Global police sting ensnares scores of alleged criminals duped by FBI app

washingtonpost.com

11 pointsnairteashop3 comments

> More than 9,000 law enforcement officers were involved, sifting through 27 million messages that were sent on via the app over the 18 months of the operation.

I’m impressed they were able to keep this under wraps with 9k police officers involved.

Is this legal in the US? As far as I know, it is illegal for US government institutions to spy on US citizens unless there is some probable cause.

There are loopholes. For instance, if instead of spying on the people you pay someone else to do it and become a "Witness" or to come forward with evidence then it is above board. For instance, if Facebook were to sell your info to the FBI and then they used it against you in a case then it is totally above board.

It's kind of like how if you watch your neighbor murder a poodle and you call the cops, they don't need to get a warrant if you want to testify.

In this case, the witness was a person agreeing to a reduced sentence in exchange for developing ANOM.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANOM_sting_operation

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