Unencrypted chat history is a prime target for police

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1874605

A 17-year-old from Nebraska and her mother are facing criminal charges including performing an illegal abortion and concealing a dead body after police obtained the pair’s private chat history from Facebook, court documents published by Motherboard show.

  • WasPentaliveEnglish
    43•1 year ago

    I once heard that “Anyone can be charged with a crime if they can be watched closely enough for long enough.”

    • @[email protected]English
      8•1 year ago

      I remember that from Don’t Take to The Police. Since gotchas I can think of is touching an eagle feather lying on the ground (endangered animals plus a market for poachers). Point being, that it’s essentially impossible to say with certainty that you’ve broken no law.

      • @[email protected]English
        5•1 year ago

        Found the quote:

        The complexity of modern federal criminal law, codified in several thousand sections of the United States Code and the virtually infinite variety of factual circumstances that might trigger an investigation into a possible violation of the law, make it difficult for anyone to know, in advance, just what particular set of statements might later appear (to a prosecutor) to be relevant to some such investigation.

        Stephen G. Breyer, You Have the Right to Remain Innocent

        It’s used around 4:40 in the Don’t Take To The Police video.

      • WasPentaliveEnglish
        4•1 year ago

        And there are so many laws that it is impossible to know all the laws that apply in any given moment. Basically, you always have -something- to hide.