can the government/authorites tell what we download??

Question

im doing a report for my social science class on cyber crime and a big chunk of what i have found is about illegal porn. i got a bunch of stuff on people getting arrested and their computer being taken and checked by the cops. BUT the one thing that seems to be missing in these news stories is how they were caught.which is putting a damper on my report! does anyone know how that happens. I mean do the FBI or local cops automatically know what people look at or download? if so how do they track that?it just doenst make any sence to me! hope someone can really break it down for me.i need an A on this paper.lol

Answer 1

The government does not automatically know what you download on your computer.

However, everything that you do download on your computer goes through the server of your ISP. There are certain known images of child pornography that your ISP is supposed to report to the government if it goes through their server.

Alternatively, there are government sting operations that lurk in certain websites frequented by users of child pornography. These government agents are just waiting for one of the child pornographers to send them an e-mail with child porn in it or talk about the child porn that they have on their computer.

Finally, sometimes, girlfriends, relatives, or acquaintances see the child porn while innocently playing around on the computer while visiting (Most people don't think twice when a friend ask to borrow a computer to check something on the internet).

In all of these situations, the initial discovery leads to a search warrant on the computer and/or a subpoena to the ISP to recover the information which has been downloaded.

Answer 2

If the porn is being downloaded in a private home, they need probable cause to obtain a warrant to seize the computer, ISP records, etc.

If the porn is being downloaded at a place of employment and the suspect is using a computer provided by the employer, there is no "reasonable expectation of privacy" and no warrant is needed. The employer can use all kinds of key catching software or other products to learn who is doing it, then report that to the FBI for further action.

Answer 3

The shear volume on Internet traffic makes monitoring all, or even a significant portion of it impossible. However, the decentralized nature of the Internet also makes removing all traces of a download impossible. If you know WHAT you are looking for and WHERE to look. the information IS 'out there'. If they have reason to suspect a specific person, nearly everything they do on-line can be determined though the ISP the person uses. I realize my answer is technically deficient, but I hope is is useful.

Answer 4

I work in computers, but I am not an expert in all areas.

When we travel in cyberspace, we leave a trail, like fingerprints, where we have been, what we have done.
This trail can be found many places, including the records of the phone company, our Internet service provider, any payments with our credit card, checking account, other bank accounts , web sites we have visited, etc.

There are also trails in real life, such as through the postal service.

The police need some kind of warrant signed by a judge, to inspect that trail, except in national security cases covered by the Patriot Acts.

In other words, they need some kind of evidence to go before a judge to ask to look at the trail of some suspect. They cannot just go to the mass of all records and look for wrongdoing.

That is the situation in the western democracies ... in other nations they can do this without judge warrant.

Let's suppose they bust one pornographer.

The computer records of that pornographer will include where they got the stuff from (other pornographers) and who all downloaded from them (their customers). These records are then used by the police to get search warrants against the customers and the other pornographers. Then as the evidence is obtained, it in turn points fingers at other people, and the police get warrants to search records on them.

There was a story in a local newspaper where an employee of a business, whose job it was to do backups of the business, saw some file names that looked very suspicious. He looked in some of the files, realized it was pornography, and he called the local authorities. He did this first. He did not consult with his boss, he had a fiduciary responsibility upon being a witness to a crime, to notify the authorities.

The investigation found which employee of the company (one of the managers) had been using the company computer system to download porn. He lost his job, he is now in jail. The backup guy got a commendation for doing the right thing.

While the police are investigating a suspected pornographer, before actually doing the bust, they can monitor a lot of the business, and pick up leads to other crooks and suspects.

For example, they can arrange with the post office to record the name & address of all mail coming to the place, and all leaving it. They can also do this with UPS Fed X, other delivery services. Some of those packages may be opened by postal inspectors to determine which are innocent and which are criminal.

They need authorization signed by a judge to do this, but once there is some evidence of wrongdoing, that is ofetn enough to get permission to look for more.

There is some kind of privacy statement or agreement when we open an account with an ISP, bank, phone company etc. such that employees of that organization are not supposed to be nosy with the records on us.

However, sometimes they cannot help but notice a pattern of suspcious behavior, and may volunteer this to law enforcement.

Some organization shows up in the news that it is a pornography organization being prosecuted. Maybe some details of past customers have been destroyed.

But the credit card companies can do a search of their records to get a listing of anyone who ever bought anything from that organization. Is it legal for them to do so without first getting a search warrant from a judge?

I think this is a gray area that may vary with nation.

There are many private efforts to try to fight all sorts of computer crime ... check links on my profile for examples ... I get spam that is obviously promoting some criminal enterprise & I forward it to an organization (no junk bakwards) which will sort it by organizations fighting that particular crime.

So I might get spam promoting porn.
It gets forwarded to law enforcement that is fighting pron.
Back tracing the spam gets them to organizations that might not have been previously under their microscope

Answer 5

No, they aren't supposed to, unless they used a warrant to trace your steps.

I think you'd be interested in how serial killer "BTK" was caught. He typed a note from his church's computer and sent a floppy to the police. Their IT guys dug out the information that is individual to each computer and that was how he was tracked down.

I think it was reading the computer's "IP address" or something likewise. That is how they can track down your e-mails too...

Answer 6

Our police department has a unit which specializes in computer crimes.
They will pose as 8 year old girls, sick old men, housewives with too much time on their hands or whatever it takes to catch someone committing a crime.

Answer 7

Well not right away, but If they wanted to they could go to the computer crimes hq and find out what you're downloading.And all of this takes place in less than 60min.

Answer 8

there was a law enacted not too long ago, that gives the CIA and FBI, even local law enforcement to watch, spy, and track everything americans do on the internet without their knowledge

just use an IP scrambler, and www.kproxy.com can help make it harder for people to spy on you

they can also track you using cookies

Answer 9

idm isn't unfastened,u get a million month unfastened-trial.IDM is optimal and u can crack it if u can. Orbit downloader is a unfastened DM even though it helps basically IE n Firefox.Howevr u can replica acquire hyperlink n acquire from orbit if u use chrome.

Answer 10

only if its bad like children porn


but thats sick