• Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    8 hours ago

    “I think it comes down to either incompetence or laziness … it just seems like the engineers who developed this were either ignorant or incompetent,” he said"

    Nah, I’m sure the engineers knew, or were too incompetent

    As per usual, it’s management who pushed for such tight development schedules that they didn’t have the time to do it right while at the same time offering so little money they could only attract idiots who only know half of what they should.

    I fucking guarantee you that is the core of the problem

    • GreenBeard@lemmy.ca
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      6 hours ago

      Standard operating procedure. Every engineer knows the old rule: On time, On Budget, Done right; pick 2. No one ever picks option 3, public or private.

    • deliriousdreams@fedia.io
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      7 hours ago

      They definitely knew because later on in the article the writer acknowledges that in the fine print of their TOS or EULA or whatever they mention that the fact that you can’t turn off the broadcasting is a “security consideration”.

  • Encephalotrocity@feddit.online
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    12 hours ago

    Hacker? Not a hacker. This information is broadcast openly.

    TIL if(wireless_signal=OR(“tazer”,“bodycam”),“Police Detected”, ) is hacking.

    • lost_faith@lemmy.ca
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      11 hours ago

      I learned a while ago that clicking around on a web site and accidentally wandering into an area that is supposed to be secure but isn’t is hacking as well

        • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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          9 hours ago

          I don’t think any jury in the world would call clicking on links literally hacking. When I read poking around, that is what I think of. And their point is that if you click on a link that takes you to a secure area because of bad security, it is defined as hacking by the law in some jurisdictions. This is because those laws don’t describe the action, they simply say “accessing” certain data. Which is lame.

          • streetcoder@discuss.tchncs.de
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            2 hours ago

            Here in Germany clicking links is not hacking. Website owner is responsible for where the link goes to. Remember the link disclaimer on websites?

            But typing pageId=2 instead of pageId=1 opened via link is hacking.

            Clicking show page source and seeing cleartext passwords left in there is hacking.

            On login forgetting to type your password and entering with an empty password is hacking.

        • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          So a chess player that exploits an opponent’s weakness is hacking?
          A snake that finds an entrance to a gopher burrow is hacking?

          “Finding vulnerabilities” is the kind of dangerously overbroad generalization that gave us the DMCA.

          • MangoCats@feddit.it
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            1 hour ago

            A snake that finds an entrance to a gopher burrow is hacking?

            And the gopher magistrates are absolutely furious, I tell you!

    • callouscomic@lemmy.zip
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      8 hours ago

      Reminds me of 15 years ago.

      • friend left phone unlocked
      • post something insane to their facebook
      • “I hacked you!”
    • Arkhive@piefed.blahaj.zone
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      8 hours ago

      If I’m remembering correctly, the data on body cams actually shows they don’t help with police accountability much at all, and instead just serve as additional surveillance of already over policed communities. Like I’m pretty sure they haven’t reduced rates of police violence. I’ll try to find the paper I read about this, but basically giving police more technology isn’t the solution, abolishing them is.

  • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Couple of sensationalized things. Undercover cops aren’t carrying a body cam or taser. That would be easy to spot in person.
    Next bluetooth is short range. You gotta be decently close. Like 25 feet give or take.
    Commentary, of course the company was lazy. It costs money to add the feature to rotate mac addresses.

    • MangoCats@feddit.it
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      1 hour ago

      Ordinary bluetooth 25-30 feet in ordinary conditions, up to 100’ or more “in the open.”

      Using a high-gain directional antenna, a Bluetooth “base station” can detect and identify an ordinary consumer device (like a smartphone or earbuds) at distances ranging from 175 meters to approximately 450 meters (1,476 feet) under optimal line-of-sight conditions.

      So, if you’ve got a “secret meeting point” you could conceivably setup checkpoints on all the access roads and detect police travelling along those roads within 200-300 meters OF THE DETECTOR - the detectors can be setup miles from the meeting point…

    • deliriousdreams@fedia.io
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      7 hours ago

      Depends on the situation. They might not carry it into undercover situations but may have one sitting at home or in their take home vehicle. That’s just as dangerous if a criminal follows them and has the app.

      • MangoCats@feddit.it
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        1 hour ago

        Guaranteed, you’ll be able to drive neighborhoods with a detector rig in a car and find Axon devices that have been taken home - next thing you do is lookup those addresses on the property appraisers’ website and confirm “identity withheld” on the ownership…

      • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        I dunno, if you are that kind of undercover cop, and you are living in your normal home with your family… and the criminals follow you to that home. I think we have bigger problems. The neighbors surely know the person is a cop, don’t need fancy bluetooth anything to figure that out.

        • deliriousdreams@fedia.io
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          3 hours ago

          I wouldn’t answer the kind of questions someone would likely ask if they wanted to know what my neighbor does for a living.

          But either way there are several echelons of “undercover”. Not every cop who is under cover is in deep covers for years on a RICO case.

          And while it’s unlikely they’d be wearing a body cam home, its more likely they might have a police issued taser stashed somewhere. Cops aren’t smarter than your average individual and they absolutely will do things that aren’t in keeping with SOP.

          One of my friends works for a police department as a mechanic and their chief literally shot up her own police car by accident. Loaded service pistol in her purse. She was riffling through it and the gun went off (she claims). It’s definitely not outside the realm of possibility especially if they didn’t know.

  • echo@lemmy.ml
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    11 hours ago

    How is it able to get the latitude and longitude of the devices? As far as I’m aware, the bluetooth spec doesn’t provide coordinates as part of its metadata. And you’d need some kind of triangulation method otherwise. I’m certainly not able to get the coordinates of my bluetooth devices. Wish I could, would make finding the remote a lot easier.

    • Pieisawesome@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 hours ago

      You can get RSSI and guesstimate the distance. Since it’s on a phone, you have the phones coordinates.

      If the objects are moving in relation to each other, you can attempt a rudimentary triangulation. Its error prone, but you don’t need 100% accuracy.

      I worked at a startup where we built industrial grade “apple air tags” and used phones to locate objects. This was like 10 years ago nowadays.

    • unitedwithme@lemmy.today
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      11 hours ago

      Maybe as a network scanner, because I know for “high accuracy” Android, for example, scans GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth in combination to help determine better accuracy of location. If it picks up a store WiFi it’s going to know you’re within 100ft. Or some car has a built-in hotspot that either found. Not 100%sure without looking into it further, just speculation.

  • Samsy@lemmy.ml
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    9 hours ago

    Didn’t read, is he dead? The term “tried” makes me anxious.

    • Almacca@aussie.zone
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      41 minutes ago

      I don’t think Australian cops are quite as trigger-happy as those in the USA.