CopLink is Watching You
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Civil Libertarians and pessimistic futurists (are there That day may be here sooner than you think. Like now. From |
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| The Boston Police Department is rolling out a powerful new computer program built to find hidden connections among people and events almost instantly. Called ”Coplink,” the program sifts through tens of millions of police |
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| Of course, most of these records involve people never suspected of or charged with, let alone convicted of, a crime. Listen to what goes into those "millions of police records" |
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| Designed in an Arizona artificial intelligence lab, Coplink searches through arrest records, incident reports, and emergency phone calls to identify potential suspects and compile all possible leads on them, including past addresses, weapons they have owned, and even the arrest records of people with whom they have been stopped in a car. |
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| According to the article, this is just for starters. Imagine all of the other publicly available data that could be easilyfed into this system: parking violations, political contributions, web publications, tax records, credit information…..Here’s how it works, NOW… |
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| At a demonstration this week, a technician typed in a reporter’s home address. In seconds, a record popped up of the reporter’s car being hit by a fire truck. Then came the reporter’s home phone number and wife’s name. Then came the name of the truck’s driver and the address of the firehouse where the truck is registered. With another click, the program could ask the computer to look for any links between the fire truck and another incident. |
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Now call me an alarmist, but the potential for abuse of |
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