Comment by rhacker | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rhacker | Hacker News Reader

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2010 - 2030 This kind of thing happens with lots of alarming stories in the news. People are kind of worried that they will get dragged in as a crime suspect simple because they were driving by the area when a crime was being committed nearby.

2030 - 2040 This kind of investigation becomes so common that the independent news outlets just stop finding instances of it. People are kind of relaxing about it.

2040 - 2050 It turns out that, like DNA evidence, there's now an entire innocence project started dedicated to getting people out of incarceration for any crime where the totality of evidence was GPS data and some made up stories.

2050 -> Oh sorry that new energy source blew up, earth is gone.

I fear the timeline is way too optimistic. It wont take till 2030 to normalize.

>It turns out that, like DNA evidence, there's now an entire innocence project started dedicated to getting people out of incarceration for any crime where the totality of evidence was GPS data and some made up stories.

Is also already the case. Denmark had such a problem recently.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/world/europe/denmark-cell... https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/23/20829490/denmark-cellphon...

You're assuming this will wind up being like DNA.

Given the history of every other technique the cops have ever used to solve crime I'm betting it's gonna wind up somewhere between forensic bite mark analysis and eyewitness testimony (i.e. not worth shit unless you've got a lot of other stuff to corroborate it). Of course a generation of prosecutors will get to make their careers on this kind of crap before it gets debunked.

Well beyond suggesting that, as stated in other threads, as the criminals get smarter they will simply leave the phone at home and yes, innocent people that have a digital footprint near (and when) the crime will be caught instead. Once the police have identified a potential fall guy and they are black, or an immigrant or some other disadvantage, we'll see eyewitnesses come forward to "help" the police officer.

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