were via Google or whatever, would flat out refuse to remove the info for various reasons.
The remainder would often remove it only for me to find it later with some sort of ‘change’ and that being - they put the info back in and had changed the spelling of my last name or now had me listed as a business so as to get around certain privacy listing rules (like WTF).
Interesting!
I haven't run into any of that. Not sure why, but what a pain.
If they own houses that is public info.
remember that exactly a month ago trump killed the cfpb rule targetting data brokers.
There was some story about privacy and politicians finally getting off their asses when they learned that their business records at porn shops could be revealed. I think this was in the 80s. Not sure at what level, but probably pretty local, I would guess.
Trump will fix this don't worry
Just like he did with the eggs!
"To make something cheaper, you must first make it more expensive" - Sum Fu
I've been using a service to automatically opt out of these sites for about a year now. I also don't use my full last name when I buy things online anymore, and use VOIP phone numbers and anonaddy/simplelogub emails.
Can't find myself on google and most data brokers anymore.
What service.
Also adding a data point for Optery. I'm sure the other services are comparable, though. Most have free trials.