Can web browsing data be used against you without a warrant?

[hairyhippo]

Hello all,

With all that's going on with our web browsing, personal data... I was curious. Could things you're searching for, reading up on be compiled against you to build a case without a subpoena?

Example. Say your googling how to grow pot... Looking up all of the different supply's you need, where you can buy them from... A spot to grow.

Could the government being watching what your looking up... Send the info to the state you live in... Then next thing you know the FBI or the local police are knocking on your door. They (now) have a warrant thanks to your web searching history and sure enough there are pot plants though out your home.

The question that'd come into my mind. The only reason your knocking on my door is the web browsing history... But you got that without a warrant or subpoena? So wouldn't anything you found in my house be inadmissible?

Sorry if I sound paranoid. I'm just trying to understand how this works. With parts of the government keeping an eye on everything we type and do... I was curious what happens if they come across information that a state agency or local police might like to have?

 

[mightymoose]

That data would not be available without a warrant.

 

[hairyhippo]

Certain things you look up can get you a visit from the fbi... Anything that could be considered terrorist or xxx photos. If through there searching they can easily see you've broken a law (nothing to do with terrorism or photos) they just leave you alone? Like you said (and it's the rational answer) they'd need a warrant. But they don't need a warrant for certain things... There's a loop hole because of the (patriot act?) But normal misdemeanors / felonies... They just look away?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

It is highly doubtful that any law would allow the FBI or any member of state or federal government to do what you're describing except under exigent circumstances. Remember that our Constitution affords us the protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Unless there was good reason - and almost always subject to a search warrant - it would be highly unlikely that you would have the issue you describe.

It also seems like half the country is going broke so many say that all the states are going to legalize marijuana aka regulate marijuana so that the state can take its cut. So if that's your primary legal concern, you might not have too much to worry about for too long!

 

[hairyhippo]

Well I thank you for your response! I guess i'm just paranoid. I read about an old married couple... She was looking up camping gear... And ordered a pressure cooker. Next thing you know...

A New York woman says her family's interest in the purchase of pressure cookers and backpacks led to a home visit by six police investigators demanding information about her job, her husband's ancestry and the preparation of quinoa.

Michele Catalano, who lives in Long Island, New York, said her web searches for pressure cookers, her husband's hunt for backpacks and her "news junkie" son's craving for information on the Boston bombings had combined somewhere in the internet ether to create a "perfect storm of terrorism profiling".

Members of what she described as a "joint terrorism task force" descended on Catalano's home on Wednesday.

Catalano was at work, but her husband was sitting in the living room as the police arrived. She retold the experience in a post on Medium.com on Thursday. She attributed the raid largely to her hunt for a pressure cooker, an item used devastatingly, allegedly by the two Tsarnaev brothers, in Boston, but also used by millions across the country to prepare vegetables while retaining most of their nutrients.

The story later took on a different complexion when police finally explained that the investigation was prompted by searches a family member had made for pressure cooker bombs and backpacks made at his former workplace. The former employer, believing the searches to be suspicious, alerted police. Catalano said the family member was her husband.

In her first post, Catalano, a writer for indie music and politics magazine Death and Taxes wrote:

What happened was this: At about 9:00 am, my husband, who happened to be home yesterday, was sitting in the living room with our two dogs when he heard a couple of cars pull up outside. He looked out the window and saw three black SUVs in front of our house; two at the curb in front and one pulled up behind my husband's Jeep in the driveway, as if to block him from leaving.

Six gentleman in casual clothes emerged from the vehicles and spread out as they walked toward the house, two toward the backyard on one side, two on the other side, two toward the front door.

A million things went through my husband's head. None of which were right. He walked outside and the men greeted him by flashing badges. He could see they all had guns holstered in their waistbands.

"Are you [name redacted]?" one asked while glancing at a clipboard. He affirmed that was indeed him, and was asked if they could come in. Sure, he said.

They asked if they could search the house, though it turned out to be just a cursory search. They walked around the living room, studied the books on the shelf (nope, no bomb making books, no Anarchist Cookbook), looked at all our pictures, glanced into our bedroom, pet our dogs. They asked if they could go in my son's bedroom but when my husband said my son was sleeping in there, they let it be.

At this point, Catalano said, the police were "peppering my husband with questions".

"Where is he from? Where are his parents from? They asked about me, where was I, where do I work, where do my parents live. Do you have any bombs, they asked."

It was at this point that the conversation took a delightfully culinary turn, with quinoa making an unlikely appearance in the police inquiries:

Do you own a pressure cooker? My husband said no, but we have a rice cooker. Can you make a bomb with that? My husband said no, my wife uses it to make quinoa. What the hell is quinoa, they asked.

The joint terrorism task force did not press Catalano's husband on the dilemma facing liberals over whether quinoa consumption is ethically sound – many Bolivians can no longer afford their staple food now everyone in Brooklyn is eating it.

"By this point they had realised they were not dealing with terrorists," Catalano said.

Still, she was left worried by the visit, which she attributes to her family's internet history.

I felt a sense of creeping dread take over. What else had I looked up? What kind of searches did I do that alone seemed innocent enough but put together could make someone suspicious? Were they judging me because my house was a mess (Oh my god, the joint terrorism task force was in my house and there were dirty dishes in my sink!). Mostly I felt a great sense of anxiety. This is where we are at. Where you have no expectation of privacy. Where trying to learn how to cook some lentils could possibly land you on a watch list. Where you have to watch every little thing you do because someone else is watching every little thing you do.

All I know is if I'm going to buy a pressure cooker in the near future, I'm not doing it online.

I'm scared. And not of the right things.

Late on Thursday, Suffolk County police confirmed its officers had gone to the house, but explained that it was as the result of a tipoff and was not due to monitoring of home internet searches.

In a statement, the office of the county's police commissioner said:

Suffolk County criminal intelligence detectives received a tip from a Bay Shore-based computer company regarding suspicious computer searches conducted by a recently released employee. The former employee's computer searches took place on this employee's workplace computer. On that computer, the employee searched the terms 'pressure cooker bombs' and 'backpacks'.

After the visit the incident was "determined to be non-criminal in nature", the statement said.

Earlier on Thursday, the FBI told the Guardian that Catalano was visited by the Nassau County police department working in conjunction with Suffolk County police department. "From our understanding, both of those counties are involved," said FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser. She said Suffolk County initiated the action and that Nassau County became involved, but would not elaborate on what that meant.

The Nassau County police department said Catalano "was not visited by the Nassau police department" and denied involvement in the situation.

In a new post on her Tumblr on Thursday, Catalano said: "We found out through the Suffolk police department that the searches involved also things my husband looked up at his old job. We were not made aware of this at the time of questioning and were led to believe it was solely from searches from within our house."

• This article was amended on 2 August 2013 to clarify that the Tsarnaev brothers have not been convicted of the Boston bombing. The younger, surviving brother is awaiting trial and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

 

[disagreeable]

Welcome to the US, home of Homeland Security. They even set up web sites that provide information of certain natures, to discover who is searching for those things.